My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

It’s teacher’s day today!  Ha, i’m not a trained teacher yet, but already look forward to having the one-day "holiday" for this special day when i teach in schools already…

I read the Straits Times daily but i give the Classified and Life! sections a miss.  But i happened to see this one yesterday that made me take a second look - the one on Life! on the Channel U’s Superstar thingy.  No; i wsn’t interested in the star-wannabes at all!  Have not followed the show at all.  It was the small photograph of the columnist, my buddy and long-time friend - Shiyong, that i took interest over the section.  He is doing rather well after leaving university and his previous job at Zao An Ni Hao (channel eight’s morning talkshow).  So happy for him!

I’ve found the pace of school life in NIE here rather hectic - nine modules (albeit one module starting only after term break, two modules being sports modules (but we have written tests for them too, mind you!)), lots of project work (both group work and individual projects), etc…  blending in with my school mates really takes something; luckily i have at least the rest of the old men (Rozali, Adrian, Andre, Edmund, etc.) and the drivers (Rozali and Adrian again, plus Clement, and now a temporary pass for Jianwen, who is driving his aunt’s car). But i’m almost drowning…

Have realised that we have quite a few other guys who were Officers during their National Service out of the 41 of us (a little more than half of us are guys).  We have Edgar, Thomas, Kaixin, myself at least.  Was Faizal an Officer too?

As i’m writing this, i’m in NIE’s Library with my mates.  Kiat Hoon is reading the papers and just broought our attention to this one - "8th dengue death".  Feel so glad that Rachel, who was down with Rachel for quite a while earlier, is alright now…  she’s a great girl, bubbly and all…  =)

Oh yah, i have not yet received a call from Tan Choong Motor with regards to our NISSAN MARCH.  How much will the repairs amount to?  Will i be able to claim the other driver’s insurance instead of mine, based on the fact that he knocked into me?  How long more will i be without the car??

Yen’s plane landed in noon yesterday, and i was there to receive her. We were kind of tred from eveything that happened through the week, and drifted off to sleep without any dinner…

This morning, we woke up at four-plus, and got ready to go out. I was to go to Sentosa to help out in this NEW BALANCE REAL RUN (think it was formerly NIKE REAL RUN). My course mate, Adrian, who drives and who happens to stay near my place, felt unwell yesterday, and decided against driving this morning. This means that i was to drive us instead. So i picked him up, together with Vanessa and Jianwen. We also picked Shiren up along the way.

We met at the food centre opposite to harbour front. We were briefed that we were to take up tasks as time keepers for the event, and we were to carpool into Sentosa, where the vehicle label would allow us free access into Sentosa. So i made the first trip in.

Adrian deceided to wait for me to come out a second time as i was picking up Hadi straight after. And Chris, Rowena, Dawn and others were outside too, waiting for a lift from Haresh and me. As i was making a u-turn opposite harbour front, i did not see a taxi approaching on the other side, and it drove real fast, hitting our car on the back-left hand side. Luckily, we escaped unscathed. But poor March! It is barely half a year old…

Adrian accompanied me to wait for the tow-truck, and we went home, without even helping out for the event at all. Now he thinks it’s his fault that he didn’t drive, that he partly cause the accident. But i assred him - whatever happened, was probably meant to happen, anyway…

Hi friends, a remark / comment was made, targetted at me yesterday at NIE, and i somehow managed to keep my cool until late last night, when i penned out an email to my course mates:

"Hi mates,

i feel worked up over a comment made by a lady course-mate (not sure who) today, that i was "acting studious".  I am not sure if the comment was meant to be a joke, but being a little sensitive, i got kind of worked up over it.

I’d like to say that i’m 27, and a number of years away from school.  I do not want people to say that even with a few years more of experience in the working world, i do not know how to be serious when it comes to work (studies now).  I treat this course as seriously as anyone of you.

Taking time to read whenever i can afford it gives me some time - time that i can spend meaningfully with my wife when i cannot be studying.  I am not trying to look studious - in fact, i’m just so worried, along with Roz, Andre and Adrian (at least) that we have been away too long that we are unable to catch up with many of you,
who are "fresh" from school or NS, not forgetting those with contract teaching experience.

I hope you can feel the pressure that we "old men" feel.  I feel especially bad when i sit through G & D lessons, that some of you can readily answer Dr TEO-KOH’s questions, as you have biology background, whereas i do not have.

