a geographer's mind

Mama Mia

2008-09-25T10:24:00.002+08:00

While I was watching this movie, I particularly like the screen where Meryl Streep sang The Winner Takes It All to Pierce Brosnan

However, when I listened to this song again on my ipod, I realised that Meryl Strep, being a great actress, cannot sing.

And she did try out for the role of Eva Peron in the movie adaptation of the musical Evita, which subsquently went to Madonna instead.

Okay Meryl, you have done one musical. It's time to move on and never to look back again :)

I've survived Southern Ridges Walk

2008-09-21T20:24:00.005+08:00

Yes, all 9km of the walk, and under the hot hot sun starting from 1230pm.

The whole journey took us about 1h 30mins. Not too bad for a walk in the park.

Started at Pepys Road and ends at HarbourFront. It's hard to find Pepys road.

Watched Mama Mia. Not too bad. Worth that $7.50 ticket price.

Kinda lazy now hence the lack of content in this entry....

Gathering

2008-09-16T13:20:00.006+08:00

@ Harry's

A gathering, three years on.

So glad to see old friends once again, after we graduated from NUS, and UCC.

Really miss those times working together in UCC, especially those big events like Channel U's official opening, RenCi Charity shows, National Day Rally (Goh Chok Tong's last and Lee Hsien Loong's first), lots of commencement graduation ceremonies (long hours, good pay!!!), Asian Television Awards (where I got my first photo shot with Kit Chan).

My HKG trip was fun. Lots to eat and shop. Didnt buy much though.

Famous roasted goose *yummy*

Alright, shall not reveal who's bear is this. Is that phone disinfected?

HKG, here i come!

2008-08-29T19:10:00.003+08:00

Finally, I'm going hong kong in a few hours' time!

Yeah!

Will come back with lots of food, photos and shopping

:)

Monsoon Season

2008-08-27T07:28:00.002+08:00

Noticed that it has been raining for the whole of last week?

I felt so lucky that the monsoon season started only last week instead of the week before. I cannot imagine me soaking in the rain for many days in a row during my power-combo 7 days 6 nights outfield training during my reservist.

Have you ever experience getting soaked completely, down to your briefs and socks? And the best thing is, you have to deal with the wetness until you have an opportunity to change into a fresh set of clothes, which unfortunately is not a every day affair.

So one has to walk around with soggy clothes and socks (yucks!)

So thank god that the rain comes in ONLY after I am done with reservist.

3 more days to my Hong Kong trip! Yeah!

2 more days to Teachers' Day celebrations. Anyone coming back to school to visit mua? School closes at by 12pm on Friday as the school decides to have lunch instead of dinner for all staff members. So catch me if you can :)

SAF holiday package

2008-08-18T17:06:00.003+08:00

At least for now.

Noticed I've been missing for a while?

I am away on reservist (note the present tense because I am still in reservist).

This new camp is much much better than the previous old one. The accommodation, food, and environment are way much better than the previous one. Best of all, there is a business center where we can use Internet facilities! Unheard of in the old days where you cant even bring camera phone into camp, not to say having Internet facilities for our use. While, the camera phone prohibition still remains but you can still smuggle in. Don't tell anyone you heard it from here ya.

Okay, let me talk about the highlight of my 17 days ICT (In-Camp Training aka reservist)

I had just finished a 7D6N ~~free and easy package~~ outfield training.

YES! 7 days and 6 nights without creature comfort. No shower (yucks), bad food, harsh environment, sucky weather. And my 2 sets of uniform smelt badly. Real badly. I had to sleep in countless forests, together with all the complimentary insects, mozzie and whatever that crawls. Looking back, I dont know how I survived the last 7 days and 6 nights. This was my longest stay outfield since 1998's training in Australia.

Some highlights of my milestone package:

At least God cared for us by only giving us rain on only 1 out of 7 days. I rather have hot sunny weather than a wet one! It's always better to trek on dusty and hard trails than a muddy one.
First time taking a ride in a helicopter (Chinnok to be precise, the same type that carries the state flag during each NDP). While there are no pretty stewardess asking what beverage you would like, the 10-minutes ride is once in a lifetime's experience!
Two nights were spent walking some 5km each. And these are no walk in the park! I had to lug around 2 weapons and my personal belongings and it's miracle that my shoulders are still intact. Some bruises though.
I realised that during a very hot day, it's always cooler to stand in the shade under a tree than a building
My company has 3 missions to complete, one of which is FIBUA (Fighting in Built-Up Area aka fighting in HDB buildings). This was the best mission we fought at 3am in the morning, where everything, everywhere was so dark that we cannot recongnise who's who and whether the person standing in front of you is an enemy or not. For this mission, I had a fun time running around the abandoned HDB building, bashing into rooms and shooting friends and foes (remember it's too dark to see?) a-la counterstrike style. Bang Bang
As all three missions are all fought during the dawn and spread over 7 days, there are plenty of time during the day to sleep and eat and sleep and eat (well..you get the drift). The longest I have slept was some 10 hours! Shiok!
Outfield training means no luxury of showering facilities and hence, we had to do 'powder bath'. Highly recommended powder would be the snake brand pickering heat powder. Using it is like taking a real shower (well, at least the illusion is)
Back to the absence of bathing luxury, we also dont have the luxury of changing our clothes on a daily basis. One often has to wear the same set of clothes for a few days before changing a new set (we cannot lug around a 40 by 30cm pulling luggage around unfortunately). When I mentioned clothes, I do not refer only to the uniform but also our socks and briefs. I shall not go into details how my briefs turn out after every 3 days in terms of its colour, smell and what's not >.<
I tend to eat much lesser during fieldcamps, which is good as it can help me shed a few extra pounds
The best command that everyone cheered was 'Exercise Cut! Return to Unit'. Yes, I've survived my longest fieldcamp training as a NSman *beams*

One more round anyone? *pui!*

At least the whole of today is spent doing nothing but listening to ipod and sleeping away in the bunk. Cant wait to return to school (I love my job!) and civilisation.

I shouldn't be alive

2008-07-16T07:34:00.004+08:00

There was this wonderful series on Arts Central, shown every Friday.

Each episode recounted how people got lost out in the forests, mountains and seas, how they struggled to stay alive and got saved in the end.

Too bad I realised there's such a nice show on TV and I only managed to catch the last few episodes. Damn.

My year 1 MYE results are just in, and for the kids' first major examination here, the passing rate is not too bad. At least the number of U-grades are lower than the number of S-grades, which is another good news.

Quite frustrated at work with another colleague regarding a particular school event, that has caused my councillors to spend so much time on a particular activity. And the best thing is, the organisers only informed us at the very last minute and AFTER my councillors informed me about the plan.

One needs to lead down and across, not only ~~suck~~ lead up! Read Maxwell's 360-degrees leaders, duh.

*did i sounded sour?*

On a happier note, I am going Hong Kong with 3 good friends-cum-colleague come September. Yeah Yeah! Something to look forward to during my 16 days paid holiday by SAF (damn)

Going south, finally!

2008-07-10T10:27:00.003+08:00

After more than a year, petrol pump prices finally went south, although by a mere 4 cents per litre.

A full tank now sets me back some $140, compared to $90 when I first got my car slightly three years back.

With all the new measures being rolled out to entice drivers to make the switch to public transport, I, like any other typical drivers, are quite unwilling to give up the convenience of the car.

On a happier note, I am going Hong Kong during the one week break with some colleagues. This would be my maiden trip to the land of dim sum and shopping for china-influx goods.

Reservist's coming up and I am totally turned off by it. Sigh, 17 days of my youth wasted just like that.

Heard the new NDP song by Joi Chua last night. Lyrics are well written and not as blantant as previous editions sung by Stephanie and company.

Glad that Tanya won Best Female Singer in Taiwan over the weekend. Second award!

Geerr power...

Hear them roar.

*just ranting*

Music of the Night

2008-06-30T12:29:00.002+08:00

For the first time, we went out together on a department outing sans the heads.

And it's nice to see everyone so sporting and turned up whether one's a singer or not. It's fun seeing another side of your colleagues that you wont get to see in the school environment. We sure can play like crazy little kids.

Wasted my whole Saturday afternoon with the NS Mobilisation. As with other mobilisation, all one can do is to wait and wait and wait till we are dismissed, some 4 hours later.

It's another bloody hot day today! Luckily it's exams period and I get to go off early.

Some Okinawa Pics

2008-06-12T19:37:00.004+08:00

This is a very huge limestone cave and I really enjoyed the walk through the cave, being the geographer in me! Took lots of pictures in it and just nice, I am teaching karst landscape when school reopens. They have the world's largest stalagmite! Cool place!!!

Most are trying this new and funky drink I recommended. It's F&N orange plus jelly! I lugged 5 cans back to Singapore. This shows how much I enjoyed this drink.

This is a traditional drum dance in Okinawa. They are performing in International Street (equivalent to our Orchard Road) to raise funds for the Sichun earthquake.

This is a tier-ed carparking system that will automatically shift your car either to the upper level or basement from the ground level. Cool system.

School lunch at the junior high school (equivalent to Lower Sec levels) where students will eat in the classroom with the teacher, food provided of course by the school so everyone eats the same thing. I didnt enjoy this meal though because pig's innates soup was served. Yucks! I passed my portion to this boy sitting across me.

In senior high school (upper sec and Pre-U levels), students bring homemade lunch boxes for lunch. For staff, we can order the daily bento special that costs only 400 yen (about $5.50).

I walked 15 minutes from my hotel just to eat A&W. Miss their corny hot dogs. I know A&W still exist in Malaysia but still.... I ate here twice! Rootbeer float anyone?

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more over the next few days, weeks maybe...

冲绳 - 到此一游

2008-06-02T22:16:00.002+08:00

Last night here in Okinawa, Japan.

How time flies, this is my 9th night here, and tomorrow I am going back to hot and humid Singapore.

Leaving with a heavy heart and an even heavier luggage.

This is most probably the first and last time I am visiting Okinawa. One do not usually go back to the same country or state unless you are really in love with the city/state/country.

It is not that I dont like my stay here, but thinking of the 12 hour journey just to get here from Singapore is a torture. Maybe one fine day fate will bring me back here once again.

Wont blog tonight. Very tired from all the packing and I need my beauty sleep.

Sayorana Okinawa...

Japanese Toilet

2008-05-31T22:14:00.003+08:00

As promised, I will write about Japan's infamous toilet.

