For Hardcore Harry Potter Fans

A sms conversation with my brother



Me: Enjoy waiting for her.. =P (My brother was waiting for his gf)



Bro: Wa. Thanks. I shall enjoy harry's company.



Me: Haha! At first I thought who is harry... Haha!



Bro: Potter is the surname. Haha.



Me: Is he your gay partner? Haha!



Bro: No. He teach my magic.. Avadera kedava.



Me: *dead*



Bro: Yesh. Thanks harry. :)



Me: Harry not like that one lor.. U're lord voldermort!



Bro: I use wrong spell. Should use patronus on you. Lol.





For those who are clueless, patronus is used on this creature:













Stupid Bro.









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Well, I think you can see blogging everyday for the next few days. I am stuck in this school with ABSOLUTELY nothing to do.

I can't wait to leave.

Genting Trip 2009

Ahh... Finally, I have time to blog about my Genting trip. =)

Took Silkair to KL before taking a cab to Genting.

They served only drinks on the flight. It was a mad rush. They served the drinks and before you know it, it was time to collect the cups.

Look at the state of my bag! This is the result of last minute packing. I didn't realise that my bag, which had been hidden in the cupboard for ages, had started peeling. It was too late to buy a new bag. So embarrassing! Countless people had stared at my bag! =( (I bought a new Converse bag in Genting.)

Still feeling hungry after dinner at Hao Wei. So we popped into Mary Brown before hitting the casino. =P

Anyway, here's a list of good places to dine in Genting. I really could not stand the standard of the food there.

Places I have visited (excluding fastfood):
1) Kenny Rogers
2) PizzaHut
3) Coffee Terrace
4) Torcello
5) First World Cafe
6) Only Mee Restaurant
7) Xiao Long Bao Restaurant
8) Genting Palace
9) Hao Wei
10) Various Foodcourts

Places that I recommend:
1) PizzaHut
2) Hao Wei
3) Torcello
4) First World Cafe
5) Convenience Stores for Cup Noodles

And so, this time round, my dad did some research for places to eat before the trip. His friend recommended the Mushroom Farm restaurant. It is not situated within the theme park. We had to call them to come and bring us to the place. The service was good and the food was so much better and cheaper than the ones in Genting. They are opened from 7am - 10pm.

The fish in the picture tasted like cereal prawn. Very special.

During the trip with my Enemies to Genting in 2005, we met Elvin Ng, the Mediacorp actor, in Coffee Bean. I really regretted missing the chance to take a picture with him. =( And so, whenever I visit Genting, I would always go to Coffee Bean, hoping that I will bump into him again. Keke! And I really met him this time round!!

On television. We even had coffee together. Haha!

On the last day, we set off to Sunway Lagoon to meet up with my cousins and nephews. Sunway Lagoon is a really nice place!! Many things to play, eat and buy. The shopping centre really wowed me away. There are soooooooo many shops and restaurants! I think that the shopping centre is as big as Vivo. Cool right?

In the hotel room, waiting for my twin nephews to wake up.

Water theme park in the background.

Ice-skating rink on the basement of the shopping centre.

I think I mentioned before in one of my previous posts that my Dad knows how to act cute. Here's another proof. Haha!

Early dinner at a Hakka restaurant before leaving for the airport.

The restaurant has a few Hakka dishes which I have never heard nor seen before. The topmost picture is Chee Cheong Fun with Chai Poh (the pickled veg that goes with Chee Kueh), the green glop is still a mystery to me but it tasted better than it looked and the picture on the right is bittergourd stuffed with pig's stomach and mushroom.

Family picture in the lobby of the hotel.

Finally, flight back to Singapore.


I love family trips. =)

Short Trip

I haven't updated my blog for a long time. As I have happily declared in my previous post, I am staying on in NIE to pursue a degree in English Language. Therefore, I will be on no-pay leave while I am studying. You won't see me taking cabs all the time. I hope that I will be able to kick this habit soon. =P

On another happy note, I will be on holiday from the 17th-19th. Will be going Genting (again) with my family. The only difference is that we will be taking a plane there and back. On our journey back, we will be meeting up with my niece and nephews who are staying in Sunway Lagoon. We will tour around KL (my first!) before taking a flight back. Wish me good luck in the casinos! Haha!

Will update if there is something worth blogging. =) Btw, any of you on Twitter?

A Better Future!

*Screams* YEA!! I AM CROSSING OVER!!!

You say what huh?

