RHD and misc stuff...

Heh. Lots of pictures to upload... courtesy of my new sony camera from Mustafa! Haha... special thanks goes out to A/CPT Foong for driving me to Little India and shopping for sari and camera with me. =)
Well, we celebrated RHD on friday and although there was no competition for best dressed class or anything, my kids dressed up and they looked so good! The peeps in the staffroom were also darn sporting! Almost all the teachers dressed up. =)

Us in the morning... when everyone looked fresh! ahaha...

Nat, Mother chan and myself. =)

My adorable boys... loved their get-ups. =)

Some of my girls. =)

I wondered what the hell he thinks he's doing. =_= But apart from that, i thought it was quite a nice picture. =) Me and my little idiots. =)

My girls! They really looked so pretty when they dressed up!

My darling chinese kids. Irritating but endearing at the same time.

He's freaking tall lah. I was wearing like 2 and a half inch heels and he's still so much taller. =_=

My history kids. These kids are adorable as well... I'll miss them when they graduate. T_T There will never be another "first" batch.

Me and darling. =)

Me and Beng. =)

Me and loser Tan. =)

Us taking a picture with CH (the plant, not the student)

Me and the R-man! He's really the coolest. =)

總覺得我老了許多

Brought the kids for a performance on Saturday. Wasn't too well organised on my part and the kids weren't exactly well-behaved but everything went ok. They weren't the worst of the kids who went and we do have a tendency to compare ourselves with people who were worse than us. Haha...

Some of them were late though (idiots) and 2 didn't even managed to make it into the theatre because someone misplaced their tickets. =_= The poor dears. The kids were cute but I got to hang out with people my own age. =P Even though I look 16 (plus 10 or so) doesn't mean I have to hang out with them all the time ya. Haha...

Went to meet up with the kendo peeps after the performance and realised that we're kinda "old" now. Man.... Gordon has hit the big THREE OH! And pretty soon, the rest of us will follow. Mdm Wong is also going to start a family. We got to change our way of addressing him pretty soon. No more "Mdm Wong". T_T

We lost touch(some of us), made other friends, found other things to focus on. We're all getting on with our lives. It's pretty cool that we managed to make the effort to meet up just for old times' sake. I missed the days of training then going for supper. Days of when it's ok to miss lectures and tutorials but it's not ok to miss trainings. It's ok to be scolded and even screamed at because you know u deserve it and at the end of the day, nobody takes it to heart because it's just part and parcel of training. Hell, I've done my share of shouting... hmmm... in fact, I'm still doing it now. =_=

Ahhhh.....I wanna be a student again!~!!

Guilty of expecting too much...

I think I'm guilty of expecting too much from the kids. Just because they are in Sec 4, I assumed that they should know better... but I'd failed to stop and ask just exactly what is "better". And then I'll get angry when they failed to meet MY expectations of what a secondary four student should be doing, i.e. not serious about their academic results. Boss said that I'm still teaching above their level and I'm assuming that they WANT to be taught all these boring facts, when actually they really DON'T WANT to know. Haha...

Are 16-17 year olds clear about what they want to do about their future? Was I clear about it when I was their age? I didn't actually think about it when I was in sec 4. I just went along, did what my parents expected me to do. JC was the logical choice... the fastest route to university. Beyond that, the future was just one big blur. Getting the degree seems to be the end result rather than the stepping stone to something else.

I don't want my kids to go this same way, to go for qualifications because of the expectations of other people. On the other hand, i want them to have options. I dare say that my life is not all that bad now. I'd have a great deal less options without the qualifications I have. V says that kids will only learn after they have failed. I do agree with that assertion but hereby lies the crux of the dilemma. I DON'T want my kids to learn that way.

Perhaps it's time to listen more and expect less... =_=

Highs and lows...

Work is tiring... but oh well, life's like that. Nothing we can do bout it. =P

Happy with the fact that I've sorted out things with my class, they're still roughly the same but at least I've told them how I felt and my expectations. I'm up front bout it and I think they're sort of cool with it. Or at least I hope so! They are adorable lah. Just that sometimes I feel like throwing chairs (and other assorted items) at them.

Colleagues have been great as usual but I haven't had the time to hang out with them as much this past week. Form-teachership is killing me. I'm so looking forward to Bintan!!!!

Sad news of the week is that my darling is leaving the service. I know it's to a better place and XF will be much much happier. T_T I got to be happy for XF yet at the same time, I'll miss my darling. *sigh*

Ah... the wonders of retail therapy

I wasn't feeling too happy recently but now, I'm feeling dandy! Went shopping with J earlier, retail therapy really works!! And the company was as usual fantastic... =)

I love this pair of cute little red shoes to bits! I know I've been buying shoes recently but this pair is really what I really want! Honest! I'll not buy any more footwear for the next 3 months, I swear!

Front view
Back view

So much money for so little material... haha...but it's really pretty. Think I'm going to wear it tomorrow! Yipee!

This is such a bimbotic post.... but what the hell... hahahaha....

Drained...