Disclaimer: I shall not be too explicit to avoid unpleasant nausous feelings of my loyal readers.

For those who are clueless, the toilet I am talking about is those that sprays water to your strategic areas once you are done with your business.

So in my hotel room, despite the relatively small sized bathroom, the toilet comes with this washing function. So out of curiosity, I tried using it one day after err...I am done with what I need to do. So when the water starts spraying at my strategic area, the entire experience was, how should I say, mind-blowing yet amusing at the same time. There's even a knot at the panel that allows you to control the power of the water jets!

So it's a cultural shock and experience for me. So, this is the Japanese water sprouting toilet!

For those who are not feeling sick in the stomach by now, for your information, the water jets are warm so you will not jump up in fright when you suddenly feel ice cold water hitting your rear.

okay, that's all for the infamous toilet. Will update about the shopping (or the lack of it) in my next entry.

Stay tuned to a blog near you!

Backdated entry

2008-05-30T20:14:00.002+08:00

Wanted to update blog for the last few days but the local school network blocked all kinds of communications with the outside world, including all email systems, blogspot and etc. Luckily I cant still access msn and my school email system to make me feel less lonely.

Koyo Senior High School is located in the countryside, and hence not many things around the school for me to spend my lengthy school days here. There’s only one convenience store (something like our 7-11) opposite the school, and that place has become my favourite haunt for the last few days, making at least 2 trips there each day. Despite it’s small size, I am fascinated by the local food products they sell, some of which are available in Singapore as well. For instance, they have a wider variety of meji chocolates here, as well as lots more pokey flavours. And they cost much cheaper than in Singapore. I like especially their microwavable bento meal set – fast food style. So nice to look at.

I shall list down 7 interesting things that I have seen or noticed for my stay so far

1. There is no chocolate milk over here! At most, they have green tea flavoured milk and that’s it. So no milk for me for these 10 days.

2. The Japanese people take pride in being punctual for all appointments, down to the exact arrival of the local buses and trains! My students did mentioned that the bus always arrives at 5pm sharp at the school, and mind you, this bus we are talking about is not starting its journey from the school but mid-way from somewhere else. Cannot imagine how they can manage to achieve such accurate arrival time for all bus stops!

3. The soba here in Okinawa is different from the soba in the rest of Japan (and what we eat in Singapore). For the more common soba that we usually eat in Japan and Singapore, it is made of buckwheat, hence the brownish colour. However, to my surprise, the soba here in Okinawa are yellowish in colour (similar to our fishball noodle type) and the main ingredient here is flowers!

4. The hotel I am staying, which is about 40 mins drive away and located in the town city, provides guests not only breakfast but dinner! Not very extravagant but nice enough.

5. Okinawa is heavily influenced by China in the past (they even have a Chinese king-governor before) hence there is a lot of Chinese characters everywhere, from the entire road name, to names of buildings etc. Hence, it’s not that difficult for me to get around

6. It is hard to communicate with the locals as they do not know how to communicate in Chinese (despite the heavy influence) nor English. So I usually do what a normal tourist would do. Take your purchases to the cashier, pay up and leave like a mule. LOL

7. The Japanese people eat very heavy dinner. One teacher invited me to his place for dinner and gosh, I was fed like a pig. It is really a lot of food! I still prefer to eat on my own at this shopping complex opposite my hotel where I can buy cheap (as compared to Singapore) Japanese food at foodcourt prices (for instance, Katsu don – Pork cutlet with rice) only cost me 450 yen, about S$6

Will update about the infamous japanese toilet soon!

Day 1 of Okinawa Exchange

2008-05-26T20:29:00.003+08:00

Today is Day 2 of okinawa cultural exchange.

I shall say a bit about my day 1. Will leave Day 2 to tomorrow.

The only thing I want to say is that the flight was so lengthy and boring! Because there is no direct flight from Singapore to Okinawa, we have to first take a 7-hour flight to Tokyo, before switching to another plane for a 2h45min flight to okinawa.

And the best thing is, we flew over the same air space twice. I will use singapore's places to put across my point. First, we took a 7-hour flight from Singapore (say, harbourfront) to Tokyo (say, Yishun) and this flight will fly pass Okinawa (say, Orchard). After we landed in Tokyo, we need to collect our luggages and transfer to another domestic flight, from Tokyo (Yishun) back to Okinawa (Orchard). This second flight is 2h 45 mins long and hence, I wasted 5 and a half hour of my life sitting through the same air journey route. Sigh.

Hence, we left Singapore at 8.20am and touched down at Okinawa at 8.45pm. One day gone just like that. I was fetched directly to the hotel and being in Japan, the single hotel room is rather small. Not much of walking space but at least the bed is a queen size one (instead of a supersingle). The bathroom is the smallest I ever seen, about the size of 4 student desks joined together in a square.

Verdict for first night: The bed and room are comfortable despite the small size. And I have free internet access in the room and that sure make up for the limited size.

Disclaimer: I spent my Day 2 rather bored and there's so much idle time for me the whole time I was in the school. Hence, I will use these time to update my blog on a daily basis, at least for the next few days.

Hitaus

2008-05-16T16:28:00.002+08:00

Went mia for a while. Been busy with all the admin work as well as my Okinawa exchange trip.

Time flies and I am leaving for Japan next Sunday, after getting onboard this programme since last November.

Life's been good to be so far this semester. Good results from my first graduating (or shall I say graduated) batch, no irresponsible colleague like (s)he-shall-not-be-named etc.

And I am currently hooked on playing the boardgame Risk, online this time. Those who are keen may join in the fun at www.shockwave.com

As the term is ending, time for me to get my much needed rest and do what I enjoy :)

Take care dude and dudettes! Wait for my Japan trip update ya

Earth Day

2008-04-22T16:39:00.004+08:00

Today is Earth Day. Have you done for your part for the environment today?

What Alvin said this morning is quite true. If everyone just do a random thoughtful action each day, the world will be a better place for our generation, and at least the next one as well.

Global Warming Strikes!

Angels

2008-04-09T10:06:00.002+08:00

Spot the difference? Ha. Taken during the good old days of working in NUS' University Cultural Center. My good friend put this pic up as his msn picture while wishing me Happy Bday.

Aww....all the nostalgia!

Thin Line

2008-04-08T07:25:00.003+08:00

It's such a thin line that separates sexy from slutty.

I dont quite agree with the way Channel U portrayed the 8 girls yesterday.

Time of the year

2008-04-07T07:36:00.003+08:00

Well...another year wiser today.

18 glorious years on earth (okay...I am in illusion today).

Good health and smooth sailing for me till the next year, before making the same wishes.

Busy as a Bee

2008-04-02T07:33:00.002+08:00

Didnt update for quite some time. Been busy since the start of term.

Now busy preparing for investiture. It's a big project this year.

Anyway, I want to say something about Earth Hour.

As some of you might be aware, Earth Hour on last saturday is to switch off all unnecessary lights for one hour.

Reception in Singapore was lukewarm. And how did Singapore play her effort in this Earth Hour? By testing out the lighting system at St. Andrew Road in preparation of F1 race.

That's how we can make a difference :)

As for me, I didnt even know there's a Earth Hour that night. They need to do more publicity and such.

As least I am not in charge of Earth Week this year. Need to focus on some other aspects instead.

Top Students

2008-03-16T18:09:00.003+08:00

Our AAA Top Students (Missing one from the picture)

And the 3 girls also scored an A in Geography. You gers rocks (pun intended)

Holiday's over. Well...I did play much this holiday.

Now back to work

Kudos to 05 batch

2008-03-08T09:33:00.004+08:00

Congrats to 05 batch!

You have done yourself, the school and me very proud.

And with all your good work and my hard work, collectively we have pushed the percentage passed to a all-time high for geography (if I am not mistaken)

To be exact, 94.4%, and of which 11.2% distinctions!
And that's some 19 percentage point increase from the 04 batch!

My 10 distinctions come from the following:

Suliana (top student as well)
Bridget (top student as well)
Cheryl Seah (top student as well)
Iliyasa
Hardi
Fazial
Tracy Chua
Khai
Ashira
Tessa

Congrats to the 10 A-students. Especially elated to see that 3 out of 5 top students scored in Geography. Also a big bear hug to those 13 who scored Bs. It's still a very big achievement to get such good quality grades in the As, especially when we are the last school batch to take the old syballus. We went out on a big bang!

I think for most students, their geog grades are very unexpected to them. Some cannot believe that they passed geography! I had a few pleasant surprises as well...coming from Alton (!!!), Junhao (!!) etc.

It's heartwarming that you people came up to me, thanking me for helping you achieving good grades. It wont be possible if you did not help me help you.

May all 89 of you continue your good work and get into the course of your dreams.

Remember, Mr. D is always around, cyber-ly and physically (pun intended)

*bows*

7 March 2008 - D Day

2008-03-07T07:22:00.005+08:00

It's D-day!

And this time, D does not stand for my name.

Very nervous and counting down by the minute.

Hope we get good results overall.

Stay tuned to more updates here. Updates that I can pen down.

---------------------------------
OMG!!!! We did well guys and gals!

OMG, we are very close to the national average in terms of Distinction! Just a difference of half a percentage point! Way to go 05 batch!

End of Term 1

2008-03-06T10:54:00.004+08:00

Finally Term 1 is coming to a close.

And I have completed my two major project for this Term. Orientation (twice over) and the Japanese Exchange.

The japanese students came yesterday and we had an enjoyable afternoon. I particularly enjoyed the looks on their face when they tried the durian puffs.

It was a draining, but enriching afternoon for me.

Another exciting afternoon coming up tomorrow. Nope. It's not because it's the last day of school term but it's when all my dear 05 batch is coming back for their (dread) results!

I cant wait to see all of you back in school. Guess most of the boys will be botak, while the girls might be transformed into someone hopefully not too geisha-like (hahahhaah)

I am also as excited as most of you regarding the results. I do hope that those who i think will score As and Bs will be able to get those grades in that little filmsy paper that you will be receiving tomorrow, and most of you to get at least a Elephant home.

And I had a little smirk on my face when I saw the two teachers giving the results to 05A3 tomorrow. Ha. As usual, I will be with my ex-home class of 05S1.

Cant wait for 8am tomorrow to see the results!

Victoria's in school today. I jokingly said to her that results are not released today but tomorrow.

Well, dont know who's still reading my blog now....

Not on Wednesday please!

2008-03-03T08:16:00.001+08:00

Any day but not this Wednesday please!

Not Wednesday!

