Just started my 3rd high-key ICT today and I'm lucky to be back in Stagmont Camp as some of the others I know are in Pasir Laba Camp which is v ulu and are involved in a major exercise which is more xiong. Had a very frustrating and stressful morning though traveling to the camp because apparently there was an accident which cut off 3 lanes so the jam was utterly insane and I was stuck for an hour from Stevens Road to before Eng Neo Aveneo and in the end I switched to a cab near King Albert Park when I finally exited the expressway. Thankfully my cab cost me a mere $10 to get to camp because somebody was stuck in a cab all the way throughout the jam and paid an epic cab fee of $73!!! =s
First day of ICT was expectedly slack, esp in Stagmont Camp with about a total of 2.5 hours of briefing and then chill the rest of the day. I've been posted to another platoon though which would involve more work but by and large I'm expecting this to be a relaxed high-key, which is good!
Recap of last week's events:
Mon (10th Jan) - Start of school and 1st period was doing the usual admin stuff of briefing and checking particulars and after I was done with that I was looking forward to decorating the home room and trying to get the kids to suggest some stuff but not many seemed to be keen or maybe they were just dead after coming back from school... Hope to have a nice room to energise ourselves for the year ahead though!
Had H1 lecture right after that and again another challenge to rouse the kids with the first lecture of the day/year so I tried to crack some jokes and being BHB - told them that they will be seeing my friend and I very often for this year so thankfully we're good looking so they won't get bored of looking at us hahaha. My student joked if I had taken some pills cos I'm behaving v differently from what they are used to I think haha. Used my colourful ball that my CG gave me and did what I did with the algae ball last year so there was a bit of liveliness amongst them...
Lessons ended at 12.05pm cos we had Open House preparations so I missed tons of lessons... Ended up doing orientation stuff before leaving early to go home and sleep cos I stayed up late the night before preparing for today's lecture and trying to source for some interesting applications of alkenes... A good start to the year I suppose since I rarely get the chance to see the light when I leave school haha so must treasure the opportunity. =p
Tue (11th Jan) - Missed ALL my 4 periods today again cos of Open House preparations so spent my time doing council and H1 stuff and also took some time off to compile a list of classic moments that my friends at MJC and I have shared and it was hilarious thinking about all the good times we've spent over these few years. I guess it's about time I did so seeing that many of us have left or are in the midst of leaving and likewise for myself if things go to plan... Went out for lunch at Tampines One's Imperial Treasure and had a nice la mian and dim sum then jalan for a while there cos I needed to wait before going for a haircut...
Wed (12th Jan) - MJC Open House and I saw some of the performances and was particularly impressed with the dance performance. I also saw a couple of ex-students such as Jon, KF, Janson, Wen Xin, Joanne, Hui Xin and some others not from my class but whom I've taught before (esp from my 2nd batch). Had a nice chat with Joanne and I missed her calling me "lao lao shi" haha. Told her I'll try to see if I can arrange for a class gathering cos seems like their class hasn't met up since our BBQ last Jan and even then only slightly more than half the class turned up...
Anyway, it was a good day and I dressed up for the occasion with a funky pink shirt with interesting patterns which drew quite a few compliments (more from the guys though sadly hahaha but it still feels good!) and I also styled my hair haha, which kinda entertained my students esp my CG since I saw them for assembly.
My CG's proposal was chosen so they ended up selling i-phone covers for i-phone 3 but it wasn't particularly successful cos some ppl didn't have an i-phone or they had i-phone 4 which was of a different shape. Nevertheless, it was a good effort from some of them and I believe they learnt something about designing personalised i-phone covers as well as how tough it is to do business cos you need to put in a lot of thought and effort in promoting your stuff and convincing ppl to buy your stuff...
Oh, the councilors put up a net with balloons on top of it to spell out "Be Mii", which was the theme for our Open House this year and I thought it was quite a good effort even though the councilors were split in doing the task and seems like this has led to some major issues amongst them but I felt it was a good learning experience to see what they could do if they put aside their differences and work together... =)
Thu (13th Jan) - Dunno why but I seem to have woken up from the wrong side of the bed. First, I missed my bus stop cos I was stoning and then wasted time to turn back to get to the MRT. Then when I reached school I realised that I had forgotten to bring back my laptop from home! And when I went out for lunch I forgot to pass the discount voucher to the staff until I was prompted to give it haha...
H1 lecture was quite ok and there was one part where I was joking with one of my canoeing students to show that he has brains and not just brawns though I was kinda disturbed with myself that I said that he's a canoeing freak cos it sounded weird though I didn't mean freak in a freak kinda way if you know what I mean...
Had H2 tutorial with both my classes and it was a fun day just going through a recap of organic chemistry cos it's back to basics and using the whiteboard is sometimes a good thing rather than being glued to the tablet. Many were clearly out of touch with their work though so it was a lot of suaning time esp those supposedly good ones from Promos who were to be banded into LT5 and giving looks of disgust and dismay at people. I was truly quite aghast though at some of them and so was my sis who was sitting in cos she's helping me to cover my lessons during my reservist. My 417 was very cute though and when I said that they'll be in safe hands when I'm not around, they called my sis the babysitter and then someone said that I'm like the dad haha. Crappy! Had a fun time with them and teased my student about not having to bring a ruler to the board to draw the structures cos she's obsessively neat which everyone knows so they laughed at my jibe.
Fri (14th Jan) - Had a very boring morning as we went through the HD tutorial during our meeting and then spent the rest of the day doing council stuff and having a makeup lesson with my 417 to finish up some stuff. Went out for drinks at night at the Mezzanine Bar at Hyatt Hotel and they had cheap nice mocktails cos it was Happy Hour! Only about $5++ per drink!
