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.

Hamster Babies!

My title says it all. My hamster just gave birth to hamster babies!!!!!! (Imagine me screaming) Well, I actually did scream for my mother when I saw the babies. My mum told me to leave the hamsters alone so I didn't take a picture of them. Let me describe what I saw. I was walking past the cage and peering into it when I saw something red wriggling. On closer look, it looks like a little red, fleshy bullet wriggling side to side. It is so "ewwww" and so "awwwww" at the same time.

Yesterday, my mum and me were still discussing about how one of the hamsters is so fat while the other is thin in comparison. I have already noticed that since last week and had been trying to feed the thin one by pushing food into his mouth. =P Now I know the reason. But it is too late! She has already delivered her babies and I missed the chance to change her bedding and provide more food for her.

How?? I have no idea on how to take care of newborn hamster babies!

Stupid Advertisement!

I am so frustrated over my English assignment! We are supposed to teach "Listening and Viewing" and my tutor chose "Advertisement" for our theme.

At first, this theme sounded pretty ok. It is not an unfamiliar word and there are many resources online. In fact, I had a great idea on how to plan my lesson plan! I wanted the students to listen and view how to make cheesecakes. Then, we will really make the cakes in class. After that, they have to design an advertisement for their cakes and sell it to their parents. The funds will go for end-of-year party.

BUT! But in the lesson plan above, my listening activity does not have the theme "Advertisement" in it!! Now, I have to rethink about what to do.....

The theme sucks lar. Other classes have "Adventure", "Wild Animals", "Stories", etc for their theme. These are what I call "themes". Mine is a text type!! Advertisement is a text type!! How to work creatively when I am limited to a text type?! Argh!! I can already predict what my classmates will do. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US WILL START THE LESSON BY SHOWING THE STUDENTS ADVERTISEMENT AND END THE LESSON BY HAVING THE STUDENTS PRODUCE ADVERTISEMENTS! HOW BORING CAN IT GET????? WHAT OTHER CHOICES DO WE HAVE?????

Any one got any creative ideas....?

Huli's 23rd Birthday~!

It is another "birthday" entry again. =P This time round, we celebrated Huli's Birthday at "Su", a Korean restaurant at Clarke Quay. Btw, Huli's real name is Pui Shan, which I have conveniently forgot and called her "Yeow Shan" instead. Haha!

The food was pretty alright. The most "tasty dish" is the manager of the restaurant. Haha! I believe he is a Korean and he has super charming looks. Yummy~ Haha! A feast for the eyes.

After dinner, we made our way to starbucks for coffee. On the way there, we spotted a good place for photo-taking. The travellator in the underground link to One Fullerton! The shots were quite unusual and I love it!

It seems that this year, we are in the mood of teasing the birthday girl. We bought Hello Kitty panties and fake candles for Birdie and Huli got Kueh Lapis for birthday cake. Haha!

Traditional shots with the birthday girl. (Why is my picture with Huli so dark??)


We also took some group polariods! It was quite embarrassing because we got to ask a stranger to take 7 shots of us! In the end, we split into 2 polariod taking sessions. Haha! After asking a guy to help us take about 4 polariods, we waited for the crowd to clear in Starbucks and asked a new guy who just walked in. Luckily, the two guys were great sports and didn't mind leaving the queue to help us. =P





Anyway, wanna wish Huli a HAPPY 23RD BIRTHDAY!! Her actual birthday is tomorrow, on the 19th! If you want, you can go to her blog to wish her happy birthday! (P.S. I got her blog address the other time.)

Ethel's 3rd Birthday!

So many birthdays this month.. It was Ethel's birthday last Sunday. She turned 3 this year! How time flies...





We took her shopping for presents at Toys"R"Us prior to the celebration. We were in there for an hour, looking for toys after toys but found none suitable. In the end, Ethel just wanted a cheap toy car. She was, surprisingly, so easy to satisfy. Haha!

We had the birthday celebration at Ethel's Grandma's house which is one door away from mine. Haha! So it was very convenient.


Her Mum asked a friend to cook for the party who used to work as a hawker. The roast pork was bought by my cousin.

This post is going to be filled with many pictures of my niece and nephews. I just love taking pictures of children! They are so natural, so cute, so funny....



Ethel and Alvin singing to wordless songs which tunes they made up on the spot.




A VERY adorable picture of Alvin! And I just realised that he has grown so much!




I love this picture. 3 years old Ethel looking at herself when she was 2 years old.




And then it was cake-cutting time! My cousin bought the cake from Bakerzin. They were very generous with the strawberries!! Alas, I don't eat strawberry. =P




Picture with Ethel. I was looking very "cui" coz I was rushing my assignments for the past few days and I don't feel the need to dress up when they are just next door from me. Haha!




Again, I wanna end the post with a picture of Ethel.....



.......and to say that we still love her very much.