I love the blue sky

Friday, May 30, 2008
Break? What Break?

I realise the mid-year break isn't much of a break at all.

Week 1 of the holiday is coming to an end. First, I had to attend a 2-day workshop at Alexandra Hospital. It was on the effective use and protection of the voice. Coincidentally, Samuel attended the same workshop on the second day. I hadn't seen him since Mag's wedding a year and a half ago I think. He still looked the same. After the 2-day workshop, I went back to school for the rest of the week to meet some 5A pupils for EPC and also to train a group of Sec 1 pupils for a skit competition on Crime Prevention.

Week 2 of the holiday will see me going back to school again from Monday to Thursday for EPC with the Sec 5 pupils. In addition, I'll be accompanying Mrs D and the pupils to The Police Academy for the Crime Prevention skit audition on Tuesday in the afternoon. On Friday, there's the first rehearsal for the NDP Media Brief on the floating platform.

The second rehearsal will take place on Monday in Week 3. And then, I'll be off to Malaysia on a field trip with the pupils - from Tuesday to Friday.

And everyone knows the final week of all school holidays are jam-packed with meetings and what-not.

So, there you go. My June vacation will zip by in a flash.

Sometimes, I wonder how I survive in the service. There are so many teachers (myself included) who are obviously very disgruntled with life as a teacher in Singapore - despite the ministry's efforts in revamping the system. In spite of the improvements made and seen over the decades, teachers here are terribly burnt out. The paper work just keeps piling and not all of us are teaching very effectively. Even if we think we are, there are just too many ideas to explore, to share, to discuss, to develop and to actualise them into lesson plans - which in itself requires time to prepare. Unfortunately, we don't have such luxury. So, how to engage pupils effectively in class?

Honestly, many of my teacher-friends cited interaction with the pupils in class as the least of their problems. I agree too. There will always be disciplinary issues everywhere - good schools, better schools, elite schools. These issues just surface as very different problems. But, somehow, we'll end up understanding our students well and vice versa.

So what is it that's making us so disgruntled? I was just chatting with a friend about it and we concluded perhaps it's not so much of teaching (or any other job for that matter) but more of society. People.

Well, that's another point to ponder. I'm too lazy to blog everything out. ;p

Right now, I'm glad about one thing though: my new toy!

I haven't got the time to explore all its features yet. I'm still trying to get used to sending messages via SMS with its mini-keyboard. Otherwise, it's pretty user-friendly - typical of Nokia mobile phones.

jOyZ blogged at 10:18 PM

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Sunday, May 25, 2008
A Fine Wedding

We attended Jann's wedding yesterday. She looked so pretty and happy! I'll let the pictures do the talking. =D

When Kurby said his marriage vow to Jann, he was so choked with emotions at one point that he had to pause and regain composure. I was touched. He must really love Jann a lot. Beside me, Mel was tearing away, dabbing her eyes with tissue.

After the very short and sweet marriage solemnisation, the four of us took pictures of ourselves before stuffing our faces with food from the lunch reception. Dear Gina was still as clownish as ever. Joce had to keep reminding her to stop 'uglifying' herself. LOL. Here are some of the pictures.

I didn't manage to take many pictures at the wedding dinner, which was held at Goodwood Park Hotel. My camera battery was dying and I figured the pictures wouldn't turn out good. During desserts, at the end of the dinner, Mel's French boyfriend Sebastian came by. Even though he was on the bulky side, we finally understood why Mel was so smittened. ;p

After the dinner, Joce and I went to Hyatt's lounge for drinks. We chatted till closing hours. I'm having second thoughts (again) about certain things that were mentioned. Gah, I'm back at square one! I really should start adopting Nike's motto as my own. Otherwise, nothing materialises. -_-

Dear Jann, BLESSED UNION! *CLINKS* =)

jOyZ blogged at 11:44 AM

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Thursday, May 22, 2008
Rehearsals At RJC

Yesterday was the first day of the combined schools' choir rehearsal for NDP at RJC. The energy was fantastic. I think almost all 400 pupils had a lot of fun dancing to the songs. The teachers were seated amongst them, mercilessly whipped and whacked by the dance props flying around. HAHA.

It was a little better today. Teachers were invited on stage - far away from the dancing pupils - to watch the whole choir perform. It was really beautiful when everyone's steps were synchronised. I snapped a few shots of my choir in action. Unfortunately, some photographs aren't clear because their movements were really fast.