Sat (15th Jan) - Went to Orchard in the morning to do recce with the councilors and OGLs for our MMM and then jalan around Paragon before going home to do work and then attended a friend's wedding dinner at Qian Xi Restaurant at the Civil Service Club at Tessensohn Road. The dinner was ok and the food was surprisingly decent though I didn't really fancy the setting of the place and it was quite messy cos the seating plan wasn't done properly and some of our names were not on the list. But it was all sorted out in the end so it's all good lah!
Sun (16th Jan) - Went to JB to look at some property there with friends and it was quite an eye-opener! It was certainly an interesting proposition and I need to seriously think about making such investments and making plans about my finances, something which I have been woefully neglecting over the years... We got lost while traveling around though haha and it was funny as we joked about the signs which didn't seem to be accurate and we even drove to Senai airport and many other places before finally finding our location. Went to Jusco, which is some mega-mall there but I didn't buy anything cos we spent a limited time there and while I tried on a lot of stuff, either I didn't see much worth buying or I didn't like some of the designs...
Ok, that's all for now - time to rest - got a route march to go for and then I'll head to the gym after that with Jon - pumping iron is good! =p
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Wedding Bells; Batam Trip; Posh Food; DS's Birthday Party
Updates for the past week!
1st Jan (Sat) - Attended my fellow Council TA's wedding solemnization ceremony at Bedok Reservoir Park, at the jetty area there, and it was quite refreshing because it's very cooling and quite quiet. Met up with quite a few of the ex-students there who were ex-councilors and some students from my 1st batch. The funniest incident was when during the ceremony, an old uncle who was topless ran across the bridge towards the central area where the ceremony was held despite some of the other people shouting at him to stop haha. Some of the kids then started cheering and clapping and it certainly made the event a lot funnier. =p
2nd Jan - Attended my fellow Council TA's wedding dinner at Mandarin Orchard and I was rolling back the years as that was the venue for my JC Prom Night haha. It's a nice place though - large and without any pillars to block your view of the stage and screens and decent food and service.
There was an ex-colleague at our table who's in MOE HQ now, at the Curriculum Planning & Development Division department which I'm thinking of joining so I asked her about life there. Generally, it's better in terms of working hours (for the "small fries" at least) and the work is very much related to teaching since it involves the development of new syllabus (for which a full cycle occurs every 6 years) though they need to be thick-skinned as teachers will tend to bombard them with questions and sometimes level criticisms at them when they go to schools to communicate regarding changes in the syllabus. This, despite them not being the ones who make the decisions regarding syllabus changes but only suggest recommendations after doing a review every three years. The power appears to lie with the politicians and sometimes if there's a strategic change for the nation, then it could mean a lot of work having to be scrapped or undone, which can be very frustrating as I imagine so I guess I'll just have to temper my expectations if I'm there - don't imagine I can do major changes to the educational landscape but just do what I can to improve teaching and learning.
3rd to 5th Jan (Mon to Wed) - Went to Batam with some of my friends in our Chem Unit! Though quite a few of us have been there just last year during the Jun Holidays, it's still a good place to go to whenever there's time for a short break cos it's so convenient and cheap! Think I was too busy last year and forgot to blog about that trip so here's some description of the places there. Had cheap and fresh seafood everyday for lunch at Delima's (about $13 per pax for a meal for 6 ppl which included 3 crabs), which was just 5 minutes walk from where we stayed - Holiday Inn Hotel.
1st day we reached at about 2pm Singapore time so we checked in and quickly went out for lunch before returning to play at the Games Room which had free table soccer! But we played 1 game only haha cos the table was slightly spoilt and also we had other things to keep us occupied. We also played Uno Stacko and it was fun cos there were quite a few exciting situations and we played forfeits for the loser and the loser had to answer questions truthfully. Went out for light snack at Nagoya Hills and we ended up at Godiva's where the drinks were good (the Avocado Chocolate was awesome!) but the food was utterly sucky and not worth the money also. Then we went for massage at this place called "Everyday" and it was pretty ok during our first visit where most of us had the Balinese massage and it was cheap also (about $11.75 for 1.5 hours). By the time we were done though, it was 10pm Batam time and the shopping mall was closed so we had to settle for supper by buying food from Circle K (it's like our 7-11) and some satay from a stall just beside it (was 10 Singapore cents a piece but wasn't good). Reached our room and then just snacked and talked before sleeping...
2nd day I woke up early to hit the gym (so disciplined yeah?) and I was motivated by what some of my friends said yesterday - that I looked a bit meatier and a bit more toned - so I wanted to make sure I keep up with the exercise regime that I had during the holidays instead of just the once a week sessions that I had for most of last year. After that we went out for lunch before coming back for some games of Monopoly Deal, which was pretty fun, especially against some intellectual opposition. Then we went to play a little bit of water polo which was a bit disappointing this time but I think it was cos of the ball haha. There wasn't a water polo ball so they lent us a volleyball, which was quite slippery and too often I found my shots flying too high or slipping out of my hand as I shot. =( Started with 1 v 3, which the other guys suggested and it was just insane cos I was restricted to taking long shots practically all of the time. When I did go out to try something different, I had to make sure I score or else the counter would be too easy. Though I took the lead, I lost 2-5, which wasn't surprising I guess given the circumstances haha. Then we played round-robin 2v2 and started off with a nice 5-2 win but got thrashed with another partner 0-5 and for the last match we were down 2-3 before calling off the game cos someone had cramps. Went for my first ever steam bath and then sauna and I can't say that I'm a fan for such things so that's prob the last time that I'll try those... Went Nagoya Hills again for massage at the same place and this time we tried the combo Thai + Balinese massage and it was awesome! I don't know if it's cos of the type of massage and/or masseuse but it was really great and really stretched some rarely used muscles like the butt and body and the hand and foot massage was really thorough and pressed every part of your palms and soles - baik lah! There was one very funny incident cos apparently one of the masseuse commented on my friend's butt was sexy - she said something like "sexy banyak" ("banyak" kinda means many, much and another friend said that the better word was "sekali" which means very but she prob thought that he wouldn't understand hence she used "banyak") and that became our catchphrase the next few days hahaha. I tipped my masseuse $4, which was quite a lot compared to the price of the massage but I thought it was worth it, while 2 others tipped 10k rupiah (about $1.5) and someone tipped 1k rupiah (hmmm... I rather not tip then!) We had dinner at the KFC there and I think the chicken there is much better than Singapore's! After dinner we headed back to our hotel where we played Monopoly Deal until almost 5am Singapore time! It was pretty addictive haha but now we've reached this stage where we all know each other's strategies so it becomes a matter of what cards we pick already...
