My exploration in life… (diary for baby!)

Mothers’ Day comes next weekend.  It will take on a completely new meaning for YEN this time round from next year.  Ok ok, the baby will hardly know what and how to celebrate in this first few years…  =P  Speaking of which, that means that I get to begin to receive presents / cards / greetings / what-have-yous for Fathers’ Day next year too!  Ha, and about time too!

I caught some news snippets of the upcoming General Elections (GE), about Mr MAH BOW TAN touring the GRC he is contesting, and how an opposition team he will face off in the GE suddenly turned up to challenge him.  Mr MAH appeared to be caught completely off-guard.  But the opposition team was very aggressive in their appearance, firing questions to Mr MAH and did not seem to give him a chance to answer.  How childish could the opposition get!?  Sigh, think they do things like these because they lack quality and take this incident to be a huge morale booster…  wonder how the voters will be affected in that constituency?

You know things like the Class 95 car decal giveaway where they always pronounce a winner out of nowhere?  I have always wondered how winners were chosen.  I think the answer was revealed when the deejay, GLENN ONG announced a winner sometime last week and said that he remembered that car number as it was special.  So, he (GLENN) must see you car and decal for you to win!  Which means I have to run into him before I can have any chance of winning!  Anyone knows where he stays - think I’ll start stalking him; ha!

Phew again!  The exam is finally over!  Although I sat for only one paper (the other modules were assignment/test-based and non-examinable) - BIOMECHANICS and ANATOMY, that was the worst I felt we can sit for so far.  Although we had some time to prepare for it, I think I had totally failed to do so.  But in the end, I think we are quite lucky that it wasn’t as difficult as feared.  So I think we should be able to pass.  Keep your fingers crossed until release of results!  =P

I think there is another walkover in this area that I stay, meaning that there will be no need for us to vote (again!) come polling day.  I think there are quite a bit of things that require improvement around here.  The other day I drove out of the car park here, there were foreign workers doing some work around the drains at the side of the road.  They lifted up the metal covers of the drain and worked away, all this - without cordoning off the drains.  How dangerous was that!?  Someone could have not see the open drain covers and driven over the open holes, causing accidents.  This is just one example.  Makes me feel that I should step up and join one of the political parties; ha.  Especially when there are people younger than me joining the elections this time round too!

My former colleague MUI LI (knew her when I was a Signal Officer Cadet in the SAF) just gave me a bag of baby clothes and a  "bouncing cradle" for the baby (one of the many same gifts she was given when she gave birth to her baby boy).  Her boy is adorable, a little more than one-year-old now, but he hasn’t started learning walking.  Date of expected delivery of our baby is drawing near (43 days away from the time I write!) - I’d better get ready more stuff for our baby now that my examinations are over too.  I’ll be going with YEN to get a pram and baby carseat in Bedok (before visiting my mum-in-law) later.  =)

Was talking to YONGSHENG and KAIXIN the other day and they asked if there was any news about my intending to move to a new place.  Told them I haven’t heard from HDB since registering my interest with them.  They joked that perhaps I should move to the Eastern part of Singapore instead as people there seem more affluent than those of us living in the West generally; the geomancy in the East seems better.  Ha, maybe I should heed their advice!

Polling Day is set for 6 May 06, and it looks like there will be another walkover in this constituency I’m living in again.  This is the third time (I think?) I am eligible to vote at the elections, but encountered all walkovers so far.  No, don’t get me wrong, I’m not wanting to vote for the Opposition Parties for the sake of voting for someone other than PAP.  But the fact that there is no competition seems to allow the Members of Parliament in my area to relax too much - I’m sad to say that I only just found out that our place falls under the West Coast GRC, and I’m still not sure who are the MPs in-charge here.  There doesn’t seem to be too much being contested about here in the Jurong West / NTU area.  Sigh, is there no one interested to make the quality of life here better than it already is?

There was a conversation show involving Minister Mentor LEE KUAN YEW and some people of the younger generation entitled "Why my vote matters" over the past week.  There was much reaction over what went on during the show - about how the youths were rude and the audacity shown.  I shall not add-on to the remarks here, but I have to say I thought they cannot represent the youths in Singapore as quite a few of them were journalists - they didn’t include the man in the street.

FAIZAL told me over the phone that SUMIKO, the two of us and another lady (whom we do not know) from the general diploma side has been selected to teach our practicum in NAN HUA PRIMARY SCHOOL.  Yeah!  I hope things will go well then, and that I will be able to teach in the school after I graduate from NIE!  =)

YEN and I have selected a name for our baby.  It’s a little difficult to tell you the name in Mandarin here; we decided that she would have a Christian name (though we bear no religious faith as yet), simply for the sake of the ease of calling / identification.  At the moment, we are interested in SUZANNE and RACHEL.  Maybe she will bear both as her name?  =)

Our mothers are as excited, if not more excited than we are.  My mum had knitted cute little socks for our baby (they are so tiny!), while mum-in-law has bought her many sets of clothes for home use.  My former colleague JESSIE has kindly agreed to pass us her baby cot (used previously by her two babies).  We are still looking around to search for a nice pram to buy her.  What else do I need to buy?  Wow, all these are new for a first-time father like me that I will have to rely on older generations to pass us tips if possible…  Any help available here?

