think.hapi.thots

called fb… so difficult to use. I totally understand why i deleted my account the last time. After 2 weeks of having trouble finding my (stupid) wall, my students gave me a 15 minute how-to-navigate-thro-facebook tutorial.

Then i realised it was my browser!

And now i’ve learnt how to tag a photo…

More good byes

My church tuition “kids” have all successfully progressed to uni; We had a small gathering and before he left, he gave me a bow and said “gan xie ning”! It made all my saturdays worth while.

More cell activity

We formed a group and did the Amazing Race Singapore… on wheels.The first puzzle got to the whole group, so many brains and we still couldn’t solve it. We still managed to come in 8th… not too bad.

Maybe if i were the driver, just maybe… we could be amongst the prize winners.

The power of T

During the hols, i kept craving for macha latte and we went to spend an afternoon over a cuppa, talking about our directions … it’s a pity Cherry can’t join us soon already.

Shermaine and I went shopping one afternoon and stopped over for another macha latte and NANDOS!

I love my teh-o-kosong with my mee goreng on my usual supper -chill out sessions at the prata place.

Forrest to the doc again

This fella had a split claw and the panic-strickened me brought him to the vet. Another $150 down the drain. The doc asked ah bui to lose weight again. But just compare him with my cousin’s cat… i think he’s rather slim leh.

Papa has been asking ah bui for his “opinion” on 4D numbers… haha.

Huan Ying Huan Ying

Went to airport to fetch kor kor’s family and the mischief in me just had to welcome them with “banners” …. a lot of people actually walked towards us to see if it was their names… mummy of course walked to one side and said “dun sia suay la… never travel before ah… ”

To the movies

We had such a hard time trying to remember the movie we last watched together that i thought i had better document it.

Wedding

The groom was grinning from ear to ear literally.

“Cougar’s” field day

Had such a field day seeing guys in uniform!!! … err… and of course great to see Alastair and the girls

Open House

So the usual lot doing our usual bit - advertising for our diplomas …

… with our unusual nice students

… with our usual himbo-bimbo acts

Finally … pressies

A sweet anonymous student who left me a plastic holder in my pigeon hole…

Douglas came back from Japan with starwars stuff for me … hee hee…

Finally… i gave up on Bino and became a late-adopter of the iphone.

To sum up how i feel for the past 7 weeks, my brain can only conjure up all the one-syllable words in all kinds of language…

Anyways, the Mythbusters have proven that hurling unkind words can distract you from or alleviate stress. I felt like i was turning into Sue Sylvester from GLEE by week 3; I stepped into a lift full of students when the “overload” alarm sounded, instead of stepping out in disgrace (that i was the FAT one), i looked around and said “hey you, can you please go out?”

So, i’ve also heard myself uttering more rubbish when i drive and after work. I even see the need to drive faster … the queen subie has reigned again.

Maybe that’s why all this angst has added that extra push to clinch the gold during the dragonboat race… finally! hee hee.

Nothing beats having to manage students’ expectations (and their parents’). During lunch time, we would whine and complain and back to whine again and then attempt to make jokes out of it. That’s how we get by each day.

This is my new care group who was selling nuts during CCN.

Introvert’s guide to cell survival

I joined a cell group which consists of 4 families… once again… i am the misfit.

I’m still grappling with the concept of a cell group. In html sense, cells are containers and there’s prison cells also… i’m actually feeling more like the latter… *more one-syllable words*

I assumed God has placed a conviction in my clogged up heart and asked me join a cell group this year… but i’m more confused now. I wanted spiritual growth, but i think the beacon has attracted more attention than i wanted.

How can an introvert like me who values privacy and personal space survive in a cell group setting …

… lead a double life …

Food, glorious food

I’ve been pigging out for the past few weeks. Jo belanja us to crabs and i didn’t realise Mike’s not a fan of crabs actually… wasted.

After Jean’s exams, she treated us dinner too and we watched Phobia together…

We had a nasi lemak party at home recently and jie-jie gave a (rare) treat too!

Talking about siblings, i think i have humourous siblings. I’ve been helping Suburbia update their website and for my effort, kor kor is giving me free meals at Suburbia.