3rd day was just a really chill day after the v late night we had so slept in till late then just had some breakfast, chat, then checked out and went for lunch before heading home... Reached back at Singapore at about 4.30 pm then headed home to rest. Overall a very relaxing and enjoyable trip and v. cheap - only $204.2 for everything - accommodation, ferry tickets and taxes, food, and massage!
Got some funny incidents and jokes but will save them for my next post cos it'll take me some more time and I should get started on work already!
6th Jan (Thu) - Reached school at 8am to try and settle some orientation matters and then cleaned up part of my workspace until about 5pm before I headed home to change and then meet up with my da jie for some v. posh dinner at Kuriya Penthouse at Orchard Central. I think that was the first time I ever spent $300 on a meal for 2 but it was quite a gastronomic experience! Started with a complimentary mocktail drink (I think he said it's Japanese vinegar drink??? Sounds really strange but I just googled it and apparently there are such drinks which are v popular) which was quite interesting cos the master bartender (yes, he gave us a namecard which stated he's a master bartender) said that if you're feeling well, it will taste sweet and if you're not, it will taste sour, which sounded pretty much like BS but it tasted sweet to me and sour to my sis so maybe there's some truth to it after all!
I had this Chef Omakase course, which I thought initially was the chef's name hahaha, but then I realised that it's a term for meals rather than the name and from what I googled it's supposed to mean "it's up to you", which means the chef will decide on what's to be served for the course, depending on the occasion (e.g. he thought of dishes related to the new year since it's the start of the new year) and other stuff... Let me try to recall what was in the course - (1) Appetiser consisting of black beans and pickles, herring roe, and anchovies (2) Japanese glutinous rice soaked in sake and with some vegetables (3) 4 kinds of sashimi - scallop, yellowtail, fatty tuna, prawn. Also had some shellfish and flounder from my sis cos she ordered 5 kinds of sashimi and they were all very solid! I usually only eat salmon and have eaten swordfish (which is nice) and tuna (which I don't really like) so the other kinds of fish like yellowtail and flounder was an interesting experience and it was great! (4) Deep-fried puffer fish - very interesting given that it's a poisonous fish and you need a special license in order to serve this dish. The taste wasn't out-of-this-world though but nevertheless something new and probably quite rare to eat this kinda stuff. (5) Foie Gras with steamed beancurd skin - nice combi and the foie gras was absolutely excellent! (6)Steamed chicken and vegetable rice - very smooth and soft rice which my sis said is like risotto and a pity we were too full by then so we couldn't finish it but it was pretty good! I think I forgot a dish somewhere but nvm, the menu changes once in a while so no point memorising everything in the course anyway haha. (7) Dessert - it was a mixture of mousse (there were mango, yogurt, and chocolate flavours) and the bartender served us on a dessert trolley cos the mousse came in shooter glasses and apparently you can eat as much as you want. Then we had a choice of fruits and we went for all the Japanese fruits cos they cost so much in Japan you wonder what's so special about them haha. They were really sweet and juicy I must say though I'd still prob not pay the kind of prices I see at the Japan supermarkets... Fine dining to me is a once-in-a-while kind of experience, not an everyday one haha - can't afford to! Unless maybe if I start giving tuition... Oh, they had an in-house magician to show some simple tricks and he did this rubber band thingie which I think I figured out how he did it and 2 card tricks which I couldn't really figure out (should watch more of the TV programme that reveals the secrets to magic tricks!). Overall the place is really posh, but the service is excellent (perhaps cos it wasn't crowded so the bartender had time to come chat with us once in a while, and all the dishes were introduced to us by whoever served the dish. I also like the fact that the bartender offered to and did concoct drinks for us that weren't in the menu cos it gave much more variety and the cost of the drinks were the same as those in the menu), food quality is excellent, ambience is very good (pity that the view from the place wasn't great considering it's a penthouse but the dining area was cosy and the alfresco part was cooling), though all this comes with a price (expected for any fine dining experience I guess). If I had tons of cash, I'd go back to this place frequently but for the normal people like myself, once in a while is good enough =)
7th Jan (Fri) - Reached school at 8am for staff meeting which seemed to last forever and went 45 minutes past the stated timing then after that had our chem unit meeting till lunch time. Went out with some of my friends to Downtown East and ended up at New York New York. Went back to school after that to help out a bit in setting up the net for Open House and try to settle orientation matters again before heading home to change and then out to Marina Bay Sands for DS's birthday party!