My class is going to relax at a chalet ADRIAN booked tomorrow, before our paper next Thursday.  Then we will have to attend a camp from 8 - 11 May and attend practicum from 26 Jun.  We do not know which school we are to teach in yet.  We will know before the end of this month.  I hope I’m going to NAN HUA PRIMARY, the school I attended as a boy many years ago.  Though the school has shifted in its location, I still feel a little sense of belonging in the school.  If I get to teach there after I graduate, I think I will want our little girl to study there as well.  =)

I have decided that I should step down as the class rep at the end of this semester.  One reason to this is so that we can train up someone’s leadership capabilities.  The class needs a fresh face too.  Of course, I expect myself to be more busy after the birth of our baby and I foresee myself not having enough time to take on the responsibilities of the appointment.  The meeting I called to select a new class rep got to nowhere as no one wanted to take up the responsibility initially.  However, CHRISTOPHER finally decided that he could give it a try and he will assume the appointment from me from the start of practicum.  I will continue to provide advice / assistance should he need it after my stepping-down.

YEN had her appraisal done a little earlier by her superiors in SGH.  They deem that she had done well in the past year and gave her a very good grade.  As she is due for a promotion already, the grade would have actually enabled her to be promoted if she had applied for it.  She did not do so as she felt that she had not done as well.  I think she should apply for a promotion the next time she is able.  Don’t worry about so much, YEN, you will prove that you are able to cope with things you’ll need to do well!  =)

The reminder keeps popping out on SCV’s sports channels; the papers keep telling you that we are less than two months away from football’s most anticipated event that happens once every four years - the World Cup starts 9 Jun 06.  That coincides with the expected delivery date of our first child!  I thought - Great!  I can watch the world cup matches after coaxing our baby to sleep!  =)

I read in a recent edition of "NTU Chronicles" (a NTU newsletter) that NTU and NIE will implement cash-card parking for all their car parks (even the ones for the halls!).  Currently, only a few car parks in the NTU/NIE vicinity are cash-card operated.  Hmmm, I’m surprised at the channel this was made known to all of us.  I mean, I would prefer to have known that through some official letter or email.  Not through some newsletter that hardly anyone reads.  If we did not happen to take a copy to flip through, I would be in a shock when I drive into the car park after a month’s practicum.  And I sure hope that the way it operates will be made known to us (e.g. free parking before 7am? / free night parking?, etc.)

We celebrated JABBAR’s and THOMAS’ 25th birthdays (see the two birthday boys in a "Brokeback mountain" look-alike pose here - http://nianzu_ryan.blogs.friendster.com/photos/our_moments/brokeback.html) after a walk-through of the orienteering route and activities the past week.  We’re beginning to bond a bit as a team.  Hope this bonding will help get us through the camp as a team.

Oh yes; we arrived in NIE the next day for an additional lesson by AP M.KOH for our examinations on BIOMECHANICS.  And we got a big shock when MARCUS arrived a little late through the door - he was sporting an all-new GI haircut!  Wow!  I’m not sure what came into him to have his hair cut that short!  I think I should be the last person who took his picture before the haircut (see his photo  http://nianzu_ryan.blogs.friendster.com/photos/our_moments/marcus_hair.jpg).  Perhaps he thinks he’d better did that so that he can get rid of his dyed hair before we go for our practicum.  I think that is a brilliant decision too.  =)

I bought YEN blue roses when I went to fetch her from work last night.  She was so pleasantly surprise when she saw the flowers.  Though ladies think it is a little waste of money as flowers live only for a few days, I think they will be delighted when their boyfriends / husbands buy them flowers and secretly hope it happens.  We need to remind our other halves our feelings for them.  And make the relationship interesting every other time with little surprises.  Shouldn’t we?  Ha; perhaps this is why LYNN and other girls say that I am a hopeless romantic…

ADRIAN booked a chalet in the middle of this month for our class of 40.  His email to inform us of the chalet invitation was sure funny.  =)  But I don’t now if I want to go as I want to stay with YEN and be around her…

We are on a few weeks’ study break now before our examinations, and YEN is on a week’s annual leave the coming week.  It is just as well so that I can spend some time with her.  I feel that I haven’t done enough as a husband, haven’t spent enough time with her.  I must make it up to her whenever I have the chance to!