“So don’t worry, when you come down, just order whatever you like.

1. Anaconda salad
2. Superior snake soup
3. Mock abalone with vegetarian shark fin made from expired jelly( Served with indian nann)
4. Ti-la-mi-su
5. Suburbia’s special Masala Tea aka Maserati

Such a car enthusiast he is… even in menu planning.

Ah bui and his shower

I remember reading somewhere that says we don’t need to bathe the cats as it’s very traumatising for them.

So after 3 years of sleeping with a ticking time bomb, this fatso came back with some form of fleas. Lucky sia, i didn’t kena. Under the bobian situation, i gave him a shower. After the shower, my helper actually says his stripes are more obvious -_-

Henderson Wave

It took us almost 1 1/2 years of planning; Mike and i finally went to Henderson wave to take pics. It was a super hot day and the vending machine wasn’t working (Mike donated $3)!!!

Graduation (behind the scene)

I was lucky that i was assigned stage duty so that i could send each and everyone off to receive their well-deserved certs.

Behind the scenes, we had to rehearse for hours and of course we had to take pictures and do some role-playing… haha.

After the ceremony

Photo time

These bunch is my precious and Jean’s too. Barnabas dropped me an email to join facebook. i’ve agreed to do so but haven’t have time to do it admist all the chaos in my life.

Students’ Visit

It is always nice to see some ex-students. Daryl and Shavonne came in to my class and gave me 5 boxes of pocky!!! I literally wanted to cry coz i was so stressed up! To be exact, only 3 boxes were for me, and 2 boxes were to share (and i did ok…)! Then jazz and michelle also dropped by.

It’s nice to be remembered (for the right thing)… There’s actually a rumour now that says Ms Nat is not good/ approachable because she chases people out of the class (just coz we don’t even bother printing the tutorial, let alone try attempting the questions and we have all the rights in the world to arrive 15 mins late). Guess no more pocky treats. Buy myself lor

(Al)Bino is sucidal… she always hangs herself and i had to resuscitate her back to life. Every time she is traumatised by my violent sms’g, she will just turn to a whiter shade of pale.

Hang in there Bino, we have 2 years ahead of us (until my contract ends)!

Mummy’s Bdae

It was just us and mummy celebrating her birthday. It was a Fri but the kids were all exhausted from school. The atmosphere was more light hearted coz papa was not around, he had another event to attend. Just look at kor kor’s expression, we would know that the old man is not around.

I received mummy’s sms last week and i just felt bad she actually had to thank me. We took a long drive to Railway mall for ramen the night before. Best part was she paid for dinner. All i did was just be there for dinner. That’s the least i could do.

Golden Week

Last week during the golden week, Cherry and I had to paint the mural; it was a one-week commitment. We had to attend color mixing workshop and paint the mural in 2 days. Jean and Mike made guest appearances to help us paint. They are simply great.

It was quite stressful to paint alongside the design lecturers, one fella quipped “eh, you are painting cookie planet?”
-_-

Maybe cos i just had lunch, that’s why…

Care group

My class has graduated and it’s time to do apel 1, 2, 3 again.

Randford told me ” Ms Nat, after we go, no one will buy for you pocky already”… it suddendly struck me… “ya hor, OMG.”

I tried the rainbow pocky recently, it was yummylicious.

Hong Kong in a hurry

I was sitting in the living room two weekends ago and i realised how i miss my best, bester, bestest friend and i don’t know when i could see her again. So i made a very last minute decision to buy an air ticket to fly to hk to see her during the easter holiday.

I only had 2D2N to spend with her. But Sogo had it all planned. We went see Star Wars exhibition, ate wanton mee, dim sum etc. This time we also went to ocean park and boy, there were a lot of PRCs pushing their way.

In the huge sea of heads, suddenly i heard SOMEONE shouted “tamade, bu yao tui la!”.

Bravo bravo!

Doing rounds

I’ve more or less done my rounds of having friends and family over. Janelle was so cute, she kept thinking my tripod was a microphone.

… which also implies my cleaning schedule can be like more relaxed.

