(1) Health Screening on 11th Jan - It's a pain to have to fast for this and I decided to do a thorough one this time since it may be the last time that I have a heavily-subsidised health screening so I opted for the comprehensive package and 4 other add-ons to check my prostate, pancreas, heart, and I think my thyroid. Good thing is that generally everything is good/normal, except for my cholesterol level which was slightly high (208 vs 200) but still considered normal. The price for having too much good food! =P
(2) MJC Open House on 11th Jan - Jon, LJ and Ain came back but I didn't get to interact much with them cos I had to attend to queries at our chemistry booth in the library in the afternoon. Thanks much to Wei Ru and Ai Ting from 08S415 who did such a great job of explaining some of the things to the students and also shared their positive experiences about the school and the teachers! It was actually my first time doing this duty but there wasn't much to prepare since I just speak from experience so it was quite manageable. Most of the students also seemed very nice except for two -one was a v dao 6 pointer (or so it seems based on what the mother said indirectly) who pulled a long face throughout the time her mother was asking questions. I hope it's cos she doesn't want to come to MJC cos I wouldn't want to teach such a person! The other was a very quiet boy who's mother seemed quite intimidating and demanding based on what she was asking and it seems like he had problems communicating cos the mother talked almost all the time even though he could have answered some of the questions like his L1R5. Other than that it was almost the same stuff to me - performances by our performing arts groups (the wushu costumes were v nice though!) and our principal killed Godzilla that's terrorising our city (the theme is Ten-@-City in view of MJC's 10th Anniversary) lol...
(3) Karaoke Sessions - (a) on 15th Jan - with the crappy boys at Katong Shopping Centre's Teo Heng and again, they sang a lot of oldies (esp from Bee Gees) while I went for the slightly newer songs haha. Highlight of the session was not the singing though I would say - but rather it was LJ's vanilla cheesecake that he made which was fantastic! Apparently the vanilla essence from Phoon Huat was really magical!
After that we went for gelato at Coccogelo which was just down the road and we ordered all 11 flavours available there, at a cost of just $4 per pax it was definitely worth it! A good variety of flavours (pistacchio was apparently the hot favourite, but there many other good ones and in fact the only one I didn't really fancy was coffee but that's just cos I'm not a big fan of coffee). Highly recommend this place if anybody is in the Katong area!
I went for my reunion dinner at my uncle's place in Lorong Chuan after that and one of my aunties said I looked groovy and one of my uncles said I looked sexy LOL. The latter was certainly a strange comment but generally my relatives think I look better. =D
(b) on 21st Jan - with HS, Jo, Eric, PN and Geraldine (Eric's friend) at Smith Street's 10 Dollar Club. I sang mainly English songs cos I've not listened to much new Chinese songs and I've long been bored of singing the same old Chinese songs but I did join in the Chinese songs in the last hour when we sang some of the uptempo songs and we had some silly dancing going on as well. Really funny stuff but PN didn't film the best part when HS and I were synchronising our swaying to the beat and snapping our fingers haha.
After that we had dinner at Hometown Restaurant, which was very near the karaoke place. It's a place that's apparently known for Sze Chuan food and the food was generally quite tasty but it was a little too salty for some of the dishes (there's was this Chong Qing diced chicken and the vegetables). The ma po tofu was outstanding as well as the beef soup and I would highly recommend these dishes. Price was reasonable (about $20 per pax). =)
(4) Wicked on 17th Jan - Met up with Jon, LJ and Ain for dinner at City Hall and we ended up at Breek's at Marina Square. Have not eaten there for some time and the menu has changed quite a bit but the food still ain't great to me. Had some fish dish and salad and smoothie and it was just ok to me. At about $40, it wasn't worth the money to me. We then headed down to MBS to catch Wicked, a musical which I didn't know much about it but I was glad I joined them for it! We bought the circle seats ($125 + $3 for booking fee) and had a pretty decent view. The singing and acting were v good, in particular the 2 female leads and the settings and costumes were all v nicely done. I would strongly recommend this!
(5) Council TAs' Gathering on 20th Jan - 7 of us (Jeremy, Lawrence, Karen, Samantha, Serene, June and I) met up at June's place for lunch after the CNY celebrations in school and the food from Yum Cha was great! I was surprised cos I tot Yum Cha was just ok but it was above my expectations and the price was v reasonable - $20 per pax for noodles and 9 other dishes. Watched Running Man (apparently a v popular Korean game show esp with the students) and it was pretty funny!