I had the idea that the party was going to be at a function room but it was a hotel room. Nevertheless, it was a HUGE hotel room (almost as big as my house unit and probably about 3x bigger than a standard hotel room) and there were less than 50 people I think so it was very spacious and the room was on the 54th storey so we had real good view of the Esplanade and the river - a very pretty sight indeed - but the cost is a whopping $900++ per night (though he had a discount so it was slightly less than $800). The best part of the night was playing Guitar Heroes and we played for like tons of hours and we jammed the night away till like 8am though some of them starting dying at like 5-6am haha. Had great fun playing the drums though I think I smacked it too hard cos after a few hours my hands were killing me cos they were experiencing a lot of pain and it was quite a struggle to coordinate the hitting of the drums and the pedal for the complicated patterns. The guitar was cool too though for the harder levels I tried to play it like a piano cos it was too crazy sliding my hand across the handle to hit the notes. Overall it was extremely fun and the best part was when we played our "Record of the Century" called "Bodies" and PY and YQ were singing like crazy and all of us including the audience were like ROFL even as we were playing. We played that song at least 5 times! As Randy would say, "It was dope, dawg!" In between playing that we played a little bit of other games as we let others play and Jon shot the moon in Hearts while I was pretty dismal when playing Halli Galli - clearly out of touch ever since I got out of IGC and my reflexes were woefully slow! Great night and minimal drinking this time after what happened the week before so it was just good fun!
8th Jan (Sat) - By the time we left MBS it was already about 11am and we were hungry after staying up through the night so we had a quick lunch at Marina Square (the saba set at one of the stalls was great but the aloe vera honey juice at the drinks stall was terrible) before heading home and I conked out for 9+ hours till almost 11pm before doing some work then sleeping again.
9th Jan (Sun) - did work in the morning and just finished gymming about 2 hours ago. Back to work for me again after this as I get ready for the start of school tmr! Doing well with my New Year resolutions so far - quite prompt in doing stuff, even in updating my blog! Gambatte for the tough year ahead! =)
1st Jan (Sat) - Attended my fellow Council TA's wedding solemnization ceremony at Bedok Reservoir Park, at the jetty area there, and it was quite refreshing because it's very cooling and quite quiet. Met up with quite a few of the ex-students there who were ex-councilors and some students from my 1st batch. The funniest incident was when during the ceremony, an old uncle who was topless ran across the bridge towards the central area where the ceremony was held despite some of the other people shouting at him to stop haha. Some of the kids then started cheering and clapping and it certainly made the event a lot funnier. =p
2nd Jan - Attended my fellow Council TA's wedding dinner at Mandarin Orchard and I was rolling back the years as that was the venue for my JC Prom Night haha. It's a nice place though - large and without any pillars to block your view of the stage and screens and decent food and service.
There was an ex-colleague at our table who's in MOE HQ now, at the Curriculum Planning & Development Division department which I'm thinking of joining so I asked her about life there. Generally, it's better in terms of working hours (for the "small fries" at least) and the work is very much related to teaching since it involves the development of new syllabus (for which a full cycle occurs every 6 years) though they need to be thick-skinned as teachers will tend to bombard them with questions and sometimes level criticisms at them when they go to schools to communicate regarding changes in the syllabus. This, despite them not being the ones who make the decisions regarding syllabus changes but only suggest recommendations after doing a review every three years. The power appears to lie with the politicians and sometimes if there's a strategic change for the nation, then it could mean a lot of work having to be scrapped or undone, which can be very frustrating as I imagine so I guess I'll just have to temper my expectations if I'm there - don't imagine I can do major changes to the educational landscape but just do what I can to improve teaching and learning.
3rd to 5th Jan (Mon to Wed) - Went to Batam with some of my friends in our Chem Unit! Though quite a few of us have been there just last year during the Jun Holidays, it's still a good place to go to whenever there's time for a short break cos it's so convenient and cheap! Think I was too busy last year and forgot to blog about that trip so here's some description of the places there. Had cheap and fresh seafood everyday for lunch at Delima's (about $13 per pax for a meal for 6 ppl which included 3 crabs), which was just 5 minutes walk from where we stayed - Holiday Inn Hotel.
1st day we reached at about 2pm Singapore time so we checked in and quickly went out for lunch before returning to play at the Games Room which had free table soccer! But we played 1 game only haha cos the table was slightly spoilt and also we had other things to keep us occupied. We also played Uno Stacko and it was fun cos there were quite a few exciting situations and we played forfeits for the loser and the loser had to answer questions truthfully. Went out for light snack at Nagoya Hills and we ended up at Godiva's where the drinks were good (the Avocado Chocolate was awesome!) but the food was utterly sucky and not worth the money also. Then we went for massage at this place called "Everyday" and it was pretty ok during our first visit where most of us had the Balinese massage and it was cheap also (about $11.75 for 1.5 hours). By the time we were done though, it was 10pm Batam time and the shopping mall was closed so we had to settle for supper by buying food from Circle K (it's like our 7-11) and some satay from a stall just beside it (was 10 Singapore cents a piece but wasn't good). Reached our room and then just snacked and talked before sleeping...
2nd day I woke up early to hit the gym (so disciplined yeah?) and I was motivated by what some of my friends said yesterday - that I looked a bit meatier and a bit more toned - so I wanted to make sure I keep up with the exercise regime that I had during the holidays instead of just the once a week sessions that I had for most of last year. After that we went out for lunch before coming back for some games of Monopoly Deal, which was pretty fun, especially against some intellectual opposition. Then we went to play a little bit of water polo which was a bit disappointing this time but I think it was cos of the ball haha. There wasn't a water polo ball so they lent us a volleyball, which was quite slippery and too often I found my shots flying too high or slipping out of my hand as I shot. =( Started with 1 v 3, which the other guys suggested and it was just insane cos I was restricted to taking long shots practically all of the time. When I did go out to try something different, I had to make sure I score or else the counter would be too easy. Though I took the lead, I lost 2-5, which wasn't surprising I guess given the circumstances haha. Then we played round-robin 2v2 and started off with a nice 5-2 win but got thrashed with another partner 0-5 and for the last match we were down 2-3 before calling off the game cos someone had cramps. Went for my first ever steam bath and then sauna and I can't say that I'm a fan for such things so that's prob the last time that I'll try those... Went Nagoya Hills again for massage at the same place and this time we tried the combo Thai + Balinese massage and it was awesome! I don't know if it's cos of the type of massage and/or masseuse but it was really great and really stretched some rarely used muscles like the butt and body and the hand and foot massage was really thorough and pressed every part of your palms and soles - baik lah! There was one very funny incident cos apparently one of the masseuse commented on my friend's butt was sexy - she said something like "sexy banyak" ("banyak" kinda means many, much and another friend said that the better word was "sekali" which means very but she prob thought that he wouldn't understand hence she used "banyak") and that became our catchphrase the next few days hahaha. I tipped my masseuse $4, which was quite a lot compared to the price of the massage but I thought it was worth it, while 2 others tipped 10k rupiah (about $1.5) and someone tipped 1k rupiah (hmmm... I rather not tip then!) We had dinner at the KFC there and I think the chicken there is much better than Singapore's! After dinner we headed back to our hotel where we played Monopoly Deal until almost 5am Singapore time! It was pretty addictive haha but now we've reached this stage where we all know each other's strategies so it becomes a matter of what cards we pick already...