Today, boss went to scold my class. And they feed back to him that they felt that I've changed this year. That I'm much fiercer to them and I get angry more easily these days. And I realised that there's truth in what they said. I'm really not as nice to them as i was last year. I don't know why I'm so irritated at them these days. As compared to last year, I know them better now and can honestly say that I really like these little brats.

Maybe I do know the reason. I have such high expectations of them. Because they're now my form class, I want so much for them to do well. Now I truly appreciate Mr.R. When he was form teacher, I'm not bogged down by all the varied details of form-teachership and can concentrate on their studies. Now, there's so much admin stuff to handle. I feel stressed and sometimes, I have to admit, I do take it out on them. Guess I'll just have to take note of my own feelings and try not to take it out on them. After all, they're already (or should i say only) 16-17 year old kids...

Cambodia and Back!

Cambodia's really something else! I'm not really much of a writer so I'd upload lots of pictures instead. =)

Cambodia -Siam Reap
The SUN was scorching!!! I think my skin cells died en masse the first day there. Singapore sunblock was no match against Cambodian sun. T_T But it's really a beautiful country. Simple yet beautiful.



Hotel looked nice but wasn't too good in my opinion. Well, we can't expect much from a 3* hotel... and I'm a brat.... *shrugs*


After an extremely hot and sweaty walk, bout 30 mins or so (instigated by miss backpacker of the year -loser tan), we reached the central mkt in Siam Reap. Usual tourist stuff, nothing much to buy there because I didn't want to spend my money on the first day.


The two crazy but adorable girls with me! The Bhai girl and Loser Tan.

Angkor Wat and other assorted temples....



Alrighty... we visited so many temples that day it made my head spin. Honest. I loved it.... to an extent. It was certainly impressive to say the least. But the restoration of the place wasn't done too well... the tourists were the hazards! Hmm... I'm certainly guilty of it too.


Beautiful isn't it?






Absolutely love these carvings... impressive for 12th century craftsmen.


The three of us... note the difference in height.... *sigh*


We went up the center of Bayon Temple. And because I suggested going up, when the time came for us to get down, I was the first one down. It sure was a long way down... =_=


But the highlight was this one! Much higher then the previous one...this one was in the middle of Angkor Wat itself and Loser Tan risked her life to take our picture! Haha...


Me and Loser Tan




The view from above was fantastic....well worth the climb...


The climb down was no joke. The tourists were soooooooo afraid... but the locals are experts I tell you. The old uncles and aunties seemed to "run" down those steps! Mothers carrying little kids can go down faster than us.... haha... Bhai girl had to ask the extremely old uncle after her to slow down quite a few times. hahaha...

Phnom Penh-Took a domestic flight to Phnom Penh


Visited the Genocide Museum Tuol Sleng, formerly known as the Khmer Rouge S21 Prison, in Phnom Penh. Extremely depressing place.



It was formerly a high school. Under the K.R, many schools, hospitals, even temples were converted into prisons.


Regulations at the prison... translated into english... it's fucking insane lah!


Picture of guy being tortured, chained to the bed.


Blk C -The only block with the barbed wire still intact. To prevent prisoners from committing suicide. Truly sickening.


5-6 men will fit into one of these tiny cells....


Women's cells were on the second floor, made of wood instead.


Pictures of the victims


Some of them merely children.


The Khmer Rouge. I simply don't understand how they can do this to their own people. It's truely abhorrent.


The prisoners in S21 were tortured and when they "confessed", they were sent to the killing field. It's a classic case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. If you confess, you'll be taken to the killing fields. If you don't, they'll torture you to death. Bloody hell!


The Khmer Rouge, like the Japanese soldiers, would fling the children against the tree to kill them before flinging them into the mass grave at the side. argh...


The sugar palm tree. The Khmer Rouge used the sharp edges of the tree to cut the throats of the victims. *shivers*


The skulls of the victims...


This is actually quite disturbing. Our guide told us that we're actually walking on some of the bones of the victims. Everytime it rains, more clothes and bones of the victims will be discovered. All these will be collected in a pile next to a tree. Every month, people will take this pile of clothes and bones and cremate them. We were real careful about where we stepped after we heard this.

After that. lunch was a depressing affair. The sheer amount of beggers on the street was astonishing and sad. It'd been said that on the average, 2 Cambodians stepped on mines everyday and when you see someone without arms, legs or fingers because of these mines, one can't help but feel that the impact of the Khmer Rouge is truly far-reaching. if only that old bitch Pol Pot never existed all these suffering might not have occurred.


A place of fond memories... spent the bulk of my money there.=_=
It was here that we returned to after miss "backpacker of the year"'s backpack was snatched away while we were on the tuktuk. The tuktuk driver tried to give chase. To his credit, he really tried.... but the combined weight of the tuktuk and 3 not so small women inside didn't really help. Oh well, nothing important was lost and it was a cheap backpack from central market anyways. Not much loss... the important thing was we were all right. =)


At the airport.... too early to check in....


The famous yellow backpack. 2nd generation....


Loser tan annoyed me with one too many comments bout my photography skills.... so i took off her head. hahahahaha...


Last meal in Cambodia... with a not so nice brownie. haha...

Home sweet home....