Belle continues to convalesce. Her right leg is still a major problem, but emotionally and psychologically she seems much happier. We don't need to confine her to quarters anymore, and she comes and goes as she pleases, with frequent rest stops in between. One new behaviour that she's developed is that she now likes to sit with us on the living room carpet while we watch TV, at least in the early evening. She usually kept her distance before, so all the pampering we've been indulging her with may have made her a bit more manja with us.

Meantime, we've been trying to live our lives as per normal. I went back on campus today to sort out the last few details of our Drama Night accounts, and I'm really glad I didn't pursue my 'opportunity' to study accounting when I was younger. Making every dollar and cent count is such a painful, tedious process, especially when doing it with someone who is professionally trained in accountancy. Doing it once in a while is frustrating enough; imagine building your whole life around this mind-numbing task.

There's still some outstanding matters in terms of payments yet to be made, awaiting receipt of official invoice from vendor; so I called him to mail us (fax invoices are not acceptable for payment). And so pending this important postal delivery, there wasn't much left for me to do today so I went out to lunch.

I have a car. I am mobile. I can go anywhere I want. The only limitations are within my imagination. So I went to Northpoint -- a short 10-minute bus ride from home. Doh, what's wrong with me? Had fish 'n' chips at the newly renovated food court. Fish was breaded, not battered; not bad, though neither was it outstanding. Chips could have been more generous in terms of size and quantity. Stay away from the coleslaw unless you like it sour.

Got the M2 a long overdue wash and wax at the Wash 'n' Run, so that was my justification for coming home early today.

More good news. Belle is improving in stages. She finally got fed up with her confinement in the guest room and actually walked -- limped, rather -- into the living room to rest on the carpet. That was the furthest she had walked since Saturday. She even had the motivation to put her forepaws on my stomach, the way she does when she is asking for a snack. I picked out a couple of snack sticks and she ate them. The bowl in her room was also empty, so I suspect she had also eaten her breakfast kibble this morning, though I didn't actually see her do it. There was also poop near her sand-box. I guess she couldn't make it in time, but in this case, seeing poop is a good sign. I did see her grooming herself again, which shows her morale is starting to come up. She purrs again when I stroke her, and Dr Casey was happy to hear this report from us when we went to see him this evening.

When we came home, Belle refused to go back to her guest room, but instead returned to her routine of sleeping in her basket under our bed. She's been there ever since.

Dr Casey is helping us restore mobility to her draggy leg. He reminded us to continue the massage and physiotherapy for her and suggested that we try alternating hot and cold compresses on her weak leg to improve circulation. Apparently, the blood vessels expand and contract according to temperature (we learned about this in Sec School physics) and this movement encourages blood to flow. If the heart isn't pumping hard enough, another kind of pump will have to do.

Belle still has a lot of recovering to do, but today's progress has really been amazing. Good girl! Keep it up!

Belle's 3-legged walk is a little stronger today. She can now lift her body completely off the ground and move short distances, and her tail is getting twitchier, though she gets tired very easily. We're still syringing water into her mouth 'cos she still refuses to eat. We're trying her out with milk as a food substitute, also having to deliver it through the syringe. That should give her at least some nourishment and keep her hydrated at the same time. Let's see what happens tomorrow.

Meantime, I caught "Episode III" for the second time. We went to Great World City just to remind ourselves that we were on vacation, so why the heck were we still meeting on campus working? Guess "vacation" is just a technical term. It means "working without having to follow a fixed schedule." I can live with that.

What new insight did I gain from a 2nd viewing? Well, if Anakin Skywalker became a Dark Lord of a fried food franchise, he could serve chicken in 3 different styles: mild 'n' tender; hot 'n' spicy; and extra crispy. Haha.

Belle is grouchy. Not violent, so maybe coming home did help her disposition somewhat. She still makes unhappy noises, but at least she allows us to pet her and massage her legs for her and carry her between bed and sand-box. She even let us bathe her without attempting to claw our eyes out. She growled and protested but that was it.

For brief periods, she actually tried to walk, supporting herself on a stiff back leg but, sadly, dragging the other behind like deadweight. But in her current condition, 3 legs are still better than 2. Small blessings.

The worrying thing about her is that she isn't eating or drinking. She's still too distressed and probably depressed as well to indulge in this, her favourite pastime. Dr Casey prescribed a Flower Essence rubbing oil, the fragrance of which is supposed to help calm her down and hopefully put her back in the mood for food again. Hasn't worked so far. Belle needs to eat and keep herself hydrated or she might develop complications.

We'll have to take her back to Dr Casey if things don't improve by tomorrow.

Dr Casey called us into the clinic this morning. Belle had refused any sort of treatment and charged and swatted at anyone who came close to her cage. Dr Casey hoped that with our presence she would calm down so they could continue her therapy.

