Ah, my poor neglected blog.

KOTOR 2 is one absorbing game that pushes its story chapter by chapter so strongly that hours of gameplay go by so quickly that the sun is up and birds are tweeting in the trees before you decide that perhaps it's time for bed.

Not that the game is a perfect one. Gamers using ATI cards (Radeon, etc.) may suffer serious graphics glitches, at times making the game almost unplayable. Lots of complaints about this if you look up the forum pages. There is a workaround: add the line, "Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1" under the "Graphics Options" heading in the swkotor2.ini file in whatever directory you installed the game in (remember to back up first!). However, this solution still fails to prevent the screen from turning into a pixel pizza. It only allows your party to move to where you want them to go without getting stuck in a wall or mysteriously teleporting to some other part of the map where you didn't want them to go. I guess only the didicated would want to continue playing after this horror story, so Lucasarts or ATI, get it fixed! NOW!

Having finished the game (yay! no more going to bed at 6am!). I would say that the story in KOTOR 2 seems darker than the original. A lot more guilt, death, despair in the backstory, yet our avatar's redemption seems to require little more than a clearing up of a misunderstanding. Or perhaps I was just playing light-side?

The big boss characters in the sequel seem easier to kill too. Or perhaps I know what to do now, having had the benefit of experience from the original? Simple procedure: power up with all Force bonuses (speed, resistance/s, battle meditation if you must) before you open any door you might expect a hornets' nest of baddies. If the battle is going badly for you, power up with speed and run like mad away from battle. Then heal up and return. If you're lucky, the hoard would have scattered a bit pursuing you and back at full health you can pick them off one-by-one. Not very noble, I admit, but it gets the job done.

The ending came a bit abruptly, with a few loose ends unresolved, even unaddressed. That's probably because I had a few sub-plots left to complete before the final battle launched itself on me. If you want the whole story, absolutely DO NOT go into the Shyrack cave on Korriban (I think this was the point of no-return) too early. Make sure you complete all your quests before that, then proceed.

Also, DO build up the "Repair" skill so you can upgrade T3-M4 and find out its story. I didn't do this so I haven't a clue as to what happened to it, the Ebon Hawk, or Revan(?) just before the beginning of KOTOR 2. You can trade off some "Stealth" for "Repair" 'cos there's only so much Stealth you need. Later in the game, you're going in swinging your lightsabres (2 'sabres are better than 1 double-bladed one) so there's not much use for subtlety anyway.

Guess it'll be worth playing again to complete the whole picture, but maybe not until they fix the graphics glitch. Very annoyed about that. >grumble< >grumble<...

At about 1am, there was a feline commotion in the square below my block. June and I went down to investigate and try our luck if the source was the One we were looking for. We couldn't believe our eyes when we found him -- he was indeed the Big One, the Ginger Tom, himself. Jackpot!

Of all the toms June wanted fixed, he was right at the top of the list. Overconfident, he didn't bother running from us so was he ever surprised when June picked him up and quickly stuffed him in the carry basket. Then he got upset. All the way home we had to physically hold the top of the basket down to prevent him from breaking free.

Once home we had a problem. We had to weigh the basket top down with something too heavy for him to push off. The container of rocks that June uses for rock painting wasn't heavy enough. We settled for the whole container of June's art materials and books and prayed real hard that the weight would hold him down and yet not be so heavy that it would eventually crush the basket, and him along with it.

So finally we had our 2 cats: Flirt in the bedroom toilet and Ginger Tom in the basket in the guest room. By 2am I was out like a light, but June had a sleepless night making sure that Flirt, who figured out how to open the bathroom door from the inside, didn't escape.

In the morning, after brekkie, we went to the hardware shop to get a packet of cable ties. We attached a tie to each corner of the basket and one on each side as well. Just as we had finished attaching the last tie we heard a "brrraaaakkk" from inside the basket. In his terror, the tom emptied his guts (from the smellier end, mind you), but thankfully somehow managed to avoid stepping all over the mess. There was a frenzied cutting of the ties we had just finished securing, a quick transfer to the stand-by basket, a re-securing with fresh ties, and a quick wash up of the 1st basket. Oh, man!