We were driving past West Coast when we saw this banner outside Tanglin Secondary School. "Tanglin welcomes you!" or something like that. When I saw this, I started thinking, "'Welcome' got 's" one meh?" I've just checked the dictionary and although "welcome" is a verb, it doesn't have the normal singular and plural form. There is no "s". So embarrassing! A secondary school making that mistake in a huge banner that is facing the road.

Actually, there are many English mistakes I've spotted in print and during conversations. I am not saying that I am a Guru in English and I can't speak English fluently either. But those mistakes are just so glaring that I couldn't ignore it.

The following mistakes are made by many people and I am not aiming at anybody.

1) "Welcome" has no "s".

2) "Couple" means 2. Do not use "a couple of days" when you mean more than 2 days.

3) "Either" can only be used between 2 choices.

4) "Sort of" is not pronounced as "short of". These are 2 different words with different meanings.

5) "Touchy" means sensitive. "My friend is very touchy". This means that my friend gets irritated easily. It doesn't mean that my friend likes to touch people.

6) It's "take off your clothes", not "take of your clothes".

7) "Taught" is the past tense of "teach". "Thought" is the past tense of "think". 2 different words.

Ok, think that's all for now. Finally can get some off my chest. =P Now, you can go and aim your friends. Haha!

My Reward~

My picture says it all. I HAVE BOUGHT A KEYBOARD! And the best part is that I bought it at a $200 discount! Yeah!!



On Sunday, we went for Ice-Creams near my place and look at what we did.

Too bad those durians were not ripe. They were blown down by the wind. Bleagh.. No free durians for me. We are really city kids. Couldn't even recognise that those durians were not ripe. But we had fun from our durian-picking. =)

Last Day at Work

Finally. I have cleared 10 weeks of practicum. It was a bittersweet day. It was kind of sad knowing that I won't be going back to the same school again.

On Thursday, the trainees in my school went for a celebration dinner at Sakura Restaurant.



Looking at the pictures, I realised that we represent a multi-cultural group. Keke.


On the last day itself, I actually end work at 3pm because I had a supplementary lesson with my P5s. I will really, really, really miss teaching them. Although they are a noisy and handful bunch, they are really nice kids and very responsive in lessons. I love teaching children who are responsive and who really take interest in the subject.

At the end of the lesson, they surprised me by giving me cards and gifts! I didn't tell them I was leaving because I didn't want them to spend time and money making things for me. Turned that their form teacher informed them a few days ago. Looking at the cards, I was so happy and touched. One of the girls actually teared a little and was caught by her friends. Made me held back my tears too.

Most of the cards were from my P5s. Made me laughed when they said they enjoyed my M&Ms activity for teaching ratio. I made them swallowed ALL the M&Ms within 5 seconds because I was rushing for time. They enjoyed that part most. Haha!


During lunch, I went to the canteen to buy food. Suddenly, my P6s surrounded me and gave me this huge pot of flowers. They cheered and shouted in the canteen. I was so surprised!! I only met them twice a week for Social Studies and I am ashamed to say that I do not know most of them well. Yet, they bought flowers for me. So sweet.


Their form teacher, who is also my CT, gave me this. And I only gave her a stalk of sunflower.

My English CT is on long term MC so I didn't get to see her and thank her personally one last time. Haiz. She bought me this Molton Brown shower gel.



My School Coordinating Mentor gave me this.



2 adjunct teachers (retired teachers but who are still working) gave me this necklace to thank me for helping them with the IT stuffs. I am writing an IT Manual for them. Haha!




I am such a lucky girl to have such wonderful CTs, colleagues and students. But my fate with them ends on Friday and now, a new school with a new bunch of people are waiting for me to join them. Hope that my experience there will be equally great and fulfilling. If not, even better.

How I wish....

for a glass of Margarita now....

Never Ending

I thought that after all my observations, I have a chance to relax a bit. Do a little less work everyday.

BUT! I forgot 1 major thing! Exams starts next week! And I have not even started on revision!! I thought I have 1 more week to do revision but I didn't factor in the other subjects. The exams will take up my Maths periods. Argh! Super stress!!

So many students, so many parents, so many teachers to account to.... Think my cough and cramps will only stop after my practicum.

Too stress?

I don't know why I keep thinking about him. Too stress maybe. Wish I could stop.



(Maybe he is married. Isn't thinking about him a waste of time and energy?)

Good or Bad?

I can't believe I actually broke down in front of my supervisor on Friday. It was pretty embarrassing.