When we arrived, we saw Belle crouched in a corner of her cage. She wore a lampshade to prevent her from ripping out the drip like she had the previous night. Within the lampshade was the head of a vicious, hissing, spitting, growling feline; quite a different cat from the one we knew with the always-gentle disposition. Obviously she was incredibly stressed with her large canine neighbours, the unfamiliar surroundings and people, and the fact that she's still immobile just makes it worse for her. Even we were a bit intimidated by her demeanour but I opened the door and stuck my head inside the cage anyway to stroke her and reassure her that everything was still fine.

She relaxed, just a bit, and let me pet her head, though growling with every breath. Things remained like this for a while but when the big dog in the lower cage stirred a bit, Belle reared up and slammed her forepaw onto the floor of her stainless steel cage with shocking force. If not for my reflexes her claws might have ripped my forearm open, but it was clear she wasn't happy where she was and there was no way she was going to get any treatment like that.

Plan B then. Home nursing. We brought Belle home and prepared our guest-room for her. Her personal bed, dining area and sand-box. She is still immobile from the waist down so we have to regularly carry her into the sand-box so she can take a leak or a crap. In her condition, it's a messy process but we hope it will only be a temporary situation.

My main concern is when we have to give her her meds tomorrow. She's off her food tonight -- no appetite -- so maybe she'll be hungry enough in the morning to eat her pills along with her breakfast, else we'll have to syringe it down and I'm not looking forward to this potentially hazardous procedure one bit. And Dr Casey recommends we give her some physiotherapy too just to keep the circulation flowing back into her legs. Sweet as Belle is, she's a scary mother when she's riled. She's strong too, so we're expecting to be shredded quite often this week. Yikes.

Poor Belle. Get well soon. Please.

Today was supposed to be a normal, boring, ho-hum day. One I was looking forward to. We brought Mimi back to stay with us last night and we took her and Q-tip for our usual Saturday morning breakfast walk. As we walked past the far end coffee shop, their harness bells (yes, they sound like reindeer when they go walkies) attracted Lung-Lung, a stray we haven't seen for quite a while.

The last time we saw Lung-Lung, she was a scrawny little thing who had lost most of her fur, though for reasons we couldn't fathom. She's a toughie, though. She had been attacked by a stray dog when she was a kitten, and till today the scars near her neck are still quite apparent. Today, she looked well-fed and she has recovered her lost fur. Her progress towards good health has been quite remarkable.

Here's the irony. Mid-day, Belle suddenly began miaowing in her panicked voice. She only miaows like this when we pack her in a travel cage and take her to the vet. She says, "miAO," emphasis on the last syllable, in this state. We went to see what was wrong and it was quite sad. She suddenly seemed to have lost the use of her hind legs. She was panting and the lower part of her body was cold. This didn't seem like normal cat behaviour so we called Dr Casey, who agreed to see her after 1400 though she didn't have a prior appointment.

Dr Casey didn't have good news for us. Belle had suffered a stroke and the resulting blood clot had cut off circulation to her hind legs. She didn't respond to the pain test and there was no pulse in her legs, so that's very worrying. What's hopeful is that so far she still has control over her bowels and that her general body temperature (she responded quite violently to the rectal thermometer -- she bit me) is still normal.

She'll be hospitalized for a few days while they try to dissolve the blood clot with medication and in the meantime she'll undergo further testing to see if there are other complications to her current problem. At least Dr Casey didn't say her condition was terminal, but how much use of her legs she recovers depends on how well she can respond to the treatment. Hopefully, we had brought her in early enough to be a factor in her recovery. Thankfully we hadn't left for Ikea yet, like we planned to do; else there'd be a major crisis when we got home in the evening.

Don't feel like going out right now. Apologies to Jordan for not being able to catch his last performance at Centrestage tonight before he leaves for the UK.

This is an unusual request, but say a prayer for Belle, ok?

Back on campus for more marking. Also for the company, particularly at lunchtime. I used to hate having lunch with people when I first started work. I'd leave early or later, after everyone else had left; or I'd arm myself with a book or magazine and bury myself behind it looking too busy to catch a familiar eye. Didn't really have much to say to anyone, and everyone was boring anyway. Or found me a bore, I guess it was mutual.

Glad I've found a crowd I actually like lunching with. Funny how life makes a sudden 180° turn when all along you think life will always go in the same direction. Today we made Amy drive us to GFC where we haven't been for so long. Rice and things still tasty and satisfying though my lunch companions found the towgay (sprouts) too hot for their taste. The dish was full of tiny chilli padi which gave a nasty kick, particularly since the dish isn't meant to be spiced up like that. But we took a relaxing break from our busy schedules just sitting at the coffee shop and discussing, for the most part, Anthony's upcoming wedding.

