Learned a new word, "daizyoubu," which means "no problem; I can do it!" Am considering this word as a possible name for the M2, or Flirt's kitten, I can't decide which. It was a visiting Japanese preacher, Pst. Nobu, who used this word in his sermon about faith.

This morning we woke up late, having slept late after an evening of carousing. It was raining heavily so we decided to avoid town area and instead take a short walk down the street to Evangel for 11am service. It's not like it was our first time there, but when we go we know to expect an all-out assault on our auditory senses. The worship is loud and enjoyably so; and everyone who preaches there, or indeed grabs hold of an unattended mike, shouts at the congregation with unbridled passion and fury. Wonderful orators, all of them, but we leave with our ears ringing and slightly groggy.

Pst. Nobu is here on a short vacation with a small crew from his church in Japan. He was introduced as a man who firmly believes that it would be a Japanese who would successfully reach out to the Japanese people. Likewise, it will be the representatives of the "unreached" peoples themselves that would make the best outreachers for their own peoples, because they understand their own people best and because they know their own culture and sensitivities best. This point was inadvertently proven correct in a real, practical manner by a member of the church leadership closer to the end of the service. But first, a story that Pst. Nobu used to illustrate what faith is.

A crowd has gathered below a length of cable stretched over the tops of 2 buildings. They watch hushed as a tightrope walker gingerly makes his way across the wire and when he safely reaches the other side, the crowd cheers wildly at his accomplishment. They call him "great," "magnificent," and "awesome!" Then they fall silent again when they hear his voice calling from his perch. "You call me these wonderful things, but is there any of you who would dare ride on my shoulders as I cross back along this tightrope?" No one responds. "Crazy," "seow!" they tell each other. Then one little boy stands up and says, "I would!" The crowd holds him back, reminding him of the danger and his social irresponsibility should he fall and make a mess on the sidewalk. But the boy brushes past every well-meaning adult and climbs up to meet the tightrope walker on the roof of the building. The tightrope walker carries the boy on his shoulders and slowly, carefully walks the wire once again. There is another hushed silence, then another round of wild cheering when they both make it safely to the other side. When the boy returns to the crowd they ask him where he got his courage to try such a dangerous thing from. He says, "Simple. The tightrope walker? He's my dad!"

Faith is knowing, really knowing who our father is, and what he can do. It's one thing to stand on the sidelines and cheer and clap and shout praises, but it's quite another when he tells us to trust him in crazy, dangerous times. Can we endure by simply trusting in him or do we balk, lose confidence, berate our situation and just sit there and say, "we're all going to die!!!"? Faith. Daizyoubu. Don't leave home without it.

It was a great sermon I thought. Then it took a Singaporean to spoil the service for me through some thoughtless, careless remark. The lady pastor who took over the mike got a bit emotional sharing (talking about, not opening up her purse and throwing money at the congregation) the church's financial blessings. She let her tears flow, sobbing occasionally, then said one really insensitive thing to our Japanese guests. "You Japanese aren't used to this... I'm crying up here, but you can't show your emotions, can you? [Imitation of Japanese stoicism] I'm Singaporean and I can express myself any way I want..." Oh, the assumptions and cultural stereotyping going on in that head of hers, letting that one utterance fly like that. That was embarrassing, but mercifully brief. I'm pretty sure it was forgotten amongst the other things she was shouting at us.

If we really want to reach out to the unreached peoples, given how culturally superior we think we are, I am convinced now that they're better off reaching out to themselves.

A long day out and about. One of the few Saturdays where I actually have the morning free with no other agenda other than my own. Q-tip got her first long ride in the M2. After breakfast we drove out to look for Weng's birthday pressie and thought we would look through the flea market at Liang Court for an antique object that he might like. No luck for us there as the place looked like it was undergoing some renovation works and it looked deserted too. So we sort of gave up the search and drove back to Sembawang Park to let Q-tip stretch her legs a bit.

Sembawang Park is quite large, as parks go around here. There were a few families strolling, picnicking and fishing, but not too many. Lots of shady spots under the trees and the sea breeze makes the park a great spot to cool off in. This place might also be a great venue for rollerblading as it is open, not crowded and the slopes are gentle enough to be challenging without being too dangerous. A possible routine activity contributing to my new healthy lifestyle, perhaps?

Having failed at the task of finding a pressie for Weng, we assigned Anthony to go forth and seek his fortune. He returned with an ethnic blowpipe with 6 darts in a matching quill. Nice job! But because it was a bit cheap considering how many people had a stake in the same pressie, June & I decided to throw in the bottle of Canadian ice wine that was sitting almost forgotten in our storeroom.

The party at Weng's house was fun, though not the overboard asylum he had made it out to be. The theme was "Juvenile" and some of us came in their old college t-shirts, or threw together a makeshift school uniform (Wendy seems to have made a good effort with her white blouse-checked skirt-school tie-floppy school bag ensemble), while I and June made do with a t-shirt-3/4 berms combo, what we usually wear every day, basically.

Dinner was barbecued junk food: french fries, chicken nuggets, meat patties, hot dog sausages followed later by the slower-to-cook shepherd's pie and the piece de resistance, 2 ikan tenggiri in foil. Lots of Coke and since most of us drove, few of us could touch much alcohol though it seems everyone had brought some.

For dessert Weng passed around slices of a watermelon he had injected with vodka. An interesting idea, though the distribution of liquor was uneven. Some of us got a concentration of vodka, some got none at all. I drove home safely, so I guess I was one of the latter.

We had a mini-rock concert on his lawn, enjoying the sounds from an amalgamation of members from Weng's 2 different bands. We passed the night to the beat of the band, trying to bowl over tiny skittles we set up on the lawn with a handful of marbles. Party on!!!

Left just before midnight while the party was still at full swing. Old bones need their rest. Tomorrow's going to be another long day.

Emotionally and physically drained. Today's distribution of the 2004 'A' results is my final farewell to 3A2 whom I have grown much attached to. The next stage beckons and it's good to know that most of my former civics tutorial can move on in higher education having cleared this last hurdle. Kudos to 'rah, Farisa and Lynn for producing the best results for our CT, and to the rest who worked hard and did well as a result.

From my other tutorials of last year, it was quite astounding for me that some of the students who were having major problems with GP finally cleared the mark AND achieved multiple distinctions in their other subjects as well. I had no idea they were such swots, but there you go. To the others who ambushed me, hounded me and besieged me during the run-up to the exam, it was very gratifying to see how much they progressed and learned in just the short, concentrated private sessions we had together. From D grades to B grades, their effort and determination really paid off for them. Good show, people!

Back in the staff room we're all pleased with our over 90% GP passes. As soon as we found out, there was a flurry to contact our friends in the other colleges to see how well they fared. Somehow, rankings still matter to us, even though the Ministry doesn't publish these stats any more. We just have the need to find out where we stand in relation to things. Guess we didn't do too badly then. Yes.

From distributing results I immediately proceeded to drama club where we held our final casting exercise. We have a cast now and can move on to the publicity photoshoot next week. MJ let us hear 2 songs which she composed for our musical. She also introduced us to her friend who is keen to be our 'live' improv keyboardist for the musical. Both songs are deliciously bluesy so perhaps the rest of our music should follow a similar sound. We had some guests drop in from last year's crew: I saw Adam, Gid, 'sif, Sam, Reina, Liu Yin and Shariffa. Great to see y'all again!

The evening still found me on campus attending the annual Chinese Drama presentation. It's clear that the Chinese Drama team has put in much effort into the 3 short plays. The storylines were quite interesting, focusing on the most mentally unsound characters therein. Chinese Drama still has a problem with being overly-dependent on blackout for scene changes or identifying passage of time. The stories could have been told smoother, snappier and more efficiently; and that would have raised the interest level significantly. Hmm... now we English Drama have a mark to surpass. 'Can we do it? Yes, we can!'

Tired and incoherent now. Just look at the time...

The hardest thing about being endowed with super-strength is trying to live a normal life amongst normal folk. Agnes remarked last Wednesday that I reminded her of Mr Incredible, dressed as I was in regulation Wednesday attire -- long sleeves and tie --and trying to squeeze into the tiniest of spaces at the overcrowded breakfast table. Oh, it was all haha fun and games then, but tonight Mr Incredible did something incredibly stupid.

The one thing he is most incompetent at is housework. June reminds me of the time I made the vacuum cleaner topple over just dragging it across the floor. It's a water-based thing so dirty water slopped over the nicely cleaned floor which had to be cleaned again. The water may also have got into part of the electronics because from then on activating it became a trial and error affair. There was the time I cleaned the marble flooring of the bedroom but I didn't check the detergent I was using. It foamed beautifully on the floor but not because it was a soapy sudsy reaction but because the floor was being dissolved by the acid in the detergent. That patch of bedroom floor no longer shines as brightly as the rest of it.

This evening, I took on my old nemesis the vacuum cleaner once again. This was the one with the punctured hose I recently bought a replacement for. The same one that had fallen over, c.f. the above. I vacuumed the guest room, the bedroom and the study, no problem. Then came the living room. As I was vacuuming I felt that the power cable needed some more slack so I gave it a couple of pulls. I wasn't using strength (honest!) but there came a spark from the machine and my apartment suddenly went dark and silent. A faint smell of burnt electric coil hung in the air. The power cable refused to retract back into its housing and I knew the old thing had reached the end of its tether.

My first reaction: go unplug the faulty appliance then go to the fusebox and reconnect the tripped fuse to restore power. I did just that -- and nothing happened. My second reaction: panic!!! I called my dad, June called hers. They offered some advice that didn't work. We decided to come out of our shells and asked our bus-driver neighbour for help. His son came over but couldn't help. The bus-driver's wife suggested we ask our taxi-driver neighbour for help because he used to be an electrician before. Taxi-driver's wife said that he would be home soon, but in the meantime she'd come over to see what the problem was. As we were looking at our main fusebox in the common corridor we attracted the attention of our immediate neighbours, a retired couple and family.