I have been made an "accidental" group rep for 1B, and i’m not unwilling, nor complaining.  In my view, someone had to step up in order for things to move on, and so i did.  I’m not dying to get the job, nor is the job any easy for me, mind you.  Especially so when i lack WAY behind you people in terms of academics.

I just hope that anyone who is unhappy with my actions or, with me, to come up to my face to let me know.  We can see if things can be worked out.  Better still, someone who wants this unglamourous job can kindly step up to take it away from me.  I welcome him or her, with open arms.

Regards."

Since the mail, i have quite a few of my 40 other course mates showing their concern for me.  For that, i thank them.  The purpose of my mail was really to tell them - whoever who felt unhappy with me or the things i’ve done as one of the two classes’ representatives, to come to me face to face and tell me.  Do not let their inhabitations get them in trouble with their peers / supervisors / superiors later when they go out to work in schools.

Just felt unhappy with the comment…

P.S. Despite the unhappy incident yesterday, i’ve found out from the Lost & Found Dept in NIE that they had got my Wedding Ring.  Hurrah…

Yen left on the SIA plane to Sydney with her nursing friend, Cecilia, on the Saturday near one a.m. flight.  From the moment she walked into the gates at the airport, my one week of loneliness has started.

Went help and slept at two-plus, only waking up at nine-plus.  Man, this is the first time in a long while i failed to walk up at seven-plus a.m. or earlier.  Got up, got washed up and breakfast, before proceeding to wash our NISSAN MARCH.  We will usually do the car-washing together too - she’ll be doing the vacuuming in the interior, while i took care of the exterior.  The washing alone sure takes a little getting use to; but i sure hope i needn’t do it again alone too many times.

I visited my mother-in-law and Jason on Sunday morning.  Left to reach Wilson’s place as agreed before Yen’s departure, for a little mahjong.  =)  But we started late as Jianwei arrived only at two forty-five instead of the agreed two p.m.  And we began our using game + catching up on the happenings in each others’ lifes.

I lost in the first round (our default amount of chips - $21).  Had to borrow from Shiyong, who was having a heyday.  He offered me to take his seat for luck for the second round, and i took his offer.  I ended the next (and final game) winning back the $21.  =)  So the seat was lucky, actually.  And Shiyong, who took my seat, lost most of his winnings…  *smile*

It’s into the fourth week of my course already, and they are talking about a mid-term test in September already!  Arrrgghhh  -  i’m definitely not ready!  Looks like i will have to work very much harder to burn some midnight oil - just to catch up with the readings we need!…

I name this post "A little of everything…" because i’m gonna write about, well, precisely - a little of everything…

First, i hope someone can satisfy my thirst for knowledge in answering my burning desire to know - why is the rest of the world, keep wanting Japan to apologise, again and again for the atrocities that took place during World War II?  I mean - what’s happened, has happened.  Japan has apologised many times already.  A lot of these people who did the apologising, i half suspect that it isn’t their fault, anyway!  So why bring it up again?  They show enough remorse, at least in my point of view, already.

Yen left on her SQ flight less than an hour earlier, and i miss her already.  She’ll be back next Saturday.  Pardon my mushy-ness, but that’s newly-weds for you…  =P

I took part in the Inter Class Games for our class in basketball in NIE.  We lost in the finals to our seniors.  The star player, Jianwen, did fairly well, and that could be said for the rest of the team.  I feel i let them down with my poor showing.  Not trying to fish for excuses, but my showing was the result of a five year lay off since my accident, and my first competitive match again.  I just didn’t do well.  *sob sob*

And to think that i lost my WEDDING RING because of participating!  Gosh!  How can that have happened?  I’m barely two months married!  It happened in a rush that i was getting ready for the games (which i initially did not want to play; duh!).  In a rush, i took off the ring and stuffed it in my bag.  And i can’t find it afterwards.  Yen says it’s okay - it’s only a ring.  But it’s the significance, i feel, that makes me feel lousy for losing it.  Hope it was picked up by someone and it’ll be returned to me…

Let me get out of my grief and continue to write about our project group meeting today.  You see, starting this year, all freshmen in NIE are to complete a project in Service Learning.  Service Learning is about giving back to the society, and as teachers later, we are to teach / lead students to participate in this area.  Hopefully the students will continue to contribute in this area as they grow older.  Our group finally decided to zoom into an agreed area, and will start exploring the possibilities of this area for the project.  I’m going to keep it within our group what we wanna do, and share with you later what we did.  =)