Drove to Dr Ling's clinic without incident. About time things went in our favour. We left them in Dr Chan's care then drove off to Causeway Point to restock up on cat litter. We dropped off our purchase at home then went to SAFRA's bowling pro shop to buy me a ball. An 11-pound blue-green orb with cosmic sparkles personally hand-picked off the cheapest shelf in the shop. That, plus carry bag for both ball and shoes set me back $145. No wonder people go pro.

No time to test my new ball. The lanes were all full and the cats were ready to be collected from the clinic. The clinic didn't fasten the tom's basket as tightly as we did, so the drive home was scary as he kept struggling in his little prison of at least half a day and I wondered what would happen if he had got loose while I was still driving. Fortunately, we got home in one piece and we released him back to his natural habitat where, Cat Auntie reported, she saw him asleep this evening. Trying to get over his trauma, no doubt.

To cowpat:
Thanks for inviting us to Blue Moo (what an interesting concept!), but after all the excitement of the day we decided to pass. Hope you had a good time, and let us know when BP's next show is on, ok?

Dinner at Marrybrown, a Malaysian chain of Southern-style fried chicken restaurants to rival KFC. Ok, lah. Quite sedap.

Boy, the M2's been running around quite a bit today.

Just a quick note 'cos it's late. Again.

Q-tip went for grooming and now she's a much smaller, lighter, more dog-shaped dog instead of a walking fluff-ball.

Flirt's kitten has found a new home! The bakery lao ban niang agreed to keep him as the 4th cat in her house. It's sad to see him go, but really the practicality of keeping him as our 4th pet was a bit much for us. Hope he can settle down quickly and have more fun with his new roomies who, hopefully, will treat him with more welcome than Belle and Momo did.

Much later in the evening, we went hunting and caught Flirt herself yet again. June is taking the day off so we can take her for spaying, and no excuses this time. We also intended to catch one of the neighbourhood toms to accompany Flirt and her "procedure," but they have so far been too smart for us. It seems they have all gone hiding as we scoured our immediate neighbourhood, but there was no trace of Bubbles, or Ginger Tom, or even Skull. Wonder who's been tipping them off?

Will try again early tomorrow morning then send off whomever we can to Dr Ling. Someone's gonna get fixed...

Whoa! Lost a day. Where have I been? Telos, Dxun, Onderon, all exotically named, but none of the drinks with the little umbrella that you keep hearing about. Over the last few days, I've been reacquainted with the word "overindulgence" resulting in VERY sleepless nights as I progress through KOTOR 2. Much improved gameplay from the original, a lot more options for customizing characters and barang-barang.

One major complaint I have, though: I've got serious graphics problems with polygons bleeding all over the place especially in areas that are wide open or if there's too much movement going on onscreen. It gets so bad, I can't see any bloody thing. The only way out is to quicksave then quickload again to restabilize the graphics and repeat ad infinitum until I reach an area that isn't so graphics intensive. Sucks there. I don't know if it's a problem with the game or my graphics card, but the forum pages aren't very helpful. Hope Lucasarts or ATI will release a patch soon, else I'll go postal.

Took a break this evening to take my nephew to the Disney on Ice "Princesses" special. I imagine that if NBS was there she'd be calling out all the moves the skaters executed, just as I would if I watched a 'live' wrestling match. Thankfully, my viewing partners were just June and nephew, bored little boy that he was. Too much romance, not enough villany to keep his attention for long. Still he managed to keep awake throughout without making too much a pest of himself. Observation of Singaporean audience: not generous with applause, very little encouragement for the performers. We still don't have a culture of audience participation, only vouyerism, which is sad.

Obviously, it's late at night and I'm still up. I'm on vacation! ...but a working one at that. I can wake up late tomorrow 'cos work for me starts in the afternoon. So what have I been up to today?

Faxed over the Ministry's bowling tournament registration form for our foursome, me, Yee, Vince and Anthony. Stuck for a name to call our team I just improvised and called us "Gutter Boys", but with my kind of luck the organizers will misread and call us the "Glitter Boys" instead (handwritten, my "u" looks like "li"), giving quite the wrong impression of us to the other participants.

I made copies of the latest version of our Drama Night script for everyone. It cost me $10.80 at the college copy shop. A guy could go bankrupt like that. Then alternated between helping one of my ex-students with her application for a PSC scholarship -- she needed an essay written about her life outside official documentation -- and sitting through Drama Night rehearsal.