Talked to Karen about singing cos she told me she has been taking singing lessons for 10 years and I had quite a few insights such as the mechanics of breathing and voice projection and I think I should make an effort to improve on my singing! It's interesting that there is much science behind it and not just a trial and error and practice kinda thing. We also talked about composing and it was good to hear that she agreed with me about how many of the songs nowadays have such crappy lyrics and I shared about my thoughts of composing an album of my own songs, something which I really want to do and hope I can get some headway this year. =)
Over lunch, we talked about a whole range of matters but the one thing that stuck in my head was UTI, LOL. Apparently it's something that females would be familiar with and that was something new to me! We also had our birthday gift exchange and in the 2 days before the gathering I went to various places to find what I had in mind for Samantha (we were each assigned one person to buy a present for) - a couple pillowcase which I felt was appropriate since she's moved into her new place recently. Finally found it at Bugis Junction after going to Nex (which is a very irritating place to shop) and the malls in Tampines!
(6) CNY - reunion dinner was better than expected - we actually talked more than any of the previous years and hopefully there will be some inroads this year to a better environment at home... Other than that it was quite the usual, grandma's place in the afternoon to settle the visiting on my mom's side and uncle's place in the night to settle my dad's side. Positive reviews from some of my relatives about my new image so that's good! =)
Played mahjong with my brother, sister and her bf at my uncle's place on chu er and I managed to pull off a win right at the end when I won a 6-tai hand to turn my $3.3 deficit to a $3.1 gain and taking first place from my sis haha. Didn't take the money though cos my brother lost to me and my sis. =p
(7) Food Reviews - (a) Nicolas Le Restaurant - went on 6th Jan with Da Jie to try one of the best restaurants in Singapore apparently (at least based on TripAdvisor) and it was indeed a v enjoyable dinner experience (can't beat Robuchon but the food was very good at a pretty decent price of about $120 per pax). I can't recall the names so I have referred to the website for them. Started with some complimentary crisp bread with duck rillette - not a fan of duck but it was tasty! Great start to the evening! First dish up was ORGANIC HEN EGG 'A LA COQUE' - layman terms it's close to a half-boiled egg but the egg was v nicely done with the broth and some ham. You might think it's just egg but I think the easier the dish seems, the harder it is to actually make it taste wonderful and wonderful it was! I realised a lot of French dishes focus on the peripheral stuff like these kind of broths to make the dish taste really good because of how they complement each other in the taste. Next up were CONFIT HOKKAIDO SCALLOP and ATLANTIC COD FISH CRUSTED WITH MASAGO - v fresh scallop and fish so they were firm when you bit into them, just the way you would want your seafood to be! Followed by TAGLIOLINI PASTA - liked the way it was done with the minced beef. My main was the 12 HOURS BRAISED ORGANIC VEAL CHEEK - was smooth and it was good but not as good as the beef cheeks I had at Bistro Suri about a year plus ago! Dessert was THREE SWEET TASTING - I really loved this one because it's like a 3-in-1 and all 3 were good - the almond panna cotta, fromage blanc gelato (I think) and some chocolate stuff... Btw, if you want to look at the pics, you could refer to a food blog I found with a more detailed review - http://foodmakespeoplehappy.blogspot.com/2011/12/nicolas-restaurant.html. =)
(b) Margarita's - went on 11th Jan with Da Jie, "Mummy" and Jojo and it's located around Telok Kurau. First time trying out Mexican food and it was quite a good experience. We shared some nachos dish, beef and chicken with fajitas, and portobello mushrooms. Can't find the name of the dishes (can't even find the website for the place disappointingly - you'd expect most food places to have a proper website that's easy to find) but generally quite tasty though slightly pricey at about $54 per pax (even taking into account the pitcher of martini they had). Reading online it seems that the branch at Dempsey's is crappy and the one at Faber Drive is v good so if anybody is interested in Mexican cuisine you might want to check it out =)
(c) Ajisen Gourmet Town - went on 22nd Jan with Da Jie and it's located at Nex. It's actually a mixture of Japanese food places (including Ajisen Ramen, which I've sworn off, together with Sakae Sushi cos the food really isn't up to standard) so you can take your pick. I ordered some combo set with salmon, chicken and beef and the beef was sucky (too much tendon perhaps, too chewy I barely ate any beef). The butter scallops was more decent but generally not great food in my opinion.