I have uploaded some pictures taken earlier using my mobile phone - three on pretty-mama (my YEN  =)) and a few taken in the NIE canteen weeks earlier of EDMUND, JIANWEN, NICHOLAS, VANESSA and WEIQIANG.  You can see them at: http://nianzu_ryan.blogs.friendster.com/photos/our_moments/

I had the strangest dream last night (I normally have peaceful, dreamless sleeps) and I awoke clutching YEN tightly, thanking my lucky stars that it was all but a dream.  I actually had this dream that YEN and I were outside (at some hawker centre), and she was buying some stuff.  I turned away to go somewhere, and by the time I returned, I was told she (gasp!) passed away.  Then suddenly, she was lying in a body-bag at home and we were all mourning.  I went to her to say my last goodbyes and called for her frantically.  And luckily, she awoke!  Touch wood - I don’t want dreams like these!!!

I woke up not knowing the meaning of the dream.  Immediately told YEN about it as whenever I shared my dreams with someone else, the dream will not come true.  I don’t want it to come true!  NO!!  Told ADRIAN and LYNN about it too, and they said normally, this means that something good is going to happen to me.  Well, I can only hope.  I’ve not been lucky all my life.  Having known and getting married with YEN are among the best, the luckiest things that could have happened to me…

This crazy week is finally over.  Well, almost.  We had a couple of tests this week - Text Types on Monday, Communications Skills (Oral test) on Wednesday, and a 3-hour Teaching Reading and Writing test today.  I can concentrate on my only examination paper, on Biomechanics and Anatomy, near the end of this month now.  It will be the silly 4-day residential camp then.

Oh, I haven’t writtne about how I was tricked on April Fools’ Day.  Remember I wrote about the recce for the Orienteering committee last Saturday (happened to be 1 April)?  I arrived with MARCUS and CHRISTOPHER at CHANGI VILLAGE.  I remember we arrived a little before 1:30pm, and I had displayed parking coupons from then till 6pm, grumbling (a little!) about the need to pay that much for car parking.  The three of us then went to the Food Centre next to the car park to have lunch.  We were having lunch when I received a call from THOMAS.  He told me a parking attendant was approaching my car at the car park, and I hadn’t displayed enough parking coupons.

Fearing that I had got the dates torn wrongly on the coupons, I ran over to my car (in the midst of lunch!).  When I reached the carpark, I saw THOMAS, CLEMENT and SHIREN in front of my car.  True, the parking attendant was approaching my car soon, but I had displayed the parking coupons with the correct date!  SHIREN alerted me to a piece of paper on the car windscreen that said, "Happy April’s Fool Day - by SHIREN".  Boy, was I mad!  Grrr…  Sigh, I can only blame myself for trusting my friends too much!  ("/)

We are going to a compulsory camp for all PESS (Physical Education Sports Science) experiential learning camp for all year-one trainee teachers from 8 - 11 May 06.  In this camp, the 200-plus Diploma, Degree and Post Graduate Physical Education trainee teachers will attend a camp where we take certain parts as a group to plan and organise.  There’s the EXCO, campfire, kayaking, high tension rope activities etc.  We’ll be given a grade for our parts in the camp, reflected in our result transcripts at the end…

I am part of our 19-man (including 2 ladies - VANESSA and EMILY!) orienteering committee by choice.  KAIXIN is the Chairman and JIANWEN volunteered as the Vice-Chairman of our committee.  Even with our heavy workload and busy schedule, 11 of us still committed time to meet up for a recce session yesterday.  I think it is commendable that WEIQIANG attended although he is sick and walked the whole distance with us.  ERIC couldn’t attend as he is having two races to run on both Saturday and Sunday, VANESSA and EDMUND were not able to attend due to compassionate reasons.  I’m not sure if those who did not turn up had any valid reasons; I mean - we are all busy, and THOMAS, MARCUS and I are going to have the Test for the Text Types module, same as those of us taking up English as our 2nd core subject, so if we can turn up…

Though I did not want to take up an appointment in the committee we’re running for the camp (as YEN is pregnant and I have decided that I will give the camp a miss if our baby decides that she can’t wait to join us in this world in June), I still wanted to contribute to help in wherever I can.  I hope all of us feel the same way.  I mean, someone has to take up the responsibilities…

Think we had a fruitful trip for the recce.  At least more of us understand what is going on for our committee now.  But there is a need for all of us to go through our planned route and activities again.  More heads are, generally, better than one??

I did not write that my classmate, LYNN, met with a little incident after volleyball assessment last Friday.  She had stayed back to get some more practice / play and helped to keep the volleyball posts at the end.  As the ropes of the net was tied / wrapped too tightly to the post, one of them spun out of control after she managed to release it from the post.  It resulted in her left hand being hit by the rope - she had to ice it and bandage it.

She thought it’ll be alright, but when she went to visit a doctor’s the next day and got an x-ray, she found that she had the tip of her ulna bone chipped off  (Ha, we’ll getting too anatomically apt these days!).  As a result, she’ll have her left forearm in a cast for the next month.  It’s lucky that all our practical assessments are over!  Secondly, her master-hand is her right hand and she’ll be able to write for the examinations.  And lastly, the cast will be removed in time for the camp and she’ll be able to attend it with us…  =)