3rd day was just a really chill day after the v late night we had so slept in till late then just had some breakfast, chat, then checked out and went for lunch before heading home... Reached back at Singapore at about 4.30 pm then headed home to rest. Overall a very relaxing and enjoyable trip and v. cheap - only $204.2 for everything - accommodation, ferry tickets and taxes, food, and massage!
Got some funny incidents and jokes but will save them for my next post cos it'll take me some more time and I should get started on work already!
6th Jan (Thu) - Reached school at 8am to try and settle some orientation matters and then cleaned up part of my workspace until about 5pm before I headed home to change and then meet up with my da jie for some v. posh dinner at Kuriya Penthouse at Orchard Central. I think that was the first time I ever spent $300 on a meal for 2 but it was quite a gastronomic experience! Started with a complimentary mocktail drink (I think he said it's Japanese vinegar drink??? Sounds really strange but I just googled it and apparently there are such drinks which are v popular) which was quite interesting cos the master bartender (yes, he gave us a namecard which stated he's a master bartender) said that if you're feeling well, it will taste sweet and if you're not, it will taste sour, which sounded pretty much like BS but it tasted sweet to me and sour to my sis so maybe there's some truth to it after all!
I had this Chef Omakase course, which I thought initially was the chef's name hahaha, but then I realised that it's a term for meals rather than the name and from what I googled it's supposed to mean "it's up to you", which means the chef will decide on what's to be served for the course, depending on the occasion (e.g. he thought of dishes related to the new year since it's the start of the new year) and other stuff... Let me try to recall what was in the course - (1) Appetiser consisting of black beans and pickles, herring roe, and anchovies (2) Japanese glutinous rice soaked in sake and with some vegetables (3) 4 kinds of sashimi - scallop, yellowtail, fatty tuna, prawn. Also had some shellfish and flounder from my sis cos she ordered 5 kinds of sashimi and they were all very solid! I usually only eat salmon and have eaten swordfish (which is nice) and tuna (which I don't really like) so the other kinds of fish like yellowtail and flounder was an interesting experience and it was great! (4) Deep-fried puffer fish - very interesting given that it's a poisonous fish and you need a special license in order to serve this dish. The taste wasn't out-of-this-world though but nevertheless something new and probably quite rare to eat this kinda stuff. (5) Foie Gras with steamed beancurd skin - nice combi and the foie gras was absolutely excellent! (6)Steamed chicken and vegetable rice - very smooth and soft rice which my sis said is like risotto and a pity we were too full by then so we couldn't finish it but it was pretty good! I think I forgot a dish somewhere but nvm, the menu changes once in a while so no point memorising everything in the course anyway haha. (7) Dessert - it was a mixture of mousse (there were mango, yogurt, and chocolate flavours) and the bartender served us on a dessert trolley cos the mousse came in shooter glasses and apparently you can eat as much as you want. Then we had a choice of fruits and we went for all the Japanese fruits cos they cost so much in Japan you wonder what's so special about them haha. They were really sweet and juicy I must say though I'd still prob not pay the kind of prices I see at the Japan supermarkets... Fine dining to me is a once-in-a-while kind of experience, not an everyday one haha - can't afford to! Unless maybe if I start giving tuition... Oh, they had an in-house magician to show some simple tricks and he did this rubber band thingie which I think I figured out how he did it and 2 card tricks which I couldn't really figure out (should watch more of the TV programme that reveals the secrets to magic tricks!). Overall the place is really posh, but the service is excellent (perhaps cos it wasn't crowded so the bartender had time to come chat with us once in a while, and all the dishes were introduced to us by whoever served the dish. I also like the fact that the bartender offered to and did concoct drinks for us that weren't in the menu cos it gave much more variety and the cost of the drinks were the same as those in the menu), food quality is excellent, ambience is very good (pity that the view from the place wasn't great considering it's a penthouse but the dining area was cosy and the alfresco part was cooling), though all this comes with a price (expected for any fine dining experience I guess). If I had tons of cash, I'd go back to this place frequently but for the normal people like myself, once in a while is good enough =)
7th Jan (Fri) - Reached school at 8am for staff meeting which seemed to last forever and went 45 minutes past the stated timing then after that had our chem unit meeting till lunch time. Went out with some of my friends to Downtown East and ended up at New York New York. Went back to school after that to help out a bit in setting up the net for Open House and try to settle orientation matters again before heading home to change and then out to Marina Bay Sands for DS's birthday party!
