I love the blue sky

Thursday, February 28, 2008
A Grumpy Entry

Be warned: This is an extremely grumpy entry. Read no further unless you wish to be infected.

'Tis truly a bad time to fall ill, what with all the marking to complete for PPR (Term 1). ;(

What's worse is I had planned to see my doctor at noon, when the queue is usually shorter. Unfortunately, FedEx chose around that time to deliver my dad's very important and urgent package. I had to wait for the delivery man for a while, and now it's too late for me to go to my doctor. They close for lunch at 12.30pm and opens only at 2pm. I am extremely agitated because of this.

Worst of all, one side of my nose is as leaky as a faulty tap while the other is completely blocked. I've been blowing my nose every few minutes, so much so that my ears are partially deaf. Argh! How long more must I wait to be rid of all this!

Then, I'd arranged dinner with the girls tonight. It'll be so stupid not to go especially when I was the one who organised the whole thing, made the call for reservations and so on. Unfortunately, I'm so not in the right form today. ;( I guess I'll have to see whether I feel better later. If not, I'll have to back out.

I feel extremely irritated with this flu, really.

jOyZ blogged at 12:20 PM

~~~~~~

Sunday, February 24, 2008
A Busy Time

Let me see. I haven't posted an entry since the CNY long break. I've been busy. =)

But first, let me flaunt my pretty red shoes which I wore during CNY visitation. Haha!

I'm so glad Van convinced me to buy them when we went for a very productive shopping spree last month!

The trip to Thailand was most fruitful too - in every sense of the word.

First of all, I learnt many interesting strategies to incorporate thinking skills into English Language lessons. I'm quite eager to try these out in my lessons with my pupils. Worry not, I will not bore you with the technicalities. Haha!

Secondly, we met many teachers from Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the Philippines. There were lots of networking, sharing and exchanging of ideas. This is the part where I felt worried for Singapore. Here we are, thinking that we're a developed nation with one of the best technological infrastructures in the world - I can literally feel complacency seeping into our younger generations. Our neighbouring countries are recognizing the importance of English Language in the education system and it's amazing how some of the schools in these countries give tremendous support to the learning of English Language to their students! When I heard our fellow teachers from the Philippines speaking so fluently in English, albeit with heavy accents, I think we really should adopt a different attitude in teaching and learning English Language here in Singapore. Even though English is taught as the first language in our country, we do have countless students who are extremely weak simply because English isn't their first language at home.

Last but definitely not the least, the trip was fruitful because of all the shopping done at night! We bought plenty of things - for ourselves, friends, relatives and colleagues. Here is a picture of us after the first night of shopping at MBK. ;p

On a more negative note, I didn't quite enjoy the air and food in Bangkok. The city was really polluted because of the heavy traffic. (Bangkok is notorious for its traffic congestions - one of the worsts in the world.) Oddly though, I hardly saw anyone smoking on the streets. So, you can imagine how bad the air is. To be fair, the food wasn't exactly that bad. I did enjoy certain dishes served at the hotel and the restaurants in the shopping malls. Still, I prefer the Thai cuisine in Singapore. Hahahahah. What an irony. Basically, I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food. ;p

Upon returning to Singapore, I had lots of paper work and marking to clear. This week alone, I've gone out with Cheryl and Peichin to mark our pupils' work. What a nightmare. I still have plenty to plough through.

We finally managed to find time to enjoy a good meal on Friday night. Dinner was at this really fishy restaurant near RGPS. Haha. I really enjoyed the fish I ordered - char-grilled black cod. It was really fresh. :)~

My char-grilled black cod - absolutely divine

Cheryl's european sea bass - humongus portion

Peichin's pan-seared black cod

I was supposed to meet Joce yesterday, but after sending her a message via SMS, I must have gone back to sleep because when I woke up, it was already 7 pm! I must have been more exhausted than I realised.

It's another busy week tomorrow onwards. I feel most unprepared for work. Heh, what else is new? ;p

jOyZ blogged at 11:22 AM

~~~~~~

Friday, February 08, 2008
新年快乐！恭喜发财！

新年快乐! 恭喜发财!

It's the year of the Golden Rat, according to the Chinese zodiac calendar. I suppose most Chinese all over the world are having a time of feasting whilst they go around visiting friends and relatives these few days - at least very much so in Singapore.

After the Chinese New Year celebrations in school on CNY Eve, I had lunch with Cheryl at this new restaurant Oomphatico in Tanglin Mall. A terribly expensive place, if you asked me, for the kind of food they serve. The place has a very nice interior though and the service was good too. The boss herself came over to recommend some hot favourites and came by again to ask if we enjoyed the meal. I think we did to a great extent. I ate until I felt like bursting.

Reunion dinner that evening was at Xiaorong's place. Honestly, I'm quite sick of the buffet that we've been having every year. Next year when we have the reunion dinner at my home, I'm going to push for steamboat! It's about time we had something more 'fun'. Buffet has got to be the worst kind of reunion dinner; just plain gorging of the food and everyone isn't even seated at the same table. Alternatively, we can have self-made poh piahs. I don't mind that either. ;p

I watched CJ7, Stephen Chow's latest movie, with Xiaorong after dinner. Contrary to the bad review given by Today, I thought it was pretty watchable though forgettable. It was more K-drama back at home. Haha. I watched till 3 am before I felt tired enough to sleep.

