NE Show 2007 (21 July 2007)

Last SAturday on the 21 July, Cynthia and I, together with 2 other teachers, took the P5 children, those who were not involved in the performance in NDP, on a compulsory NE show. In other words, we were there as spectators, and not as participants.

When we went there, it was drizzling. Then it started raining. Thank goodness we all had ponchos with us so that we were not drenched.

Anyway, here's the side performances. These people ("motivators". they are called) will walk around the place and entertain the people waiting for the show to start (or alternatively, the audiences can self entertain by eating the wide array of food available in the goody bag this year).

Here's my bag. because I only had one, in which red was the original colour, I managed to change it such that it had three different colours.

This was what's so special about thie year's NDP goody bag. It was designed by a local company for NDP this year. The black strips that you see along the bag are removable, and inter-changeable.

I think that the whole rationale is not only to allow for flexibility, but also to foster good communication with the other people. (E.g: Sitting behind us were a group of pupils from WHite Sands Primary. I saw that one of the boys had the green bag, and I just started talking to him and asked him if he was willing to change one strip of the bag for me.

Here's a photo taken with Cynthia. If you look down, you will see a picture taken last year at the National Stadium. It was the last year NDP was held there... How have we progressed? I hop both of us still look the same.. equally young. =)
Here's Cynthia with her "mega combo" bag. She has managed to join 6 pieces of the parts together to make one huge and long bag... She has got all the colours that are available.. amazing... Beside her is her daughter (youngest)...
Our school performance.
Now that the actual date draws near, the pyrotechnics started beng included in the show. Really makes quite a lot of difference.

Inside the Goody Bag, there will also be a star clapper (they make a clapping sound when hit toegther).

The amazing and Breath-Taking Fireworks Display at the end of the parade. This is what makes it all worthwhile.

ANother new place for food...

Those of you who speak Cantonese, you would know what "tong shui" means. Loosely translated, it means "sweet water". In other, words, dessert.

But in this shop, they serve not only dessert. They have at least 200 items in their menu, ranging from the filling staples such as noodles and rice, to the delicious dessert. Cynthig introduced me to this place last week after we went for NDP practice together. It is located along River Valley Road, just beside the Zion Road Food Centre.

Very nice decor, as you can see...

They are open fom 12 noon to 6 a.m. everyday, and it makes it the perfec spot to hang out with friends for dessert, or even dinner followed by dessert. The food is really quite quite good. Last Sunday, we had an early dinner, and after that, the four of us (kel and Shuxian, myself and da) decided to go for dessert at Tong Shui.
They show the CHinese Star MOvies in the cafe, and everyone in the cafe at that time was pretty much engaged watching the movie. The cup of drink in front of Kelvin is my Lychee Spin.. QUite special.. a little bit gassy, with Lychee. Quite nice.. !
Here's Da and I... Da loves the place as well..
Here's what Da and I had. WE ordered the Snowy Mountain (or at least that's what I think it's called), (which costs $5.50)which is basically shaved ice, topped with lots of mango pieces, and loaded with lots of pomelo sacs. Really really good. The mango is sour, and sweet, and the whole combination was just Oomph!
Haha... Da diggind into our bowl of sweetie..
Well, we also ordered the famous HK Thick Toast (@3.88 each). Kel ordered the Butter and Maple Syrup one, while I ordered.... (look on down)
The super sinful, super fattening, supoer GOOD, Peanut Butter with COndensed Milk Thick Toast! Yuppy! *Slurp* Just writing about it makes me drool already.... =(
Please go try it out... It's really worthh your money. Really affordable, and tastes really really GREAT>

Sloane Court Hotel

Has any of you heard of this hotel before? Coz I sure haven't. Until today, that is. I as craving for steak @ Jack's place, but I remembered that the one at Orchard Road Citibank is closed. Then CYnthia told me that there was this place in Balmoral Road that serves very good steak. Yen Ru also said that she heard about it before.

SO I decided to try it lor.. Went hunting for this place with da, and we even had to stop by the road side to check the road directory for the place. It was in this hotel behind The Pines (Pinetree Club), inside Balmoral Road. It's called SLoane Court Hotel. Very ulu place, and realy really small. IT's just two storeys, and very dark and old too.

When I first went it, I had to visit the toilet badly. When I went into the toilet, it seemed as if I have just stepped into the set of an ancient ENglish ghost story. Haha. Very Very Victorian, and very quaint.