I had the idea that the party was going to be at a function room but it was a hotel room. Nevertheless, it was a HUGE hotel room (almost as big as my house unit and probably about 3x bigger than a standard hotel room) and there were less than 50 people I think so it was very spacious and the room was on the 54th storey so we had real good view of the Esplanade and the river - a very pretty sight indeed - but the cost is a whopping $900++ per night (though he had a discount so it was slightly less than $800). The best part of the night was playing Guitar Heroes and we played for like tons of hours and we jammed the night away till like 8am though some of them starting dying at like 5-6am haha. Had great fun playing the drums though I think I smacked it too hard cos after a few hours my hands were killing me cos they were experiencing a lot of pain and it was quite a struggle to coordinate the hitting of the drums and the pedal for the complicated patterns. The guitar was cool too though for the harder levels I tried to play it like a piano cos it was too crazy sliding my hand across the handle to hit the notes. Overall it was extremely fun and the best part was when we played our "Record of the Century" called "Bodies" and PY and YQ were singing like crazy and all of us including the audience were like ROFL even as we were playing. We played that song at least 5 times! As Randy would say, "It was dope, dawg!" In between playing that we played a little bit of other games as we let others play and Jon shot the moon in Hearts while I was pretty dismal when playing Halli Galli - clearly out of touch ever since I got out of IGC and my reflexes were woefully slow! Great night and minimal drinking this time after what happened the week before so it was just good fun!
8th Jan (Sat) - By the time we left MBS it was already about 11am and we were hungry after staying up through the night so we had a quick lunch at Marina Square (the saba set at one of the stalls was great but the aloe vera honey juice at the drinks stall was terrible) before heading home and I conked out for 9+ hours till almost 11pm before doing some work then sleeping again.
9th Jan (Sun) - did work in the morning and just finished gymming about 2 hours ago. Back to work for me again after this as I get ready for the start of school tmr! Doing well with my New Year resolutions so far - quite prompt in doing stuff, even in updating my blog! Gambatte for the tough year ahead! =)
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year and wishing everyone who knows me a wonderful 2011! It's certainly been an epic start to the year esp with what happened early this morning during "The Bangalah Experience" with Jon and co. I shan't give the details but suffice to say that it was really epic and provides further affirmation as to why I shouldn't mess with alcohol (which I don't even though ppl keep asking me to drink)... It was pretty hilarious before the whole mess started though and ytd brought a whole new meaning to vanilla cone, thanks to our ever politically incorrect PY and his extremely LOL comments and interpretations! =p
Attending a colleague's wedding solemnization later and shall spend these few hours before it to start clearing up my room which never really got going during the year! But before that, some updates on the week's events:
(1) Mon (27th Dec) - had dinner at Katong Junction's Ju Shin Jung with Jon and co. and the food was decent. If you order an ala-carte dish, you get a lot of vegetarian side dishes which are quite nice. The kids were funny as usual and PY and LJ were like serving me drinks and food throughout the dinner cos they were jokingly trying to get me to pay for their meals. FL came very late and it was funny cos before that some of them were suggesting what to get for DS's upcoming birthday party at MBS and they were joking about the idea of FL being the star performer of the night and they had some pretty cheeky suggestions which I can't mention here but they were utterly hilarious. After that we were trying to find some place to grab ice-cream/gelato and we walked for quite a long time from Roxy Square to Parkway Parade to Marine Parade CC but to no avail cos the shops were closed so in the end we landed up at the Mac's near PP haha...
(2) Tue (28th Dec) - had the most intense workout that I ever had! Started off with climbing stairs at this 25-storey block and did two sets from bottom to the top (so 48 storeys worth of stairs in total) and I was quite proud of myself cos I didn't stop through both sets though we had a short interval to rest in between the sets. =) After that we hit the gym with 7 supersets (meaning combining 2 exercises into 1 set) and finished with 2 new abs exercises which were ultra-painful and I'm still feeling it after 4 days! But I felt a great sense of achievement though it's tough to do this once school reopens cos you can't keep spending 2.5 hours at the gym (at least not with my kind of working lifestyle)...
Met up with my army friends for dinner and pool and a friend is expecting a child in May while another is dating a Japanese lady (some May-Dec relationship which is interesting I guess but I wonder how stable such relationships are). Pool was pretty crappy and I'm still upset that I can't finish off games somehow when I'm going for the black ball which is causing me to lose when victory is almost at hand but oh well, just gotta try and learn how to see out games in future! The trash talk amongst us was utterly hilarious though and thankfully I managed to avoid being last or else I'll hear no end to it till our next pool outing lol.
(3) Wed (29th Dec) - Met up with YH for lunch at Tampines One's NYDC (food there was so-so) to catch up as well as pass her some stuff then went for a little shopping around there and bought some stuff from Natural Project, which is quite a common shopping ground for me in recent years. Still need much more clothes for this year though! Must press on with more shopping!
(4) Thu (30th Dec) - Met up with ZAM and XL at City Hall for dinner and we went to Raffle's Place's Watami - food there is generally good (loved the salmon sashimi there) and one of the most important factor to me that makes me wanna go back to any eatery is if they have nice and cheap drinks, which they do cos they have my fav Kyoho Calpis Soda at only $3.9++! They also have quite a few nice side-dishes such as the butter scallops and the mixed tempura was good though the mixed yakitori wasn't too great (I suggest ordering separate ones)...
Oh, and I put on the tie that they bought for me for my birthday cos they asked to see it (I even dressed formally to meet them for this haha) and it looked really nice with the shirt that I had chosen to wear haha! Didn't expect it though cos I thought it would've looked better with a white shirt (which for some reason it seems to have disappeared for some time) so I was pleasantly surprised. Actually I wouldn't mind wearing ties to school once in a while, which I have done before years ago, cos it's a good accessory that gives some freshness to your appearance and it doesn't have to be too costly like buying new shirts for every single day cos guys' clothes are not cheap! It's also more professional looking but I guess some people might think it's troublesome or attention-seeking so they avoid that in schools but I think it's a nice idea, just as some lecturers do apparently at least for dentistry, according to XL... Well, maybe I will appear in a tie to teach one of these days at an opportune time I suppose haha...