And I had lunch with Lee Ching, Stella, Clement and Tyler after the meeting.  I feel we got some cohesion going on there within the few of us - we discussed a bit on our relationships, and had a laugh at things.  I enjoyed not only the meal, but the banter, and feel pondered if the same kind of cohesion could exist within the whole group of 21 of us?  Shall i suggest that we make it compulsory to have group lunch every Friday after our meetings to build some cohesion??  Hmmm…

My thoughts were flowing after listening to Class 95 in my drive to NIE this morning.  They were discussing about the stopping of the train recently because they found an unknown package at a MRT station, and whether we need armed "policemen" at MRT stations.

For my friends who seldom read on the papers, the MRT incident caused quite a few inconveniences for commuters, and led to their complaints that the evacuation of people wasn’t well conducted, as well as the allowing of people to get home quickly after that.  We, as Singaporeans, would normally complain…  we don’t appreciate enough the fact that these are done to avoid the possibilities of having danger.  I think we shouldn’t take things too easily and be complacent…

The second one was about having the armed personnel on MRT stations.  I thought this was a good move as well.  This would thwart terrorist if they ever think that Singapore is an easy target to sabotage…  But people complain again - saying that there isn’t a need to have the "policemen", and it would scare children and old folks, etc.  Sigh…

Oh, i am taking grammer at the moment, and they go back to the basics.  I have always been okay with my grades for the English Language, but have not been taught / understood these basics (what is a adjective / adverb / etc.) too much.  These lessons are really allowing me to rediscover the language…  =)

I appluad the move

Everyone in Yen’s family is travelling overseas in this month!

Yen’s brother, Jason, just returned from a trip sponsored by his company from Gold Coast, Australia.  Talked to him a bit and he was told me that it is his company’s practice to sponsor everyone for an overseas trip annually for cohesion-building.  And based on past statistics, it will be a good nice trip a year, and a trip to somewhere nearer the next.  Heard him say they went to Mines Resort in Malaysia the last year, and it’s Australia now.  He said he could vision a poor trip next year,  as he has visibility to the company accounts, and things do not look good…

My mother-in-law and Yen’s mum would be travelling to the States from 26 Aug 05.  She’ll be travelling with her temple’s Priest and people and would return after 15 days.  She is a devout Buddhist.  I knew this from the beginning, and she wanted our ROM and date of our customary dinner "calculated" by a Priest who she heard, does a good job in doing that.  And not wanting to cross her, i thought we should always listen to our elders for these stuff and let them have their way, long as it doesn’t go against our beliefs.

And Yen is travelling to Sydney next Sat, 20 Aug 05, morning.  She’ll be there for a conference on her area of speciality - Pain Management - and she’ll be back the following Saturday.  She had wanted me to fly over with her, but i didn’t think i should, based on the fact that i’ll have to be back the following day so that i could be in NIE the next day.  Don’t get me wrong; i really want to be with her!  And i haven’t been to Australia anyway!  But i mean - it just doesn’t seem money well spent, and work is picking up for me in NIE.  She understands, and i won’t be going to see my friend Ghim Chong there in Australia, which i originally thought i could…

Well, it was the start of the new Primiership season on Saturday!  And could you believe that i gave it a miss??  Haha, i was just too tired from staring at the computer screen for a day!  It started out with my new found mates - Roz, Andre and me meeting in NIE to explore about school work on a bright Saturday morning.  We stayed in NIE’s library for three hours, until my eyes couldn’t take the staring, and i went to fetch Yen from SGH in noon.  By the time she was done with her facial and we returned home, i felt dead beat, and even gave dinner a miss…

How would my team Newcastle United fare this season?  This, after escaping the clutches of relegation last season, and finishing a dismal 14th?  I reckon we’ll do well to escape relegation again this season, with this current lot of players.  This Graeme Souness is crap at managing the team, and should be the first to get the sack if things go my way!  Ok ok, let’s not bore everyone by going into details with footie…  =P

Gosh!  I was hurt yesterday during one of the practical lessons in my course - Curriculum Gymnastics!  I didn’t have a good feeling about this at all, and wouldn’t have chosen this if i had a choice.  Did i write about why it’s made compulsory for all Dip Ed (PE) trainee teachers??