Soon our corner of the 6th floor was a buzzing hive of activity, with fragments of questions, answers and more advice being thrown all over the place. Dad called and said he had managed to track down a qualified electrician who would arrive at our doorstep shortly. Meantime, our taxi-driver/electrician neighbour returned home and took a personal look at our fusebox. A quick fiddle and -- everything's back to normal! Power's restored and life as we know it can go on!

And then dad's qualified electrician arrived to find there's nothing left for him to do apart from reexamine the fusebox, declare one trip-switch faulty, make a correction with his test-pen, explain to me in Mandarin what to do next time a trip occurs (though he spoke to dad on the phone in perfect English) and collect $50 for his trouble.

After he left we drove to MIL's in Sembawang to collect her spare vacuum cleaner. There's still the rest of the house to be sucked and mopped. Sigh.

Mr Incredible declares housework an abhorrence.

Having a car means having freedom of mobility, going places where one would never have thought of before when one relied on public transport to get around. It also means taking time away from one's previous preoccupations, e.g., the PC and the 'net, that once kept one occupied and homebound. June is happy beause now she's moved up my list of priorities whereas Watson has moved down a notch. After all, what's the big deal about owning a car if one doesn't have a date to drive around in it? So the both of us are out and about at night, Watson sits on his table neglected and, the pets basically take care of themselves. So it was last night.

Flirt's injured son is still living with us and we had intended to take him to Dr Ling's for a 2nd opinion. But his limp seems to be getting better and it doesn't seem to hurt when we test press his paw. He is such a complainer that he would yowl if it caused even a minor discomfort but there's a just a contented purring from him and that's it. We decided to cancel his appointment and observe him some more before we hit the panic button. Instead, we took the time to revisit the Colbar on Portsdown Road for a bite and a drink. And to see if it is still as dog-friendly as it was in it's previous location.

It's unusual for us to have dinner with company but last night we joined Anthony, Wendy and Amy. The menu has a selection of English pub food and local food, the specialities of a Colonial Hainanese kitchen. I ordered a sirloin with chips and 'shrooms; and June had the fish & chips. The dishes are rough and ready, reasonably sized and priced. There is quite a mix of exotic imported beers and other liquor products so oddly-shaped bottles appeared on our table for a few of us. Weng, Lu and a certain artistically-inclined judoka who is anxious about her 'A' results on Friday joined us later for drinks and lots of yak, friendly jibing and round-the-table gossip till past midnight.

Good company, good ambiance, palatable food and patrons' dogs happily sitting at the tables. Definitely a place to bring Q-tip to next time we come.

Alternative methods of assessing GP. What does GP test? The ability to read a range of texts for information that is processed through the reader's own set of flexible meaning filters and less flexible value filters (Paper 2 - comprehension) then synthesized and re-expressed as a cogent unified thought in written form preferably in fluent language (Paper 1 - Essay). So Essay and Compre are both part of a whole sequence of mental activity operating within a particular social context, and not separate skills in themselves.

Adding in the Application Question into the syllabus was therefore a step in the right direction, though the other types of compre questions are problematic in that marking them can be quite arbitrary and highly dependent on individual interpretation. A pass or fail depends on how the marker interprets the answer scheme, not necessarily on the written answers to the questions themselves. Interpretation and application of the marking scheme is easier and fairer when the answers are written in a language form that is easy for the marker to understand, but is very difficult to apply when the marker has to simultaneously interpret the written answer as well. Thus students who are facile with English (the agreed upon language medium of the paper) have a massive advantage over students who are not. So marking the General Paper can be a problem if students don't take proper language usage seriously.

The purpose of the General Paper? To equip students with the methodology, skills and ethics of research and essay writing so that the student learns how to speak sensibly with the authority of a learned person. These skills are essential at University level, but are not taught at Secondary level, hence GP is meant to bridge the gulf separating basic education from tertiary.

Does the current assessment of GP match up to it's purpose?
Paper 2: Awarding marks for paraphrasing text teaches the student to avoid plagiarism but coming up with a marking scheme that covers all possibilities can be quite anal. Vocab can be quite juvenile as meanings are forced from and within unnecessarily tight contexts and does not encourage interpreting the text from the wider perspective.

Paper 1: What are we really testing? The students see this exercise as a test of how well they've memorised the material they received from their tutors, but this isn't the point of the test, is it? We want to see if they can use information from whatever source they deem relevant to the question and how well they are able to synthesize the information into a convincing argument that is both fair and sensible.

The problem here is that different tutors not just across the different colleges but also even within the campus of the same college give different students different materials to study. When the students take the test, they bring with them warped memories of what they had studied (or left to rot) and base their essays on a synthesis of what they remember, not on actual texts themselves.

Since most courses at University level are more heavily weighted on the research paper rather than the written exam, shouldn't we be testing the students on how well they use info rather than how well they've memorised info? Yes, there's PW; but why add a new subject if we can fix GP to begin with? No need to duplicate jobs then (sorry, Avril!).

Hypothetical 'new' GP exam I would like to propose: 5-6 similarly themed texts of general interest given out as passages. One essay question from a choice of a few questions to answer based on the theme of the passages. The one essay assesses the student's ability to use and interpret texts (covering vocab, context questions) from all sources (balance), construct an intelligent argument (essay structure), AND ability to handle quotations and references in standard university-accepted format (MLA, APA, etc.).

I can see the storm of controversy now!

Today the J1s collect their 'O' results. May y'all get the results you're hoping for and choose your next path wisely! Last year's J2s, soon, soon...

Not many people here can say that they had a bulgogi burger fresh from Korea for dinner. June's sister brought back a couple on her flight back from Seoul and microwaved them before June collected them in the early evening. I've never had a food delivery from such a distance before. I'm not absolutely certain the burger contained 'bulgogi' which I thought meant grilled beef. It tasted more like a chicken burger topped with lettuce and mayo, but hey, the experience of biting into such exotic food was enough of a thrill.

Earlier this morning, I found a notice from the Ministry calling for participants in the bowling league this year. Anthony's keen as is Yee, but that leaves 1 vacant spot to make up our foursome. We practiced at SAFRA in the evening, and we jokingly said we were 'trying out' Vince and Amy to see who would fit into the remaining slot. Ladies have a 12-pinfall handicap so Amy had the advantage. I wouldn't mind either of them becoming our last member; I'd rather bowl with friends than some other assigned bowler from the Ministry. Anthony competed against noone for the Captain's role. His 3-game average was in the 170s and mine was an average average 135, or thereabouts. I think we'll do ok in the league. Wish us luck!

June brought work home with her last night so after bowling I helped her to get some printing done on my quirky little printer, and created a mail merge document for the name tags she was trying to print. Mail merge is annoying in the initial stages as formatting the document can be a real pain, especially having to adjusting the size of the individual tags to fit their small plastic folders; and having to type in individual entries into the database is tedious and boring. But once the donkey work is done, the printing can be done en masse and all to the same measurements too. It's pretty brainless after that.

Drove sandwiches to church breakfast early this morning. It was so early that traffic was easy on the CTE and though we left a little later than we intended we still made it in good time. After service we met June's brother from whom we 'inherited' a quantity of car products -- shampoo, wax, washing sponges and cloths. It's car wash day!

First, we collected my parents from their service for lunch, then drove them back to their place where, after an annoying brief spell of rain (always rains when you want to wash your car) June and I got the M2 bright and shiny again. Not car groomer Eddie's standard mind you, just a quick and dirty rinse-shampoo-rinse-dry cycle. Eddie would'a just died.

Drove home for a short nap on the living room floor. In the early evening we decided to try out the pet cafe that was featured in the Sunday Times, Munchies Cafe at Sin Ming Plaza which is not too far from our place. We were a little embarrassed there when we discovered what was on the menu was meant for doggies only and not their owners. Since Q-tip had already eaten dinner we took her with us to explore what other places we humans could eat at.

Lots of options along Thomson Road ranging from simple noodles to dim sum to prata to McD's. We settled for noodles 'cos the establishment allowed us to violate the "no pets" sign as long as we sat outside, far away from everyone else. They serve a not-bad bak chor bee hoon soup and their home-made lime juice is quite a thirst quencher.

Wonder what my duty will be for JAE tomorrow?

Attended a course on "Mental Skills Training (MST) for performance excellence" on campus today. Compulsory for all staff to attend. To appease us for calling us back on a Saturday morning, we got a pretty decent catered breakfast to start the day.

The trainer was one of a small handful of local sports psychologists working locally. He tried to tie his ability to overcome his horrible ('horrible' is relative) academic history with his current role as a trainer of our national athletes' minds, getting them to focus their mental energy on overcoming their performance obstacles.

His methods involve keeping logs and records for training performance, evaluating and correlating personal emotions and thought processes with personal targets hit or missed. We went through some simple exercises for relaxation, concentration and positive imagery, and listened through lots of personal anecdotes of his experience as a college athlete and as a mental skills coach employed by various local schools.

There seems to be a snag when we think about whether we perform to win (as in athletics) or to enjoy the experience (as in drama). To want to win means having a goal, a point of focus to drive and strive towards, which is fine for competitive sports; but for aesthetic experience it's harder to set a concrete goal to aim for. Is our goal to make as much profit as we can on our performance? Is it to get a good review from our critics (a major can of worms for any aesthetic activity)? Is it to get our students to build personal skills in the field and to enjoy the experience so much that they continue to develop those skills in later life?