(d) Hawker Food - I decided I should include some of the very good hawker food that I've tried recently - honourable mentions go to Block 29 Bendemeer Market and Food Centre's Hwa Heng Beef Noodles and Sim's Place Prawn Noodles. For $3, Hwa Heng gives large amounts of tender beef and with rice included, definitely great value for money. Also for $3, Sim's Place's Pai Gu Xia Mian has a decent portion of great tasting food. The pai gu in particular is v good and the soup base is also nice! Also, at Block 69 Geylang Bahru Market and Food Centre, Mui Kee Noodles, Zhou, and Hong Mei Western Food serve up some great stuff at great prices. For $2.5, Mui Kee gives a decent portion of bak chor mee which is tasty and according to HS, our BCM expert, this stall is special because it uses a different oil to cook compared to the usual lard that is used. For $3.1, you can get a big bowl of pork porridge with egg added. It doesn't seem like there's a name to the stall so I just call it Zhou because the only signboard they have is a big orange one with the word Zhou. I can't remember if I talked about Hong Mei in my earlier posts cos I ate there a v long time ago but for about $5, Hong Mei has a wide range of good cutlets with a special batter that makes it taste good and you don't get tired of eating the batter unlike most other western food found at hawker centres.
Ok, that's almost it for now. Progress in my New Year's Resolution is pretty decent: (1) In terms of exercise, daily exercising proves to be tough but I've managed to do it about 80% of the time so far, which is quite good considering some of the times I missed is because I went out almost the whole day. I sleep an average of 7.5+ hours per day (including long naps) and except for about 2 days when I slept at 2 or 3, I've slept at or before 1am, which is very good already. Can't remember if I ate fruits everyday but considering I usually drink fruit juice daily in school and I've been eating bananas at home regularly, at least 80% of the time I have had fruit intake. (2) Work wise, it has been the easiest time in my life at MJC ever since I gave up my coordinatorship role. Practically everyday I report at 8.30am, have breakfast till 9, then do various stuff, not necessarily work related, and have time to chit chat occasionally. It's a totally new outlook on life - as long as I do what I need to do then I'm done, no need to exert myself too much since there isn't much motivation to do so. As we joked amongst ourselves, I have learnt to adopt the philosophies of the "Wu Jiao" (an inside joke). Also, I have become the time keeper, getting the people to go eat at 12pm and then leave at 1pm and it feels good to see the sun when I go to school and go home. That should be the way life is, not the 7 to 7 lifestyle I used to have for the last 6 years... Also, currently I practically don't work on weekends nor when I get home so it has really been minimal working. The JC1s are finally coming in next week though and hopefully I will be able to keep things at about the same pace though we have to start coming in by 730 already sad to say... Well, as long as I can leave by 1pm I'll be happy! So generally I'd say I'm pretty contented and slightly on the happier side though there's something (or maybe someone hahaha) lacking in my life that I have yet to find. (3) I need to start reading up on 1 country that I want to travel to soon! Probably Vietnam or North Korea (my ex-student jio me to go lol)...
K, that's really it for now!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Recap on 2011 (Part 1 - Students' Council); Soccer @ Pasir Ris; Buffet @ Kuishin-Bo; Start of School; Big Bang Theory
Ok, delayed my post again but not really due to gaming nowadays haha. More so cos I've been sleeping earlier and sleeping more (as I aimed to for one of my resolutions) and watching online TV series to entertain me. =) Anyway, I shall stop writing about when's my next post. Just gives me undue stress on forcing myself to blog and that's not making me happy! Heh... Anyway, so many things to think back about in 2011... It's already 10 days into 2012 and if I delay this any further I'm going to be reflecting about 2012 instead haha. Obviously most of my life has revolved around school and the people around there... Shall just start off simple with CCA first I guess - some of the more memorable times in Council...