Shani opened her condo for the Drama Club to hold our long overdue cast party in honour of 'Oz.' We were there from a little past 1800. Apart from the BBQ, we got to try MJ's pasta marinara which was generously full of mussels. So that's pasta for me, like, 3 days in a row? Something like that. I've got pasta coming out of my ears now, and all I can say is, "ohboy, more!" Marco Polo might have brought my ancestors back to Italia on his last visit and a latent gene might have finally kicked into action in me. Italian food. Love it!

Q-tip came back from grooming this evening. She's been looking like a fuzzy puffball running around the house. Her legs were slowly disappearing under all her fur so we finally decided it was time. Dominic sent her back to us neatly trimmed. A sort-of schnauzer cut for her body and we can see her face again, too. But she's still pretty much ball-shaped. It wasn't all the fur making her look fat, it's because she is fat that's why she looks fat. Definitely diet time for her. And more exercise too. For someone who sleeps 23 hours a day, her condition shouldn't be surprising. Walkies, anyone?

But her walk had to wait. June found an easy-to-follow recipe for pasta in today's 'Urban' supplement of our local English daily and she tried it out for dinner. I've copied the recipe below if people are interested:

Penne with tomato, bacon and chilli
Serves 4 to 6

500g dried penne, a tubular pasta
1 teaspoon salt
250g streaky bacon, sliced into strips
2 medium-sized purple onions, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 400g tins chopped tomatoes
3 tablespoons tomato puree (not tomato paste)
2-3 red chillies, sliced into rings (the smaller the chilli, the hotter the sauce)
A big handful of fresh basil leaves
Black pepper to taste

1. Put a large pot of water to boil, add the salt. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.

2. Meanwhile, stir fry the bacon in a non-stick wok or saucepan over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Add onions and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes more till the whole lot is really fragrant.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and chillies. Tear up half the basil and add to the pan. Stir well. When sauce bubbles, turn heat to low and simmer 10 minutes.

4. If the sauce is too sour, add a pinch of sugar. Not salty enough? A pinch of salt should do it, although the bacon should be salty enough. Too thick? Thin it down with some water or white wine. Then add some freshly cracked black pepper to taste.

5. Drain cooked pasta and pour it back into the pot you boiled it in. Pour sauce and mix wellso the sauce coats the pasta. Spoon into a large serving dish or into individual pasta bowls. Tear up the rest of the basil, sprinkle over the pasta and serve.

In case you're wondering about the "serves 4 to 6," June just recalculated the amounts for just the 2 of us. And she added in a few finely sliced white champignons 'cos we love those.

Spent the rest of the evening watching "Madagascar" which I thought was hilarious. Now I'm quite inspired to send Momo and Belle back to live in the wild. They're becoming so spoilt with their urban lifestyle here. I'm starting to feel a pang of guilt, like I'm keeping them from their true destiny. Just kidding.

It's bad to stay at home all day, especially when you know there is outstanding work left to do. There are too many distractions at home, TV, DVD, PC, console game device, pets, that work rates pretty low on the "things-to-do" list. No social life to speak of since I am isolated from everyone else. What to do? Everyone I know is busy with their outstanding issues too.

So today, I'm on campus, and I am being a lot more productive. Marked 10 scripts already and I'm rewarding myself with a quick post. There are people here too, and there is an opportunity for a sociable lunch to look forward to.

Don't ask about the scripts I've marked, though. They're nothing to be proud of. Whatever have I been teaching the kids? At least I know what to focus on next term: how to argue with a strategy to win (as opposed to rambling random thoughts with vague reference to the topic of the essay question). How to win arguments and influence people. Yes.

Finally, after being nearly 400km overdue, the M2 got his 5000km servicing done. Another Mazda owner *cough* had told me that the process would take the whole day, but I was able to collect my car at 12. Not bad at all.

So Mazda gave me a coupon for free servicing, plus a car wash and vacuum at no extra charge. They replaced my engine oil and topped up all the various fluids -- hydraulics, coolants, cleaners -- and checked for possible defects due to wear and tear. M2 got a clean bill of health from today's inspection.

While M2 was in the shop, I had nothing to do from 0930 onwards. My intention was to mark essays, but the workshop guest lounge didn't have tables (and why should it, anyway?), it was dim, and it had a TV blaring away. Not... conducive.

So I took a bus (gasp! public transport! how plebian!) into Toa Payoh and discovered that most stores open at 1100. So I just wandered around like a disembodied spirit looking for an unobtrusive place to park myself, though I didn't have much luck there. No unoccupied benches, so I just had to keep walking.

Finally collected M2, just in time to meet June for lunch. I had another craving for pasta, so we went to Al Forno Tratorria, a class above the Pastamania, etc., that we are so used to. The restaurant had heavy wood furniture and patrons tend to be business people, or from the tai-tai variety. In my ah-pek t-shirt and berms, I felt a bit underdressed, but hey, whatever, I was there for pasta and not to make an impression of myself.