And so we were doing warm-up exercises and stuff like that.  We were doing this one particular exercise i haven’t done in years - the "back arch".  The "back arch" was quite simply self-explanatory - arching of the back.  Ha!  What did you guess it was!

I haven’t done this ever since i met the traffic accident five years back (i hurt my head AND lower back, so it isn’t the best place to exercise).  And i got downgraded in the Army partly due to that…  So why was i accepted into the course?  I really don’t know.  But now, since i’m here, i better make the most of it and try my best.  That’s all i know.

I’m finding school tough.  One of two modules are introducing something i haven’t had before - "Problem Based Learning", or PBL for short.  In PBL, you are not spoonfed the learnings, and you very much so find out on your own.  The lecturer would only be on hand to clarify doubts.  That requires so much of the students, i think.  I just not used to this.

And we have got to do a project on Service Learning - contributing to the society and less-fortunate, and draw lessons learnt from it.  This project should last about six months to a year.  And it’s done with eighteen other "freshies" across NIE’s different courses.  I’ve met our group of guys and girls once or twice so far, and on first impressions, they seem to be nice people too.  Hope that we could continue to maintain a coordial working relationship throughout…

This time last year, i was still in SAF and getting involved the second time in a National Day Parade.  The first time was sometime ago when we marched at the Padang for NCC or something.  Can’t really remember now…  Last year, i was in the Show Committee, managing the Pledge Takers and ensuring their well-being, their requests getting obliged…

Today, there is some National Day Observance / celebration at NIE too.  But all those from the first year in Dip Ed (PE) are giving it a miss - those taking mathematics would not have lessons in the morning, while those taking english (including me) would go off after our one-hour lesson ending 10.15 a.m.

I started the day early in the NIE Library, an hour before my lesson, and met Ruoning (from Shaoerzu) there!  She told me that she’ll be in NIE for a year starting this year.  That makes more people that i know around.

After the lesson and brunch, i was waiting for Haresh, Jonathon (they went up to pack some stuff from their hostel room) and Dawn (she went to visit the room, considering to get on next year) when i saw Eugene Leow (NSF Officer formerly from HQ 2 SIB).  Couldn’t recognise him as he dyed his hair blonde!  Caught up with him a little and he told me he’ll be in NTU for another 3 years.  So more friends!

Yen and me would be going to Meritus Mandarin tonight to use up the $150 dinner voucher we got from the hotel.  We are having dinner at Top of the ‘M’, the revolving part on the thirty-something (35, i think) floor of the hotel.  Wilson told me that mahjong session tonight is off as there are only three players.  Thought i could use this chance to catch up with them tonight…

It’s okay!  There are more chances to come later!  =)

First week of lessons is over now.  That was quick…  And throughout the past two weeks, have known many new people, most of them nice so far…  (”/)

I’m having 9 subjects that i’ll be graded on this semester.  And that does not yet include the 1 project that i’ll be doing, too.  This project is with first year students, cross-stream from NIE, on Service Learning.  And probably because i was one of the most vocal people during our first meeting at some team bonding activities, i’ve been nominated the "leader" of this group of 19 of us.

And it doesn’t pay to volunteer nor being more vocal sometimes, really.  I say that because i’m also made the accidental "group representative" of my class of 21 in my Diploma programme now.  But i’m taking it in good heart, really.  Think there is some good points of being the leader - you HAVE TO be involved.  And you’ll know the people in your group faster.

At the moment, i’m just not too confident with the academic part of the course.  I say this as i haven’t been studying for tests since graduating from the Polytechnic in ‘98, not including OCS and tests i took in SAF.  Picking up studying is a pain, but i’m working at it…

One more thing - it’s really difficult to get parking space at the parking lots next to Blk 5 (PE blk) or Blk 4 (Library) after a cut off time of around 8.30 a.m.  Unless you are willing to pay $3.00 and park at the cashcard controlled carpark.  Or walking way further, by parking at the nearest hostels (if there are lots available, too!).  Hence, i discussed with Yen, that i’d send her to work earlier, so that i cpuld reach NIE earlier too, regardless of the time my lessons start.  That way, i could probably be able to park near, and go to the library to do some reading before lessons.  =)