*going crazy*

Dim Sum Dollies

2008-02-28T09:04:00.002+08:00

Went to watch Dim Sum Dollies at the Esplanade yesterday.

And I think Hossan Leong stole the whole show under the dollies' feet. Ever the funny guy, he still as good as Singapore Boy time some few years back. Hope he will do another stand-up comedy soon.

The show was okay. Songs are not that fantanstic. Jokes are good though. And I like the way they incorporated some classic songs such as My Way, Wannabe by Spice Girls, And I'm Telling You I'm Not Leaving from Dreamgirls OST into their performance.

But it's bit expensive to pay $100 to watch them on stage.

Anyway, I'm sad that results are not out this Friday, which I was hopping for.

Meaning most probably it will be released next Wednesday, a day I dread because we are hosting some 250 Japanese students on the same afternoon! Imagine the Japs seeing our students cry in buckets a-la World War 2. They might think that they visited the Singapore History Muesem instead.

So who will cry next week? Tears of happiness or otherwise. And yup, I do miss my ex-PU3 batch. NWSP anyone?

Of different shapes and sizes

2008-02-26T15:17:00.003+08:00

Saw this notice pasted on a colleague's desk

"I am in shape! Round (and he drew a circle here) is a shape"

So funny!

Anyway, I hope IT is this Friday. If IT comes out next Wednesday, I will be damned cos next Wednesday is my most happening day in term 1 (well...other than orientation)

*Prays hard*

One student came up to me today. He asked to withdraw from here to go back to his JC, which he just withdrawn from yesterday. Fickle minded boy.

A Tribute to PAE 08A1

2008-02-21T11:21:00.003+08:00

Let's not get too weepy a-la taiwanese love soap opera 100 episodes drama marathon here ya?

It was nice knowing all 30 of you (although some did withdraw later but as compared to other classes, our withdrawal rate is not that high. I think it has something to do with me! Hah)

Anyway, it was a good experience for me, and I hope it was equally good, if not better for each of you as well. I also had the chance to do something different like the google earth lesson. At least all of you now know there's something so cool (okay, other than me) :p

This photo was sent by colleen. The rest of you supposed to send me to right? send to glacierian@gmail.com!

For some of you, it's a love-and-hate relationship for the past 7 weeks (no need to mention names ya but I think all of you know who they are). But so far, I do miss all the nonsense from all (or some) of you.

May you struggle well in your new schools (yes, A levels is nothing but a struggle) and do keep in touch via email or here (for those who bothered lah)

Signing out,
Same ~~old~~ young Mr. D

Nah

2008-02-14T11:43:00.001+08:00

Alright, it's not this week. Have to wait till the end of the month.

Happy V day everyone

A hunch

2008-02-11T14:58:00.000+08:00

Having this feeling that the big day is coming, and I am predicting this Thursday though it's V-day.

Should not be this Friday because it's B-day. B for Budget. Usually the government wont have 2 big events on the same day, though it did happen two years back.

Keeping fingers crossed meanwhile.

Huat ah!

2008-02-04T14:38:00.001+08:00

To a prosperous new year! And we do look like twins.

Talking about twins, shouted at kenneth's twin brother today thinking he's kenneth. Ha.

And I spent $178 just one shirt. Ouch. Luckily my card gave me a 15% discount off the tag.

$178. Nice ring to the ears anyway. 一起发。

Huat ah!

Some updates

2008-01-18T16:16:00.000+08:00

Have not been updating of late.

Been busy with work and what's not.

Timetable is packed before 1.30pm, when all my lessons are scheduled. There are days when I only have one free period, and that is when I need to eat, socialise, do some work etc.

On the brighter side, it also means that I do not have any lessons after 1.30pm, which allows me to ~~go home early~~ do all my lesson planning, beef up my teaching resources and etc.

I am currently trying to do a ICT lesson using Google Earth (GE), in line with Teach-Less, Learn-More. It is an enriching experience for me. I get to know more and more about GE, how to use its thousand applications, how to write html language (arrggg...this did drive me crazy at one point), how to plan the different scenarios so the different groups will be doing different tasks at the same time.

This is going to be exciting. I can imagine how excited the kids will be when they are doing this project. Hopefully the school's wireless will not cock up again when I am rolling out my best teaching strategy (for this year) :p

O's coming out next week (that's what I heard). Open house is on next Saturday. All you buggers out there, better come back school and pay me a visit!

Tata for now.

Start of a busy term

2008-01-09T11:20:00.000+08:00

Orientation was tiring for me.

I am like an information counter, answering all the queries.

Timetable is packed. Hated those power 4 consecutive lessons on three different days. Those will be the days when my voice will become hoarse.

Bridget, Shariffah, Victoria and Tessa morphed from my ex-students to my colleagues as they are doing relief teaching now.

Nice to see some ex-students coming back to chat with me (Jason and DJ). Anyone else coming?

Holiday work

2007-12-29T09:59:00.000+08:00

It's Saturday!

The last Saturday of 2007 and my school Holidays.

I should be out enjoying what's remaining of my holidays right?

And yet I am back in school work.

&*%*Y&^

Christmas 2007

2007-12-23T21:05:00.000+08:00

Time for the year again for my annual xmas emails to all my friends, and decided to leave a copy here as well.

Dear friends,

Year 2007 is ending soon and I do hope your year has been an exciting and challenging year for you as it has been for me.

I am happy on several fronts this year. Will start on the happy and blissful events first.

First, am happy that Benny and Pek Chek got hitched in November and December respectively (sorry Pek Chek for not able to attend your wedding as I'm out of town). Also to my bestest JC friend Priscillia for having a such an unforgettable ROM ceremony on a cruise! The next time you mentioned you are only going to do something simple for anything (in this case, the something simple for your ROM turned out to be on a cruise!), I am not going to believe you. So I am expecting a helicopter next year for the real wedding bash in KL.

Career wise, it was a good year for me. Handled many challenging projects this year (Earth Week, Cluster Challenge, National Weather Study Project Competition etc) which allows me to know much more about my students. Ig, Suliana, Farhana, Michelle and Bridget, all of you rocked my NWSP days! Also enjoyed myself very much when we went to Cairns, Australia in May. Those quick shopping detours when we are supposed to do an assignment, the barrier reefs, lamintons (yummy!) and all the memories. Also send off my first ever graduating batch this year, and in the mad rush leading up to the A levels, I've managed to know more about my students through the consultation sessions. I sincerely hope that each one of you will get good results come March 2008.

And to my SJ family, didnt manage to see you guys as often as I wished, especially during those critical competition days. However, we did enjoy ourselves thoroughly when we met up and that in itself is more important than anything else.

Thanks to facebook, I managed to hook up with almost the entire gang from my UCC days back in NUS. How I miss those days of slogging (in some cases, slacking) hard during work. And I am feeding some of my students to the vampires in FB. Ha.

Been rewarding myself well this holidays after working hard this year. Went Bali, Bangkok and Genting. Ate so much in Bangkok, and my maiden Genting trip was a nice experience. Break even in the casino though. And the weather was good when I was there. They should have an airport up there so I dont have to spend 6 hours on the road.

2008 will be yet another busy year for me, and I might make some major decisions if the environment is good.

Till my 2008 Christmas message, take care and have a blessed Christmas my friends.

Love,
Mr. D

One Fifteen Marina @ Sentosa Cove

2007-12-13T11:28:00.001+08:00

Went to this ultra high-society yacht club @ Sentosa Cove yesterday for a 4 hour cruise as part of my best friend's ROM.

Some nice nice pictures taken from my phone (pardon the grainy effect. Should have brought along my D cam instead)

The rich man's club. If you have $44000 to spare, you can be a member here.

This is my private yatch (how I wish). If you have an additional $800,000 to spare on top of the club membership, you can own one of these darlings.

The 4 hour cruise started from 6pm, and we have nice weather yesterday! And we got a surprise visitor when we cruised to near St John's island where we saw dolphfins! Out there in Singapore's waters! According to the cruise crew, this is the first time they saw dolphins out in Singapore waters! A good auspicious sign!

We docked near sentosa where they have this water, fire, drama thingy and we watched it in the comfort of our own yacht (beginning to feel so high-class)

End of Day 1 of the package. Going back sentosa in a while for Day 2, or the actual ROM solemisation ceremony later at 6pm on yet another bigger yacht this time (need to accommodate a bigger party today). And I get to stay overnight in one of the club's cabin room, and I tell you, the room is FANTASTIC! It really is! It's looks like Club Med. Will take pictures of the room later and post here soon.

Okay, going to sentosa now for another fun filled outing.

Northeast Monsoon

2007-12-12T09:45:00.000+08:00

It's been raining quite a lot these days right?

The weather's totally different in Bangkok, where it was so hot and dry over the 4 days I was up there. Will update about the trip after I get the pictures transferred.

Back to the Singapore weather. Currently we are experiencing the Northeast Monsoon.

Can anyone still remember how this Northeast Monsoon come about? Which area is experiencing high and low pressure? Where does the wind get all the moisture from to unload on Singapore? Refer to Atmospheric Lecture 1 under regional wind systems.

Perhaps most of you already forgotten what I have taught. Just enjoy the rainy season then.

Random Thoughts

2007-12-04T10:04:00.000+08:00

December starts.

Sometimes I do miss those times when students are pestering, err..I mean looking for me for those lengthy consultation sessions. How I miss those intellectual exchanges and debates.

Wondering what each of you have been doing since after the As. Email me or drop a note in my box to let me know you are still alive (and reading my blog ya). For those keen to keep in contact via email, my email is glacierian@gmail.com or you can find me on facebook. I have some of you in my facebook profile already :)

Facebook also allows me to rekindle some old friendship from my NUS days, especially the crazy bunch from UCC. It's nice to know everyone is still surviving in this horrid society these days.

Bumped into a few old friends from JC and NUS lately (kinda strange that all these people suddenly popped out from nowhere when you have not seen them in years!) And I forgot the name of this girl until like 3 days later. Haha.

Anyway, also nice to know that quite a number of students from my home class (05S1) went for the full marathon and completed it! All first timer apparently. Congrats!

Now I am looking forward to my Bangkok trip this weekend, and the Genting trip in 2 weeks' time. Dont ask me to buy presents for you *right, DJ?* :p

Holiday Work

2007-11-26T16:20:00.000+08:00

This term has taken a whole new meaning for me.

Now it's the school holidays for me, and yet, I have been working on most weekdays.