Anyway, got my business done quickly, and went out to the restuarant.

As you can see, it's called Berkely Restaurant and Pub. I didn't dare to take photos of the surrounding for fear of looking like a suaku. Hee hee.. They had quite a bit of food on the menu lah, but not a lot...

Da ordered a Sausages with Bacon and Mash Potatoes, while I ordered a Sirloin Steak Set meal.

For this, I guess I would give about 6 /10. It was alright, but I think I make a better breakfast. Not to brag, but... this is really only so-so. The mash potato was not bad, at least it was savoury, and not bland.

Price: $15.00 This was the tomato soup that came with my set. Soup that is served in a plate! Da said it tasted like it was poured out from the Ketchup Bottle and added with water. Hmm.. Maybe? WHo KNows?
Here's mine. Cynthia told me the portion was small, but I didn't expect THIS small. The taste was alright lah. Perhaps a 7/10 for this. The steak was quite tender (for well done) and the fries also tasted quite "home-made"...

Price: $26.80

We decided that we shall not have dessert there anymore.. And well, frankly, I would not visit the restaurant anymore... I mean, it's good, but it's not a place where you would long to visit another time, you know what I mean? =)

have you ever heard something so ridiculous?

Ha ha ha... Really have no choice but to laugh it off.. the Menace Strikes Again!

If you have been reading my blog regularly enough, you would have known that there is this particular character which really strikes a raw nerve in my life.. or at least for this year of my life. Sigh. In fact, it's not so much this character. It's the freaking mother which is the freaking menace. Today, she struck again.

I went to work in the morning, and as usual went to my pigeon hole to check for correspondences and messages. Saw the message, asking me to return call to the Fucker. Well, I have decided that I would just ignore the call, because NEVER for once was I being made to feel like a human whenever I called her. She would make you wish you never existed on the face of this earth, and make you question your miserable existence. In fact, I'm really beginning to wonder if her "occupation" in the scholl record has been listed wrongly. Perhaps she is a "psychologist" minus the "logist". Her sole purpose in life seems to be making people's lives as miserable as possble. Or maybe it's just me. Well, Whatever.

Anyway, I decided that since it was so early on a Friday morning, I was not going to let her spoil my day. Went through the day with the thought nagging aat the back of my head, wondering what the hell was the issue. Anyway, I went up to the hall and saw that the freak's daughter was not in school today. Dammit. It means that she is not feeling well again. And that would probably come back to me, again. Whatever happens, it's my fucking fault. I started thinking back; was there something which I did that may have made the freak angry?....

Maybe it was during TAF club that morning. (Well, in case you were wondering, NO, the freak's daughter is NOT FAT, nor is she obese. She just wanted to join the TAF club and ber "branded", because the Freak said so. She said "why can't you understand that it was a social thing that he daughter would just want to be with her freinds? Why is it NOT ok for her to just join for fun and leave if she deosn't like it?")

Anyway, back to the story. The pupils were playing catching in the hall, and I saw with my own eyes one of the boys catch the Freak's daughter. She flatly denied (of course, duh). But I told her not to be a spoilt sport, and that if she was caught, she should just graciously continue with the game. Maybe it was that. But anyway, the day was fully [acked, and I really had no time to go bother about her for the time being..

Then after recess, the Mother Tongue teacher came running to the class, telling me that she had been asked to call the Freak. (it is a long story how she got involved..but anyway, it suffices to know that she was made to call the Freak). So I asked her to just ask on my behalf what it was that she wanted to speak to me about.

After a while, the MT teacher came back, and said that the Freak insisted on sppeaking to me. She said that what sort of stupid policy it was that the students had to put their water bottles outside the classroom during class time. (Ok. This I have to clarify. At first, pupils put their water bottles with them on the table, but many incidents have happened where the bottle tipped over and spilt. And so I changed it so that the bottles were to be placed on the floor. This time, it was worse. When it spilt, the pupils' bags were wet. So it was decided that they would put their bottle soutside of the class, and go drink water whenever they feel like it. By the way, this was decided long ago...really many many months ago)

SO, she asked what stupid policy it was that pupils had to put their bottles outside the classroom, where it was beyond immediate reach (HUH?! Remind me again, I am not teaching in the school of the physically handicapped students. These pupils have limbs which are very much mobile) of the pupils and that her lil' freak was SOOOOOOO dehydrated when she went home that she fell ill again today. Don't the teachers know that she has just recovered from a throat infection? And if the botttles were outside, why didn't the teachers allow the children to drink water? (EXCUSE MOI, even if I didn't allow other pupils to go drink water, lil' freak, I NEVER DARE to refuse. EVen if she asked to go out 10 times, I still say "go". Even if it means that she will go out to drink water, and then spend about 10 minutes outside walking around, looking at the pictures hung outside the classroom; I never day "no" to her) (What The?!)