We're making progress though time is getting worryingly short. As the script is now being written on the fly, there's still the music to be composed and spliced in and choreography to be done as well. Less than 2 months, less than ideal conditions to create a musical extravaganza, but everyone's working hard, and can expect to work harder still in the coming weeks.

Had a practice bowl down at the Civil Service Club where the tournament games will be held. I can't find an 11 pounder to fit my fingers, they're all too loose. Think I'll have to go get a custom ball else I'll be competing with a perturbed mental state which won't help the team at all. Yee joined us for the first time today. He's easily our top scorer though on a good day, Anthony could challenge him. Today was Yee's bad day though. Hopefully, we'll all bowl better than today during our first game next Thursday. 'nuff said.

Took Q-tip to ECP for the pet fair organized by Straits Times classifieds. A festive gathering of pets and their owners, though we didn't meet anyone we knew. Q-tip was attracting attention wearing her red gi with Japanese text on it. Kids, adults, other friendly dogs came over to make her acquaintance. Q-tip, star that she is, just wanted to be left alone.

The fair was right next to the Lagoon food court so disregarding the "No Pets" signs we made our way inside to look for brunch. I found what I was looking for: Roxy Laksa, the authentic laksa from the now defunct Roxy Cinema. It's basically Katong Laksa but in a very lemak gravy; very mild chilli; and no ham (clams). OK, by definition this doesn't sound like much of a laksa but I think it's great. No OTT chilli to distract from the taste and no undercooked clams which are a health hazard. Cooled down with fresh sugar cane juice. Yums.

More food this evening. Celebrated Dad's birthday at the Grand Copthorne's Cafe Brio's. They're having an Irish themed buffet, the centrepiece of which is the roast beef cooked in Guinesss. The spread is full of things that I like: a range of fresh sashimi salmon, tuna; fresh salads; a range of cheeses and a variety of breads; 1/2-shell oysters...; fine, I have a limited focus on the virtual smaorgasbord of food, but at least I know what I want.

Ate too much and even as I type I feel the discomfort in my stomach, though I am feeling much better than I did just after dinner and during the family river walk. From where we were sitting the the Cafe Brio's we could observe the river and the occasional river taxi ploughing its way towards the pick-up platform on our side of the river. It's a very peaceful view, great for lazy afternoons to sit under the trees, soak up the afternoon tranquility and compose poetry if you so desire. Must remember this place and do that sometime.

We changed the kind of litter in the cats' litter box. Originally we used sand which was annoying because our whole flat became sandy as the sand grains stuck to paws and tracked all over the house. We changed the litter to one that was wood based instead. It supposedly smelled better, was more absorbent, and didn't track as much. Bad idea.

There was a cat revolt and they did their revolting things in the worst of places. We found pee on the comforter which we had washed the night before because "someone" had taken a crap on it, and we found crap on the beanbag and on the morning 'paper as well!!! Hope there aren't any hidden caches that we have yet to find... Ok, most normal people didn't need to know this but these are the hazards of living with animals.

We took their point and immediately changed their litter box back to the sand they're used to. Meantime, the washing machine's been working overtime today as we have to get everything washed and dried before we can sleep tonight. We only have that one comforter after all.

In the evening we wanted to drive out to Changi Village with our folks but were turned down on both sides. Our parents may be retired but they're still busy people. On our own, we drove to Chinatown instead for clay-pot rice, made the way it should be. As the rice actually cooks in the pot over a real charcoal fire, the wait can be very long. We waited for our order for about 25 minutes but it tasted wonderful. This stall in the Chinatown food court has been around since June was a kid so it's nice to see some heritage things have been preserved and are still thriving in Chinatown today.

Too crowded in town and too early to go home so we headed back north for dessert at Swensens, Northpoint (right, what were you expecting?). Also took the opportunity to browse Harvey Normans to see if they have KOTOR2 in stock. Apparently it's been out for weeks but I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy. But there it was, hiding like a bashful virgin behind a stack of other lesser games. Duds, I now have KOTOR2, and I'm not afraid to play it before you! As soon as I can find the time, that is...

We intended to release Flirt's kitten back to his natural habitat so he could reunite with his mother and so that more people might see him and he'll have a better chance of being adopted by one of them. But he freaked out when he saw his old hangout and gang again, hissed at his brother and ran off to hide and generally be antisocial with everyone. So we caught him, put him back into his basket and brought him back home. Think we're going to have to get used to living with 3 cats. No more, please. Really.