Student Council work is tedious and needs to invest a lot of heart and time.

Two days a week I have been committing myself to some 10 hours in school.

Hope it's all worth it in the end.

Nothing much to update these days. Staying at home to watch my dvds if I am not going to school.

Met up with the Japanese teachers last Friday in preparation for next year school exchange programme. Kinda looking forward to going Okinawa in June, but I dont eat a lot of Jap food, esp raw stuff. Yucks!

Wondering what are my students (or rather, ex-students) are doing now since 90% have finished their exams, other than dying their hair brown that can only last like a month before going being conscripted into National Slavery, err...I mean National Service (not targetted at anyone *wink*)

Geography Class of 2007 - A Tribute

2007-11-20T11:19:00.000+08:00

Today marks the end of the GCE examinations for most of my budding geographers, except for those taking Accounting (did I miss out any others?)

It was a good 3 years teaching all of you (2 years for the Toh Tuck-ers). I have learnt so much more as you learned from me. I do hope that I have inspired you in some small little ways along this journey.

Been a HT for three different class in 3 years. 05B3 in 2005 (my first home class!), 05B5 in 2006, and 05S1 in 2007. Three different classes with different personalities, but still a joy being their HT.

Some memorable events throughout these three years with the remaining surviving 89 of you taking the As this year.

CNY with 05B5

Those wonderful days in Cairns, Australia.

And one of the main highlights this year is the NWSP! My precious weatherbees. Ok Ready!

Thank you to each and everyone of you.

A journey is easier when we travel together.

Those were the days - UCC Chapter (Caution: bandwidth killer)

2007-11-14T09:09:00.000+08:00

Was reading an NUS old pal's blog and he posted some pictures when we were then working in NUS' University Cultural Centre (UCC).

Those 3 years working in UCC was one of my happiest times during my undergrad days. I met a lot of people from different faculties, handled some of the ugliest Singaporeans, saw a lot of famous people and did a lot of events.

Some of the notable events are

National Day Rally (2 times) - Goh Chok Tong's last, and Lee Hsien Loong's first

Asian Television Awards (2 times) - where I saw a lot of Mediacorp artists, and took a picture together with my fav local singer Kit Chan!

Ren Ci Hospital Fundraising (3 years in a row) - Saw mostly Channel U artists as it was a separate entity from Mediacorp then.

Clocking 15-hours days during NUS' graduation ceremonies (3 years in a row) - I still worked during my batch's graduation ceremonies but of course, not on the day of my own graduation

and countless of dances, musicals, boring seminars and talks and whatever have you.

But it was real fun to work with all the people during those years. We were so close that we even go Bangkok for a holiday together. Another group went Europe.

Some pictures hijacked from his blog :)

This was taken during our Arts Faculty's graduation day though not all are from Arts. Those with white strips are from Engineering Fac and they brought down their gowns to change so that we can all take pictures together. My Geog and E Lang buddy is to my right; extremely left is my Teochew Brudder...

My main partner in crime during UCC days. The all black attire is our working attire. We usually change back to NUS' default school attire (tee, shorts and slippers) after a hard day's work.

The hunks of UCC!

Presenting the UCC Team C Class of 2004

And some from my private album.

My Geog and UCC buddies. And we got our honours together, realising a pact we made together back in Year 2.

Can you spot me?

And this is one of my favourite picture. UCCCharlie's Angels will be the next biggest local production after Royston's 881. Coming to a screen near you! LOL

Paper, Students, and TV shows

2007-11-07T11:43:00.000+08:00

Now that no more students are coming to me for consultation, suddenly I have more free time on my hands to do my own things.

I have looked through the paper thoroughly. On the whole, the difficulty of this paper is comparable to last year's and about the same as June's paper.

No doubt the first DRQ on jet streams was the toughest. But the atmospheric essay was a breeze (pun intended).

As for Hydrology, the DRQs were managable, and some students managed to do both questions that requires memorisation of formulas and calculations. How do I know that? I look through all your question papers and saw what you guys scribbed in the question paper.

Anyway, for most of you, that was the last time you would ever touch Phy Geog in your lifetime. But next time you look up to the sky and see clouds, feel the rain, saw on TV earthquakes, volcanoes and mountains, take a moment to think about me (yeah!) and what i have taught before. If you cannot remember how the landforms and processes, it's ok. As long as you can distinguish a mountain from a volcano I am happy already. Ha.

Talking about students, I was watching 80s Rewind and I realised that Gurmit's younger son in the show is actually one of my ex students when I taught in ACS Junior way back in 2004-05. He was in the top class at that time. How time flies. He has grown up.

I spent most of my time being a couch potato these days, watching all the crap tv programmes, and of course ANTM (do you want to be on top!) Ha. And amazing race's coming back! yeah.

And I cant wait to go for my bali trip from Friday, and bangkok in a month's time. I need my break after a very hard school year!

The Paper

2007-11-06T08:41:00.000+08:00

Congrats to all 89 of you as you finally cleared my paper.

No doubt it was a challenging paper, and I am glad that I went through the June Paper as concepts from that paper was again tested somehow differently in yesterday's paper.

I have yet to see the paper (have to wait till 2pm. damn) but from what i gather from some of you, the essays are do-able.

I think atmospheric and rocks essays were relatively easy and straight forward. Coastal essays were challenging.

Will update more when I see the paper. Do concentrate on your remaining papers and dont dwell on Paper 1 anymore, because you wont be sitting for another Geog Paper 1 anymore in your entire life!

Some Tips For Exams

2007-10-31T08:39:00.000+08:00

Finally, my paper is in a few days' time.

After 3 years of waiting, we are all waiting for this moment right?

Some good exam tips to ACE 9051 Paper 1

Manage your time properly! Strictly 90 mins for DRQs, 90 mins for Essays.
Do not zoom into answering an essay question just because you can answer part (a). Ensure that you can answer equally well for part (b) as the marks weightage is much higher. Do not make the foolish mistake of able to answer (a) well and not (b).
Do your IRAS (Identify, Requirement, Answer, Substantiate). Make sure your answers meet all question requirements. Look at the mark allocated to determine how far you'll need to explain your main points.
Answer structure: It is good to use the Factor --> Processes --> Outcome/Results flowchart to guide you in your answering techniques. PEC (Point/Explanation/Conclusion) is also a good technique
For DRQs, look at the stimulus data carefully. Highlight and mark out whatever you are supposed to identify and examine in the question paper itself. Remember to OQC (Observe, Quote, Conclude). For Quotations, remember Absolute vs Relative Quotations.

And most importantly, start on the section that you are most confident in. Some of you would prefer to start with Coastal essays, which is good as I have reiterated so many times, Coastal essay is one section that one can prepare well for and score well.

I have prepared all of you (89 of you) well for this exams. Now it's your turn to show the examiners how much you have prepared for this final, final exam.

Good Luck to all my budding Geographers!

NWSP - The Chapter Closes

2007-10-26T10:11:00.000+08:00

NWSP - One of my main highlights of 2007.

The dust has settled on the trophy. The prize money spent. The memories already captured on film and mind.

And for the grand finale to NWSP2007, see picture below:

(For the uninitiated, this is the model of our wind tunnels to create the venturi effect. For those who dont know what the venturi effect is by now are dead! Refer to your Atmosphere Lecture 3 under Urban Heat Island)

Atmosphere Content Lecture

2007-10-23T08:32:00.000+08:00

Content Lecture on Atmosphere

Date: Thursday 25th Oct
Time: 9am to 12pm
Venue: #02-01.

*Students who were absent last week are to attend this lecture as I will be going through Rossby waves, oceanic circulation and lapse rates. Lecture notes will be given out during the lecture

Good blog entry

2007-10-23T07:46:00.000+08:00

Came across this blog from TOC and it's very enlightening.

Go read it http://stressed-teacher.blogspot.com/2007/10/studying-in-premier-school.html

Food for thought
"Ultimately, regardless of which school you went to, Premier or Neighbhourhood Secondary School, what you get out of school depends entirely on what you decide to put into it. And your success in life usually has very little to do with the school you attended"

"In the end, what you get out of school depends entirely on what you put into it. Take personal responsibility for your own life. Stop giving that role to other people or to your school."

Coastal Content Lecture

2007-10-19T11:26:00.000+08:00

Coastal Content Lecture as follows

Date: Monday 22 Oct
Time: 1pm to 4pm
Venue: *i am trying to get an air-conditioned room. Check the notice pasted on the staff room entrance before the lecture*

------------------------------------------
Hydrology Lecture on Tuesday 23 Oct from 9am to 12pm; Atmosphere Lecture on Thursday 25 Oct 9am to 12pm.

The Dark Side

2007-10-17T13:27:00.000+08:00

I went over to the dark side today.

I created my facebook account! Har!

2 out of 100

2007-10-16T09:43:00.000+08:00

Was reading Sunday's papers on the 100 best dishes in Singapore.

Score is 2 out of 100.

Glad that I went to Torisho Taka by Aoki at the Gallery Hotel for their yakitori, as well as slurping up the caramelised onion shop at Le Bistrot. I still miss their Tarte au Chocolat. *drools*

Had a rather expensive dinner on Friday, though the ribeye steak was wonderful. I would recommend The Grill @ Hillcrest (behind NJC) for a nice steak dinner. However, it's way too expensive to pay for a grade 7 Australian wagyu beef there. Stick to US Prime instead.

And the japanese restuarant just down the road is featured in the top 100 as well. However, I am not really into jap food. I'll pass.

Content Lecture on R&L

2007-10-16T08:47:00.000+08:00

*IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMEMT - There will be changes to the dates and timings of content lecture for next week as the Econs teacher needs to conduct their lessons as well. Please refer to this blog for latest updates, or check MI-Link*

Content Lecture on Rocks and Landforms

Date: Thursday 18th Oct
Time: 1pm to 4pm
Venue: #04-01 (Check the notice pasted on the staff room glass door before the lecture to see if there's a change in venue)

Bring the entire R&L file (lecture notes, tutorials etc). Lecture is compulsory for all students who obtained Grade E and below for Prelim P1. If you are unsure, contact me. Mr. D

*Similar msg has been posted over MIlink

Note: Users who leave messages on my tagboard are to identify yourself. Anonymous taggers will not be entertained or message will be deleted.