Went to Anderson's for ice-cream after dinner and it was pretty expensive stuff! Then again I eat at Haagen-Daaz's once in a while and it's also not exactly cheap stuff either haha...
ZY gave us souvenirs from China and as usual she's quite thoughtful in her choice of gifts and I could learn a thing or too also I guess though I have tried to think about what others may like but maybe I could spend more time looking for even better gifts and also to be more appreciative of the people around me... Yes, I shall do that in 2011!
(5) Fri (31st Dec) - went gym in the morning for another painful 2.5 hr session then had lunch at Popeye's before coming home to chill. Then went with Jon to fetch DS from his home because apparently his parents wouldn't let him out to hang out unless his friends are around due to some incident that happened when he was out clubbing recently... Met ZT for dinner at Parkway Parade's Ichiban Boshi and the food was decent. My Garlic Katsu set was alright, though I had to grind the sesame seeds to make this paste for the chicken haha so it was kinda leh cheh... Ended up at ECP after walking around to buy drinks and ice (which was extremely hard to find!) and the whole area was like super packed unlike the year before which seemed to be quite empty. In the end we finally found a spot to sit and chill and it was quite ironic cos of the people that we were sitting beside. At midnight the ships there set off flares and we could see from afar some of the fireworks that were being fired off and after midnight things went pretty fast and the rest is history as mentioned at the start of my post haha...
Hmmm, since it's the new year I suppose it's normal to look at what I want to do for the year ahead and what I thought of last year to see if I've actually made any progress with my resolutions then... Flashback to my post on 12th Jan 2010...
(a) Health is wealth - generally I did go back home early during the first couple of weeks before school started since I was teaching JC1s but again once the work started coming in I found myself stuck in school till 7+ most of the time which is unhealthy. JC2 doesn't look promising based on my last 2 cycles so I guess I just have to try and manage my life to the best of my ability... On the bright side, I have been exercising regularly thanks much to Jon (our "slave-driver" lol) though mainly it's working out in the gym and not so much of running, cycling or badminton that I mentioned at the start of the year. Hope to be able to do more of cycling and badminton though cos it's group activities and it's quite fun... Prob will be some time before I play soccer again as I try to give some more time for my ankle to heal properly...
(b) Being more efficient - this one is a big-time fail I must say. Though I get quite a bit of work done, I still find myself wasting too much time searching for stuff cos I haven't completed my spring cleaning yet. It's very daunting though I must say cos there are like so much stuff to clear so I just need to keep doing some everyday starting from today! Hmmm, and yes I shall endeavour to reply all emails immediately instead of waiting to settle other stuff first so shall start to clear my emails soon today!
(c) Building relationships - I think by now I have a better idea of who are the ones that I can depend on and trust and keep in touch in the future and those who have just come and go in my life so ya, shall make more efforts to strengthen ties this year!
(d) Learning new skills - some success I guess, at least I managed to cook fried rice with the help of my da jie and best friend though I think I've kinda forgotten how to do it lol. Really need to type down the steps and revise cos I can't rem which ingredients to put in at which time... It's fun though very tiring to cook for others but it's something that I still want to pursue this year. For photography I've picked up a couple of stuff but as Jon said, just attending a few lessons can't help much cos you'll tend to forget and you need to explore and just keep shooting and tinkering to find out what's the best setting and angle to take shots and other little tricks... But at least I know a little bit more about taking better photographs so hopefully I'll improve on it this year! Didn't have time for wushu and as for dancing I only picked up some stuff from the Melbourne trip but it's fun and I will want to learn but for now just need to focus on building strength cos some of the stuff that I have in mind requires a lot of strength and endurance!
Read in the papers that we shouldn't try to be too ambitious in our new year resolutions because we tend to be so unfocused that nothing gets done so I shall just stick to what I've set last year and continue to make improvements to all areas, esp for the efficiency part! Jia you to me and it's time to start work on clearing up before I leave for the wedding! Updates tmr!
Attending a colleague's wedding solemnization later and shall spend these few hours before it to start clearing up my room which never really got going during the year! But before that, some updates on the week's events:
(1) Mon (27th Dec) - had dinner at Katong Junction's Ju Shin Jung with Jon and co. and the food was decent. If you order an ala-carte dish, you get a lot of vegetarian side dishes which are quite nice. The kids were funny as usual and PY and LJ were like serving me drinks and food throughout the dinner cos they were jokingly trying to get me to pay for their meals. FL came very late and it was funny cos before that some of them were suggesting what to get for DS's upcoming birthday party at MBS and they were joking about the idea of FL being the star performer of the night and they had some pretty cheeky suggestions which I can't mention here but they were utterly hilarious. After that we were trying to find some place to grab ice-cream/gelato and we walked for quite a long time from Roxy Square to Parkway Parade to Marine Parade CC but to no avail cos the shops were closed so in the end we landed up at the Mac's near PP haha...
(2) Tue (28th Dec) - had the most intense workout that I ever had! Started off with climbing stairs at this 25-storey block and did two sets from bottom to the top (so 48 storeys worth of stairs in total) and I was quite proud of myself cos I didn't stop through both sets though we had a short interval to rest in between the sets. =) After that we hit the gym with 7 supersets (meaning combining 2 exercises into 1 set) and finished with 2 new abs exercises which were ultra-painful and I'm still feeling it after 4 days! But I felt a great sense of achievement though it's tough to do this once school reopens cos you can't keep spending 2.5 hours at the gym (at least not with my kind of working lifestyle)...