Ended the day watching the SpongeBob Squarepants movie. SpongeBob is ok to watch in his half-hour cartoon show, but a feature-length movie? Guess that's asking a bit much. It is amusing in bits but the movie goes on too long to sustain the humour.

It's late, I know but it's been a long day.

First thing in the morning I'm paying my parking fine at the nearby AXS machine. So damn easy to use, I'm afraid I might get so addicted I just might purposely irritate more URA aunties so they'll fine me some more. $12, gone just like that and I think it's fun. What's wrong with me?

Today was our scheduled half-day off in celebration of our outstanding 'A' level results. Official time to end classes was 1310 hrs but the Drama Club stayed on from 1400 to 1700 for our Friday rehearsal.

I hadn't mentioned it before but I'm really happy with the music MJ is composing for our musical, though there was a slight misunderstanding with Pete who played his initiative card and wrote some of the music by himself. Suddenly, from no music I had more options of original compositions than I knew what to do with.

I decided on the best compromise and that was to get both composers working on the same pieces of music cooperatively rather than separate pieces of music in competition with one another. Pete assured me that there was no intention on his part to compete, but perhaps if he and MJ had communicated better with each other earlier it might have saved us a few ruffled feathers.

Rehearsals are going well (considering how little time we have left to curtain) and we are working with the novel experience of having the script written out as we are blocking the scenes. What's happening is that we are projecting our script onto a screen in our rehearsal room, working out the stage directions and dialogue, choreographing movement on the fly and instantly feeding back to our scriptwriter at the console what he needs to fix in the script. Presto! Changes are made and the script continues to evolve as we go.

A very scary way to work, but I have confidence in Tina. She's not up for this year's Life! award for best director for nothing! Incidentally, all the best director nominees this year are all linked together through Tina who has had a hand in training them all while they spent some of their earlier years playing with us at MU. Sam (3 nominations!) and Nat have made great progress since those early days and we're proud of them.

By the time I left campus after rehearsal, there was only my car, Amy's and Vince's left in the parking lot. Have to be grateful it was a half-day, else rehearsals would have started to 1600 and ended at 2000. That wouldn't have been funny.

Popped Shall We Dance (Gere and Lopez) into the DVD. It's a Hollywood remake of a Japanese movie I watched some years back. It was an amusing and whimsical look at how John Clark (Gere) deals constructively with male mid-life crisis by taking up ballroom dance lessons and in so doing he rediscovers the romance in his overcomfortable, overfamiliar marriage. I'm no fan of ballroom dance myself, but the choreography is quite something to watch; graceful, dramatic and passionate. Whoo! And a cast of quirky characters thrown in moves the story along quite painlessly as well.

Right. To bed...

I really have to apologize for being a rotten GP tutor and Civics tutor to my current yet soon-to-be-disbanded CT. Ever since the Chinese New Year public holiday there has been a weekly disruption to our timetable: experiential learning, KI course for me, release of results, and PW course again for me, so in reality my CT has yet to truly experience what GP and Civics tutorials are like. So much for their 1st term preview of JC life. My other 2 tutorial groups seem to be enjoying themselves for the most part, but my CT... sigh. I just haven't been there for them, I feel.

Today I abandoned them again to attend a briefing by a Cambridge marker on the new look PW will have this year. Less rigid in structure, more open in interpretation of the question, less quantity of research material required (no more overstuffed GPFs), but higher level and quality of in-depth analysis required by each member of the PW team. Assessment criteria has now been condensed even further and a few redundancies have also been eliminated.

There is of course the group assessment, but individual accountability seems to be this year's emphasis. Another small step in the right direction as far as intention goes, but a human resource nightmare since instead of keeping an eye on 5 project groups we PW supervisors are now chasing up 25 individual students multiplied by the number of PW classes we're assigned (2 for most of us). It's going to be an interesting year.

After the briefing, we adjourned to lunch at the Annalakshmi. This restaurant concept is very special. The menu is an all-you-can-eat Indian vegetarian buffet with quite a variety of rice dishes, veggie curries and gravies to savour, fruit and pastry desserts, juices and hot beverages, and all for the price of... well, you decide. All proceeds from whatever patrons decide to give go directly to charity. This business model sounds like a recipe for financial disaster, doesn't it? But the establishment is already in its 19th year and looks to be still going strong. I love the concept: eat as much as you like, pay as much as you like. If you want to try it out, it's on the 2nd floor of the Excelsior Hotel. Use the mall entrance, not the hotel entrance. Really, here you have nothing to lose (the food and ambiance have quality), and a good cause to support with your contribution.