----------------------------------
Content Lecture on Coastal Environments

Date: Monday 22nd Oct
Time: 1pm to 4pm
Venue: To be confirmed. Check the notice pasted on the staff room glass door before the lecture

----------------------------------
Content Lecture on Hydrology

Date: Tuesday 23rd Oct
Time: 9am to 12pm
Venue: To be confirmed. Check the notice pasted on the staff room glass door before the lecture

----------------------------------
Content Lecture on Atmosphere

Date: Thursday 25th Oct
Time: 9am to 12pm
Venue: To be confirmed. Check the notice pasted on the staff room glass door before the lecture

*Students who were absent last week are to attend this lecture from 11am onwards as I will be going through Rossby waves, oceanic circulation and lapse rates. Lecture notes will be given out during the lecture

Important Lecture

2007-10-05T07:31:00.000+08:00

All students are to attend an important lecture next week during the respective Paper 1 lessons according to your timetables (Monday or Thursday).

I will be going through oceanic circulation in transferring heat globally, as well as the lapse rates for environment and abiabatic in causing atmospheric (in)stability.

So bring your Atmospheric Lecture 1 notes and with a good inquisitive mind! Continue to bring Prelims/June papers as well.

I will also be giving more details about Paper 1 consultations after your official last day in school (Oct 17).

Exactly one month to Paper 1 exams! How exciting!

-------------------
Susan from Desperate Housewives asked to check the doctor's qualification, "...check those diplomas because I want to make sure that they're not from some med school in the Philippines"

So anyone wants to check my NIE diploma a-la Susan Mayer?

平常心

2007-10-03T12:06:00.000+08:00

That summarises everything

The Envelope please

2007-09-24T16:24:00.000+08:00

Finally done with marking! Yeah!

Question 6 on Weathering. Popular question. Average score of 87 students is 6.1

Question 7 on Tropical Cyclone. Someone can start his answer by writing Tropical cyclones, and the rest of the answers is about temperate cyclone. Dont want to use IRAS in question right? Zero marks. No marks for main points also. A pity. Anyway, average score of 44 students is 4.2

Okay, now for the overall results. I am happy that in general, students really did put in effort and the quality of the answers are much better than during MYE (not all students but generally yes).

I am more heartened by the fall in the number of students who got F, a 17 percentage point fall. *claps* Students who got AO passes remained about the same. However, I am still happy as this means the % passed has increased from 47.2% (MYE) to 63.3%, a 16 percentage point increase (or roughly 15 students) *claps again*

The breakdown (MYE in brackets):

A - 3.3% (2.2%)
B - 20% (13.5%)
C - 15.6% (4.5%) <-- bravo
D - 8.9% (9.0%)
E - 15.6% (18.%) <-- dropped but I am not too concerned as more students are moving up

Passed = 63.3% (47.2%)

AO - 21.1% (20.2%)
F - 15.6% (32.6%) <-- bravo as more moved up to AO and E

Failed = 36.7% (52.8%)

If we continue to do what we have been doing over last 2 months plus, we will be able to move more students up the grade ladder ya?

Let's work hard together!

Last 2 Horcruxes

2007-09-21T12:02:00.000+08:00

Down to the last 2 DRQs, taking a break this weekend since there's plenty of time next week to finish up the remaining questions.

Question 4 on river characteristics not well answered, despite a relatively easy diagram. I just dont understand why students dont understand the phrase 'all characteristics'. If there are 6 characteristics, explain all 6 characteristics! What's so difficult about that? Average score of 77 who answered is 4.6

Question 5 has been awarded the most popular questions, where all students (except those who apparently gave up on the student by not turning up) attempted this question. My frustrations come in despite 3 years on drilling, practising, assessing landforms on plate boundaries, there are still some monkeys who still cannot differentiate a convergence from a divergence boundary. Hello, even if this is not a geog paper, one's English after some 13-14 years of formal education would be that bad such that you dont know what is convergence and divergence movement rite? DISAPPOINTING!

Make it two because this is the easiest question in this paper and I expect students scoring well. Yet, the average score is only 6.3 How to compete with other JC students if one cannot score well for such a simple question? Mind you, this is the actual question from Nov 2002 paper and Cambridge has this 5-6 years cycle in question setting.

Alright, now waiting to go Woodgrove. Yeah!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2007-09-18T08:11:00.000+08:00

Finally she left, after a packed schedule while she's in town.

Anyway, it's a busy week for me. Need to start marking Section A and do lots of other admin work in preparation for the promo exercises.

Trivial question, prizes for the first student who can answer it correctly.

What is the difference between tafoni and honeycomb weathering?

---------
Seems like a lot of students answered the heat budget DRQ but fared badly in part (a) which required them to tell me what's the heat budget for earth and atmosphere (balanced and negative respectively) and incorrect quotations. None scored full marks there, but many got some nice egg yolks for their mooncakes though.

---------
(updated at 345pm)

Just finished marking the first 3 DRQs and my back's straining from the marking.

Question 1 on heat budget very badly answered. Most cannot figure out what the figure is showing, and part (b) asked for short term factors that can influence heat budget. Cloud covers, amount of pollutants, albedo and for the smart alecks, global warming ARE NOT short term factors. They are local or global factors. Tessa managed to understand the figure so she will lead in the explanation in class soon. Anyway, the average score of the 40 students who attempted is 2.6

Question 2 on Jet Streams over Europe also badly answered. This should be a rather simple and straightforward description of the diagram, especially when I had given everyone the newspaper article to read and went through the article in class previously. When did I teach that jet streams follow areas of low or high pressures? Jet streams caused these pressure differences. So that cause and effect is wrong there. Common climatic phenomenon is temperature cyclones and NOT El Nino. El Nino occurs over Pacific Oceans, no where near Europe and Britain! Average score of the 42 students is 3.1

Question 3 on hydrograph is a favourite among all students and a couple of students managed to score full marks. This is the simpliest concept in hydrology and yet some students still cannot answer it well. Shame on you. A common mistake is hourglass shaped basins will given rise to a twin peak discharge hydrograph. Average score of the 65 students is 5.0 (barely making the grade... sigh)

Alright, time to quit teaching (for the day)

Moshimoshi & Bonjour

2007-09-17T07:32:00.000+08:00

Rewarded myself with a nice dinner after a tough week at work, and for completing marking all the essays.

Went to Torisho Taka by Aoki at the Gallery Hotel. Am surprised as I was driving past Md Sultan Road and it was quiet for a Friday night. This place WAS the place to be in the past. Its golden era has passed since.

Anyway, the upmarket yakitori place is a nice place to unwind, and best of all, it stays open all the way to 1am, so one will not feel the rush to finish eating fast and leave, considered the fact that we arrived at the place close to 9pm.

Things here are not cheap either. I had cherry tomatoes as starters and it's already $5 for about 3 tomatoes, sliced. And one stick of chicken breast yakitori is $6. Surprisingly, the chicken breast is very smooth and tender and yummy! The only seasoning used was salt as the chef cooked our food in front of us over a bbq-like pit.

Didnt drink as I was driving (I am a responsible driver). The bill comes up to about $250 for 2 persons, $120 for a bottle of 740ml sake. Cannot afford to eat at such upmarket restaurants too often. I am just earning peanuts remember?

Managed to catch the rat show over the weekend and it was a nice movie. And the night scene of the Paris downtown is very accurate. Spotted one student dating with her boyfriend (i assumed). It's still prelim period right?

The Essays

2007-09-14T09:38:00.000+08:00

Just finished marking all 5 essays questions.

I am rather fast in my essay marking this time around, considered the fact that I only started on Tuesday afternoon.

As compared to the MYE, more students did study for the paper this time round. Better late than never. Of course, there are still a handful of students still going through the motion and not putting in effort in their work. This group of student will be better off contributing to the economy since studying is not their priority.

These are the average marks for each question.

Question 8 (Atmosphere) = 12.4
Question 9 (Hydrology) = 13.0
Question 10 (R&L) = 13.5
Question 11 (Coastal 2 parts) = 12.1
Question 12 (Coastal 3 parts) = 10.2

Those who attempted Question 12 are not able to answer the impact of sea level changes on coastal morphology. Coastal morphology refers to coastal features and landscape. The impacts can be broadly classified as submergent and emergent features, though a lot of students just focused on the impacts on coral reefs alone.

Another badly answered question is how rock joints influence the development of granitic landforms. Students need to incorporate the importance of joints in forming each respectively granitic features instead of merely using theories to describe how corestones, inselburgs, tors etc are formed.

That's all for now. Will start DRQ over the weekend.

The Feast Day

2007-09-11T07:48:00.000+08:00

Last holi-weekday and I went back to NUS to eat my fav yong tau foo laksa. It still taste as good as previously. Luckily I went there early to avoid the lunch crowd and the very long queue (it was really very long by the time I'm done with my lunch).

At night, we went to this Aria Bistro & Wine Bar at Esplanade for some good European food. The foie gras with stewed green apples was nice as it blended the taste of foie gras perfectly (I am not going into all the ho-ha on how foie gras equate to cruelty to animals). The main courses were nice. We had duck and. And the beef was 60 days old, so the enzymes in the beef unlocked the fats and protein in the beef such that doing the meat rare taste heavenly. Desserts were ok only but the service was good.

Price tag? $126 for two so it's okay, for the food is nice and service was good. Best of all, it's quiet without kids screaming and treating the whole place as a playground.

Parking at Esplanade was expensive though as compared to the other areas in the vinicity.

Sat I managed to get my first ever 3 wonders! Yeah!

The Finale

2007-09-10T18:45:00.001+08:00

Arent you all glad that it's over, finally?

And did you go out with a bang?

Will update more tomorrow. Very tired now.

Jackpot!

2007-09-06T20:41:00.000+08:00

It was a 9-4 pm consultation sesison and it can be draining.

Quite a handful turned up today *bless them* and asked very good questions.

Some managed to ask some questions that more or less resemble what is going to come out on Monday afternoon. *bless them again*

As they asked me those questions, I was thinking hey, that's my prelim question(s) and I have to be careful not to reveal anything more than necessary :)

Also heard something good from Eric about some feedback, which is reassuring

Anyway, enjoying the rest of my holidays, ending it with a wonderful dinner tmr at this classy restaurant :)

A chance encounter, a thought provoking meeting

2007-09-04T21:51:00.000+08:00

Walking around aimlessly in the shopping centre while waiting for friend to knock off from work, I bumped into my long-lost (actually not that long ago :P ) bmt buddy.

After bmt, we didnt manage to keep in touch until we saw each other in nus campus, when he came over to Arts fac for some cross-fac module.

After graduation, think I only bumped into him once and knew then that he's teaching in RP.