What can I say? Beautiful lasagne, so smooth and creamy, with meaty beef chunks rather than the sprinkling of ground beef that we get in the el cheapo places. They even make you decide what kind of water they serve you, "still or spa?" They then bring a 1 litre bottle of mineral water with an impressive label on it, and pour your first glass out for you. Classy.

Warning: our pasta was a bit too salty. June's spaghetti vongole tasted like it had been cooked in sea water, and this was the one anomaly that marred what might have been a truly gorgeous experience. Next time we go, we'll definitely ask for way less salt.

Cost of meal for 2: $54. Explains the fishball bee hoon soup I had for dinner.

Yay! The mid-year break is upon us! No time-table to adhere to, no formal tutorials to conduct, and the time is mine to do what I want. And what do I want the time for? Marking a rather large pile of essays! Yes!

Spent the morning in the staff room ploughing through script after script, oh, and only another 50 more to go. Gotta get them done in the next couple of days so I can get into the frame of mind to tackle the NE backlog and the miscellaneous other items cluttering up my desk. I do so love vacation time!

I was there when the Council dragged themselves back from Ubin. The Elects, having been thoroughly indoctrinated, enthusiastically greeted passing staff in unison, united in their loudness. They must be glad to be home after 3 days in the wilderness within the nurturing confines of a BMT-style boot-camp.

Vince and Amy came back with them, obviously tired out, hungry and grouchy. The wilderness must have done them some good too. But they were also obviously unlikely to want to go bowling tonight, so I bowled with June at SAFRA. A 4-game average of 154, which isn't bad, I guess, but I'm still being held back by my inability to convert simple spares. Oh, well, today's performance impressed the kids bowling in the next lane. I'm still gonna havta' do better than that, though. The next fixture is in July, so there's still a few more weeks left to train.

A group of 40 Japanese dropped in on service today. Our invited guest item from the "J-choir." They sang gospel, not J-pop, unfortunately. But it was a very sweet choral performance, very competent, and very understated. No particular need to get dramatic with their presentations, they just sang and harmonized and blended their voices together, and I really appreciated them for that. No outstanding soloists, no ornateness, just sincerity of effort put in by everyone. Good job.

But my attention was fixed on the projection screen on which a slideshow of scenes of daily life in Japan was playing. The streets, the forests, people at work and at play, different kinds of attire, different kinds of food, flora and fauna... What captivated me was that the photos were simple, yet so well composed. Lines, textures, lighting, action and atmosphere. It felt just like looking out of a window and seeing things happen right in front of you for real. Wish I could take pictures like that.

Frivolous Supplies Convoy to Council Camp '05, P. Ubin.

NBS had a bright idea. Let's go cycling on Pulau Ubin and drop in on the Councillors at camp as an excuse. We'd bring some non-tactical, unhealthy snacks for the Camp Supervisors just to make our trip worthwhile. Our manifest included some green-coloured corn puffs, prawn crackers, potato chips (I think it was) and 9 individually packaged sachets of dried seaweed.

Woke up early today and met Lucy and NBS at the Ferry Terminal. A short boat ride later and we were on the little island swarming with schoolchildren on foot and on bikes. Apparently the 2 youth Brigades arranged for some mass activity and the jetty was crowded with kids getting oriented to a wild and rustic side of Singapore many of whom would never have seen before. It's a slice of rural life from 30-40 years ago preserved by the islanders and long may it stay that way.

The main road from the jetty is lined on both sides with bicycle rental shops. At random we picked one and got our Shimano mountain bikes at $7 each for a full day's rental.

Ubin's environment is such a change from our urbanized mainland. Here, it's mostly greenery, houses are still made of wood, the cars are in a condition that would have warranted scrapping a long time ago, and there is little evidence of air-conditioning even in the better-looking structures. It's a great place to get away from it all but I probably wouldn't last more than a day or 2 before I'm itching for bright lights, big city again. Town mouse, that's me.

We met the Camp Supervisors and accompanied them back to the jetty area where we settled in for lunch. The initial idea was for a seafood feast but as the Supervisors were going to remain on the island until Monday, they decided against ingesting anything they might regret in the near future. No chilli crab then. So we ordered rice and dishes: sweet-sour pork, 2 different styles of kailan, a tofu dish, deep-fried baby squid, and fresh coconut to wash it down with. There were 11 of us at the table and the meal came up to a very reasonable $5.50 per head (less drinks). June's thinking of bringing family here for a cheap meal-outing soon.

After lunch, we escorted everyone back to camp then the supply convoy took our leave to make our way back to civilization. Before boarding the boat, we made a quick pit-stop for more coconut and sliced local mangoes which smelled heavenly and tasted like bubblegum.

To Amy, Vince and the rest, just hang in there for another night. You'll be home soon! Until then, have fun roughing it out!

Ooh... check out the local wildlife:

Abu, a fisherman's burly tom, naps beside a well on P. Ubin.