"Hold! Hold!"

Foreground: The 2 student leaders representing our school choir - Eunice (in yellow) and Julia (in green). Background: Quest Choir (in blue and green) sandwiched between the yellow Woodgrove and light green Green View choir pupils.

Such vibrant colours

Pretty fuchsia jellyfishes

Multi-coloured faces

I was so charmed by one of the jazzy songs that I tried to pick up the dance steps from my pupils when we got back to school from the combined rehearsal today. HAHA. It's been years since I last danced.

I lost my handphone too. Heh. This is the PERFECT reason to buy a new handphone. I was still in two minds about buying one a few weeks back. Now, I don't have much of a choice. ;p

I guess I'll be surfing for handphones tonight. It's shopping time tomorrow evening. WOOTS!

HAHA. For someone who has just lost her handphone, faced with the inconvenience of losing important schedule and contact numbers, I am oddly HAPPY. ;P

jOyZ blogged at 7:27 PM

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Monday, May 19, 2008
Shopping

I realised I hadn't shopped since my trip to Thailand in February! Today's shopping spree (defined as, in my case, a shopping trip where I actually BUY many things) was the first time in 3 months!

It was quite fun actually. I didn't realise how much I'd missed it. HAHA. Joce and I were scuttling in and out of the fitting rooms so many times that we lost count. I was sure the staff serving us were amused. HAHA.

Eventually, after more than two hours in the shop, I settled on a white top, a pair of grey pants, a dark grey dress and a denim skirt. Hm, the colours don't sound very interesting, do they? Heh. Three out of the four pieces are meant to be worn at work.

Hm, I think I'll save the dress for Jann's wedding on Saturday - in case I can't find anything else suitable to wear.

jOyZ blogged at 10:49 PM

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Sunday, May 18, 2008
Finally...

... the marking marathon for the mid-year examinations was over on Friday. Somehow, I survived the crazy week - losing 2 nights of precious sleep. It was amazing that I could still be out for dinner and movie on Friday night.

Made of Honour was alright, I guess, but I still prefer My Best Friend's Wedding. It's a lot funnier than the former, which was rather predictable.

I finished watching 마이걸 (My Girl), too, in 2 days. It's definitely one of the better K-dramas I've seen. Eye-candies Lee Dong Wook and - especially - Lee Da Hae (see above picture) made me laugh so hard every episode that my parents thought I'd gone insane. I'm just sorry I took such a long time to watch it. Haha! Anyway, better late than never. ;p I'll be watching The Time Between Dog and Wolf next. I hope it's good. It'll be the first K-thriller drama that I'll be watching.

Term 2 is coming to a close this week. I hope to start (and, if possible, complete) a few personal projects during the June holiday. (=

Something random: I absolutely love Starbuck's Guiltless Mango Cake. Ha, this is from yours truly who has no particular liking for mangoes.

jOyZ blogged at 6:49 PM

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Saturday, May 10, 2008
My Favourite Four

Allow me to profess my allegiance to four wonderful websites I visit on a regular basis. x)

And no, this is not an attempt to increase my blog traffic. I'm perfectly happy whether or not anyone reads my blog. I'm a low-profile sort of person whose life is as colourless as can be - openly documented in all my blog entries, that is if anyone has the remotest interest in reading any of these. Heh.

But I've digressed. Back on the above subject, I genuinely respect these writers for what they do - online and offline. Well, maybe not everything they do. After all no one person is perfect. But, I think you get my drift: They are great bloggers/writers! =D

Karen Cheng's Snippets of Life. This was recommended to me by Zhen'ai a couple of years ago. I was bored one day and decided to check out the blog. And then I got hooked. I enjoy reading about Karen Cheng's life as a mother of 2 boys, what she does daily, her healthy recipes (erh, nope, I don't cook actually, but no harm reading up some good recipes), her simple yet beautifully shot and photoshopped photographs and sharing on fashion bits. Her writing is simple, expressive and genuine. :)

The Food Pornographer. I stumbled upon this blog through Karen Cheng's. It has fantastic pictures of - no prizes for guessing - food! GLORIOUS FOOD! And the pictures are so well-taken that, more often than not, I wish the food in the picture would somehow magically become real and that I could just grab the whole dish (or sometimes the entire feast) out from my laptop window! x)~