(1) Council Training Camp (March) - our first 4 days 3 nights camp (usually it's 3D2N) and this time it started at the beginning of the March Holidays. We lengthened the camp so as to introduce some new stuff such as the Laser Quest gaming which was super fun! Basically we had 4 teams of about 10 people each and wore those vests with detectors and carried guns (got different types) then ran around Blocks C and E, the labs and library to play. Was definitely the most fun thing we ever did in our camps! And it finally puts those skills you learnt from army and gaming (CS) to good use as I flanked and ran to the second floor to shoot people from behind cos the enemy base was outside our chem lab LOL. We also went prawning at Pasir Ris Park after the night walk and that was a new activity but it is definitely NOT my cup of tea lol, nor will fishing ever be... Seriously, waiting for something to get hooked onto you, NOT for me =P The other new things we had were the training by the Council TAs cos this time we wanted to ground the kids in proper planning and stuff which we felt would give them a headstart instead of just purely the on-job-training that they usually get cos it seemed inadequate... Had lotsa fun working with the TAs in planning some of the stuff such as the games which we used to try and link to Council spirit... =)
(2) Leadership Training Camp (June) - my first LTC that I attended because they decided to involve the Council TAs this time and we went to the MOE Changi Coast Adventure Centre (a super ulu area). It was a new experience and I quite enjoyed it if not for the timing (2nd week of Jun, which basically took up whatever little break I had then), though it's not something I would do over and over again unless there's something refreshing to it. I liked that I had to think out of the box sometimes to try and link the activities done to the 5 leadership principles that we've been emphasising in our leadership model. Good to see some of the alumni coming back to help facilitate and that certainly eased our job to some extent! Each teacher had to take a group of about 15 and mine was called Triple Kill heh. Nice kids and generally a nice cohort of students who seem very teachable. Had fun working with them although I get a little uneasy having to debrief cos that's not quite my cup of tea and strength but having years of experience working and being in council certainly helped in relating to them and sharing experiences of good and bad leadership haha. Activities were fun and I enjoyed making fun of the kids and having fun with the kids too =)
(3) Take That (July) - Well, this was new to us too and it's some sort of a talent time thingie which was well-received by the cohort. We had a good number of entries and quite a few quality ones as well, like the dance group Fluffy and singer Raina (who did a great rendition of Adele's Rolling In The Deep) and some comedy acts too by some jokers haha. On request from my fellow Council TAs in charge of the event, I performed as well, though I was quite reluctant because I was very drained by school work but I did anyway for their sake heh. Actually, I do NOT like to sing in front of a large crowd UNLESS I have a self-composed song because I don't have a great voice so I see no point wasting other people's time listening to me. I do love performing the songs I've written because they are either educational and/or motivating and the songs have meaning to me that's why I do the things I do! Anyway, I'd say the event went well and the toughest part was having to carry the wushu mat - it is * heavy! Takes like 20 over people to carry and it still weighs a lot! =s
(4) Teachers' Day (Sep) - With the new Teachers' Day being the first Friday of Sep, our celebrations happened to fall on 1st Sep instead and I was one of the teachers in charge. Our theme was H.E.A.R.T., which was meant to represent the Hope and Encouragement given by the teachers, the Appreciation and Respect the students have for their teachers and the Trust in their teachers (and also cos there was some idea of I ♥ My Teachers, kinda like those I ♥ NY thingie...). It was a simple concert with a performance by the Dance Society and Raina (winner of the most popular act in Take That) and some games including Charades and A Minute to Win It. I loved the latter cos I helped to twist it into something relevant towards Teachers' Day and we used games such as Hanky Panky (pull tissues out from a box - for the environmentalists, the tissues were fully utilised for our chem labs so they were not wasted), Back Flip (flip red pens off the back of your hand and catching them in the air, from 1 to 6 pens), Office Tennis (hit paper balls using clipboards into a dustbin), and the grand finale of Office Maximus (hit reams of printing paper off a table using basketballs). There were many hilarious moments and you could hear that the crowd enjoyed watching the teachers play the games and I played my part as the emcee (I was v familiar with the games and also how it related to teachers and also I knew the teachers so I helped out to emcee to make things more entertaining) to rouse the kids and also to make fun of the teachers hahaha. =P A large part of the concert went to the videos made by the J1s and they really had a lot of creative efforts on show which were impressive and heartening to see as they showed their appreciation. =) Prior to the concert itself, we also had activities planned and we got the students to ask the teachers what they wanted to do because over the years, we (or at least I) felt that the teachers may not always been appreciated in the best way so to do so we got the CG Chairpersons to ask their teachers what they would like based on the 5 love languages and there were more interesting things this year such as washing cars and playing sports (which I did with my CG when we played floorball and others played games like frisbee or captain's ball) instead of just writing cards for their teachers. All in all, I think it was a meaningful event and I was happy to be part of it cos that was one of the events I had looked forward to organising when I joined the SC (the other main one being Orientation) so at least I will leave MJC having done something worthwhile at least to me... =)
(5) JC1 Bash (Oct) - Again we broke new grounds this time with the event being held at Zouk (though a few years back we also had it externally, I believe at St. James) and it was a first for me haha (SK I know but I never fancied such places). This was thanks largely to one of the CG Chairpersons (we worked with the CGEB on this) who had some lobang there and a lot of the stuff were taken care of by Zouk so thankfully there wasn't much for us to do except to jaga the kids and ensure nothing strange happened =D "Mummy" was hilarious as she commented on the limited moves that the kids had on display (all the way they were just jumping and throwing their hands in the air) and showed off some of the moves from her time. Always funny to see her comical face - drama mama indeed!!!