I am stretched thin at work. Coping with a ratio of 76:1 for one subject and 50:1 for another means that my time in actual contact with individual kids can hardly be significant to them. Case in point: today I took one group of students to the NUSCC for the National NE Quiz '05 (some memories there for 03A2, yah?) then I had to abandon them there to sit through the entire experience while I returned to campus to meet my PW groups for another round of project consultations.

I feel like I've been running out on my classes a lot and that they haven't got the full benefit of my undivided attention due to one committment or another in my capacities as subject tutor, Drama Club in-charge, NE Coord, and having to prepare and undergo training for The New Subject as of next year. Speaking of which, the curriculum planning people for The New Subject came down to meet me and NBS on campus in the afternoon to see how we are coping, if we had any further concerns and for ideas as to how they can help us make the transition. A useful meeting, I think, and it's nice to see sincerity and concern on their part for us on the frontlines.

Oh, how did we do in the Quiz? Same result as last year. 3rd in our round, thus not qualifying for the Grand Finals. Hope 05A3 got to learn some NE trivia for their trouble. Thanks, guys!

Edit 01:
Forgot to mention the place I went to for lunch with Weng and Anthony. It's called Friends, just recently opened on Maju Ave right next door to the Cartel.

Friends is both a wine bar and a cafe. The first view of the interior is that of a wine cellar with racks of wine greeting the patron at the entrance. The dining area is not far behind. Tables and chairs are oddly low, though luxuriously comfortable. The chairs are the kind you might just fall asleep in after a good meal, if you didn't have anything pressing in the afternoon. Weng speculates that the low furniture gives the illusion that the ceiling is higher than it actually is, which makes the room seem more open and airier. Clever, efficient use of available space, that.

The lunch set is quite reasonable. $9.90++ for a soup OR salad, a variety of main courses to choose from, dessert and hot beverage (the coffee is pretty strong, Grinders, an Aussie brand). I had the beef lasagne. It went down smoothly, the flavours of mozza and ground beef blending nicely together. Substantial, yet not too heavy as lasagne tends to be. The passionfruit cake was tangy and fresh. Yum.

But the one thing I am most impressed with is the fact that my water glass that came at the beginning of the meal still contained a significant iceberg after I had drained it at the end of the meal. The water was cold and remained so throughout. That, to me, is a clear invitation to visit again. Def.
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Maybe I spoke too soon about the "oppressive doctrine" I mentioned in my previous post... [mumble, mumble]...

Anyway, the college blogsite is up and running with some posts already up by our student contributors. The site link is also on my sidebar for easy reference. It's called "Oil Lamps" after that stale joke about our college not needing anyone to change our light bulbs 'cos we are still using said item. We need visitors to our site to win, and your comments and suggestions as to how we can make it better, more attractive and, most importantly, more meaningful to you will help us a great deal, so please feel free.

This entry is also to mark my nephew, EJ's, birthday. He's still Thomas-mad (see my previous post of a year ago) and all his pressies were all themed accordingly. Thomas Lego Duplo from Japan, Thomas 'Lady' figurine with railway tracks, Thomas underwear, Thomas stamp with ink-pad, Thomas railway playset. Once again, M-i-L baked a mango cake and arranged another Thomas railway station diorama on top. Observe below:


Mom-in-Law puts a lot of effort into her homemade cakes.

I wonder if this Thomas obsession is bad for the kid? Shouldn't he immerse himself in other forms of popular culture at least for some variation? Like Pokemon? or Power Rangers? One Piece? On second thought, maybe not.

Yet another day spent off-campus. The M2 is getting a real workout this week. Couldn't come at a worse time for him 'cos he's overdue for his 5000km servicing and I've been too busy to make an appointment with Mazda. Hope he doesn't start falling apart through my abuse.

The Department signed up to attend another GP Seminar, an occasion for most of our fellow GP tutors from all colleges to meet and gather in one spot to listen to Important People talk about Important Things. This time, it was about the Geopolitics of the Middle East. The speakers were 2 very distinguished representatives who've had significant experience with our Foreign Affairs. Of the 2, I've only heard of Mr Mahbubani whose services for Singapore in the UN and in other strange lands are quite well documented. Just Google his name and check out 'em glowing credentials.

Our speakers very briefly touched on the surface issues surrounding that extremely bristly corner of our world, giving it so much of our diplomatic attention. They gave us a little historical insight into the Arab-Israeli problem; discussed our economic and diplomatic interests in the region, our surprisingly respected voice in the politics there (basically everyone tolerates a voice of reason), the opening up of the media which is oddly backfiring on the US who encouraged such press freedoms in the first place; and they reminded us of the fact that whatever we might think of the Arab world, the vast majority are people just like us, who want the things we want and have to some level already achieved: peace, security, freedom of expression, shopping, you know, the normal stuff we can all identify with.