Now many years later, we saw each other again.

As with many other long lost friends, we chatted about our work, life, our bmt mates etc.

Then we talked about something that only very recently I have started considering seriously. Going back to school again to study. And coincidentally, he is also thinking about it and we are both considering the same area of study. So he told me about the available courses in NTU and SMU etc.

In a nutshell, with some 9 more months left before I am done with teaching, I must start weighing my options and choose what is best for me.

Anyway, for you loyal readers, one little present from me to prepare yourself more adequately for your revision.

You may want to read through R&L tutorials at least once to discover some gems beneath all the rocks. Go figure out!

The dinner

2007-08-30T11:02:00.001+08:00

Last night was our annual staff dinner.

As usual, my batch people are sitting together, and when you put all of us together, there are just so much laughters, jokes and gossips. This is our third dinner and I do treasure the times I have had with this bunch of friends. It makes the teaching days feel so much easier and bearable at times.

As with our tradition, we always ended off the dinner with a photoshoot of all 11 of us. Too bad we are short of Catherine and Belle this time around. But as long as I am in it, it's fine.

Whahaha...

Spent some 20 mins of my youth sitting by the side of the photocopier while waiting for my exam papers, inserts, maps etc to finish printing. Now they are safely locked up. Can finally take a breather from the prelim papers cos the mark scheme is completed as well! I am just so efficient. Whahaha...

And I am thinking of rewarding those silent and noisy readers of this blog with something good very soon. Stay tuned to a blog near you :)

Moulin Rouge (local edition)

2007-08-28T08:44:00.000+08:00

Went to watch the well-received Royston Tan's 881.

And it's like watching Moulin Rouge in Hokkien. Am surprised that some 80% of the whole movie is in Hokkien. His previous works like 15 and 430 werent like this.

Anyway, there are still some traces of Lady Marmalade (or rather, Lady Kaya - Singapore's style). Nice fancy costumes (where majority of the budget goes into), some catchy tunes and lots of laughters about 715 and his cock (the animal i mean). Halfway through the movie only did I realise that 881 stands for papaya. Slow.

On the whole, the movie is entertaining enough, not so much for the uncle sitting beside me who had to endure incessant coughing from yours truely. Haha.

For the record, my prelim papers had been vetted for the second time and it can be sent for printing already. Yeah. Now just have to touch up the marking scheme :)

My first in 2007

2007-08-24T20:08:00.000+08:00

Finally it came.

Yes, I am sick for the bl**dy first time in 2007, just when I am at my busiest period at work.

Wanted to take MC today and rot at home but need to get the exam schedule done so no choice.

Taking a break from everything else this weekend. Just me, my bed, my TV and of course, my flu.

and to think that I am so sick that I did some silly online quiz

You Are A Rowan Tree

You are full of charm and cheer. You light up a room.And while you crave attention, you do it without ego.You are an interesting mix of contradictions - and very unpredictable.You are both dependent and independent, calm and restless.You are passionate, emotional, gregarious, and (at times) unforgiving.

What's" Your Celtic Horoscope?

The Big Plan

2007-08-23T07:22:00.000+08:00

It's so draining planning invigilation duties for both levels for the coming exams.

Catherine and I were both hot-housed in a little corner of the staff room from about 11.45am all the way to 5pm.

Looking through individual timetables, levels teaching, personal and official commitments etc. Have to make sure majority gets equal distribution of duties, equal number of AM or PM duties etc.... Some teachers are just so particular about equal workloads and will make sure they are heard in one way or another if they are given slightly more work. I've experienced that last year. Duh.

Anyway, think both of us found a second career out of this. Wedding Planners. Hahah.....

Finally the first draft is out. Decided to call it a day at 5pm to prevent both of us being more crazy and having more grey hairs.

Current Favourite 10 songs on my Ipod

戴佩妮 - 单身潜逃
陈奕迅 - 富士山下
张惠妹 - 如果你也听说
五月天 - 离开地球表面
Can You Read My Mind - Superman 1 OST
Just A Ride - Jem
The Point of No Return - Phantom, the musical
Listen - Dreamgirls OST
Haunted - Kelly Clarkson
萧亚轩 - 代言人

Some reflections

2007-08-16T14:56:00.000+08:00

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright,
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole.
In the morning, glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Was having lunch in the canteen the other day and some of us are just commenting on students' attitudes toward school and I found the following rather true and reflective.

不怕学生苯，只怕学生懒

This made me recall something that one parent asked during the recent Parents' Day. This father asked if the teachers in JCs are better than those here.

And I really think that the teachers here are much better than those in JC, due to the fact that if we can value add to our students such that they are on par (or even better) than their (smarter) peers in JCs, the question posed is in itself, self explanatory.

Back to NWSP, isnt it clear that we are as capable (if not more) as those in JCs?

I am not saying I am an excellent teacher. If I can in some ways value add to students, that's all it matters to me.

------------------------------------------------

Guess where is this place?

Looks like a good food court right?

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls,

Introducing the new NUS Arts Canteen former known as The Deck, a term I dont like.

After a long renovation period, it opened to much fanfare and anticipation.

For those who been to the old Arts canteen, you would know that the seating area is divided into three areas known affectionally as Heaven, Earth and Hell because of the hilly terrain of Kent Ridge. So it's always 'See you in hell/heaven/earth' whenever we go for lunch during those wonderful undergrad days...

Anyway, back to the new canteen, now it's so much more spacious and modern. Even heaven is air-conditioned!!! + they have BK, lerk Thai and some chic coffee cafe up in heaven. So envious of the undergrads now.

Luckily my fav Laksa Yong Tou Foo stall is still around. Shall go back to my 2nd home during the sept break to satisfy my laksa YTF craving.

Yummy!

Phase 2

2007-08-14T07:27:00.000+08:00

Completed my Phase 1. Some progress there. Keep it up, Mr. D!

Started on my Phase 2 yesterday afternoon and gosh, Susan gave me a difficult programme. I almost died-ed-ed (for emphasis) while completing it. It was much more tiring and draining than the previous set.

I will survive!

Completed setting my Prelim paper yesterday. However, I dun quite like the hydro essay question set. Something is missing but I just cannot pinpoint what. Let me think it through again as I drive, eat, sleep, whatever.

And I am still proud of my Atmospheric essay part b :)

The expensive cake

2007-08-13T12:55:00.000+08:00

It was a busy and damn tiring weekend for me and my family.

Shuttling between my granny's place, my place and the hotel on Saturday.

Had to make an addition trip to and fro the hotel and home because I forgot my wallet. Only realised it as I reached the hotel. Damn.

My sister got this cake as her wedding cake. Rather small and yet, it costs 200 bucks. And it's not very delicious.

Happy that my good friend came by Sg over the ND weekend. Met up on Friday for a while.

Other than that, it's back to a whole work week for now.

And it's already Week 8, three more weeks to the Prelims and I am getting a bit anxious. Apparently, some students are still taking it easy :(

The 7 Horcruxes

2007-08-08T07:15:00.000+08:00

Finally, all 7 Horcruxes (aka diagrams) for DRQ have been found.

The exam paper is about 80% set. Now left with half hydro and atmospheric essay question to set. R&L and Coastal questions are rather straight forward and easy to set cos I know what I want to test this time. Hydro and Atmospheric questions are more elusive at this point in time. So much that can be tested. Which topic should I zoom in? Hmm...

Long weekend! But a busy weekend for my family. After months of preparations, it's finally the big day.

Last Friday was West Zone Learning Fest, and many of my JC/NUS/NIE friends popped over. It's nice to see them once again, and one heavily pregnant :)

Met up with Esther, my NIE mentor currently back teaching at HCI. I showed her my workstation, as well as some of the juicy gossips :)

Esther and I go a long way back. She was my teaching practice supervisor during my NIE days. She is also the one who approached me a few times since NIE days to poach me to go over to HCI. And she still popped the question when we met up, in front of some of my colleagues *wah kaoz* I feel bad to turn her down not once, but a few times. Back in 2005 when I first got into MI, I turned her down citing I want to give a shot here in MI. After all these years, MI has grown on me, so I turned her down again last Friday, citing that I am considering going for my masters within the next few years.

Anyway, I am just so glad to meet Esther once again. That good old dame.

Also went to RV for some cluster sharing last week, and RV is now putting up at my old SAJC site. So going back once again is so nostalgic! The school hall, the library, THE CANTEEN (:P), the LTs, and for the first time, I used the staff room toilet. Hahhaa... It's nice to be back to familiar places, and think about the old good days. Without those 2 years in SA, I wont have my great JC pals (yes, it's you priscilia, patricia, Youhe). Without those 2 years in SA, I wont be where I am right now.

---------------------
(added at 9.30am)

I am SO EXCITED!!! I just finished setting the 16 marks Atmsospheric essay part (b) and I am so proud of that question. My best 'bright spark' (in ignatious' words) of this week. Woohhooo!!!!

So students, coming to a screen near you!

So excited. Must let David see it!

The last Horcrux

2007-08-03T07:37:00.000+08:00

For the uninitiated, horcrux a-la harry potter is something extremely hard to find yet it's critical to complete a job.

Finding all 7 stimulus diagrams for the prelim exam paper is quite a daunting task.

So far managed to get 6 horcruxes already. The last one is so elusive! *sigh*

I know what I am looking for, but it's so hard to get the exact diagram that I want, in the manner that I want. Google searched it the whole afternoon, flipped through all my reference books and still cant get the one that I want. :(

Long weekend coming up next week, a busy weekend for me and my family. But still managed to squeeze in one long-awaited session with same gang. Yeah.

Michelle's getting fine in Toyko. Good for her.

My own regime is on the way to hitting my first target. Keep it up Mr. D!

Learning fest today, glad that my friends from other schools are coming over, can show them my new office, our yummy canteen food etc. Heh.

Attended a wedding dinner last night at Ritz, and my friend told me that bride is wearing Vera Wang. I was asking that dress is VW? How could it be cos it's so err...plain. My friend then replied, she's really wearing VW, the perfume. Whao Kaoz.

The things people do

2007-07-30T12:23:00.000+08:00

Got this off Stomp.

Sometimes, you just cant help wondering the minds of some people.

I visit stomp once in a while to humour myself at some of the ugly part of Singaporeans. We may be first world status in terms of economic achievements but third world status in social aspects.

That pot of gold

2007-07-27T11:48:00.001+08:00

just finished reading book 7.