For competitive sports it's simple: win/lose; gold/silver/bronze; Xth position in the rankings. How does one set such clear-cut goals for an aesthetic group? And yet we must at least set some standard, some mark to stretch ourselves to reach, else the performance is pointless. I suppose we ultimately have 2 very clear responsibilities: 1) to the audience who must enjoy the performance and 2) to ourselves for whom the show must go on.

To summarize things in my own words, performance excellence is about Passion and Professionalism. Passion is the fuel that drives one to perform at one's best because there is some intrinsic motivation for the performance, PEARLS be damned. Professionalism is both glue that binds a performance community together, and a lubricant allowing individual performers to relate well with each other within the community as well as to set and raise the performance bar for each stratum within the community.

Passion and Professionalism then. Perhaps we can set Drama Club goals around these 2 driving principles?

Dammit! Lost a post due to me pressing a wrong button on my keyboard. It closed my browser window before I could publish. Gaaaah! The scary thing is, I don't know which button I pressed! Will piece it together again tomorrow. Waaaaah!

Escaped from campus today to attend a course on the New Subject which will be introduced into the curriculum next year. It's a fascinating examination of how it is we know what we know, and how it is that we trust what we know to be the truth. Well, that's just a simplified version of what we expect our kids to grapple with, even as I am grappling with it in this blog. The subject really should be called, "quid est veritas?" because this little Latin phrase summarises its objectives quite succinctly.

No question, it is a difficult subject and certainly not for the fainthearted. It is for those with an undefeatable sense of adventure, a drive for discovery, and a passion to challenge the known for the sake of gaining greater understanding of the unknowable. This, of course, leads to a small problem: how to teach this subject in such a way that the students will develop their innate curiousity and turn it into a sharp, practical tool of inquiry as they strive to seek answers throughout the rest of their lives? This, no one can teach us pioneer teachers facilitators of this new subject. We will have to learn on-the-job even as the kids struggle to make headway exploring the human mindscape. Wonder how many intrepid explorers we have out there amongst the next year's batch of 16 year-olds? How many of my previous batch might have taken up this challenge if it was offered to them?

Being in town for this course meant being just a short distance from the original Killeny Road Kopi Tiam, the one that was closed for CNY a couple of weeks ago. Today, NBS and I got to try their nasi lemak which was generously spread over with sambal chilli. Very basic, no-frills and no add-on options either. The kaya toast is different from Ya Kun's in that Killeny Road uses thicker slices of bread, lightly toasted, with warmer, meltier butter and a subtler kaya spread. I don't know which kaya toast I like better. Given a choice, I'd prefer to let someone else make the decision and I'll just go with it.

It is now evident that my parallel parking is better than my reverse bay parking. No problems parking at Lloyd Road, though I forgot to display my parking coupons and had to run back before the URA auntie came along. Good thing I hadn't gone far before I realised my mistake. Also, coming into town into the ERP zones is very expensive. The $10 I had in my cashcard diminished suddenly to slightly more than a dollar just from entering the zone! How do people drive in on a daily basis? It must cost a fortune!

The quality of this blog seems to be deterorating. It's almost perfunctory, just another day-in-the-life kind of thing. Oh well, part of the writing discipline I suppose, to keep on pressing on while waiting for new inspiration to strike. Let's see...

I really like my current Arts tutorial group. Only 13 in the class and it doesn't take much to spark off a raucous discussion with them. They are so ready to jump into a topic and argue it amongst themselves. They have strong opinions (although individually they could be better informed) and I truly have kopi tiam sessions rather than "lessons" with them. Discussions quickly become shouting matches as they tumble over each other trying to make themselves heard. It's fun for me to just conduct/moderate/facilitate them, occasionally tossing new material in the form of a question or comment for them to tear into like a pack of ravenous wolves. A couple of the initially quieter ones are now starting to vocalize their thoughts as well, though 1 vocal chap has suddenly become disengaged and is becoming a bit of a diva in an attempt to seek some kind of attention. Perhaps I should find out a bit more about him and see if he needs special assistance or something. For a bunch of "Higher Chinese" kids, they seem to enjoy GP in a way that runs counter to what we usually observe. As one of them remarked this morning, a 90 minute session just flew by. Guess we must have been having fun.

For lunch we went to have Katong Laksa, and for a change I decided I didn't want to drive. Amy drove instead and she managed to squeeze into a rather tight though conveniently located parallel parking spot just in front of our eating place. Vince arrived as we were finishing our meal. Behind him came a large garbage truck that stopped parallel to Amy's Echo, and hence in front of us. Ugh. The garbage truck revved its engine loudly then a cloud of flatulence exploded from its exhaust port, showering the Echo with soot and ash. Part of the noxious cloud enveloped us too, and it was a good thing we had finished our meal by then, though Bhags wisely decided not to continue polishing off the dregs in her bowl after that. Bleargh!

Drama Club is moving forward with our Drama Night preparations. We have an updated script to work with, though a rough final script should be ready be Saturday. We should also have our casting done by then as well. Tina worked on a bit of choreography using office swivel chairs, and she was quite impressed with the set concept that Yee came up with. Backstage is hard at work on costume designing and the publicity machine is just starting up. It's going to be a breathless run up to opening curtain but we've left the start gate and we're off! From next week, 2 rehearsals a week. Then 3, then 4. Oh, my...

Proud of the Drama Club's J1s today. They had a performance during common lunch break, venue the Drum. It was the physical manfestation of a chatroom dialogue. Though there didn't seem to be much use of movement in the short play, the stillness seemed appropriate to the situation they were playing out. The performers included the 2 scriptwriters for this play. The text was based on an existing play, but 2 of our J1s rewrote the script in order to discuss issues that are more of concern to teenagers today: homosexuality, loneliness, eating disorders, self-mutilation... and worse.

It was fun to see the J1s in action, especially since I have been too busy to help them. They were on their own throughout the run of this production and I must say, they pulled it off quite splendidly regardless. The title of the play was "No Easy Answers," and like the title goes, many of the issues were left open-ended at the end of the play. Looks like we've got a good set of J1 who are committed, independent, interested players. Hope they stay after first term.

Went with bro-in-law's recommendation and went with a full bi-monthly car grooming service. Eddie's set up is a tentage within the Orchid Country Club's driving range parking lot. He's a friendly enough chap who knows his cars and takes great pride in making the cars that come under his care gleam like new. All the cleaning is by hand, not machine. For taking up the package deal, my first polish included a sealant treatment to protect the M2's body from minor scratches and other damage from tiny flying objects, like the gravel in the campus parking lot for e.g. Service was quite rapid. I drove in at 1600 and the M2 was ready to drive out at 1900. He takes cash ONLY so credit-card dependents please take note.

If this seems like incoherent rubbish, it's because I'm half-asleep writing this.

Driving is fun, but it creates its own set of stresses. Constantly moderating speed, judging distances, obtaining situational awareness, making decisions based thereupon raises the heart-rate quite palpably, yet it's the kind of adrenaline rush that gives a thrill rather than reduces one to a trembling wreck of nerves. It's a new state of mind I am learning to ease into and I hope to "become one with" without incident.

I'm now practicing as much as I can on the road. Drove out to SAFRA after classes with Anthony, Amy and Vince for a round of bowling. I had an excellent first game with a number of spares and a turkey (my first in who knows how long) then about the 9th frame I broke a nail [bimbo!] on my middle finger and I blew my last frame for a score of 168. Our second game was total crap. Vince left, and Anthony and I struggled to reach 100. Bad 2nd game! Only Amy was happy because she surpassed her own expectations by scoring 84.

Drove out to dinner for once! I picked up my parents and took them to Chomp Chomp for stingray. On a weekday the crowds aren't too severe. We found a table pretty easily, right in front of Lucy's, and the food arrived quite promptly. Prices of the dishes were ok, except for the sugar-cane juice. At the market, the same size mug costs only $1. Here, for 3 mugs I gave the guy $5, expecting change. He said I still owed him $1! Ouch.

Parents are happy. They haven't had a car for years and it's not so fun and not so personal to call a cab everytime they want to go out. Now at least they have a new option, as long as I can spare the time.

Does anyone know where there are dog-friendly eating places? We've promised Q-tip rides but for the moment we're still scouting around for places where she will be welcome.

There was an Alien/Aliens double bill on Star Movies last night which ended past 1am. Hence this late post.

Finally collected my M2 from the showroom! And for the first time, I'm a driver not a passenger! Long may it be so.

We went through a once-over look at the body to ensure it was free of scratches or dents. Chew showed me the operations of the electronics and how to open the trunk and hood. He showed me the different components that sat so neatly in the engine compartment, handed me the rest of my documentation including the Certificate of Insurance and the car's manual and servicing record, and we drove off to the nearest Esso station where I applied for a Smiles privilege card. Chew was nice enough to buy me my first full tank of petrol even. We dropped him off at the showroom and we set off on the car's maiden road-trip.

From Macpherson we headed east looking for Changi Village which we found with ease thanks to a general working sense of direction and then by following the roadsigns pointing us in the right direction. Ipoh Hor Fun for lunch, one of the specialties at the hawker centre there (it comes highly recommended by both Channels U and I) and it didn't disappoint. Lots of ingredients went into the dish: chicken shreds, mushrooms, green vegetables, a deep-fried wonton, all swimming in dark gravy. Here we aslo found a drink stall that sold pineapple juice with bits of pineapple in each glass. We thought this drink had gone extinct years ago! It tasted like it had too much ice in the glass, which was probably true, but it had a delightful pineapple aftertaste. The pineapple bits were sweet and fun to chew. Nice.

Drove home to rest then drove out again to mom's for dinner. They were surprised (pleasantly, I hope) at my new purchase. There were lots of questions, of course, and when my sister arrived, there were more. Brother-in-law, Irwin, gave me a contact for a car polishing service at the Orchid Country Club that he and his colleagues like to go to. I'll check it out tomorrow to give my car it's protective first layer of polish.