And some of these normal activities we take for granted can be like a bunch of us dropping in on the Colbar for lunch before car-pooling our way to the IPAM auditorium for the seminar. The freedom of sitting at a table with a bunch of friends (Amy, HP, Yee and Gerald), tear into our meat, mushrooms and chips and laugh at the general silliness of life, and no one to tell us we can't do that because ... [insert whatever oppressive doctrine here].

Everyone should have the right to do what we did this afternoon. The tragedy is, we're amongst the few in this world, for one reason or another, who actually can. Sobering thought.

The Drama 1st Years helped launch NLB's READ! Singapore programme today with their dramatic reading from "To Kill a Mockingbird." It was interesting to compare our performance with the other 3 items because it was certainly different in style and genre. The most obvious difference was that our performers read from text that they carried on stage whereas the others were actual performances. We went for realism: movement that had definite motivational cues, the others went abstract and stylized. It's not so much a case here of which performance was better than another, but it seems like we were the odd ones out.

This fact became quite pointed when during the shmooze session, a lady representing a local Chinese drama organization commented with good intentions that our item was a bit static and could have used more movement. I totally agree. If we had been off-script, there could have been a more detailed study of the characters in terms of gesture, traffic pattern, anything other than a repetitive stand-sit-stand make-contact-break-contact kind of interaction; but considering the scenario we were playing and the style we were presenting in, I chose to move only when there was a real need to rather than move for the sake of moving; to not overkill a scene by playing around with light and sound; to bring in new elements without precedent; and to have characters stand around waiting for a line without having a reason or purpose to appear onstage other than to deliver it; all for the sake of giving the audience something to look at so they don't get bored. No wonder I don't win awards for my directorial attempts.

Anyway, this READ! Singapore programme aims to get everybody reading a common set of books -- a canon comprising 3 specific titles for each of our 4 national languages -- and then start book clubs wherever we are, work or neighbourhood or in transit, to discuss them.

"Eh, Seng, you read "Tequila Mockingbird" or not?"
"Ya, that Ah Tikus is my ou xiang. Now I wan' to study lor...!"
"But that May-la, dam' b**ch one, ok? Mei you liang xin for the black guy."
"Ayah, black people always very poor thing lah. But Ah Tikus fight for them, that's why I like him!"
"Actually, I'm more of a Bo guy..."
"No lah! Carrie will be the next American Idol!"

I feel so literate already. Oh, well, at least we're talking.

But seriously, it may be idealistic, but I too am buying in on the need to read. We live in the too-much-information age. What info we access is so transitory, so rapidly mutable, that it affects the way we think and the way our belief structure works. We learn quickly that nothing in our world is permanent and apply this attitude to things that do need a sense of the long-term, our values and our relationships, for example.

Reading for pleasure helps us slow time down. Unlike information, the stuff in stories does not change, and we get horribly upset if someone tries to do just that. A work of Fiction may have all the descriptive details thrown into the text, but our imaginations fully engage to fill in the gaps where language proves inadequate. This is how we exercise our ability to dream, and dreams are in short supply in this place.

Ironically, the kind of industry our country is moving into is named "knowledge-based," but we'll never survive just providing information alone 'cos it's too cheap and too easily available anywhere in the networked world. We should sell dreams instead -- they are from an unlimited source, our minds -- and we have the facilities, technology and know-how here to turn them into reality for other people. It's a more fun and rewarding business to get into, besides.

So here's my 2 cent's worth for READ! Singapore: Go grab a book and learn to read for fun; can you afford not to?

Just returned from a pet farm in Pasir Ris Farmway 2. The place is called "Pet Movers" and it had a write up in the June 2005 edition of Simply Her which June spotted.

What a fun place to bring our dogs, Q-tip and Mimi. There were other dog owners there to make use of the facilities: an enclosed dog run where dogs big and small gambolled around, the al fresco cafe where we had breakfast, and a dog paddling pool in which dogs swam while their owners waded after them.

The cafe's menu is very basic. We should have gone earlier 'cos their nasi lemak had sold out by the time we arrived. We had to settle for their fried bee hoon topped with a chicken wing and sliced green chilli. Stomach-filling stuff, little else. But we didn't go there for the food, anyway.

If we had known about the paddling pool earlier, we would have brought towels for our dogs. It's safer and friendlier for them to swim here than in the open sea with its unpredictable waves and currents. We saw a happy little Jack Russell playing 'fetch' with a tennis ball which his owner kept throwing into the water. If only Q-tip was as active.

Apart from the run, the place also has a large pet supply store with reasonably priced merchandise. There is a section where puppies for sale are on display together with a grooming facility. It's a bit smelly here but that's only because our urbanized noses are spoilt, unused to the natural scents of animal agriculture.

A great place for dogs and owners alike to socialize and shop. And a good way to get our 2 antisocial pets to meet and make other canine friends.