And as expected of all children books, the ending is a fairy-tale ending.

And it also ended a decade of magic for Britain's richest woman, hence the title of this post.

And I was right to say in my previous post that Grawp is the important character in Book 5 that the movie script writers had omitted in the orginal script but reinstated under the advice of Rowling.

And well, Grawp was instead rather crucial in the final battle. I kinda like the chapter title where they fight. The Battle at Hogwarts.

Well, the magic has ended. Time for me to wave my own wand (read: pen) and do my own magic (read: sitting down to set my prelim papers).

Been putting off setting the prelim paper after I finished with the book. Now the time has come, for The Battle at MI. Hahhaa...

At least I already got two very good DRQ diagrams, need to find the remaining five to complete the seven Horcruxes. Heh.

Potter #7

2007-07-23T13:14:00.000+08:00

One-quarter through book #7

So far so good. Rather disappointed in how hedwig died. Should die in a more dramatic way like protection harry instead of ....lay motionless at the bottom of the cage

*yawns*

And i am avoiding all news and chats about the ending/spoilers.

I want to read it for myself

*back to the book*

The red bean flavour soy milk i am drinking now tastes horrid. Yucks

And the envelope please...

2007-07-21T07:29:00.000+08:00

You know you had spent too much when you dread the arrival of your credit card bills.

The innocent white envelope was on my table as I reached home late on Friday night.

I wished the contents inside it were as innocent.

Final numbers: some $6070+

Sigh. There goes my all my bonuses got so far this year :(

15 more hours

2007-07-20T14:47:00.000+08:00

Roughly 15 more hours to the release of Harry Potter #7.

So will he die?

Going hi tea in some classy hotel tomorrow, part of a sending off & well wishes event for a good friend and colleague.

Sad that she's going away, but also happy for her.

Nothing much to update these days. Life's too good i assume?

Heh

Harry Potter #5

2007-07-15T12:30:00.000+08:00

Went to watch it on Friday. Rather disappointed with it, especially during the final battle in the Ministry.

Was expecting more depth and substance. Well...the magic fails to work on me this time round.

Read from Straits Times that when the director and screen writers went to look for Rowlings after they wrote about this movie, apparently they left out an important character who will be critical for the final battle in book #7, hence they included in in the end.

And after watching the movie, I think the character left out previously might be Grawp. Hmm...strong feelings there.

Anyway, the final book will be out on Saturday. Cant wait to see if Harry die.

The envelope please...

2007-07-11T14:41:00.000+08:00

The results are in.

The breakdown by question first:

Qn 1 (41 students attempted). Average score 3.2 /10
Qn 2 (87 students attempted). Average score 6.3 /10
Qn 3 (55 students attempted). Average score 5.2 /10
Qn 4 (42 students attempted). Average score 3.7 /10
Qn 5 (79 students attempted). Average score 4.2 /10
Qn 6 (80 students attempted). Average score 4.4 /10
Qn 7 (61 students attempted). Average score 4.8 /10

Qn 8 (32 students attempted). Average score 7.4 /25
Qn 9 (23 students attempted). Average score 6.9 /25
Qn 10 (34 students attempted). Average score 8.6 /25
Qn 11 (36 students attempted). Average score 10.2 /25
Qn 12 (53 students attempted). Average score 11.8 /25

89 students in total, with 4 monkeys absent questionably.

And how, for the grades breakdown.

A (2.2%)
B (13.5%)
C (4.5%)
D (9%)
E (18%)

And the champions of all champions

AO (20.2%)
F (32.6%)

Overall passed (A - E) is 47.2%

Imagine this is the A Levels. Kinda disappointing rite?

R&L essay

2007-07-05T07:33:00.000+08:00

Decided not to put up the average scores. Just comments would suffice at this point.

34 students attempted this question, the most predictable and easiest question among the three.

As I was setting this paper, I thought of giving all part (a) easy and straight forward questions to allow students to score. However, seems like the more basic the question/concept, the worse the students performed.

Sigh.

10a) Describe differences between rock types

ok. all of you managed to remember the three different rock types, though their characteristics seems elusive in the answers
igneous rocks: cooling of magma, leading to different crystal size formed; intrusive & extrusive; acidic & basic; generally resistant to erosion
sedimentary rocks: formed from animal/plant remains or other eroded rocks; undergoes lithification; strata, bedding planes & joints
metamorphic rocks: altered by heat and pressure; different in minerals and texture from original rocks; have cleavage planes; generally resistant
good of some of you to list down some rock examples

b) Using examples, explain how climate influenced formation of granitic features/landscapes in humid tropics and seasonally humid tropics

these are two distinct climatic regions. A handful of you grouped these two regions together
there is a need to describe the climatic conditions in each region because the question is focused on how climate affect.....
landforms/features formed in the Humid Tropics are (1) deep regolith with corestones, (2) Tors
landforms/features formed in the Seasonally Humid Tropics are (1) etchplains, (2) inselbergs
periglacial theory cannot be used to account for tors formation because we are looking at humid tropics, not temperate regions
same goes for freeze-thaw activity, which does not occur in both climatic regions under examination
high marks awarded to students who are able to relate how the formation processes are influenced by climatic conditions

Hydro essay

2007-07-04T10:36:00.000+08:00

Yet another pile of disappointing answers from students, and very obvious that a good handful of you focused on just ONE core topic and had to answer the hydro essay.

23 answered the question, with more than some of you handing in blank scripts for part B. Very clear that you didnt study the management strategies despite me reminding all yet again that Cambridge is fond of asking management questions in recent years.

Am surprised many of answered this question, the most difficult of all core topic essays. But then again, if most of the 23 just focused on hydro in this paper, serve you right for not preparing well. Have I not mentioned that if you decided to focus on one or two topics, make sure you can answer WELL any questions that come out from the topic.

The analyses:

9a) Use an appropriate diagram to describe relationship between river velocity and river processes.

not many of you used the correct diagram (Hjulstrom curve). Only about 5 managed to draw me the curve clearly. Almost half didnt draw diagrams at all, oblivious to the question requirements
river long profile diagram cannot be used to answer this question because it does not show how velocity affects fluvial processes (erosion, transportation and deposition)
question requires one to describe each specific fluvial processes in details

b) Use specific examples to describe strategies and complexities in river catchment management.

very badly answered
most of you answered in a very GP-ish manner, writing whatever strategies that comes into your minds
we are looking at large scale natural rivers. Singapore's examples are inadequate to describe strategies and complexities comprehensively
some linked strategies to use of hydrographs. I accept these answers though they are not the answers I'm looking for
the 2 main strategies used are categorised into (1) sustainable management of river basins, (2) stream restoration
case studies used (if at all) are not well incorporated into answers, clearly demostrated a student's lack of revision and preparations

Yes, it is demoralising for me to continue marking all your scripts.

Atmospheric essay

2007-07-03T16:20:00.000+08:00

Finally started on marking the scripts.

As usual, I started on the essays first.

32 of you attempted Qn 8 (atmospheric topic) and huge majority didnt do well :(

The analyses:

a) describe cause of global warming and its implications

how difficult is it to describe the cause? There is only ONE cause, which is the increase in greenhouse gases that taps heat in the atmosphere. That simple.
urban heat island DOES NOT lead to global warming. It is a microscale situation. We are talking about global scale
implications are badly answered. Most of you merely mentioned the effects and not their implications. There is a difference between effects and implications

b) Possible physical and astonomical factors to account for global climatic change

again, question is targetted at global scale, not local or microscale
physical factors are volcanic eruptions and orogeny
astonomical factors are eccentricity of earth's orbit and tilt of earth's axis
tree-rings, carbon studies etc are evidences already present to state that climate has changed, not could not account for why they changed

A lot of you didnt study (or cant be bothered) and hence, the single-digit score for this question, and at the lower range of the single-digit. Sigh.

Next question feedback is Hydro essay. Stay tuned.

The heat is on, literally

2007-07-02T18:23:00.000+08:00

The hot weather is killing me!

Answer the call to stop global warming!

Arrrggg.....

MYE

2007-06-29T21:32:00.000+08:00

Think all of you should be relieved now that my paper is over?

Not too tough a paper right? The DRQs are more straight forward this time round as compared to last year's promos right?

Think for most of you, the earthquake map comes as a bit of a surprise. Am a little bit surprised that a handful of you did the hydro essay, which requires the incorporation of case studies.

Well...will start marking all your scripts from Saturday onwards. Check back here for periodically updates after I finished with each question.

Happy youth day!

Pictures and more pictures

2007-06-26T14:10:00.001+08:00

These are masterpieces of Peter Lik, a multi-award winning photographer from Australia.

And I bought these two.

More nice pictures can be viewed at http://www.peterlik.com/

And for the weatherbees, look what I found?!

These are the nice people that brought us to the finals, 'the wind that brought us there' literally.

After that, it's gone with the wind as we know it. Heh.

Apparently, this same group judged the teams from IJC, PJC and JJC as well.

MYE

2007-06-24T20:48:00.000+08:00

Good luck to all my kids, for their first milestone check of their GCE.

*dont think any one will be reading my blog for the time being*

Do you want to be on top?

2007-06-19T10:25:00.000+08:00

The catch phrase for ANTM.

Glad that Eugena didnt get into the final 2. Hate her attitude.

Read from the papers that popular courses in the 3 local universities are being oversubscribed, due to the Dragon year babies. So my year 3s should be thankful that they are not struggling with the entire cohort.

Wondering how my kids are doing with their revisions? Not many asked for consultation sessions. Hmm...

Saw the new teachers yesterday. Got two new ones for our dept. One for Geog, one for History.

And Thursday going to Zoo for staff retreat. It's been ages since I last stepping into the zoo. Or rather, I have been stepping into another zoo for the past 2 years, and teaching all the monkeys. Hahha...

And seems like the whole world is crazy over the Umbrella song. You can share my umbrella...ella...ella...ella

Cairns Trip

2007-06-18T12:48:00.000+08:00

Finally, the long awaited Cairns Trip entry is finally here!

On the whole, I enjoyed the trip every much, bonded very well with the students outside of the classroom.

Not going to bore all of you with a day-by-day account of where we went, what we did, who said what etc.

Instead, am going to post some of my favourite photos here instead.

This is the double scoop ice cream I had on green island, which is THE place to go to look at the world famous Great Barrier Reefs. And I tell you, their scoops were really huge! Damn huge. Just look at the spoon (or my eyes) for a comparison. Two huge scoops of yummy flavours, one macadamia, the other cant remember.