My driving report so far:
Parking -- sucks. More (much more) practice needed, both parallel and reverse.
Street driving -- not bad. Keep it easy and everything will be fine.
Highway driving -- generally ok, could be more confident in time.
Changing lanes -- be bloody well more careful!!! A couple of close calls with larger vehicles in 2 separate incidents. Accelerate when merging into faster lanes, clear rear vehicle completely before switching lanes. Practice!!!

Looking forward to driving to college tomorrow. As I told my sister, I can no longer afford cabbing it any longer. ;)

Ok. Yesterday's post sounded a bit more serious than I intended. I got stuck on a thread and couldn't see a way out until the end. What I did intend to say was that my still nameless M2 was formally registered yesterday and Chew faxed me the log card so I could make arrangements for season parking at my HDB branch today. The log card will soon be obsolete because of the new e-system the Registrar will be implementing in a few month's time but until then I still have hard copy evidence that I own my own set of wheels.

The other thing I wanted to say yesterday was that Flirt's nameless kitten with a limp was X-rayed and was pronounced healthy with no broken bones. We can be thankful for that. But his wrist joint looks either dislocated or has a serious ligament injury and we'll need to take care of him personally for another few weeks while he recovers. Looks like Belle and Momo are used to having transients stay with us now. They're no longer sulking lumps but are going about their normal lives even though there's one more cat sharing their food and their facilities. Meantine, he misses his mom and cries a lot for attention. He loves being stroked and that calms him down somewhat but left on his own... he's just manja, that's all.

This morning we went to our HDB Area Office to apply for season parking. I brought the faxed copy of the log card and used my driving licence (we haven't collected my ID from Chew yet) as identification with counter staff. It was all very efficient. While she filled out my details on her PC I filled in the GIRO form for subsequent payments. With GIRO there's no need to worry about using overnight parking coupons to park in season parking lots any more. Season parking applies immediately the day you pay. 2 month's payment in cash or NETS to cover the processing time before GIRO kicks in.

The regular parking coupons in $0.50 and $1 denominations we got from 7-11 along with a cash card for ERP and for use in cash card parking lots downtown.

The great tragedy is, my M2 is waiting for me at the warehouse today, but I can't go collect him because I'm just too busy with Parents' Day. So Chew will drive him back to Mazda Motor from the warehouse so I can just pop by the showroom tomorrow to get him. 1 day more...

Part 2 of the J1s' Experiential Learning took place today. The tour groups had the whole of today to complete their assignments based on their experiences at Escape Theme Park yesterday. Of course, students being what they are, they didn't impress us much with the way they handled their own time. On a day without a structured timetable so that the students could complete their tasks unsupervised (it was an interdependent learning exercise after all), there were a few who just couldn't take their tasks seriously enough and decided to manage their time doing their own thing as they tried to leave campus before dismissal at noon. These few caused the whole J1 cohort to report back at the Hall for a round of attendance taking a half hour before they were officially allowed to leave.

We staff are constantly torn between freeing up the students to be responsible unto themselves, yet being forced to take 'corrective measures' when students (even if just a few) do stupid things to erode our trust in them.

This sort of thing happens less often when one leaves school to work for a living. The consequences are much greater to bear, for one thing. A reprimand, let alone a dismissal from a job has serious repercussions on a working person's prospects for the future.

For the student, what's the worst that could happen? A scolding? Demerit points? CWO? Easily laughed off, and these days if anything happens to a student in school, the parents step in to shelter the offender and will try all ways and means to shift the blame elsewhere, particularly back to the school itself.

Question: will a working person's parents do the same thing if their child got fired from his or her job? Would Miss X's mom take Starbucks to task if the organization had punished Miss X for a work-related misdemeanor? This scenario is highly unlikely, yet it happens in school. No wonder students don't see much further beyond the end of their noses. They live in a parent-sheltered non-reality. No responsibilities, no consequences, they don't even take themselves seriously.

This is not to say that the majority of our students are like that, but it's true that a few bad apples spoil the barrel. Because of a selfish few, the majority, who are responsible if fun-loving, cannot live in the freedom that they deserve. We're always coming down hardest on the good students because they happen to be diligent enough to be present whenever there's a shelling to be delivered.

I wonder if up to this level of education, parents are more a hindrance to their children's education than they are a help. At this level, we staff need a freer hand to hire and fire students, just as corporate employers are free to deal with unproductive employees. After all, employees or students, at this level they are of the same age and should be treated as such. That way, we will have students in our schools who really want to be there, who have studied their contracts carefully and know what is expected of them and will live up to their expectations in order to receive the benefits that they expect in return.

There must be a clear point at which parents know when they cannot interfere in the lives of their children any longer, and I propose that that point should be, for convenience sake, by the time the kids have taken their 'O' Levels. At JC level, 17-18 year-olds do not need their parents to shelter them any longer and by the same token shouldn't need their parents to tell them what to do either. It was like this 20-30 years ago. To have the situation as it is now is regression, not progress.

Why am I obsessing about this topic today? Because tomorrow is the J1s' Parents' Day. What message are we sending, I wonder?

Whee! Today all the J1 students and tutors dumped all formal tutorials and went to Escape Theme Park for a day of activities in the open air and bright sunshine. Formal clothing went out the window, only that the students had to be in their orientation Ts for easy identification.

All the students had already formed their tour groups from within their GP tutorials and were tasked with a number of different small assignments set by our different departments while entertaining themselves on the rides. As far as I could tell, the interest was more on the rides than on the assignment book, but who could blame them? Anyway, apart from a few tasks they had to manage on site (like measuring pulse-rate before and after a ride) there will still be time for them to complete their tasks this weekend.

The activity I planned for the students was nothing more than the stipulation that they tour the park in a set group of 4-5 members. Group integrity to be kept at all times. To facilitate the relationships amongst the group members, I assigned a specific role to each. There was a Motivator, a Cheerleader, a Resource Manager and an Arbitrator; and in case there was an additional member or two in the group, they could double roles. During GP next week, the groups will assess their success in maintaining cohesion, and correlate their success (or failure) with how well the group members played out their duties in their assigned roles.

Now, this simple activity was designed with Total Defence Day in mind; I still am NE i/c after all. Q: how does this activity relate to Total Defence? Drop me a note if you think you have an answer and see if you're right!

I landed the role of PA announcer as my duty for the day. So I burned 6 CDs full of randomized assorted music and tried my hand at being a radio DJ, spinning discs and making announcements, or rather vocal inturruptions, at every half-hour interval. At first I was all fired up and speaking with FD's smoothness, then as I realised that I could only be heard within the space of the Central Pavillion and not much further beyond, my enthusiasm took a bit of a hit. By 1130 I had run out of things to say and I guess my alternative career at 'Station SKPD*' died a natural death. Beyond that I was making inane comments and not long after my job was just to pursuade people to go home.

Never seen anything like it before. Usually our problem would have been how to keep the students entertained within the premises until dismissal time. Today, noone wanted to leave. We had to beg and cajole the students to make their way to the exits as the park had to close for the day. First I tried to be subtle by announcing the last song to be played at my station. The I stopped the music completely, kept my CDs and physically left my station. As noone got the hint, I had to grab a loudhailer and along with other staff we went from ride to ride "granting permission" for them to go home.

Picked up another kitten after dinner. This ash-coloured furball is one of Flirt's babies and the Cat Rescue Squad brought him home, bathed him and will take him to the vet tomorrow to have his front paw looked at and treated. Poor thing's limping so badly. Needs attention ASAP.

*Station SKPD was derived from the title of today's activity, 'Escapade,' which was in turn coined by both me and Agnes. 'Escapade' was a joke acronym we made up and it stood for, ahem, Experiential Scholastic Collaboration Alternative Plan And Developmental Exposure, which actually means nonsense. But we liked 'Escapade,' so we kept the title.

A lo hei with the Drama Club involving both J1s and J2s. Mel went out to Sushi Tei to bring the lo hei back to our rehearsal room. It was very fresh (it was made fresh on the premises upon ordering) and we very quickly polished it off. It was funny to hear her pronounce general blessings in Mandarin on the club and our members. She's become quite the mother for the kids and I think they love her for it.

Just before our ceremony, I drove solo in the Echo and had the worst possible time parallel parking in a lot near Brown Box where I met the guys for lunch. It didn't help that the lot was just outside the betting shop and the people waiting in line got quite a show of the car see-sawing in and out of the lot and eventually giving up, leaving a very badly parked car behind me. At least the road was clear enough to still allow traffic through.

I parked right in front of Vince, so he anxiously came out of the cafe to guide me in. Just as I left the car, the Merc in front of me decided then to leave its lot giving me ample space to maneuvre. I wasn't interested. Insult to injury, huh!

The Chef's Salad at Brown Box is nice! Fresh garden veg with slices of not-overcooked hard-boiled eggs and bits of ham. Mmm... No time for a bigger meal, but the salad held me satisfactorily the rest of the afternoon.

Mazda's Chew called to inform me that my car's just about ready for registration. He'll collect my ID card tomorrow, complete the registration on Friday and I should have my wheels by Sunday or Monday. Awesome! Meantime, I'm practicing parallel parking like crazy now. Simulated, of course. If you want to practice with me, just click here!

"Friendship Day" futsal tournament including 2 staff teams playing. In the staff face-off the winning team automatically qualifies for a semi-final match against a student team. Us old men, Vince, Anthony, me, Gerald and 2 surprise guest players, Hd Arts and Richard joined us against a younger, fitter Arts/Math/PE team led by the experience of Hd PE, soccer i/c and our current DM. Hmm... well, maybe their team only was 50% younger than ours. Ha ha.