Once again, i’m playing maid to the new home. I’ve been cooking and cleaning diligently. I’m trying to keep it up but when mom and sister came over last week, they still thought it was not up to their standard…

“Aiyo… your sink is covered in a layer of dust.”

So when Mike wanted to take a pic, i gave the grumbling “housewife” look… hee hee…

I’m running out of ideas what to cook…

Impromptu

One Friday nite, we went on a last minute night shoot at the marina barrage… my pics didn’t turn out right but we had fun.

The 07 cohort

After 3 long years, these bunch of the cohort has finally graduated and for the “farewell ceremony”, i got the colleagues to do the Visa dance. Had to do some coaxing and sweet-talking just to get some of them to do it.

Every scar tells a story… i still have my ITE-netball scar with me. I couldn’t balance in my heels and 2 heavy bags, my ankle gave way and i literally dropped to my knees (like a spell that was cast upon me). I just walked about 2m from my car at the carpark.

*Paiseh*

Luckily, it was the holidays and no students saw me. Acted cool and limped to the lift, to find my fav pair of pants torn. So i named this scar “IND 07″ coz it happened the day before the farewell ceremony.

That night i sliced my own finger while cutting chicken… double whammy!

Lost and found

… literally. Mike lost his wallet and found it one week later. The new rule is that we don’t have to make a police report anymore when we lose our wallet.

A day in the life of…

*pics taken by cherry and mike

Cherry had an assignment “A day in her life” or something to the extent… so for weekdays office hours… her life is filled with us!

So it turned out to “A day in Nat’s life” as she trails my every move as i’m just one cubicle away. So i’m part of her daily life. It’s nice to put it in that perspective - to be able to be a part of someone’s life.

“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

After 25, you would just say “I’m one year wiser”.

The visit

My girls came to my place to visit, they were so sweet, they actually bought me a whole load of things for the new place. Dian baked cinnamon rolls which went so well with the ice cream. Gonna miss this bunch of lovelies…

I went to visit ash and her dog Juno recently, she was doing well… she showed me her collection of vintage cams and it was almost embarrassing to whip out my super auto camera… haha…

The FAT one

Ah bui is still losing his battles and his tail was wounded just the other day… This king of the house is like a mouse on the streets…

He is quite thin now due to the diet pet food. Doesn’t look as cuddly but i suppose he’s healthier…

Holiday?

Since it’s the holidays in school, whenever i’m in the lift and there’s awkward silence, someone will break into the holy question “going anywhere this holiday?”

I don’t understand…

Is it a given that lecturers travel during holidays?
What if i didn’t have plans? Then it would be end of conversation. Even if i had, before i can tell you where i will be going, we have reached level 7.

So, due to lack of funds, I’d rather stay in Spore and watch standup comedy, dinner with family, go watch a charity show with parents, and/ or be the maid of the house.

PS. Jonathan smsed me last sat “Nat, please don’t watch the Man U and liverpool match ok?”

Hee… I should be on Man U’s payroll, they would win if Nat is not watching.

I have changed to a n97 after 2years. Peggy and I didn’t wanna jump onto the iphone bandwagon, so we sticked to nokia (for brand loyalty).

BUT the deciding factor has got to be the ad i saw - “download rayman rabbits for free. A LIMITED TIME ONLY”.

And so i got myself a white, albino “tua leng kong”, which wasn’t that nice to use. The camera wasn’t good, the accelerometer wasn’t as sensitive as the iphone’s, i can’t text when i drive (arrrggggghhhh!) AND the rabbit game wasn’t fun at all.

Paparazzi Mike

Look, Cherry!

Mike and his zoom lens took pics of us when we are walking, eating, playing tennis and all the unglam photos.

Dad’s bdae

This year is slightly different, we ate at home. Not bad too, considering that we could talk at the top of our voices, the kids could run about. But my mom is always stressed when we need to eat at home.

Vday

As usual, Mike gave us each a rose for vday. I got a Lumix GF1 for vday, a well-reviewed micro four thirds cam. Hee hee… goodbye G9.

CNY

Spent my CNY watching the full season of GLEE alone.