The first day of CNY was, as usual, exhausting even though we haven't been going many places over the past 15? 20? years. And I wore BLACK with RED accessories (belt, shoes and bag). Which elicited much nagging from my mother. HAHA. Here's a picture I took of myself - minus the accessories - in a moment of vanity.

Vanessa came by to visit today, the second day of CNY. Unfortunately she couldn't stay for long for she had to rush off to her husband's aunt's place. I'm going to miss her all over again as she's flying back to Beijing tomorrow morning. ;(

It's another round of visiting tomorrow - 3 places, I think. Then, I'm visiting two of my JC classmates' homes on Sunday. It's been years since I'd joined them for any gathering. Thanks to Facebook, I'm actually in touch with them again. Unfortunately, I probably won't see a couple of them after this gathering because they will be out of Singapore either for a long while or for good.

Anyway, I wonder how I am going to complete all my paper work and marking before I fly off on Tuesday. Did I mention? I'm going Thailand from Tuesday to Saturday to attend some conference for EL teachers. I was asked only on Monday and had less than an hour to consider. Anyone would have jumped at the chance. I would have agreed to it immediately if not for the fact I have my graduating classes to think about. I'll be missing 4 days worth of lessons with them and that's really a lot. So now, I have to prepare 4 days worth of EL written work for them. I can't imagine the amount of assignments I have to mark upon returning. Sighs!

Worst of all, I've yet to lose a single pound! *screech* And it's more eating in Thailand. I'm so dead. Deadly fat. ARGH.

I will gym tomorrow when I'm home after all the eating at my relatives' homes.

I MUST.

Anyway, to all fellow Chinese: Happy Chinese New Year!

jOyZ blogged at 9:41 PM

~~~~~~

Saturday, February 02, 2008
A Great Week

Week 5 at work was great. No prizes for guessing: no subject-teaching for teachers for three days! It was the school's Learning Festival. For many years, camps and workshops were held in Term 3. This year, however, we had it in Term 1. At this point, it's still difficult to tell if the timing for this year is better. There's a need to observe the pupils' behaviour in the weeks to come.

Here are some of the pictures I took of the kids at work. I thought they really enjoyed themselves during this workshop. :)

On a more personal note, I was out quite a lot this week.

I had my hair cut and straightened (no, not rebonded) on Tuesday afternoon, and then it was dinner with Vanessa at Wisma's 鼎泰丰. We came to my home after that to exchange music files. It took us quite a while and she didn't go home until close to midnight.

I met Van again on Wednesday - this time for a shopping spree! I bought 2 pairs of shoes, a bag and some other personal items. We had to head over to the URS at Novena for one of the pairs of shoes I wanted. I haven't been to Novena for quite a while, though I'd been to United Square to have a couple of dinners at The Bungalow. After all the extensions and madeover, Novena is quite huge. There were so many shops that I made a mental note to go there for shopping again the next day. Hahaha...

And I did. I'd arranged to meet Mag for dinner in the area. And since I had so much time after my massage spa and before meeting her, I checked out the whole place. I ended up buying FOUR sets of Korean drama and one Korean movie CD. I realised I hadn't watched a single K-drama since I came back from Japan last year and it's about time I refresh my interest in all things Korean. HAHA. I even bought some Korean noodles. Yes, I'm mad. x)

Dinner with Mag at The Bungalow was nice. We were so engrossed in our catching up that I forgot to snap pictures of our dinner. Haha. Yes, I seem to be on this quest to take photographs of what goes into my digestive system lately.

Friday was less intense. I came home from work early and rested a while before driving my dad's car out to meet my cousin Xiaorong for dinner. I hadn't met up with her since CNY last year, and only saw her at Changi Airport for less than 10 minutes on the day I was to fly off for my Japan trip. Apparently, she was also on the same flight! (So, can you imagine how busy we must have been in 2007 to only find out about this on the night before our trip?) Haha.

Anyway, last night when I met her, she brought me to this Russian restaurant at Far East Shopping Centre (opposite the Thai embassy along Orchard Road, in front of the open car park opposite Wheelock Place). I can't remember the name of the restaurant; I think it's Shashilik or something like that. We shared some chicken soup and, for the main course, she ordered beef while I had chicken.

I realised the picture was too dim, so I took one with flash - after my cousin plonked a piece of her steak on my hotplate.

The food was really more delicious than it looked. I've never had tastier beef steak and chicken. It was simply shiok. I'm sorry, despite being an English teacher, I don't have an English word to match this expression. I think I'm still very much Singaporean (us and our authentic and colourful rojak Singlish) when it comes to describing my eating pleasures. Hm, I must endeavour to find out more Singlish (and English) words. Common English expressions like 'mouth-watering' and 'delectable' aren't enough! HAHA. ;p

That's that. It's been a great week. I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend - time with my K-dramas. LOL.

jOyZ blogged at 8:37 AM

~~~~~~