We played in the blazing hot mid afternoon sun in the netball court, our goalposts improvised from 2 netball net poles placed at each end of the court. The match only lasted a total of 15 minutes, but really that was all we could take of running around like mad in the heat.

Our 2 teams were interestingly matched. They ran faster for longer distances, we tended to be more adventurous and creative with our probing of their goal. We created more chances at goal with more spectacular strikes, they played a passing game with fewer attempts at our goal. Unfortunately for us, they managed to convert 1 good strike whereas we were lacking that element of luck that could perhaps have made a difference.

Our best chances came from a chested volley from me that went just wide of goal, and a full-blooded volley from Anthony that splintered the crossbar without breaking it. If we were on camera we would have seen multiple replays of our shots from different angles in slow motion. Our downfall was our fitness. On a swift counterattack, we were too winded to sprint back in time to defend our goal and Gerald was left alone for a moment with Chee Peng (I think it was), who scored.

We adjourned to Gardens to rue our chances and drown our sorrow in so many large mugs of sugar cane juice that we made the Auntie a very happy woman. Anthony, of course, ran his own replays of his chances repeatedly and vowed vengeance if we ever met up again. Perhaps if we ask Amy nicely she'll set up another match for us?

Training. Fitness. Once we can run again, our team'll be unstoppable. You'll see. Oh, wait... wasn't this supposed to be for 'Friendship Day?'

Pix uploaded purely for bragging rights. No trophy yet, but working on it! The red text says the score must be verified by TNT before I can be awarded my NP. :)

It's V-day but there's not much to say about it. I'm proud, I guess, that my CT kids have been able to sell out all merchandise from their gift booth, and the proceeds have gone into purchasing more stocks to be sold over the next couple of days. Enterprising lot, they are.

And as far as gifts are concerned, I am officially the Giver of the Worst Gifts Lifetime Achievement Award Winner. Whenever I go shopping for a seasonal gift I don't want to appear like I'm purposely shopping for an item specific to the occasion. I prefer to shop for utility items rather than sentimental types because I would rather not enter a store looking like the turnip that just fell off a turnip truck, even though that's what I actually am. Fine. Totally unromantic, though I did promise in an earlier entry that I would try harder.

Perhaps it's time to stop being an out-of-the-box thinker and stick to conventional gifts instead. Flowers, candy, CD full of romantic songs (even though I'm currently boycotting commercial music because the industry has criminalized file-sharing). Safer options and stocks are plentiful so, why not?

What DID I get for June, you're probably asking right now. Don't bother asking, suffice to say it was rather ill-conceived, involved more effort to obtain than was necessary (I realize now), it didn't work like I thought hoped it would, and I'm too embarrassed to think about it any further. No, it's not contraceptive in nature, in case you're wondering, though I suppose it has become that now.

Maybe if you ask nicely, June will tell you what it was herself... It made sense to me at the time, that's all I'm saying.

Mostly confined to the neighbourhood again. This is probably one of the last few weekends that this is going to happen, so I'll just consider today a day of rest. June's finishing off a stack of Cantonese serial VCDs, a story involving lawyers, but I don't know anything more about it. I tried watching an episode, but couldn't understand the dialogue and eventually gave up. Pity, because June's really enjoying it.

Spent most of my time involved in heavy neopetting instead. Won another trophy, this time for Cellblock which is incredibly easy to beat once you've mastered the sequence by which you place your game pieces. And completed another mission for Defenders of Neopia (take that, Cave Chia!). The Neopets Total Defence (huh?) game is also up and running. The game is based on something Singaporean kids are good at and well-practiced in: comprehension. Just think of it as a cheap way to earn 1500 NP or so per day while it lasts.

I got my hair cut at my neighbourhood barber. Big Malay guy, big hair. He must be good because from the morning right till the afternoon when I decided it was time for my hair to go he was cutting hair non-stop. Customers were just filing into the barber shop in a never-ending stream. Poor guy was alone, his 2 able assistants/partners/employees were nowhere in sight, off on a CNY break, no doubt.

This guy understands what to do with my head -- got my hair cut very close again without making my head look too spherical, and I like it. No wonder he was still working right into the early evening when we were on our way to Mom's for dinner. Sad thing is, there is a new barber shop that just opened in the opposite block of shophouses, and no customers. The 3 barbers just sat around their shop smoking and reading the papers and not a head to groom.

Mom likes her new DVD player. My bro will be pouring over the manual tonight, so I think he'll be ready to give her lessons on its useage pretty soon. Left her with a couple of DVDs, Lilo and Stitch and the old classic, The Wizard of Oz, just so she can experiment with them until she gets the hang of the player's operations. She should have fun.

Can you believe it? My second time eating dim sum at the same restaurant with the same people in less than a week! It's M-i-L's birthday and we went back to Kia Hiang Gourmet for lunch to celebrate. No, I'm not really complaining, after all the food's good. The additional Peking Duck dish was a delish, though unhealthy, bonus. Sweet roast duck skin wrapped in a pancake skin with a sprig of spring onion (?) dipped in plum sauce. Only June could refuse this treat, adverse as she is to eating animal skins.

We also bought a durian cake from Angie's Choice. The cake was quickly devoured by the 8 of us around the table, and we gave a wedge to the friendly restaurant captain who paid our table so much attention. M-i-L blew out the single candle to mark the passing of another year.

Candles on cakes were once probably a test of a person's health as he or she aged. As long as the celebrant could blow out an increasing number of candles in one breath the person was still ok. Cutting the cake is probably the modern humane equivalent of making a thanksgiving animal sacrifice. Not a good idea to slaughter the pig on the dinner table these days. The guests will get their nice party clothes all messy and the floor will get all slippery, so a pretty confectionery would have to suffice. Easier to stick candles in it too.

M-i-L's birthday is within days of Mom's birthday. This year my sibs and I will be pooling resources to get her a much needed DVD player. They've really come down in price these days. I got a Sony one from Causeway Point for $159, a bargain considering my bro was thinking of a similar machine at closer to $200.

Now, I think a DVD movie would go well with Mom's new player. Hmm... wonder which movie would appeal to her and at the same time show what the new player is capable of...?

Someone was in a pink blouse in the staff room this morning. I thought I saw that blouse before and it wasn't on the person whom I remember was wearing it. One day last week Amy wore a surprising splash of colour compared to her usual modestly muted tones. It was a rather smart executive-style pink which made her look, um... happy. Today, however, Amy was flabbergasted that someone else was wearing the exact same blouse, someone who had earlier asked her where she got it from. I'm not certain of fashion etiquette amongst women, but it seems it isn't done that they buy and wear the same clothes as each other. Party in question: Mel. Good thing they didn't wear the same thing on the same day, else they just might have gone door-to-door hawking Avon products.

There was a lo hei session in the staff lounge. Interesting. Platters piled high with shredded lettuce, carrots, radish; bits of ginger, candied citron peel, crunchy things; pickled cucumbers; fresh pomelo with all the toppings and sauces. There was an ingredient conspicuously absent from the dish though -- fish. Apparently it's against regulations to serve raw food on campus in case people got the runs and sued the college, or worse, the Ministry. So we had a healthy lo salad instead, and to be honest, noone really missed the fish.

Spent the evening obsessing yet again over my yet-to-arrive M2. Found the official Japanese website for the M2, known in Japan as the "Demio." Apart from the regular versions, the Japanese have a Sports version and an ultra-feminine "Stardust Pink" version. The Demio also comes with a funky optional sun-roof which is not on our list of approved accessories here. Trust the Japanese to keep the fun stuff to themselves. Sigh.

Family lunch with the Wongs at Kia Hiang Gourmet, the Chinese restaurant in Sun Plaza. It's our annual family dim sum event with a marathon cheong fun eating session thrown in. I remembered how I was done in last year with deep-fried delicacies so I focused on the steamed stuff this year. The dishes were fresh and tasted quite refined. Unfortunately, my days of eating dim sum in quantity are quite over. I missed the crappy coffee-shop style chilli sauce that goes so well with har gow/siew mai; the chilli served here was too high class for my taste.

Wongs went on their second day of visitations while me and June stayed behind to catch Constantine. We had more than an hour to wait till showtime, so we wandered around the few open stores in the building to kill time. Eventually, we got bored of looking at toileteries and dollar-discount items. We were still too full for a coffee so we simply settled on a bench and watched a bunch of little kids abusing a coin-operated ride machine. Typical of kids -- play until cry. Kids are so predictable.

Constantine isn't a fun movie to watch per se. It's slow, methodical pace develops quite an interesting story taking licence from the Catholic mythos, but don't expect too much gleeful shoot-'em-up action. There is some, but it's not by gun nor by fist that Constantine saves the day, but rather by an appeal to a higher authority to resolve the situation; not the common approach for the run-of-the-mill action hero, but then Constantine is no ordinary hero. He smokes a lot and has terminal lung cancer as a result. His motivation comes from a selfish desire to "buy" his way into heaven, knowing that his ultimate destination is going to be The Other Place due to a mistake he made in his early life. A hero from the dark side, then.

Warning: the movie takes licence with the fundamentals of Christian belief, so if you are easily offended or confused this movie might not be for you. Else, be prepared for the kind of gritty storytelling from DC's adult line of comic books with its greater focus on human drama and experience than superhuman >pow< >biff< >bang<. In a way, it makes for meatier storytelling, but rates low on the fun index. Choice is yours.

The day passed without a lot of input from me. Just coasted over to the in-laws for a bit of lunch and gobble whatever I could of June's cookies while they were still obtainable. Watched Kung Fu Hustle on VCD. Sadly, it wasn't as funny as its trailer promised. We didn't bring Mimi back as she's still under 'treatment' at our place, but it felt strange being at my in-laws' and not having her around begging for tidbits and tummy-rubs.