Ok done with the more significant moments in SC that I can recall so now for more recent updates from 2012!
(a) Soccer @ Pasir Ris Sports and Recreation Centre on 3rd Jan (Tue) - finally managed to arrange a game of street soccer with some of my ex-students, 3 from the 06 batch, 8 from the 10 batch and 3 others who were friends of my students. Had a fun day of soccer and it was good to get another game under my belt but I could still feel the slight hamstring strain I had from the last time I played 2 weeks ago heh. Picked up a ridiculous wrist injury towards the end when I fell after turning too fast and losing my balance prob cos I was too tired doh! Could also feel a pain in my right ankle towards the end after I took a shot which was worrying cos that has given me many problems over the years... =( Positives - got into a lot of good scoring positions, scored 3, decent passing; Negatives - wasteful and went for power too often and ended up shooting straight at the keeper or hitting it to the left of goal from the various angles. Watching Thierry Henry's cool finishing last night in the FA Cup reminds me of the importance of placement and I'm looking forward to playing again soon though I doubt that will happen heh now that school has started for everyone... Oh yes, and Jonathan had a great game scoring 2 goals, rare for a defender and prob the most he ever scores in a game heh! =P
(b) Buffet @ Kuishin-Bo, Suntec City on 3rd Jan (Tue) - after an intense game of soccer we went back to wash up before heading down for another buffet (which after we counted really wasn't much - like five over the last 2 years haha)... Food was decent for the price ($41.9++ per pax, with 20% for those whose birthday falls in the month) and the better picks for me were the fried rice with smoked duck (biased perhaps since fried rice is one of my fav dish), beef teppanyaki, fried ika rings, pork fillet, salmon (pretty good indeed), cold Alaskan crab. The chilli crab was disappointing based on our biggest eater ZT so the rest of us avoided it. Funny parts were the moments when the restaurant had their specials (think it was on every hour) cos they had this really terrible sounding jingle but the specials were quite ok - once there were frozen strawberries and another time there was this peach-looking thingie with mochi texture and cream inside. Anyway it was quite a big group with 11 of us and we had a welcome addition, a pleasant-looking girl amongst the 10 guys hahaha. PY was as usual in his hilariously crappy mood and it seemed like everything we ate could be linked to some cheeky stuff. Talking about everything under the sun from food to games to studies and it's always fun to chill with them cos it's a whole lot of crappy guys =P
(c) Start of school - went back to school last Thu for staff meetings and surprisingly time passed quite fast, partly cos I was on my hp surfing and whatsapping heh. It actually ended faster than I expected (2.5 hours) then we had our Chem meeting. Since I didn't have any duties yet (for the JC1 team) I helped out by giving out the food, drinks, and utensils and also helped to clear up after eating, much to the amusement of my friends and we were joking that I'm too free now so I'm doing other stuff (they always joke that I'm finding stuff to do when I'm busy working heh). Relaxing start to the term so far and hopefully this will be the way as I finish off what should be my last few months in MJC...