Shifu says i must wear red, and i managed to win $10 at Jean’s place.

The kids are still crazy over their wave-board thingy.

0218

Me: Papa, forrest’s birthday is on the 18th of feb.
Papa (walking over to ah-bui): fo-lest… i go and buy 4D - 0218, if i win, i shall buy you a big fish.

Haha. He has taken a liking to this strippy fatty. So everyday, the first thing he would ask me is no longer “ho bo?” but “fo-lest leh?”.

Forrest has turned 5, which equals to 36 human years! He has outgrown his poo pan, so for his bdae, i bought him a bigger poo pan and a pack of salmon treats.

Where’s my furball?

I was busy shifting house, it was so tiring. Just in time for cny, so that i can shun away from being questioned by nosey relatives. It’s a super small apartment, my tv is exactly 2m away, so whenever the foody ads or shows air, it would look super appetizing *drool*

But no sign of the fatty furball, which means I still go bk to mom’s place most of the days, so that i can sleep beside forrest.

The furniture is kept to a bare minimum, i have my makeshift table made out of wine crates, and there’s no dining table.

I brought only my favourite books with me which includes The Missing Piece, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and the Coloured Pencil book i stole from the library.

Without fail, my starwars folks are back to their fort, mmm… all from the dark side.

Satan got to me again

I woke up late for service again. So i watched a video sermon instead. And i was greatly blessed by the sermon.

At first, i was distracted but the Lord spoke,

Make the people sit down John 6:10

… and i did. I was worried sick for the depleted bank account after the renovation but the message reminded me to look to the Lord and He will provide according to the richness of His Grace.

I joined May Leng’s cell group for the first time in my Christian life. Not too bad i must say.

Books at the moment…

I must admit I was attracted to the cover then the content. A very interesting read.

This is the time of the year where i can get to relac (aka slack) abit as most of lessons are over and i’m just catching up on my documentation of events in Dec and Jan, backing up my hard disk after working for a year non-stop.

When class pics like these are taken, it only means end of block and the thing called usability.

Major Project video shoot

My major project group was involved in one of the video shoot and as the supervisor i got to shake the Asian Idol’s hand… hee hee…

Dinner at Suburbia

Dinner was good, we went for the 1-for-1 deal and i had the wagyu beef. It was a warm gathering as we enaged in small chit-chats of sorts. Of course with family around, i could only order soda.

All my life i think i’m the odd one out, just look at me, my height, my myopia, my thinking …

Shermaine is towering over me too. It almost looked like i wasn’t jumping in the air… sigh…

Is that you?

The corp comm asked me to help them do a shoot for the web banner. Luckily they could find a pic to be displayed; the rest of the shots can’t make it.

Then Douglas asked,”Is that you Natasha on the web?”

Another colleague smsed “i wanna chat with u”…

Other comments: “Hey you are on the tp website leh”

It almost made me feel like a mini-celebrity. BUT… one fine morning, i started receiving comments:

“I saw your face on the website… now NO MORE already”
“Hey, your face replaced by some students leh”

Haha… that documents my 1 week of fame.

This is Gary

My mom always dunno who is Gary and always think he is Harry. So during one of the dinners, I had to take a pic of him and show mom.
“mummy, this is gary. Gary is NOT hairy definitely”… haha…

Sushi making

Every few months or so, we would go to Jean’s house and we would cook a dish. This time we made sushi.

Rectal Probe

Forrest was sick and he lost his voice. I have never heard a cat losing their meows. It must have been the fights that he has been getting into. Doc did a rectal probe and it cost me $150.

He was slightly feverish. We went to another doc in the clinic and he was way much friendly than the previous one… he has a tabby just like ah bui, so guess he more empathetic towards “kopitiam cat”.

Even the doc laughed at him for losing the fights!

I fell super sick myself. Maybe i was the one who passed the virus to Forrest…

Christmas 2009

Ahhh… Christmas, it seemed too distant so i guess, the pics say it all. To sum it up, we went to KL for a short trip. I managed to get 2 bird cages for the new house.