Chinky's Movie Spoiler. I think many people who love to watch Asian dramas or movies know about this site. Again, I stumbled upon this when I was doing a Google search on K-dramas in the second half of last year. It's a really cool site which also provides links for users to download original soundtracks of many shows. Imagine the state of rapture I was in upon this (albeit very late) discovery. ;p

Deconstructing kdramas and kpop culture - Dramabeans. Another popular site on Korean pop culture. It dishes out amazing arrays of news on K-pop - even scripts (in Korean) of many Korean dramas! The writer gives very elaborate analysis on every episode of some of the drama serials she watches. What I enjoy most is her razor sharp wit and laugh-out-loud humour dosed with plenty of attitude. It's sheer fun.

The best thing about the above sites is that they're updated regularly. It's one thing to discover a great site and another only to find out later on it has very irregular updates. I stop visiting such sites after a while.

Anyway, if anyone's keen at all, do visit the above sites. Happy surfing. (;

jOyZ blogged at 2:34 PM

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Saturday, May 03, 2008
A 4-Day Break

I'm enjoying my 4-day break now. Work has been non-stop for me for more than a month - rehearsals for Aesthethics Night, courses, setting of examination papers and marking. Surprisingly, I wasn't one of the usual last few who keyed in marks for CA1. That's like so rare. Heh. :) I have no complaints. (:

Why a 4-day break anyway? Not that I took leave on Friday like so many Singaporeans did to have a long weekend. I couldn't as an education officer. Well, the mid-year examination for the graduating classes started on Wednesday which meant I still conducted lessons for my other classes. It was Labour Day on Thursday (public holiday!) followed by the start of the examination for the rest of the school, which meant: NO TEACHING! At the same time, for ONCE, the papers I've been assigned to mark aren't coming in on the first day of the examination. Hah. My English examination scripts will only be ready for marking on Monday. So, I've got until Sunday to rest! =D =D =D

And it is such perfect timing that Vanessa is back in Singapore this week. I had lunch with her on Labour Day at Vivo City (ooh, I couldn't resist snapping a shot of the sky despite the blazing heat) and we went shopping until Tim came to pick her up to head over her sister's new home in Seng Kang. They told me a piece of good news: a baby is on the way! I guess it's perfect timing too that Van is taking a one-year sabbatical leave from working. God's timing is always perfect. (=

Friday afternoon saw me having a late lunch with Pei Chin at Paragon's Fish & Co, after which we did a bit of marking together at Starbucks with Cheryl. Haha. It was a rather futile attempt for me to do marking that afternoon. I was just too distracted and conversation topics just randomly kept popping up. LOL. Anyway, Pei Chin had a dinner appointment and left at 6pm. Cheryl left an hour later for her bestie's husband's birthday party, while I continued marking until Joce arrived.

It's been a little over 2 months since we last met up! I kept thinking it was just a month or so until I checked my organiser and realised how long it's been! Anyway, it was great catching up. I wasn't able to join her, Gina and Mel for wakeboarding last Sunday. Apparently, it was great fun. Hopefully, I can join them again for their second round.

We should be having another gathering on Jann's wedding on the 24th. =D I think we're going to push our stay at Ritz Carlton for Goodwood Park this year - since Jann's wedding banquet is at Goodwood Park. Hopefully, there will still be rooms available that weekend. If not, we'll all have to settle for another hotel nearby. ;O

It seems like 2008 is a year of change for many. Sometimes, I feel like I'm standing still and watching the world zoom by - like videos or photographs of traffic on roads and highways fast-forwarded or snapped at low speed. I've seen batches of pupils graduating for the years I've worked in my school. I've seen colleagues entering and/or leaving the school or service. I've seen friends getting married and becoming parents. People I know are going through the various stages of Life. I see how their lives change. I see them change and grow. I think I'm the only one who's still very much the same. No major change in my life thus far. It's just work and work. Do I live my life for work, for my pupils? It sounds all so noble, but I don't want to miss out on my own life as I help the younger generations discover theirs.

After the lengthy catch-up session with Joce, bits of conversation here and there with other friends over the past few weeks and learning how these people's lives have changed or will be changing, the pressure to further my studies overseas is getting stronger. The sense of urgency is greater too because, well, I'm not getting any younger.

So, yes, for the second time, I'm definitely going to do something about it. If not, someone please zap me violently with an electric prod.

jOyZ blogged at 9:58 AM

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