The circle is now complete. We have the full life story of one Anakin Skywalker from a precocious 9 year-old Jedi prodigy to fallen Jedi/Sith Lord to redeemed Jedi in the last few minutes of his life. And so ends a saga that took nearly 30 years in the telling.

June says Anakin led a wasted life. For someone so powerful to spend most of his power on causing pain, suffering and death to millions is unpardonable, especially when that power could have been used to do the complete opposite. That he chose his path out of his own impatience, pride, fear, arrogance, guilt and ultimately gullibility is tragic. Obi-Wan rails at him for not living up to being "the Chosen One," but perhaps the Jedi Council didn't quite understand the meaning of the ancient prophecy, as Yoda feared. Anakin was supposed to "bring balance to the Force," and that was exactly what he did.

How much more good could Anakin have done in a galaxy already watched over by the Jedi Council? The Sith in comparison were vastly outnumbered. Darth Sidious (Palpatine), Darth Maul (deceased), Darth Tyranus (Count "I will suck your blood" Dooku), and as far as the movies go, no one else. 3 Darths vs the hundreds of Jedi younglings, padawan, knights and masters doesn't seem quite fair odds even in our galaxy.

Against such overwhelming opposition, the Sith create an empire and all but wipe out their competitors in a single strike. Fine, they have the entire Clone Army behind them but that's just a matter of careful preparation, isn't it? Vader himself strikes at the heart of the Jedi organization and in the most heartless way demolishes it from the inside out. Result: The Sith rule, and 2 Jedi remain (Yoda and Obi-Wan) to rebuild the Jedi faith all over again. Balance achieved.

Episodes 1-3 is innovative in the retelling of a common myth -- hero triumphs over incredible odds and restores peace to a troubled land. In this movie series, it's just that the side that wins, the side that the hero fights for, isn't the side we like. Anakin rationalizes his actions under the banners of peace, security and stability for the galaxy but the peace that comes with his victory is a contrived one, one that exists simply due to the absence of war, and of course it doesn't last very long. And so, equilibrium has to be achieved again and from Episode 4-6 it's Luke who rebalances the galaxy. Anakin/Vader is again instrumental in achieving this rebalancing -- he is the fulcrum to Force balancing in both parts of the saga.

So Anakin fulfils his destiny as far as the prophecy goes. Just be careful how you read your prophecies. They may come true in ways you might not like.

Episode 3 was a blast to watch. A visual treat in the scale of the conflict, in the sense that whatever you were looking at, though huge by itself, is just a tiny cog when the camera zooms out to present a larger perspective of the battlescape. I guess it's that way with Vader too. His is a looming presence over the Star Wars franchise, and yet still a tiny part in the grand scheme of things. That's perhaps what's so great about this entire saga: it's an ensemble piece with every part living and breathing rather than being just a vehicle for any star in particular.

There are few surprises in the plot, since we all know how things eventually turn out but it's nice to have the gaps filled for a clearer picture.

I was also lucky enough to catch a complete screening of "The Clone Wars" vols. 1 and 2 in one sitting yesterday. This animated series chronicles the events between Episodes 2 and 3, tracing the exploits of the Jedi knights through the Clone Wars, the unorthodox promotion of Anakin from Padawan to Knight (hence answering how Anakin could aspire to the title of Master since the last time we saw him he was still just an apprentice), and finally leading up to the kidnapping of Senator Palpatine by General Grevious which is where Episode 3 opens. Many thanks to Cartoon Network for this unexpected bonus.

I guess all that's left is to propose a home screening of a Star Wars movie marathon with loads of popcorn and coke when all 6 episodes (in extended format maybe?) come out on DVD with my taped copy of "The Clone Wars" thrown in. Anyone interested?

Spent the afternoon with 3 chatty, lively schoolgirls. Took them to the official launch of the National Interschool Blogging Champoinships 05 at the Esplanade. These girls are the team who will mastermind a group blog to represent our college in the contest. As a tutor advisor, I have no editorial rights over the content of the blog. I'm just around to safeguard that the rules of the game are upheld.

The event was hosted by DJ Jamie who was taller than I had imagined. Not that I make it a habit to imagine her, mind you. My girls took a couple of snaps with her and got her autograph too.

The idea behind this contest is to see how schools can tap into blogging as an outlet for the voice of our youth. Whenever it comes to asking kids what they think about issues, they generally clam up and pretend to be dumb about things, but give them the time, the leisure and the opportunity to write and sometimes interesting things come to light.

Judging criteria are quite basic. Make the blog attractive, keep the content interesting, bring in lots of visitors, and erm... use good English (at least on the part of the main contributors to the blog; nothing we can do about the unwashed masses that leave ungrammatical comments on our entries). 9 colleges are participating, our ambition is to be in the top 5 after the 1st round of judging is over.