She insisted that I called her back. I couldn't take it anymore, and I went to my VP for help. Told her the whole story, and asked if she could call the Freak back. And anyway, I had no time to return her call, because after school I had a forum to attend out of school, and I therefore did not call her back.I didn't see the need to send myself for torture and let her spoil my weekend (not that it was not already spoilt)

I mean, what the fuck? Have you ever heard something as ridiculous as this? Seriously... I mean, seriously..

Then, when I got home after dinner with da, I received this SMS on my handphone, from the Freak "This can't be your first job and career right?"

Whatever does it mean? And however the hell did she get my handphone number in the first place? ...Fuck. Fuck her. Fuck school. Fuck her.

Sigh.

God,

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (that she is a freaking bitch)
The courage the change the things I can (to ignore the Freaking bitch)
And the wisdom to know the diference (Yup. I sure hope so..)

Pat's Work of Art...

On Wednesday, Cynthia, Ning and I went to attend a cluster course on the use of Polymer Clay in Art & Craft.. it was held in our school, so I thought, what the heck. Just attend lah (Although we all didn't manage to finish marking our books, but decided that we should just go regardless...)

After the talk of the FIMO clay, and the difference between this and the conventional white clay, we got started. Cynthia suggested that I did a bride and groom for our wedding, which I thought "why not?". And so, I got my hands started...

WHat you see below here is my attempt at making the bride... What do you think? Seriously, I think that the use of Polymer Clay is a very good way of allowing pupils to be creative, because it is super mouldable, and pupils really need to be able to imagine and think in 3D for the figure that they want to create... Look at my bride.. Simple as it may look, it actually took me close to 2 hours to complete it... *Phew* After that, I told the trainer "I feel as if I have been in labour and just finished giving birth man..." Haha. The moment the figuring was sent into the oven for baking, it felt as though the labour pains were finally over. Haha haha...

What do you think? I thought it was not bad an attempt for the first time.. Look at the detailing.. on the hair and all..even the bouquet of flowers.. haha I mus say I'm quite proud of myself...

View from the side. I know, from this angle, it's a bit awkward... hee hee. but still quite cute right?

From the top. Look at the tran on the gown. Still got pattern some more k.. Dun pray pray.. haha. Side View... I think it's really cute.. =P

Well, hearing that I was getting married soon, the trainer also decided to "challenge" herself, and got started making a bride and groom figurine, which she decided to give to me in the end. Hee hee.. (By the way, she only took like 30 minutes to complete both the figures..)

I thought the groom looked a teeny weeny bit weird.. can't put my finger to the exact problem though. hehee.. From the back.
And that's me! =) Hee hee.. I think mine looks nicer.. bleah. =o

30-6-07 NDP Full Dress Rehearsal

I'm too lazy to write too much for this. It's very late at night.. going to sleep soon, but I am obliged to put up the photos to update you people about our school NDP perfromance... haha..

Enjoy the photos! =)

WHile waiting at the Suntec COnvention Centre to walk over to Marina Bay, there was nothing much to do. As you can see, we went pretty mad. COuldn't really resist the temptations of the colourful costumes... haha.

The stingrays... =)
Doesn't the fish look like a handbag? =)

Here's the picture that you all have been waiting for.. One of the teachers in our school was recently seen sporting a "new" hairstyle... i dunno, but it looks pretty much like a wig to me.. we have been wondering what happened to make her do this... =)


Jo in his seaweed costume... Before the performance started, he sprained his ankle, and had to rest throughtout he whole time that the others were performing. He slept all the way back to clementi. The army personnel attached to his class had to piggy back him all the way. Luckily he is not very heavy....

Minn the stingray...

This year, they had all these tactical people appearing from everywhere, in a performance. It was quite a sight. They all looked so smart..
As the NDP performance this year was on the sea, they had the opportunity to perform more stunts on the sea. This Chinook from our SAF was doing the stunt while suspended above the water.

From our navy.
That's also part of the performance.. haha. No lah. The babes, Kelly and I. =)

Our school performance...