I am a big crybaby. Crying and crying all the time.


Heard a news on Friday which was something I didn't expect at all. I don't know whether it is a good or bad news. Hopefully, something good can come out of this.


Like what I told my supervisor, "I just want to be happier."

Hamster

Do you know that hamsters have pouches in their cheeks for them to store food? Here's a funny video about a hamster stuffing a carrot half its size into his own cheeks. Cute.

Excuse me, you are Miss... Mrs... Mdm... ??

One of the problems I face at work is the salutations of the females! I don't understand. There is no problem addressing a man. He is always a "Mr", "Mr" Tan, "Mr" Foo, "Mr" Quek, "Mr", "Mr", "Mr"! No confusion. But when it comes to the ladies...

1) Young ladies - Naturally, we call her "Miss" something.

2) Middle Age to Old ladies - Most likely she is a "Mrs" something.

You think the world is so clear cut?!

3) Young but married - "Mrs" something.

4) Young but married but still want to use her own maiden sirname - "Mdm" something

5) Young but married but still want to use her maiden sirname but find "Mdm" too old -"Miss" something

6) Middle-Old but are single - Still "Miss" something

7) All used-to-be married - Once "Mrs" something, now "Miss" something.

8) Elderly but don't want to use "Miss" - "Mdm" something

(Insert your own vulgarities; I'm trying to stay vulgarities-free) ISN'T IT CONFUSING??!!! I can't possibly ask someone whether she is married or single or divorced when she introduces herself right?? Grrr....

Bloody... (Oops, don't think this is a vulgarity right?) Why can't the saluatations be as simple and straightforward as the guys? Why do we need to differentiate between the married ones and the singles? I don't see that happening to the guys.

Whatever... I'm going to call all the ladies, whom I have never met before, "Excuse Me" from today onwards.

Trust

One of the headlines for the local news these days is about the head of Ren Ci Hospital, monk Ming Yi, being charged for mis-using the funds raised for the hospital. I am so disappointed when I saw the news.

Through this incident, it has proven to me once again that money can corrupt a person. It doesn't matter whether a person is known as upright or honest. Everyone of us has a "number". For some of us, a few thousand is enough to corrupt us. For others, maybe more. But eventually, when the amount is reached, we will turn away from the correct path. This has proven true in the Ming Yi's case.

This incident has teached us not to trust religious leaders wholeheartedly. They are only human. And a human heart is weak.

Dumb Blonde

Haha! Another dumb blonde joke.

First Day

Receiving this on the first day of school at 630am in the morning really brightens up my day. Receiving praise from the canteen Auntie also has a similar effect.

No more Monday Blues. =)

My 23rd Birthday!

I know... It is nearly a month after my birthday. But I haven got the mood or time to blog about it until now. =P

Anyway, this post will be mainly pictures. Still haven got enough mood or time to blog a lot.



Enemies Celebration at Beppu Menkan

Kar Wei joined us! This is the first time any guy joined our birthday celebrations. And I've known this guy for 8 years!




Secondary School Clique Celebration at RedDot Dempsey





A very nice place to chill in. Cheap beer and nice ambience coupled with a group of very good friends makes that place one of my favourite chill-out place.



Dessert at HongKong cafe. Very jump tone. I know.. Keke!


Family Celebration at NUS Alumni Club Scholar's Restaurant



The babies in my family.






Straits Advisors Clique Celebration at Manhattan Fish Market

I love the butter rice! It's way better than Fish n Co.!

They bought me Bodyshop Eye Serum which is a thoughtful present, considering my eyebags and dark circles....


I had great fun celebrating my birthdays with these people! I wanna say thank you to my friends for taking time and effort to coordinate these celebrations! YOU ALL ARE THE BEST!!! *HUGS*

Pursuing Dreams..

What length do we go to to pursue our dreams?

I actually teared a little after I watched this.

I Love Singapura~

I've decided. Every Wednesday, I shall post up one of my favourite youtube videos to share with you all.




Ok, back to my lesson plan. Enjoy this video!

Homesickness

So how's my first two days in school?

1) Friendly and helpful mentors (Check)

2) A principal who really cares about the staff wellbeing. (Check)

3) NIE friends (Check)

4) Polite students (Check)

5) Personal desk (Check)

6) Friends in school (Blank)

7) Sense of belonging (Blank)

I am wondering whether I should apply back to my contract school despite the SUPER heavy workload in that school.