Been watching a lot of Big Bang Theory FINALLY after Jonathan and LJ introduced it to me like years ago but I never really had the time to sit down to watch a long series so it's a good time to catch up and laugh myself silly! Shall try to recall some of the funniest moments in the series in my future posts heh... Ok, Open House tmr, hope to update again soon (dunno how soon that is though heh)! =)
(1) Council Training Camp (March) - our first 4 days 3 nights camp (usually it's 3D2N) and this time it started at the beginning of the March Holidays. We lengthened the camp so as to introduce some new stuff such as the Laser Quest gaming which was super fun! Basically we had 4 teams of about 10 people each and wore those vests with detectors and carried guns (got different types) then ran around Blocks C and E, the labs and library to play. Was definitely the most fun thing we ever did in our camps! And it finally puts those skills you learnt from army and gaming (CS) to good use as I flanked and ran to the second floor to shoot people from behind cos the enemy base was outside our chem lab LOL. We also went prawning at Pasir Ris Park after the night walk and that was a new activity but it is definitely NOT my cup of tea lol, nor will fishing ever be... Seriously, waiting for something to get hooked onto you, NOT for me =P The other new things we had were the training by the Council TAs cos this time we wanted to ground the kids in proper planning and stuff which we felt would give them a headstart instead of just purely the on-job-training that they usually get cos it seemed inadequate... Had lotsa fun working with the TAs in planning some of the stuff such as the games which we used to try and link to Council spirit... =)
(2) Leadership Training Camp (June) - my first LTC that I attended because they decided to involve the Council TAs this time and we went to the MOE Changi Coast Adventure Centre (a super ulu area). It was a new experience and I quite enjoyed it if not for the timing (2nd week of Jun, which basically took up whatever little break I had then), though it's not something I would do over and over again unless there's something refreshing to it. I liked that I had to think out of the box sometimes to try and link the activities done to the 5 leadership principles that we've been emphasising in our leadership model. Good to see some of the alumni coming back to help facilitate and that certainly eased our job to some extent! Each teacher had to take a group of about 15 and mine was called Triple Kill heh. Nice kids and generally a nice cohort of students who seem very teachable. Had fun working with them although I get a little uneasy having to debrief cos that's not quite my cup of tea and strength but having years of experience working and being in council certainly helped in relating to them and sharing experiences of good and bad leadership haha. Activities were fun and I enjoyed making fun of the kids and having fun with the kids too =)
(3) Take That (July) - Well, this was new to us too and it's some sort of a talent time thingie which was well-received by the cohort. We had a good number of entries and quite a few quality ones as well, like the dance group Fluffy and singer Raina (who did a great rendition of Adele's Rolling In The Deep) and some comedy acts too by some jokers haha. On request from my fellow Council TAs in charge of the event, I performed as well, though I was quite reluctant because I was very drained by school work but I did anyway for their sake heh. Actually, I do NOT like to sing in front of a large crowd UNLESS I have a self-composed song because I don't have a great voice so I see no point wasting other people's time listening to me. I do love performing the songs I've written because they are either educational and/or motivating and the songs have meaning to me that's why I do the things I do! Anyway, I'd say the event went well and the toughest part was having to carry the wushu mat - it is * heavy! Takes like 20 over people to carry and it still weighs a lot! =s
(4) Teachers' Day (Sep) - With the new Teachers' Day being the first Friday of Sep, our celebrations happened to fall on 1st Sep instead and I was one of the teachers in charge. Our theme was H.E.A.R.T., which was meant to represent the Hope and Encouragement given by the teachers, the Appreciation and Respect the students have for their teachers and the Trust in their teachers (and also cos there was some idea of I ♥ My Teachers, kinda like those I ♥ NY thingie...). It was a simple concert with a performance by the Dance Society and Raina (winner of the most popular act in Take That) and some games including Charades and A Minute to Win It. I loved the latter cos I helped to twist it into something relevant towards Teachers' Day and we used games such as Hanky Panky (pull tissues out from a box - for the environmentalists, the tissues were fully utilised for our chem labs so they were not wasted), Back Flip (flip red pens off the back of your hand and catching them in the air, from 1 to 6 pens), Office Tennis (hit paper balls using clipboards into a dustbin), and the grand finale of Office Maximus (hit reams of printing paper off a table using basketballs). There were many hilarious moments and you could hear that the crowd enjoyed watching the teachers play the games and I played my part as the emcee (I was v familiar with the games and also how it related to teachers and also I knew the teachers so I helped out to emcee to make things more entertaining) to rouse the kids and also to make fun of the teachers hahaha. =P A large part of the concert went to the videos made by the J1s and they really had a lot of creative efforts on show which were impressive and heartening to see as they showed their appreciation. =) Prior to the concert itself, we also had activities planned and we got the students to ask the teachers what they wanted to do because over the years, we (or at least I) felt that the teachers may not always been appreciated in the best way so to do so we got the CG Chairpersons to ask their teachers what they would like based on the 5 love languages and there were more interesting things this year such as washing cars and playing sports (which I did with my CG when we played floorball and others played games like frisbee or captain's ball) instead of just writing cards for their teachers. All in all, I think it was a meaningful event and I was happy to be part of it cos that was one of the events I had looked forward to organising when I joined the SC (the other main one being Orientation) so at least I will leave MJC having done something worthwhile at least to me... =)
(5) JC1 Bash (Oct) - Again we broke new grounds this time with the event being held at Zouk (though a few years back we also had it externally, I believe at St. James) and it was a first for me haha (SK I know but I never fancied such places). This was thanks largely to one of the CG Chairpersons (we worked with the CGEB on this) who had some lobang there and a lot of the stuff were taken care of by Zouk so thankfully there wasn't much for us to do except to jaga the kids and ensure nothing strange happened =D "Mummy" was hilarious as she commented on the limited moves that the kids had on display (all the way they were just jumping and throwing their hands in the air) and showed off some of the moves from her time. Always funny to see her comical face - drama mama indeed!!!