Countdown eating prata with mom and cooked Sheperd’s Pie for the Chrismas lunch. Kor kor taught the kids how to “wave-board” which is the new in-thing now. I fell a couple of times… too heavy…

We had a potluck at Mike’s place also. We talked to him until 6am, listen to his bgr woes!!! Aiyo… went back kena scolded, Jean had pimple breakout.

One week later…

Mike camped at Thomson while i worked my ass off on new year’s eve. Then we went to Jean’s, snacking, playing cards, wii’g. I finally got to try the new burger joint along Upp Thomson. Seems like burger is in the rage now

Another week later…

It was the beautiful Jean’s bdae and she treated us to a buffet. Too bad Cherry couldn’t make it.

With time to spare, we came back to thomson to play majong in the hardly-utilised attic.

Yet another week …

The events just kept piling. There was Open House and JAE. When there are no visitors, we would entertain ourselves by taking pics of ourselves and “abuse” Alastair’s super not-to-scale standee.
Cherry is very sweet to leave pocky on my table

…without lights

… with lights and gawd… so much more to do!

The time of the year

This is the time where i would feed myself silly. It’s not helping when my mom’s new indon helper can cook soto ayam, opur chicken, RENDANG!!! even kueh dada!!! She would fry bee-hoon / mee/ rice for me every morning to bring to school…

Sigh… i can feel my flabby cheeks (and arms (and thighs)).

“Is my driving zai anot?”

The reply was “your driving is not zai, it is HEONG”
mmm… I still would take it as a compliment, considering i tailgate a poice car (he was driving at 80km on the 1st lane).

I have decided to put aside my work to do some updating - those never-ending word, ppt and excel documents.

Nov was a month of changes, especially at work - Cherry and i have got a new neighbour and we are missing old ones, those familar laughter…

We laid down our “house” rules: must top up snacks, CANNOT switch on the air-con, only WE can laugh loudly. So far, we must have given the impression we are very dramatic.

Other changes

It has become the gathering of the little patter of tiny feet as we see the peeps embark on parenthood.

My bestest friend

“Boss, my bestest friend in the whole wide world is getting married” and this liner has allowed me to take one of the weekends off to fly to attend cec’s beautiful ceremony during the teaching term.

Despite the busy schedule, sogo and cec still tried to play the bestest host and for the first time, i got to eat hairy crab. She has become Chan tai or Mrs Chan.

Wa-hai… my heavy make-up… after the dinner, i had a hard time washing it off. The fake eyelashes was literally glued to my real eye-lashes.

I thought I’ve changed to be a tad sportier, thus i took up the challenge to form a team IMI relay. Sigh… i SOLELY brought the whole team down. We were leading until it was my turn… people overtook me, then they become smaller and smaller, then another one ran past me, then he also became smaller and smaller… i was so slow that andrew had to stand on the stage to see if i was making my way back.

After that, all i could remember was that i exchanged my tag for 100+, ice cream and apple…

…obviously i started with the ice cream first.

Concert

Jean was so stressed for this concert till she started having dreams about how Murphy’s law of chaos ruined the whole concert. We helped by lending support to the projects and turning up at rehersals etc.

The big day came…
Bro also came to support support (thinking that there was crab dinner after that)

During the concert…
Cherry and i cheered “Rick, Jean, wo men yong yuan zhi chi ni”, we kena jeered at. Paiseh.

After the concert… look at the relieved faces.

Term A

I was so busy this term, esp after i realised that i had to take over another subject. So, students would offer me lollies to make the lesson a tad sweeter.

As usual, i asked my class to accompany me to see my long time idol (at close distance), T’ang quartet at the library. Shujuan and Daryl actually smsed me to remind me of the event. They played Cannon and Air on G string, and my heartbeat just stopped … twice.

One of the member changed too.

Mike’s camera

Mike would bring his camera and take pics of us during lunch and outings.

In times of changes like these, we can only look forward…

Reno mags

Recently, I only read purely reno mags. Doing up the reno is such a tedious process - accomodate, accomodate, accomodate. Weeks after weeks of going back to the ID just to refine the design to fit my budget. This is so tiring.