When we got home in the mid-afternoon, we put phase 2 of Mimi's treatment in action. We took both Mimi and Q-tip for a long walk around Yishun Park. The park was quite deserted today so we took them off their leashes and let them just follow us as we trekked the jungle pathways. Idea was to tire Mimi out in the afternoon so that she would be able to sleep at night. There was an unexpected side effect, however. Both June and I were wiped out on the living room carpet in front of the TV for the rest of the afternoon. Went to my mom's a little late as a result.

Had lots of satay at mom's. Don't know where she got them from, but the sticks of beef and chicken were good and meaty; eaten with piles of onions, cucumbers and ketupat. And more of June's cookies. Over-ordered, as usual, and when we left there was still a number of sticks of satay left that we couldn't finish. OK, not exactly a traditional Chinese meal for CNY, but few stores are open today.

CNY: eat, sleep, give hongbao to younger cousins, nephews and nieces. And parents too. It's a whole different perspective after you're married.

Chinese New Year concert on campus probably isn't going to be as memorable as the breakfast after. 3 cars, 6 people running out to town for kaya toast at the original Killeny Road place. Unfortunately it was closed for the holiday. Decided to go to the nearby Dubliners instead.

Party comprised me & Boon Sin in Anthony's car, Tsui Wei in Vince's and Amy doing a self-drive. I was starving as I hadn't eaten in the morning, and presumably the others were too. Sadly, I had to forego the pork shoulder because reunion lunch with June's folks was in only a couple of hours. I contented myself with the fish fingers in chilli mayo, one of the lighter offerings on the menu.

Immediately after brekkie I scooted off for lunch. From my in-laws' place I picked up an unexpected bonus: Mimi, who has come to stay with us for another couple of days. It seems she has insomnia and as a result has been keeping the household awake at night with her barking for constant attention in the wee hours. We've been tasked with the job of training her back into her regular sleeping hours that are more acceptable to human habits, so we're hoping that our cats will keep her awake and occupied the whole day then she'll be properly tired at night and sleep like the rest of us. Once she's no longer insomniac we can return her to her proper habitat.

Abandoned all our animals to go to reunion dinner with my clan. The Peony Jade seems like a good place for reunion dinner -- especially during the second shift -- as the pacing is quite relaxed and the staff maintain their friendly demeanour throughout the 10-course meal, though they must be anxious themselves to go home to their own families. Food is pretty standard stuff. It was their ecologically unfriendly sharks fin soup that stands out for me as the most delicious dish of the evening. The bits floating around in the soup were chunky and gave the teeth something to do.

Nephew, Mark, had a reaction to the MSG, complaining of chest pains and facial numbness. His family took him to the hospital though, as we had predicted, his symptoms subsided while waiting to see the doctor. We guessed that Mark had been raised on healthy food since young and hasn't built much resistance against the introduction of unhealthy substances into his system. Unlike the rest of us.

We all adjourned to Mom's after dinner for loud conversation and June's cookies. Family chat till past midnight dosing on sugars and caffeine. Time for bed now... Happy New Year!

The world isn't a nice place; that's what one of my kids learned today. Leave your stuff lying about for long enough, when you come back something's going to be missing from it if you haven't taken proper precautions. Whoever it was who made my girl cry, I hope you have a dying mother for whom you bought medicine with your "takings." Poor kid's probably never going to be the same innocent from today, and what a loss that's going to be for the world.

Crime occurs because there is intent which follows through from opportunity. Intent cannot be prevented because that's trying to assert control over realms that we have no control over. What we do is control what we can control and that is, as far as possible, to reduce the opportunity. With half the equation gone, crime is unlikely to happen.

"Reducing the opportunity" simply means being responsible for what you have or what you are entrusted with. Don't leave stuff unattended. If for some reason you can't look after your own stuff for a while, get someone you trust to help you look after it while you're gone. In an ideal world, we needn't have to be this paranoid, but we do live in a nasty world so it's wiser to be careful than be sorry.

On another note, Mel, Pete and me finally sat down for a meal together. Scotts Picnic where we all had different versions of beef noodles. Wholesomely delicious, with rare broiled beef strips and beefballs in thick gravy and clear soup on the side.

Before that, we went to visit Tina first to sort out where we all were for Drama Night and what needed to be done from this point on. With Mel as den-mother, Pete as music director, Tina as drama coach, what's left for me is admin, finance and backstage (with Yee's help, of course). That means I really am Producer, a role I've never had to play before. It's going to be a stretch, especially since I'm removing myself a step away from the stage and handling overall management (I'm the Man now) but I can do it. I'm scared, but I've done various aspects of these duties before. I just need to pull them all together for this one performance, that's all. *Crosses fingers*

It's Gerald's son's 1st-month cum baptism celebration. The Dept went to lunch at his place to congratulate the new parents and see the kid. We pooled our cash together and with June's help got them some things that we thought might be useful for raising young Ed. It wasn't the plasma screen TV Gerald asked for but it was the best we could do.

This is the 2nd 1st-month celebration I attended in 2 days running. Last night I had dinner at my cousin Raph's house in honour of Rachel, my new niece. Guests included his dad's (my uncle) side of the family and his mom's side. The side I represented, though chronologically more advanced, is curiously devoid of children. Raph's mom's side brought in so many kids we had to be careful where we put our feet to avoid stepping on one or another of them.

What reasons might there be for the disparity? The common factor I observe is in the strength of the matriachal influence on the family. A strong female presence within the extended family unites the disparate members, forcing (in a nice way) siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts together to enjoy common family bonding activities. There is a sense of family support; multiple redundancies -- like the Internet which has rerouting capabilities through damaged parts of its network. There is security in the family community that will continue to provide support for its members even if something untoward should occur to a branch of the family tree.

Also, there is reassurance in being part of a larger whole. Everyone else one is emotionally and physically close to is already establishing a family and having kids, so it's all part of a natural process of family continuity that is easily taken for granted. One cannot have or raise kids in a vacuum.

My extended family is pretty close to each other too, but not THAT close. We've moved away from that kind of communal lifestyle and it's hard for me to imagine doing things like that again. We don't holiday together, or enjoy recreational activities together, or even eat together; we don't spend much of the week together, just perhaps 1 or 2 festival days a year apart from the occasional "hey, Kit's back from England, let's go have dinner," kind of thing. So the family bond is looser.

Having kids -- apart from by 'accident' -- is not really a matter of want or don't want. It's whether having new issue can be supported by one's larger social context. For an extended family group that is already strong and well-established, kids arrive as a matter of course. For family groups with weaker bonds, kids could drive the different members even further apart because the priority is not towards the family but rather towards looking after the individual's immediate interests. Skipping Grandma's birthday dinner because the brat has to go for Chinese tuition, say.

The Appalachian version is a bit extreme, but yes, it's family that breeds family. And having a tough old bird of a Matriarch helps too.

Edit 01:
Chew, my sales rep at Mazda is moving things along for me. He secured my COE bid this month so today I went back to see him again to complete my first payments for my M2. I wrote 4 cheques: 1 for the downpayment balance, 1 to the bank for my 1st installment, 1 to the insurance company for my annual premium, and 1 for the upgrading of the M2's fabric interior to leather. Chew told me my car has already arrived in port. Mazda will close over CNY then on reopening will take two weeks to get it ready to my specifications and by end Feb I should be able to drive it home. Hmm... what does 'expedited' mean?

Went to support the college team in the Debate Invites on campus. A number of colleges sent their 1st year teams to be blooded for the first time in the earliest inter-college tournament of the year.

For Vince, Anthony, Amy and me, we also took the opportunity to skip out between Shah's opening address and our team's first contest to have a leisurely breakfast at Ya Kun, J8. I wish Ya Kun would let us crack open our own eggs rather than serve them already swimming in a saucer at the collection point. It may be one form of quality control, ensuring the customer gets eggs done just right, but eggs cool off quickly like that and get yuckky if not immediately consumed. Still, I am amazed at the size of the egg yolks they serve -- big -- and the generosity of the butter slab that goes in between each slice of toast. Good stuff.

Back on campus we watched both our matches against Millennia and National. Must say we were lucky to beat Millennia. The adjudicator took great pains to thoroughly explain the faults of both teams and the debaters had a really good lesson in debating at competition level. We won not because we had a particularly strong or well-argued case but because we cast sufficient reasonable doubt on our opponent's. Though we fielded a stronger team against National, we didn't make it past them though we might have if we had more confidence of delivery, could think faster and had more passion and belief in what we were presenting.

1 win, 1 loss. Acceptable result, I suppose.

Yay! Took the M3 for a short drive back from GFC to college. It has a nice, quiet engine that you can barely hear even on ignition. Everyone was in a hurry to get back because of this or that reason so I took it into the parking lot where we all scrambled out and scattered to do our own things.

Tina's officially signed on to direct Drama Night, but it's still nerve wracking that it's already February and our script's still in process. We had to push our annual event back to the first week of May -- now just 3 months away -- and there's still little progress even in casting for roles yet. Tina's, of course, anxious and though I may not look it I am terribly concerned. Can we make our deadline? We started the year with very high ambitions but reality is staring us in the face again. Too much inertia, something's got to be done, but what?

Last year when we had problems in production, Cara talked to me and I could advise her being that I was the experienced one between the both of us. She was overall responsible and I could be calm, objective and I could see from the big picture perspective because I didn't have to deal with everyday reality. This year, Cara's gone, I'm taking responsibility, my vision is clouded with too many minute details, and I don't have an experienced person to turn to for guidance. At least, not on a day-to-day basis. I feel like I'm running things on my own and that sucks.