And I got my first parking fine today too. I parked at the National Library parking lot, which is just a short walk to the Excelsior, but I didn't read the parking rates carefully enough. Here, parking is $1 per half hour, not per hour as I have gotten used to. For parking 1 hour more than what I paid for, I now have to pay $12 in fines for my misdemeanor. I am a criminal!!! What will my mother say?

Amazing. I hypothesized a scenario with my students just a couple of days ago: what if PEARLS was scrapped? On freeing up this time committment from students, what kind of activities would they pursue out of interest rather than for incentive? Sorry to say most of my students couldn't conceptualize this possibility.

Today, this sacred cow lies dead in a mercy killing. No more PEARLS for this current batch of J1s onwards. What was unthinkable just a day or so ago has become reality today. The kids are free! There will probably be a lot of unhappy, aimless souls casting around for some sense of structure in which once they felt comfortably constrained in, at least initially, but it's time people realised that forcing kids to participate in activities is not the responsibility, nor even the calling, of schools and colleges.

As with any other transition, there will be an awkward stage as we find new stability but I think we've taken another step towards becoming a more mature people. It all depends now on whether kids and their parents and teachers(!) can cope with the insecurity of driving without a safety belt, with the kids themselves in the driver's seat.

Edit 01:
It was Q-tip's 1st outing to the Colbar. She made the acquaintance of Wendy and Anthony and may have planted a seed of a thought in them about accessorizing their new apartment with a canine of similar size and temprament. She sat quietly while we took turns to put her on our laps as we chatted.

Weng joined us later and purchased a small bag of pork crisps from the bar. He passed the bag around and June took a piece, like we all did. Wendy's piece was quite large and by it's appearance I recognized it for what it was -- deep fried pork lard, the stuff they use in tiny bits to flavour some local fried noodle dishes. June hates to see them in her fried noodles and will hunt down every last one of them, putting them in a neat little pile at the side of her dish. Tonight, however, she was quite happily munching away on her piece of pork lard, not knowing what it was. I couldn't stop myself from announcing my discovery out loud, "chee yao cha!" June's face changed. She choked and spluttered then disappeared indoors to parts unknown and we didn't see her again for a couple of minutes while she rinsed out her mouth with Dettol. Moral of story: Ignorance is bliss, or a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

I'm a cute widdle kitty up for adoption...


I don't even have a name yet. Will you take me home?

Yep, Flirt's injured kitten is much better now. He's playing rough with the other two cats, dashing around at top speed all over the place, and his limp certainly isn't obvious anymore. He's also starting to grow and as much as we like him, we've still gone beyond our limit of 2 cats max, and we're now searching for a good home that'll take him and treat him well. June's put a good word in with the bakery lao ban niang who was a faithful provider for Flirt and her family, including this unnamed kitten. All of Flirt's other kittens seem to already have been adopted by families in our neighbourhood and this one will remain in our care until he finds a new home; soon I hope, before the occasional catfights (for the position of Top Cat) in our house get serious. June says we'll toss in some cat accessories as well to save his adoptive family of these necessary expenses. Right. Think about it, ok?

Not much happening today. The limp on Flirt's still nameless kitten is hardly noticeable now, though his paw is still looking awkward. He may be small, but he's starting to demand his way from the other members of this household. He no longer recognises the priority Belle has to be served first at mealtimes. He trades punches with Momo just to be naughty. They all give way to him because he's just a little kitten, but I hope he doesn't turn into a Little Emperor due to their indulgence.

Training proceeds for our bowling team at SAFRA Yishun. I managed a 3-game average of 138 despite some horrible out-of-control frames. Vince has improved quite nicely. If he's willing to commit to our cause, we'll take him. Amy is also improving, today breaking the 100 mark though she seemed tired in the last game and dropped slightly below her usual score. Anthony is off his game, distracted by the new toy he bought for his car: a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) that makes his car stereo sound really sweet. Yee, our 3rd member couldn't make practice today even though he suggested that the loser of tonight's game will buy breakfast tomorrow. Guess brekkie will be on him, by default!

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?