Met up with my army friends for dinner and pool and a friend is expecting a child in May while another is dating a Japanese lady (some May-Dec relationship which is interesting I guess but I wonder how stable such relationships are). Pool was pretty crappy and I'm still upset that I can't finish off games somehow when I'm going for the black ball which is causing me to lose when victory is almost at hand but oh well, just gotta try and learn how to see out games in future! The trash talk amongst us was utterly hilarious though and thankfully I managed to avoid being last or else I'll hear no end to it till our next pool outing lol.
(3) Wed (29th Dec) - Met up with YH for lunch at Tampines One's NYDC (food there was so-so) to catch up as well as pass her some stuff then went for a little shopping around there and bought some stuff from Natural Project, which is quite a common shopping ground for me in recent years. Still need much more clothes for this year though! Must press on with more shopping!
(4) Thu (30th Dec) - Met up with ZAM and XL at City Hall for dinner and we went to Raffle's Place's Watami - food there is generally good (loved the salmon sashimi there) and one of the most important factor to me that makes me wanna go back to any eatery is if they have nice and cheap drinks, which they do cos they have my fav Kyoho Calpis Soda at only $3.9++! They also have quite a few nice side-dishes such as the butter scallops and the mixed tempura was good though the mixed yakitori wasn't too great (I suggest ordering separate ones)...
Oh, and I put on the tie that they bought for me for my birthday cos they asked to see it (I even dressed formally to meet them for this haha) and it looked really nice with the shirt that I had chosen to wear haha! Didn't expect it though cos I thought it would've looked better with a white shirt (which for some reason it seems to have disappeared for some time) so I was pleasantly surprised. Actually I wouldn't mind wearing ties to school once in a while, which I have done before years ago, cos it's a good accessory that gives some freshness to your appearance and it doesn't have to be too costly like buying new shirts for every single day cos guys' clothes are not cheap! It's also more professional looking but I guess some people might think it's troublesome or attention-seeking so they avoid that in schools but I think it's a nice idea, just as some lecturers do apparently at least for dentistry, according to XL... Well, maybe I will appear in a tie to teach one of these days at an opportune time I suppose haha...
Went to Anderson's for ice-cream after dinner and it was pretty expensive stuff! Then again I eat at Haagen-Daaz's once in a while and it's also not exactly cheap stuff either haha...
ZY gave us souvenirs from China and as usual she's quite thoughtful in her choice of gifts and I could learn a thing or too also I guess though I have tried to think about what others may like but maybe I could spend more time looking for even better gifts and also to be more appreciative of the people around me... Yes, I shall do that in 2011!
(5) Fri (31st Dec) - went gym in the morning for another painful 2.5 hr session then had lunch at Popeye's before coming home to chill. Then went with Jon to fetch DS from his home because apparently his parents wouldn't let him out to hang out unless his friends are around due to some incident that happened when he was out clubbing recently... Met ZT for dinner at Parkway Parade's Ichiban Boshi and the food was decent. My Garlic Katsu set was alright, though I had to grind the sesame seeds to make this paste for the chicken haha so it was kinda leh cheh... Ended up at ECP after walking around to buy drinks and ice (which was extremely hard to find!) and the whole area was like super packed unlike the year before which seemed to be quite empty. In the end we finally found a spot to sit and chill and it was quite ironic cos of the people that we were sitting beside. At midnight the ships there set off flares and we could see from afar some of the fireworks that were being fired off and after midnight things went pretty fast and the rest is history as mentioned at the start of my post haha...
Hmmm, since it's the new year I suppose it's normal to look at what I want to do for the year ahead and what I thought of last year to see if I've actually made any progress with my resolutions then... Flashback to my post on 12th Jan 2010...
(a) Health is wealth - generally I did go back home early during the first couple of weeks before school started since I was teaching JC1s but again once the work started coming in I found myself stuck in school till 7+ most of the time which is unhealthy. JC2 doesn't look promising based on my last 2 cycles so I guess I just have to try and manage my life to the best of my ability... On the bright side, I have been exercising regularly thanks much to Jon (our "slave-driver" lol) though mainly it's working out in the gym and not so much of running, cycling or badminton that I mentioned at the start of the year. Hope to be able to do more of cycling and badminton though cos it's group activities and it's quite fun... Prob will be some time before I play soccer again as I try to give some more time for my ankle to heal properly...
(b) Being more efficient - this one is a big-time fail I must say. Though I get quite a bit of work done, I still find myself wasting too much time searching for stuff cos I haven't completed my spring cleaning yet. It's very daunting though I must say cos there are like so much stuff to clear so I just need to keep doing some everyday starting from today! Hmmm, and yes I shall endeavour to reply all emails immediately instead of waiting to settle other stuff first so shall start to clear my emails soon today!
(c) Building relationships - I think by now I have a better idea of who are the ones that I can depend on and trust and keep in touch in the future and those who have just come and go in my life so ya, shall make more efforts to strengthen ties this year!
(d) Learning new skills - some success I guess, at least I managed to cook fried rice with the help of my da jie and best friend though I think I've kinda forgotten how to do it lol. Really need to type down the steps and revise cos I can't rem which ingredients to put in at which time... It's fun though very tiring to cook for others but it's something that I still want to pursue this year. For photography I've picked up a couple of stuff but as Jon said, just attending a few lessons can't help much cos you'll tend to forget and you need to explore and just keep shooting and tinkering to find out what's the best setting and angle to take shots and other little tricks... But at least I know a little bit more about taking better photographs so hopefully I'll improve on it this year! Didn't have time for wushu and as for dancing I only picked up some stuff from the Melbourne trip but it's fun and I will want to learn but for now just need to focus on building strength cos some of the stuff that I have in mind requires a lot of strength and endurance!
Read in the papers that we shouldn't try to be too ambitious in our new year resolutions because we tend to be so unfocused that nothing gets done so I shall just stick to what I've set last year and continue to make improvements to all areas, esp for the efficiency part! Jia you to me and it's time to start work on clearing up before I leave for the wedding! Updates tmr!
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