Ok done with the more significant moments in SC that I can recall so now for more recent updates from 2012!
(a) Soccer @ Pasir Ris Sports and Recreation Centre on 3rd Jan (Tue) - finally managed to arrange a game of street soccer with some of my ex-students, 3 from the 06 batch, 8 from the 10 batch and 3 others who were friends of my students. Had a fun day of soccer and it was good to get another game under my belt but I could still feel the slight hamstring strain I had from the last time I played 2 weeks ago heh. Picked up a ridiculous wrist injury towards the end when I fell after turning too fast and losing my balance prob cos I was too tired doh! Could also feel a pain in my right ankle towards the end after I took a shot which was worrying cos that has given me many problems over the years... =( Positives - got into a lot of good scoring positions, scored 3, decent passing; Negatives - wasteful and went for power too often and ended up shooting straight at the keeper or hitting it to the left of goal from the various angles. Watching Thierry Henry's cool finishing last night in the FA Cup reminds me of the importance of placement and I'm looking forward to playing again soon though I doubt that will happen heh now that school has started for everyone... Oh yes, and Jonathan had a great game scoring 2 goals, rare for a defender and prob the most he ever scores in a game heh! =P
(b) Buffet @ Kuishin-Bo, Suntec City on 3rd Jan (Tue) - after an intense game of soccer we went back to wash up before heading down for another buffet (which after we counted really wasn't much - like five over the last 2 years haha)... Food was decent for the price ($41.9++ per pax, with 20% for those whose birthday falls in the month) and the better picks for me were the fried rice with smoked duck (biased perhaps since fried rice is one of my fav dish), beef teppanyaki, fried ika rings, pork fillet, salmon (pretty good indeed), cold Alaskan crab. The chilli crab was disappointing based on our biggest eater ZT so the rest of us avoided it. Funny parts were the moments when the restaurant had their specials (think it was on every hour) cos they had this really terrible sounding jingle but the specials were quite ok - once there were frozen strawberries and another time there was this peach-looking thingie with mochi texture and cream inside. Anyway it was quite a big group with 11 of us and we had a welcome addition, a pleasant-looking girl amongst the 10 guys hahaha. PY was as usual in his hilariously crappy mood and it seemed like everything we ate could be linked to some cheeky stuff. Talking about everything under the sun from food to games to studies and it's always fun to chill with them cos it's a whole lot of crappy guys =P
(c) Start of school - went back to school last Thu for staff meetings and surprisingly time passed quite fast, partly cos I was on my hp surfing and whatsapping heh. It actually ended faster than I expected (2.5 hours) then we had our Chem meeting. Since I didn't have any duties yet (for the JC1 team) I helped out by giving out the food, drinks, and utensils and also helped to clear up after eating, much to the amusement of my friends and we were joking that I'm too free now so I'm doing other stuff (they always joke that I'm finding stuff to do when I'm busy working heh). Relaxing start to the term so far and hopefully this will be the way as I finish off what should be my last few months in MJC...