I don't know why exactly, but it looks like this year we drama advisers don't even seem to have time to talk to each other. I need someone around with whom I can just live, breathe and talk about Drama Night to help me keep focus, so like it or not, whatever time is at hand I will have to seek out the company of Mel and Pete a lot more often regardless of our schedules. Likewise, they will have to make time to hang out with me too. No 'meetings,' just breakfast and lunch. Everyday. Until we're so easy enough with each other we're tossing insults back and forth across the table and, sometimes, ideas too. Like it was last year.

Hope it isn't too late.

I am so pumped! Anthony and Amy thought they'd put me to the test today. When we drove out for lunch, Amy gave me the keys to her car and designated me the driver.

In a way, it was after talking through things with the two of them that I decided to get my own car. Anthony (voice of adventure) + Amy (voice of reason) = Mazda2. I guess you could say they're my car's Godparents. I still don't know what to call my car yet, don't even know if it's a boy or a girl, so I'll wait patiently a little longer until it is delivered.

Amy's Echo is easy to drive. Being small, it takes corners well and the steering is light. Acceleration isn't fantastic, a bit like the Getz, needing time to torque up before release. We, no, I drove to our favourite prata place at Rosyth. It's a reasonable distance from campus to take the Echo on a joyride, yet close enough to make it back for tutorial.

Anthony behaved himself and didn't try to be as distracting as he might have been with a more experienced driver. His restraint was a good thing 'cos there was little space to park except to parallel park in a pretty tight spot by my estimation. Haven't done any parallel parking since my driving test in, oh, 1990(?) but I did reasonably well today. A bit far from the kerb but it was an infrequently used side road so I didn't feel the need for perfection.

Lunch was Maggi mee goreng with a fried egg on top. The 3 of us ordered the same thing so no problems splitting the bill. I went with the "no chilli" option which I think was a good decision. Last time there was so much chilli my stomach was uh... volatile all day. Today, I could actually taste the mee goreng. Next time, I'll opt for "no ketchup" as well.

On arriving back in college, they really tested my parking. Amy chose the furthest lot in the tiny parking space by the running track. This involved me backing the Echo past 3 other parked cars before swinging butt-first into the lot. For the first time, I truly got the hang of coordinating eyes with hands with feet and disengaging brain. It worked. Not too much problem parking, though a bit close to the left kerb this time.

Small car I now have the confidence to handle. How about a bigger car: Anthony's Mazda3? If he'll let me drive it, we'll see, won't we?
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I want my car, NOW!

Look what came in my mail today:

1 Bill from VISA showing a credit balance of $1.25, which means I overpaid my previous bill by this amount (this is a good thing).

1 Statement from HDB informing me how my monthly home payments are doing. I couldn't believe my eyes at first. Between June and me, our monthly loan repayment total should have put a healthy dent on our loan amount, yet on the final tally we've only repaid a little more than $4k over the last year. I looked again and came to the horrid realisation that my monthly contribution just barely covers the interest on our loan and it's June's contribution that's actually paying off our principal sum. Ouuuuuccccchhhh...!

1 copy of my Purchase Agreement with Mazda reminding me of yet another major monthly expense which in turn reminds me why I need a monthly paycheck for a long, long time yet to come.

O.o

Once in a while we need a reality check. 'nuff said.

It's that time of year again when June's all-consuming passion is to bake her own supplies of Chinese New Year cookies enough to distribute to both our families and to our colleagues as well. The pineapple filling has been cooking in the wok for more than a week already and it is almost dry enough to use. Today though, she's focusing on her corn flake cookies, trays and trays worth, and all molded by hand. Soon she'll be working on her peanut cookies and kuih makmur (link for info only; this isn't June's recipe), and I believe she has been experimenting with almond cookies this year too.

At this time of year she is at her most exhausted state, working her butt off to fill a pile of plastic containers full of her kitchen-baked goodness. Why does she do it? Because she's really good at it. And I'm not just saying it because I'm married to her. Just ask our families and our colleagues.

No, her cookies are not for sale in case you are wondering. They can only be given away free, gratis, limited quantities only. Maybe that's why they're so good?

Me? I've been working on a couple of documents detailing my strategy for helping my current batch of students get through their Term 1 Oral Presentations. They are a bit long to force anyone to read them in this blog, so download the texts from the links below if you're interested:
Stories Past & Present
Paul's Complicated Framework

We had to call in the professionals.

2 weeks ago, June decided she would strip off the solar film coating the inside of our windows 'cos she wanted a brighter house. Her first attempt was in the guest room where she started peeling the film off one shred at a time. The film is stuck on so tightly it takes quite some effort to remove and it really is slow going. Worse, the film leaves behind a nasty adhesive residue that opaques out the window even worse than ever. Undaunted, June used a rag and a bit of water to scrub each window clean of the gummy stuff, failing which she tried paint thinner which smudged the window worse than ever, then she enlisted my help and together we both ripped at the remaining windows in the guest room, followed by the windows in our living room. Once you start, you can't stop.

Ripping out the film is the fun part. Scrubbing the windows clean, that was the killer. All our household solvents were less help than the elbow grease we eventually resorted to. Before long, we developed serious blisters on nearly all our fingers and had to concede defeat. 5 panes completely clean, 1 pane semi-clean, 1 pane left untouched and 4 panes left in our bedroom also untouched. It took us close to a whole week to get this far. However, this wouldn't do for the new year. All the film had to go, and all the panes clean else it'll just look and feel half-done.

June found Window-Cool, a company that does solar shielding and today they came over to finish the job for us. The rep was quite impressed with what we had accomplished so far -- but at what cost, we asked, thinking of our poor, abused fingers. The pros had a bladed tool that easily stripped the film off without scratching the glass. Phase 2 involved a chemical solvent that they sprayed on the window which they then scraped clean with a smaller bladed tool and finally buffed with cloth. 5-and-a-half panes completely clean in 30 minutes. Casualties: none. Damage to wallet: $120. Should'a called them in earlier.

Took a walk on the Empress Place grounds having had an early breakfast and finding there was still time before service this morning. The Park is full of Botero sculptures all in their glorious reubenesque nudity. Yes, the unkind would say Botero sculptures are grotesquely obese, especially not representative of the "healthy lifestyle" we are supposed to be promoting here. It's as if the Sports Council people aren't talking to the Arts people and we're getting mixed signals from our authorities.

But there is something about the serene contentment, the revelry of fullness that exudes from the XXXXL figures. Their faces don't show much expression, but my impression is that they are happy. From "Adam" and "Eve" to the "Woman with cigarette" to (bow before my knowledge of Greek mythology -- I knew what the title was without looking at the plaque) "Leda and the swan" they are all in poses of rest and perhaps they serve as a reminder, in the middle of our busy cityscape, that it's ok to relax, it's ok to be contented, it's ok to be fat, um..., satisfied anyway.

To escape a bunch of evangelistic Falongong members who attempted to tell us how glorious it was to self-immolate in protest against repressive authoritarianism the first time we passed them, we detoured back to our service using a section of Nicoll Highway between the Esplanade and One Fullerton. June and I haven't walked this scenic stretch since our dating days, so a bit of nostalgia there.

Niece Joanne's birthday so after service we went to Kino, Taka to get her a book voucher. 9 years old, already a bookworm and media junkie. Aren't all first-borns like that?

For once in many moons my study is clear of junk. I can see the floor again! I can put my feet on my desk and not worry that things will topple over! You didn't need to know that, I'm sure.

Spent the whole day bagging very old correspondence, periodicals and other non-print resources, taking the committment to systematically dump every item I hadn't needed to use in more than a year, apart from just a few items of particular sentimental value -- gifts from students, friends and wife.

I trashed old PC magzines and their accompanying CD-ROMs, and I've sorted out all the PC games I'm no longer playing and replaced the disks with their manuals in their proper boxes, and now, I wonder, if anyone out there might want to inherit some old PC games from me? Let's see what I have...

Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
Freelancer
Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Silent Hill 3
Metal Gear Solid 2 (PC DVD-ROM version)
NFS: Underground
Half-Life: Blue Shift (requires Half-Life to play)
Doom 3 (tough decision, but motion sickness prevents me from playing this ever again)

All these games have given me a lot of joy at one time or another, so they deserve to have good homes now while current systems can still run them. Yeah, I'm offering all these games for free on a first chope first served basis, so leave a comment if you see something you want. I've also got some obscure old, old games as well. Inquire if interested.

With June's help the floor is clean, the sofa-bed and the bean-bag are wearing fresh upholstery, and the old animal hair-ridden carpet has been replaced with a brand new one. My desk and Watson have been wiped down and my bookshelf tidied. For a day's work, I think we did good. Now my study is in a fit state to receive guests at Chinese New Year. Don't forget to bring your hongbao!

Blogger is acting funny tonight. I can't seem to get in. Wonder if anyone else is having the same problem or if Watson's not feeling well again. For the last couple of days, Watson's 'net connection especially with blog-related sites has been very slow and it's been getting worse and worse. Hope the problem's with Blogger and not Watson. I can't afford to overhaul him as often as I did before.

I said I wanted to run GP classes according to my schedule, but that's becoming untenable given the little time we have that's quickly running out. Either that or I need to relook my schedule and decide if I'm conducting my course strictly on storytelling or if it's going to be geared towards group oral presentations because I really don't have time to make a smooth transition from one to the other.

Because of the upcoming competition, I'm rushing through my plan to practice the kids in storytelling. I'm cutting corners, burning bridges and the results, if today is anything to go by, are going to be a complete mess.

I tried to do too much today. First a brief narration of a childhood memory using a rough sketch of an object symbolic of the incident. Not to say that the 2 volunteers' stories were uninteresting. On the contrary, both speakers had quite harrowing childhood memories to relive with us. One recalled being robbed at GUNPOINT in her home on Christmas day, the other related quite a disastrous trip up Mt Ophir involving lots of painful accidents and spirit possessions for the different members of his climbing team.