Cherry’s exhibition

Attended Cherry’s exhibition at Australia High Comm and hers was the most interesting. The food was very interesting too *rub tummy*

I told Shermaine to thank the Lord who has blessed her with good results despite the little effort she put in. So, i brought her to Bugis to shop shop eat eat.

Have been eating with dad (and mom) for the past few weekends, quite stressful coz we never have the chance to order what we like (eg. sweet-sour pork) even though the food he orders is nice. Good and bad la …

The forbidden palace

I kept telling my colleagues how i’m hooked to this canto drama and how the palace life is like the office scene. People who just likes to create trouble, backstabbers etc…

Everyday, i tell them i feel like the slave in the show; my life would revolve around this “palace”, there’s not even a chance that we could get out. It almost seems like good never begets good (or at least in the story)

Forrest’s guide to life

Ah bui has made a few friends in the neighbourhood. I also dunno why but this fella keeps getting beaten up by those mean friends and he still gladly wait for them at the gate each day.

It’s confirmed, he won’t be joining me at the new place.

Papa says “Ah pei can go but the cat stays“!!!!

I guess i can learn a thing or two (work ethics) from ah bui

1. see no evil
2. must do balancing act so that I still have a life
3. bo-chap all the way

4. Lastly… give thanks to the Lord that I can wake up each day, yawn, get ready for work and try to embrace the change(s).

I am so busy and tired that my prayer time is so short, and i usually dozed off halfway. I only have time to pray for myself and others is on ad-hoc basis. So bad… Must make new year resoultion to make time for prayer and for people around me.

Christmas is coming… I even asked zhihua to accompany me to christmas service. Hai, looks like it’s just myself again, joining May Leng’s family.

Time to hit the word, ppt and excel documents again…

The thief has strucked again after laying low for umpteen years! I went to a Christian bookstore and while paying for my CD, i slipped 2 copies of “Everyday with Jesus” into my bag, thinking it was free (like The Daily Bread). The next day, i found that they would have cost $11.90! I went back to the shop to pay 2 days later.

A lot of people say “woah… this is not the kind of books to steal”. Ya i would prob burn in hell even it wasn’t intentional.

This incident reminded me of other occasions i stole out of greed (which is bad).
When i was 4, when my mom refused to buy me a hair clip, I went to steal the whole row of clips. Kena caned.

My playmobil helmet was missing when i was 8, i went to my neighbour’s house, saw the same helmet, quickly put it into my mouth and ran home. No one found out.

In JC, i became a librarian and for studying purposes, i took 2 books out of the library, that were very crucial to my grades- C.Maths and Colored Pencils technique.

All i felt was my heart was in my mouth. And i would feel the guilt till now… so i can’t imagine how other people can live with themselves after they steal…

But one thing i don’t steal: limelight

A good tool during meetings

Jonathan gave me a mask for my birthday; Cherry and i had a good laugh looking funny in it.

Thanks for the movie “Fame” and the cookies too, my dear sis.

i went to canada 2 weeks after my previous post, i stayed there for 2 weeks and it’s been about 2 weeks since i came back… so i thought i had better write before my birthday month ends.

It was an eye opener for me to be able to attend the worldskills event in calgary… i was part of the entourage and most of the time, i would be just hanging around… taking pics of unsuspecting victims.

The sian part: shops closes at 6pm, so no food nor shopping. I had to eat cookies taken from the competition and leftover breakfast. Andrew and i would hit the gym at nights coz we found that we can watch tv and admire the night scenary.

Deprived of shopping and food, our precious day off was spent with my relatives who drove us to Drumheller’s Royal Tyrrell Meusem. The badland landscape just made all my Geography studies come alive.
My relative made me wear socks due to the cold weather… which somehow made me look like michael jackson.

Some of the things i bought during my short shopping spree at a mall… i know… i must appeared like a compulsive gambler with those polka chips.

During teacher’s day, students messaged me and it had a warm fuzzy feeling when you are in a foreign land all alone… with only cookies to eat…

Shavonne made scones and left me a note on my table. Thanks dear.