Been watching a lot of Big Bang Theory FINALLY after Jonathan and LJ introduced it to me like years ago but I never really had the time to sit down to watch a long series so it's a good time to catch up and laugh myself silly! Shall try to recall some of the funniest moments in the series in my future posts heh... Ok, Open House tmr, hope to update again soon (dunno how soon that is though heh)! =)
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Happy New Year! New Year Resolutions
Was writing a recommendation letter last night and ended up didn't having time to update cos I went out to meet a couple of friends for drinks at the IntroBar at Swissotel The Stamford. The original plan was at the Inter-Continental Hotel at Bugis where they went to celebrate last year but now they had a new deal where you need to fork out $98++ per pax for free flow champagne and none of us was going to pay that crazy price to celebrate the new year (esp. when I'm not a fan of alcohol). So in the end we tried IntroBar cos we went there before and it's a nice place with nice "fish food" (those snacks like the assorted nuts and crackers that most bars serve when you order drinks). I ordered two mocktails (the menu uses the term "soft cocktail" instead haha - Hokkaido Berry (which was quite thick) and Lady Marmalade (I really liked the taste and it's fizzy and esp. since it's $12++ for a fairly big cup and reminds me of my favourite virgin mojito). Talked about various stuff from coordinating weddings, office politics and whatever we saw on TV including racing camels haha... Watched the fireworks that were on display outside MBS and too bad there was a tree outside obstructing part of our view haha so after a while we switched to watching it on the TV. =P Going home was CRAZY bad though. We left at about 2.30 and after walking around trying to catch the cab and NightRider at various locations, I realised I made some bad choices. Should've just grabbed any NightRider to get out of town to catch a cab cos it was insanely difficult to get transport. The phone lines were jammed, queues were long, buses just drove past without stopping cos they were soooo packed. Got home at about 5.30 after finally getting the bus at 4.40 and it snaked around the city until I finally got off around Lavender and then cabbed home. Gives me second thoughts about ever going out for drinks again. But at least I'll learn from this experience and I'm more familiar with the various NR services now cos I was staring at the stops plotting how to escape the city hahaha. So I should be able to make my way home if I get stuck late outside and I can't get a cab...
Anyway, I shall look forward to the new year and I'm glad a painful 2011 has come to an end. I'm not too sure about what the future holds though but I shall just keep to some simple New Year Resolutions with the hope that this time I can really stick to them. And to make them more achieveable I shall break them down into more manageable parts...
(1) Staying healthy
(a) Exercise everyday - even if it means doing just abs exercises.
(b) Sleeping early and sleeping more - latest by 1am and at least 7 hours sleep every day.
(c) Eating fruits everyday
(2) Being happy
(a) Don't overwork myself and give myself undue stress - just do the bare minimum required in school.
(b) Stay calm in the face of difficulties.
(c) Hang around with happy people.
(3) See more of the world
(a) Read up on 1 country that I want to travel to every month.
(b) Travel to 5 countries/cities that I have never been to before this year.
Yup, that's it for now - simple and achievable I would think. There are other things on my mind but I shan't classify as resolutions cos things may not be within my control and I don't want to stress myself too much over such things outside my sphere of influence haha.
Ok, shall keep my first post of the year short and sweet! Looking forward to hit the gym again tmr! Recap of 2011 tmr night!
Anyway, I shall look forward to the new year and I'm glad a painful 2011 has come to an end. I'm not too sure about what the future holds though but I shall just keep to some simple New Year Resolutions with the hope that this time I can really stick to them. And to make them more achieveable I shall break them down into more manageable parts...
(1) Staying healthy
(a) Exercise everyday - even if it means doing just abs exercises.
(b) Sleeping early and sleeping more - latest by 1am and at least 7 hours sleep every day.
(c) Eating fruits everyday
(2) Being happy
(a) Don't overwork myself and give myself undue stress - just do the bare minimum required in school.
(b) Stay calm in the face of difficulties.
(c) Hang around with happy people.
(3) See more of the world
(a) Read up on 1 country that I want to travel to every month.
(b) Travel to 5 countries/cities that I have never been to before this year.
Yup, that's it for now - simple and achievable I would think. There are other things on my mind but I shan't classify as resolutions cos things may not be within my control and I don't want to stress myself too much over such things outside my sphere of influence haha.
Ok, shall keep my first post of the year short and sweet! Looking forward to hit the gym again tmr! Recap of 2011 tmr night!
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