We then had a very sketchy discussion of what qualities a good speaker and a good audience should have, then I distributed a bunch of hastily copied folktales to 6 workgroups and told them to prepare a group presentation inspired by a story of the groups' choice. I forgot that preparation for such a narration involving planning, teamwork and much rehearsal needed more time than the half-hour I allocated.

I had hoped (and I did tell them so) that they may use their imaginations and in the best possible way present their stories as a team, i.e., involving everyone as a presenter. I had expected a variety of formats -- press interview or talk-show involving the main characters, a debate disputing the "moral of the story," or a role-play or something. Everyone opted for the role-play (simplest option, right?). As a result,when the groups eventually presented, I had to concern myself with pointing out basic concepts of theatrical presentation and what I wanted to focus on -- group presentation dynamics, confidence building and speaking without relying on a written script -- went out the window.

I simply wanted to do too much today, did more than I had planned for, and diluted everything in the process. One step forward, two steps back. Oh, bugger.

Although my alarm clock rang at 5:30 this morning, sunlight was already pouring through my window and I knew the worst had happened. I jumped to check June's clock and, yep, it was 7:15, no way to make it to assembly on time. Standard procedure is to notify Vince who agreed to help me take attendance for my CT. Fine.

CT rep was overjoyed that Civics Tutor was not available to take attendance personally and with much enthu marked off the register on my behalf. Great!

I arrived and gave my first tutorial of the day to a very lively Arts group. Then it was time for GP with my CT. Apart from one earnest China scholar, the room was empty. She was as mystified as I was over the whereabouts of her mates. No prizes for guessing where they were: chillin' out in the canteen, CT rep having declared my absence from campus thus no tutorial for the day. The pronouncement was premature, but an understandable mistake, given the circumstances.

By the time they sheepishly arrived for tutorial, half an hour had gone already so GP had to stretch right into CT period to make up for lost time. And I was so looking forward to playing Pictionary too.

The CT tried to appease me with an uneaten apple and some candy. Quick thinking on their part. Humph.

I have since changed the battery on my alarm clock so this mistake isn't likely to happen again, right?

I was in such a hurry to get to college this morning I forgot about popping by 7-11 to get a jar of peanut butter 'n jelly (PBJ) for the EL potluck lunch. Just as well, it probably wouldn't have gone with anything the others brought. Nirm's chicken curry, Lucy's home-made corned beef buns (so professionally done they looked store-bought), and unidentified sources brought the veggie samosas, fruit (including tiny oranges that were meant to be eaten with their skins on), Cadbury's Caramello and Vanilla ice-cream topped with strawberry and chocolate sauce, agar jelly, and rolled chocolate wafers. Ate and ran, though I really should have helped out with the cleanup. I don't have an excuse, I can be horribly thoughtless at times.

Today marks this year's annual X-country run at MacRitchie. A day where everybody gets all hot and sweaty and congratulates each other for completing the 4.2km course. Except, of course, for the unhealthy and infirm, e.g., yours truly, who spent most of the run confined to the cafe on top of the hill overlooking the reservior.

In the number of years I've attended this annual event, this is the first time the cafe was actually open and I could buy a vanilla coke to occupy me till the races were over. My fellow invalids sat with me and we spent a pleasant afternoon together in the great outdoors.

Really, if I could get medical clearance to run, I would. There's a trophy for the staff race every year, and how difficult would it be to finish in the top 6? If I was allowed to run, I'm certain this would be an attainable goal, and my desk is due for another display of glitter, if only...

Am proud of fellow pegasii, Lynnette and JY, who finished 5th and 6th in the staff women's race respectively and can now decorate their desks with their trophies. But X-country isn't a House event this year. The Championship is awarded to CCA groups instead. This year, the Championship was a clean sweep by our canoeists in both Guys and Girls team categories. Looks like they're seriously training for some serious awards this year. Seriously.

After X-country, I went to meet June at GV, PS to make use of my 2 comp tix to tonight's preview screening of Finding Neverland. I found this invitation in my pigeonhole yesterday addressed to the "Head of Drama Club," so position does have its privileges. Heh.

A very deftly balanced movie playing off the complexities of human relationships: youthful playfulness vs adult pragmatism; human imagination vs human mortality; "pretend" vs reality. It's also a comment on the marketing of public entertainment and how contact with children sometimes unlocks or reawakens the kid in all of us, to believe in and thereby enjoy the things that go far beyond mundane, inevitable reality.

Don't want to spoil the movie talking too much about it, but it is quite a beautiful piece, a bit like what Big Fish was, except not so OTT. Many in the audience developed a case of sniffles watching this movie, so be warned, a pack of tissues might come in handy, especially for the more sensitive of us. No, it may not be a howler but it is an insight into the very ordinary things that go on around us that -- with a little imagination -- transform everyday life into a daily adventure. Cool!

The GP Oral Presentation Contest is one week earlier than I had planned for. The in-tutorial preliminaries should have started this week to short-list the representatives who will represent their CTs in the 2nd round held next week in the LTs during GP lecture slots. This OP contest is intended to be the JC1s' graded assignment for Term 1, thereby giving us an alternative to marking written work by hand and reducing pressure on the new students so that they can enjoy JC life more. Also, it could be a load of fun for everyone.

The OP is to be given without AV assistance, and should be about some significant event that had taken place in recent history that had a significant impact on our lives today. Pretty much anything goes, really, and can be justifiable as such. For example, the development of the i-Pod has changed the way we access music and has led to the problems of piracy and copyright issues. Or the students could talk about changes in censorship laws in Singapore or what a change in PMs might bode for our near future. Whatever. Something happened, and now we live or think or otherwise behave differently from before.

A team of 4-5 members will represent each tutorial group, they'll all slug it out in the LTs next week, and the final 3 teams will compete in the grand finals a couple of weeks before the term ends. There is no set format in which the teams must make their presentations. They may opt for a straight prepared speech, play a skit, conduct an interview, host a talk show, whatever their imagination and creativity leads them to do.

But next week's deadline is very tight for what I had in mind. The first 2 weeks I intended to build confidence in my students. Only subsequently would I have unleashed the full magnitude of their OP obligations on them. I am making good on my promise to focus my tutorials on storytelling first before looking at GP proper and so far the activities and the students' involvement levels during tutorials have been encouragingly positive. Once they all learn to speak confidently and freely share info during tutorials will further lessons actually be engaging and fun. But, now no time , so how?

I don't care. I'm running my carefully thought out plan for my tutorial groups as is, but concurrently I will be training an 'elite' group of speakers to represent their respective CTs, giving them a crash course in research, discussion and presentation skills so they can compete competently next week. That's 'cheating' according to the word of rules governing the contest, but not the spirit. After all, I am obliged to send my best representatives to compete, right? No one should dictate how I am to go about selecting and training them. I wanna win!!!

But regardless of the outcome all my students should by the end of the term be confident speakers so that wherever they go from Term 2 on, they will continue to engage their tutors and each other, supporting each other in their preparation for uni life in the coming years. Well, let's hope I can pull it off.

The staffroom was reasonably sane this morning. A number of people knew about my weekend purchase but they didn't draw too much attention towards it. Only Anthony, Vince and Amy had a short discussion with me to find out the details and to question what I had got for the price I was paying. And they also remarked how disappointed they were that they missed the chance to go test driving with me before I made a final decision. Nothing I can do about the latter, but as for what I actually bought, here goes:

A 1.5l auto Mazda 2 in Brilliant Black. It comes with a 6-piece sports aerokit including a sports front bumper, side and rear skirt air dams and a single piece roof spoiler; 15" sports rims; reverse-gear proximity sensor; a 6-CD front loading changer with steering-wheel mounted controls; a sports leather interior (for $300 extra instead of the full price $650); and remote alarm system.

It's fuel efficient because of its VVT engine which regulates the amount of fuel consumed based on what the car is doing at the moment, and it's safe due to its 4-wheel ABS and dual air bags. It has a versatile rear compartment that can be easily configured to transport passengers or goods as necessary. With the passenger seats completely folded up I could imagine I'm actually driving an SUV. Well, I used to want an SUV before it became fashionable, but now that everyone has one, I can't be bothered with it any more.

Yes, I'm now in debt for a hefty amount. My loan is with OCBC at 2.2% per annum for 7 years (or 84 months), and there are still other per month costs of running a car that I have still got to factor in: gas, parking, ERP, insurance, taxes (road and apparently radio), maintainence... anything I've missed out? I guess I'll be doing my best to remain employed with the Ministry for a long time yet to come. No wonder people can receive 25-year long service awards on Teachers' Day.

I'm gushing, I know. But unless I get the excitement of buying a car out of my system my entries will continue to be as constipated as yesterday's entry. Am I quite done? Uhh... yeah, for today, anyway. Heh.

Right, let's change the subject...

Skipped out on tonight's workshop. Too physically tired from running around in the afternoon with the Drama Club which is being put through the paces of extra physical activity to keep the members' health up during this lull period. We raised a good sweat and even self confessed ball-phobic Mel showed the she could run and throw and catch with the best of us. If this is going to be a weekly Monday event, wonder what's going to happen to my evening workout session -- I'll be too pooped to attend, like tonight. [Hmm... still looks a bit constipated.]

It's hard to find nian gao (sweet, sticky rice cake) in the hand-made variety though the market is full of the factory-made stuff. This popular Chinese New Year snack has gone commercial and the once traditional labour of love has given way to hi-technology, hi-volume, hi-genic distribution this year. We searched our market for the banana leaf-wrapped hand-made nian gao, we scoured Chong Pang market and the market at the Block 260s, but it looks like all the small-scale suppliers have all been wiped out by big business this year. Guess it was just a matter of time. Anyone who has seen hand-made nian gao still being sold please let us know where, ok?