Leaving on a jet plane

... but I do know when I will be home.

Typing this post from T2's free internet kiosk. Waiting for my flight in 45 minutes. Off to US to visit my brother. A nice break from Singapore. Will be back on 11 December; then the mad rush of December begins. SRC, LTC, then back to school and at the same time there is One Voice retreat, leadership retreat etc.

Long December indeed.

For all you peeps, don't attempt SMSing me, it will cost!

Cute!

Looks like my form class finally discovered my real nickname. I actually prefer it to teddy bear; which was my nick before mashimaro. The latter somehow sticks better.

Here's Wenya's masterpiece:



Cute! HAHA!

Here's Ryan's from two years ago:

The calm before the storm

It the nice calm before the storm, a storm of marking that is! It is interesting to sit on this side of the examination after being on the other for a good portion of my life. I have to say, teachers get stressed during this period just as much as students. Some signs of stress:

1) Dreamt that the neck of my Taylor broke and the bridge was torn off (more like a nightmare)
2) Dreamt that my Cornerstone's top broke in mid-construction :(
3) Dreamt that I managed to sell my Ibanez and Maestro, only to wake up to find that haven't been sold yet :(
4) Dreamt of "someone". Honestly, it was a little disturbing... cos rottan class...
5) Didn't dream on some nights... those were pleasant.

Signs of stress in the common room... convo between Mr A and Mr E:

Mr E: Mr A, you reminded to remind you early this morning about something.

Me A: Please remind me about what I reminded you to remind me this morning. (Sounds like Jack Sparrow isn't it?)

Mr E: I forgot.

Anyway, I thought the show "Fan Chan" (My girl) was pretty good, even though it was in Thai. I was smiling through quite a number of parts of the movie, really sweet. Honestly, the whole story reminded me of something (or someone rather) in my past. Like what the protagonist in the story said at the end, that he will always remember the girl in a certain way, I don't think I will forget those pink plastic specs (hahahaha...). I wonder where she is now.

How time flies...

Met an old secondary school classmate earlier in the day. It just seems like yesterday when we were all in the same class teasing and interogating each other on our crushes. Seemed quite the norm to do that back then, hasn't really changed much.

Well, he's now married with a 14 month old son. I can't quite imagine that.

Back online...

Spent the last few days formatting my laptop, now it's back in a decent working condition with a few new modifications. Was acting strange and could not shut down properly, due to having about 60 different thumbdrives inserted into it within a two week period in July. Hopefully I've added another year of life into it. My other 5 year old laptop is still in working order, so I'm sure this one can last a little longer. Will format it again in a year's time.

It sure feels like school is supposed to reopen tomorrow, but in reality its Friday! So two more days of break... or rather marking.

Here's a nice shot of the whole school.


More good food!

This is the Japanese restaurant at East Coast Park. Interestingly, after living in the east for so many years (basically my whole life), I've only stepped into this place twice. The first time to meet up with my primary school mates, but I didn't eat anything then. The second time was 2 days ago, and I can foresee that that won't be the last time.

Out of this world presentation!


Out of this world portions!




Don't be fooled by the size of the bowl though. The amount of food isn't any more than other restaurants. It's just an optical illusion, but a damn good one.

Some pictures...

Here's a view from the Equinox! 70th floor of the Swissotel, formerly known as Compass Rose. I never thought I'd be able to ever set foot into that place. Was playing at a friend's wedding. No angpow... the but food more than made up for it! Too bad I don't have a shot of the food! :(

Anyway, nice place to be watching this year's NDP, but, unexpectedly, not a very nice place to be watching the F1 race next year. While you can see the track, you can only see a small part of it! Have to run from room to room to catch the whole thing!



Here is a shot of the Indoor Stadium before Festival of Praise started. Wasn't that crowded, in fact I only reached the Indoor Stadium at 7.30pm. This was only on Friday night of course. Crowd was noticeably older, and I'm getting a little old to go everyday! Gone are the days when I could queue from 2.30pm to 7.30pm on all three days of FoP.



Good food!

Road trip... sort of...

Some random pictures...

This has to be the longest street sign in Singapore.



It has not one but TWO street names on it! And I live on one of them! It's a 5 minute walk from Temasek Secondary School, so to my former students, have fun trying to find where I live. Tanah Merah Kechil Road SOUTH, used to be called Tanah Merah Kechil Road, it was that way when I moved in 10 years ago. Interestingly, or ironically, Tanah Merah Kechil Road still exists; its none other than the slope leading up to Anglican High.

Talking about the "dreaded" slope, here's a picture of my new bicycle which I will use to get to school.



Been taking it through it's paces the last few days. I bought in on Monday, and on Monday night I decided to cycle to AHS. The slope ISN'T THAT BAD AT ALL!!! But it will induce about 30 seconds of torture, not funny when you are lugging along a 5kg crumpler and wearing semi-formal attire. Will be getting off the bike and pushing it up the slope. Surprisingly, my legs weren't aching when I woke up.

On Tuesday, I cycled around the estate and once again my legs weren't aching when I woke up. But today I took a ride to East Coast Park on a long 15km ride and now my legs are aching and my butt really hurts (thanks to the seat and not anything else, don't get the wrong idea!). Good exercise, will attempt to wake up early to do something similar.

East Coast Park really looks different. The last time I went up and down the length of the Park was about one and a half years ago, and it was captured in this post. Here's a shot of the cable ski lagoon versus a similar shot that I took 1.5 years ago. Shows how much hand-phone cameras have progressed as well!

Ultimate...

... tai di hand... I promise you.. I did not stack the cards!!!

How to...

... remove the paper cover of a straw. By my brother... (PS: YES... he's back!)

some people...

... have too much time on their hands!

Anyway, was watching Mythbusters yesterday, and it was by far the best episode I've ever watched! It was the one on mentos and diet coke. Not just was it entertaining to watch, there was enough science in the episode to make a very good chemistry lesson. Too bad, I'm not teaching chemistry, but Kelvin, if you can get our hands on the video, you should show it!

One my favourite parts of the show was when they used to methane gas to churn some soapy water. So what happened was that a vertical tower of foam rose from the container of water (due to methane being lighter than air) and because it was filled with methane gas, they could SET IT ALIGHT! Extremely fun to watch!

Anyway, back to diet coke geysers, here are the guys who have too much free time, they are not the mythbusters though...