This is the skyrail, a cable car ride over the entire forest. It's a very nice view from the top, and at times, the fog is so heavy that the cable car cable just disappeared into the horizon. Cool.

Taken from the tablelands, the place we went after knowing the NSWP results. Is that a forced smile?

This is a nice pic, standing beside the man-made lagoon. Cant Singapore have something similar? The one on top of vivo city doesnt count. Ignatious, you have yet to answer my question. Describe how lagoons are formed. 9 marks.

And of course, must show that we are also working seriously rite?

Okay, the next fieldtrip must go Perth or Sydney :P

Shrek and shirt

2007-06-09T08:45:00.000+08:00

Went to watch Shrek 3 yesterday and it's damn funny.

I think it is funnier than the second one, more laughter this time round, though the cinema is like 20% full. That's what you get if you watching movies on a Friday night in the suburbans instead of in town.

And as far as I can recall, this is the first time in many many many (emphasized) years that I watched a movie in the suburbans.

Went shopping the other day, my first contribution to the Great Singapore Sale. And I spent $80 on one shirt! Cannot imagine I spent this kind of money on one shirt, made in Mauritius. At least the 2nd shirt cost much less. Treat it as a GSS present for me, for all my hard work in Cairns? Ha.

Week 2 of hols coming to a close. Dont know if the students started their intensive revision yet? Or still have a nevermind-can-wait attitude yet?

I always like my holidays as it allows me to do things that are not so possible during term time. I picked up reading once again :P

Cairns trip updates coming up real soon. Heh.

Oh yes, for a oscar-worthy acting by yours truely in Cairns, and enough to silence the judges in Dancefloor, go to Cheryl's blog for the video ya?

I took no time watching it! <-- go interprete this line

The prizes

2007-06-08T10:56:00.000+08:00

Alright weatherbees, these are our hard-earned returns.

And the shield is really huge!

So when's the makan?

(Sleeping) Pirates of the Carribeans

2007-06-02T11:16:00.000+08:00

Went to watch Pirates with little brother, despite me telling him I dont want cos I did not watch the first 2.

In the end, I slept like a true koala for almost half the show. Ha.

The last time I slept during a movie was like ten years ago? While watching an Arthouse movie 'Portrait of a Lady' with priscillia and I morphed into a koala then as well.

Ha.

Will write an entry about the Cairns trip soon. Kinda lazy since yesterday. Treat it as my jet lag then. Heh.

NWSP - Results

2007-06-01T13:17:00.000+08:00

Well...

The results are in.

Joint-second, with Raffles winning the crown a-la Ms Universe.

It has been a day filled with anticipation, excitement and hopes.

All our mixed feelings boil down to exactly what Michelle Yeo smsed: "2nd.."

One word + 2 periods.

Yup.

That was our collective feelings then. Cairns' time Tuesday 29 May 2007, 13.31pm (I still have that sms)

Well. Interpretation of "2nd.."

Actually, I am elated that we got 2nd.. We had worked hard in getting the reports/presentation/display/model nicely done and for all our effort, 2nd.. is very very good for us already, and the fact that we compete among the best students from the JCs.

So, Operations Green Liberation, our achievements are over the top :)

On the other hand, I am not that happy that Raffles won, instead of the Saints. This is aint sour grapes but after what you heard from the judges about the individual reports during the finals, I could not believed that they won. Heard from Michelle that the Saints arent too happy that Raffles won as well. They would have prefered us to win instead. Perhaps the Saints are pissed over the 'get yourself out of my elistic face' remarks as well. ha.

Well...anyway, NSWP07 is all over. We did our best and we did enjoy the whole process thoroughly right?

Mr Tan CP had called Mr Alvin to congrats the whole team this morning. We had won in our own ways, by bettering last year's results and that itself is commendable.

As for me, I am glad to be part of the OGL/Weatherbees/weather-slaves. I had learnt so much from you guy and gals - Ignatious, Michelle, Farhana, Suliana & Bridget. I could not have asked for a better team!

Thank you for walking this journey with me.

"A journey is easier when we walk together"

*off to trash Weatherhawk weather station at the rooftop*

Off to Cairns!

2007-05-26T13:28:00.000+08:00

The Video

2007-05-25T07:12:00.000+08:00

The Agony

2007-05-21T19:33:00.000+08:00

Feels like it's back to my post-jc days, that agony of waiting for results.

ohgosh

period.

-------------------

While I'm getting bored at home ....

Hmm...the headlines didnt appear completely. It should read as "Millennia's weatherbees thumps top JCs in Weather Study"

Click on the newspaper for an enlarged version to read the text more clearly :)

Any resemblance to persons or events is purely coincidental

Exhilarating Finals

2007-05-17T07:25:00.000+08:00

What a finals it was!

Finally May 15th came. The D-day for NWSP team to present their award winning project.

Why award winning? 'cos schools selected for the Finals are automatically be placed on the podium.

And we managed to enter the Finals from some 20-odd projects from the 18 JCs/CI.

So it was already a remarkable achievement to be able to get into the Finals, and as what one judge put it, "Excellent, facing off RJC and SAJC in the finals...."

Actually, the day didnt turn out well. The all-important video clip that Bin Hong had done cannot play on my laptop for some reasons (some codec stuff).

I tell you ah...I was really breaking out in cold sweat! Had no choice but to drive Bin Hong home to get the working file. Luckily he's staying in the vicinity of the school. Imagine he lives all the way in the East? I will faint i tell you.

After some 45 mins at his house, finally back to school and the video works now! What a sign of relief!

Then off to the competition venue to put up our nice nice banner, designed by the ever-capable Mr. David Toh, who burned so much midnight oil to get it done. We were impressed with the final product, and hey, it looked good in the exhibition area compared to the other 2 JCs.

11.45 am. The Finals started.

RJC was first to present. Nice presentation with lots of hard facts, charts and data. But lacking in solutions i think.

12.45 am. It's our turn!

I was nervous actually. All the 4-5 months of hard work accumulating into this moment. Bridget did her opener. Video playing....and gosh! Farhana's voice didnt come out from the video!

I froze, mind in a blank.

The team tried playing the video a second time. Same thing. Where's the h*** is Farhana's voice???!!!!

At that point in time, I might get a stroke if not for my strong heart and tough blood vessels.

In the end, it's the all-almighty-yours-truely to the rescue! Charging up stage with my ever-trustworthy laptop, the video played perfectly now. A sigh of relief was very much evident in everybody's faces.

My heart beats slowed to nomality.

From then onwards, the whole presentation went well, without any hiccups. Thank God for that!

Must say that I am very proud of this team. They had shone during the finals. I was in smiles after that.

I am glad to have each and everyone of you in this team. The ever-vocal Ignatious, the chin-down-say-cheese-pose Bridget, the ever-efficient-and-stay-calm Farhana, the ever-ohgosh Michelle and the ever-cher-got-chocolate/food-while-cheerleading Suliana.

I am happy to have forcefully embarked all of you on this NWSP journey, and we sure blazed the trails when we are at it right? All the fun and laughters, the last minute panic to get reports finalised etc etc, all the sinful pizzas and chocolates and whats-not i fed all of you. It was an important and memorable journey for me.

For some unspeakable reasons, RJC team is not in this photo shoot.

Now as we await the results on May 29, it's time to enjoy your GP exams, me to enjoy setting your mid year paper (ohgosh), and enjoy the Cairns trip ya?

By the minute

2007-05-14T12:18:00.000+08:00

Seems like almost everything and anything will be charged by the minute.

Handphone talktime is chargable per minute. Some carparks also charge by the minute.

Now even giving birth is to be charged by the minute as well.

KK Hospital is introducing the by-minute charging for the use of their delivery suite after the inital 8 hours.

So if you are going into labour, make sure you pop your baby within those 8 hours, or in events when you need to scream beyond that 8 hours, make sure you pop your baby out asap. The clock is ticking away you see.... 50-odd cents per minute.

No wonder mums-to-be are screaming loudly when in labour. Screaming at the ballooning hospital bills after that one night of passion :)

So similar to some 3G phone package that allows subscribers some free download or streaming video clips, maybe KK Hospital would want to offer similar perks such as letting labouring mums to surf the net while going into labour?

PS: Anyone noticed my ninja above?

The Final Lap

2007-05-11T09:01:00.000+08:00

Final Report submitted.

Designs for banners done.

Now left with the all-important presentation, which effectively will put us in First place (or second or third).

Getting hyper from all these excitement.

What else do they have in Switzerland other than chocolates and fondues?

Me perhaps?

Whahaha...

Our Competitors

2007-05-02T20:25:00.000+08:00

In the end, we are the only school that can have the distinction of being the only school that got into the NWSP finals two years in a row.

Boo to H** and Y**

And our worthy opponents this year? RJC and SAJC.

May the best man win.

Actually, I was already feeling the heat and stress immediately after the briefing session. That is so many damn things to complete by next Tuesday lor.

And to think that we got into the finals by a stroke of luck, and from our footnotes and not the actual report makes me goes Duh.

Now it's all out for Venturi Effect! May the wind be with us.

Oh yes, it's sucky to know that we cant attend the prize presentation end of this month. Can imagine the MC announcing our school as champions and the sole ranger Michelle went up to receive the prize instead.

That's so unfortunate. Sigh.

We are in the FINALS!!!!

2007-04-28T08:49:00.000+08:00

Finally!

The call came in at 6.15pm, not at a time I expected because it's after office hours and I am on my way out for a well-deserved weekend fun.

Yes! We are in the finals!!!! (for National Weather Study Project Competition)

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This means that we are third for sure, and another big step towards Switzerland!

I am elated. So is David Toh, and definitely the weatherbees.

Let us all do the final stretch ya!

Switzerlanddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

Earth Week(end)

2007-04-27T16:34:00.000+08:00

Finally this weekend is here!

After a long and busy week celebrating Earth Day, I can finally take a well-deserved break!

Earth Week started off with a big bang, with Project Runway. My favourite costume is this one

Then there is this nice sculpture that gives off very powerful message about our dear earth in the near future.

The Cluster Challenge went on smoothly also, quite fast-paced I must say. I thought the questions might be too tough but hey, these secondary school kids really know their stuff!

The Challenge Trophy is really nice (I have excellent taste you see). Cant bear with it initially.

All my events will not be possible or sucessful without the help of my dedicated students. No need to mention names here lar...you know who you are :)

How come NSWP still no news? Damn.