Received a sms that made my hear sank… “hi sweet, my father passed away”…

After i came home, Ah bui has expanded his territory and his schedule goes something like :

7am: wake my human up to feed me
8am: go kitchen and asked the other human to feed me
9am to 3pm: laze around
3 - 6pm: go garden and catch some birds and lizards
7pm: go ask any human for food
9pm: my human comes back
10pm - 7am: sleep with my human

Platforms!!!

I waited 10 years for the revival of the platform shoes so i could be taller (by at least 2 inches). My bdae presents also started coming in…

Vincent’s wedding

Luckily i managed to get to Hilton on time, i thought it was at the Hyatt… silly me… all i could think about was the $5 per entry i had to pay.

Spidey Mikey

This is a picture of Spidey Mike breaking into his own apartment because he lost his keys, just before we headed to Wine Arcade. Such a taboo… everytime we go to Wine Arcade, someone has to lose their keys.

Gather-gather

I sms’ed Sean “bro… give face and come and wine-dine… no la… not my bdae, just gather-gather”

So we all gather-gather last saturday. My mom and my sis joined us too… The last part saw each of us taking turns to sing. Jean sang “journey” and dedicated the song to us for accompanying her throughout the TP journey… i appeared drunk in the pics but i was just happy. Jo and hubby came too and he even sang… wow…

Surprise!

Last night, i went to meet my class gals, i sat down and first thing i told them …”wei… 2 days later is my bdae, set your phone calendar and remember to sms me…”

I was only kidding…

Then they covered my eyes and bam!… a brownie cake that Dian baked… heart melts…

Thanks gals… no need to sms me la… see you in 3 weeks’ time.

This morning was slightly different, i had 2 cups of milo on my table and 1 was for Yee Fen who stayed with me for the night. We caught up on each other’s life…

We were discussing on teachers’ ethics, on how being an educator comes with certain expectations. And sadly i don’t meet some of these expectations… still pretty jaded … and why i never seem to learn to accept that my stuff is always 2nd best… so why even use my brain.

Obi-wan: Move along
Stormtrooper: Move along… move along

I’ve moved back … my mom is super elated…
From a house to a room; from organised mess to “organised organisation”; from sleeping with comfort of the flickering tv to dreaming in complete darkness.

Thanks to mom and friends for helping me clear up the last bit of mess. It was done in such a rush that i didn’t even have time to feel emotional about leaving. All too surreal. Zhihua was there when the walls were still grey and in a blink of an eye, he is still here to help take the frames off the walls.

For the next 4 mths or so, no more going home… i’m going back to my room. haha.

Mom is already starting to remind me “next time when you move out, you cannot don’t come back ok?”

Ah bui was overwhelmed on the 1st few days… highly stressed. Best part is that he has lost weight!
In an attempt to escape explore, he climbed out of the window and fell from 3rd floor to the 2nd and broke the roof tile. Luckily i came back just in time.

So here i am, attending every dinner and birthday celebration…

Random

We were hanging out at 15 Minutes where Neng did the graphics for this newly opened outlet at LaSalle, chilling out, drinking, making funny faces at Janelle.

Then i saw my student, he was like “eh… Miss Low, so random to see you here”. Guess to the students, lecturers have no life after 6pm.

Life after 6pm

(To furthur prove the point that lecturers have a life) Mike had his birthday celebration at St James and the theme was MJ’s black or white. He was so dressed for the part man. However, 99.5% were people we don’t know, the music played was tet…tet…tet…tet..tetno… so Jean and I took off early…

i’m starting to get anti-social - maybe the hypothesis is true.

The truth about presentation

It’s all about managing (my) expectations. I used to love student presentations, it is a time to see them dress smart and let them showcase their term-long projects. But jokers now condense their effort to an overnight mad rush and expect to pass, nothing more.

Of course there are some who put in their utmost effort to pull an A.

Presentations used to be photo-taking sessions too but we have people coming in late, wanting to leave early, talking, changing in class (!!!) right after their presentations. It’s gotten so bad that i had to ask them to stop, and asked them to present another day. This bunch sms’ed, apologised and then it was photo-taking time again