Well, if that's the case, I told the girls to make sure their posts remain interesting enough to reward the visitor every time he or she loads up the page. Then, and only then, will people bring other people to drop in and say hi!

The girls are now working on creating this blog so when it's ready (hopefully real soon) I'll link to it. Maybe I can entice some of you to have a look? We could use the support!

After the event, the organizers arranged a simple reception. Free-flow post-mix drinks; finger sandwiches; delicious, hot, crispy samosas; and deep-fried wontons with Sinsin chilli sauce dip. A nice, polite way to end the proceedings, but the girls were still hungry, having skipped lunch to attend the launch so I took them to Thai Express where they tanked up on different forms of Thai rice. The pineapple type, green curry type, shrimp paste type and the olive type. Yummy.

Took the Drama Club J1s to the Woodlands Library to rehearse for their debut performance. It's only a short dramatic reading but it's a pretty big event considering who the Guest-of-honour is going to be -- my Big Boss, himself.

Dramatic reading is a very delicate balancing act. On the one hand, you're reading off a set text; but on the other, you're dramatizing the scene for an audience who is there to watch the action. In a straight drama performance, the idea is to rid ourselves of our texts as quickly as possible as reading from a script loses the audience interest very fast. Here, we have to know the text well enough to play the scene, yet keep our scripts open and manipulate a handheld mike at the same time. The scene itself is a courtroom drama where most characters are held in place by protocol: Judge in his seat, witness at the witness stand, counsels seated at their desks, audience fixed in the gallery. So not a lot of movement called for, very little we can do to keep the audience's attention.

Fortunately, we've been given only 10 minutes to play, and I think that's long enough. The other items on the programme have music, movement and dance incorporated into the readings of texts in our other national languages; Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Since there's so much movement in the other items anyway, maybe we can exploit the contrast in our item and put our stillness to our advantage? We'll see.

Rushed over to the CSC in the evening of the 3rd installment of our Ministry's bowling challenge. They gave away the prizes for last month's top results before our game commenced. The top high game from last month was from a lady bowler with a score of 233 (out of a possible 300). Our competiton is truly quite awesome. I did pretty ok nevertheless, averaging 153 pinfalls out of 3 games. My sparing accuracy is crap -- for the 2nd game I simply couldn't close the frames, else my score would been higher. Training objective for next training session: practice clearing spares.

Guess with this game under my belt, my overall personal standings should have improved some, though still nowhere near the top yet. Makin' progress, though.

The team's standings are hard to judge. Yee and Vince both had good games and, like me, at least 1 poorer one. Anthony has an injured elbow and couldn't bowl his usual game. It would be good if we all bowled like we practice... Oh well, overall team improvement as far as I can tell. Cheers to us, the Gutter Boys!

Before we knew it, the first installment of this year's PW assignment was due today. Deadline was yesterday for the kids, today for us staff to submit the collated submissions. One of the major new developments in this year's PW cycle is the submission of individual proposals for a group project even before the formation of the students' project groups. This procedure ensures every student has a chance to show they can have a bright idea rather than just going along with the idea of the most on-the-ball person in the group. Of course, when you have to supervise 50 individual students in PW, having to look through and assess 50 individual proposals can be something of a headache.

It doesn't help when you have kids who insist they didn't know that the deadline was yesterday, though this little nugget of information has been repeated quite a few times over official and unofficial channels. I feel like proposing my own little project, something along the lines of equipping all teaching staff with cattle prods to inspire and motivate the blur and tardy. We could raise taxes to finance this worthy cause.

We took yet another step towards fixing the leak in our toilet this evening. It was after June had made several phone calls that we discovered our constituency's Meet-the-People sessions are usually on Monday evenings. We quickly drove down to our MP's office to have a quick dinner before he opens for consultation at 1930. We arrived on the dot but the waiting room was already crammed full of petitioners awaiting their turn. We prepared ourselves for a long wait and settled in to watch "Survivor" playing on the TV to occupy ourselves.

We watched the elimination of another "Survivor" contestant, Jan, and not long after that we received our summons in to see an official. Apparently, our problem is minor enough not to require handling from the top man himself. It's a standard procedure that our official seemed quite familiar with.

"Toilet leaking?"
"Uh... yes."
"Okay." (signs on our notice from HDB)
"Um... what happens now?"
"Oh, nothing. HDB will send you a letter in a couple of days. You'll get a subsidy of 50% of the repair cost and the balance you pay 25% and your neighbour pays 25%."
"Wow. Thank you and goodnight!"
"Goodnight!"

What might justify this subsidy? Our floor is leaking due to some poor workmanship from our HDB-approved contractor who only waterproofed the shower area though he should have waterproofed the whole bathroom floor instead. wear and tear of our bathroom waterproofing, so in a way it's a bit of compensation for the repair costs we have incurred as a result of the leak.

Our visit didn't take us as long as we had anticipated. In fact we wasted a parking coupon preparing for a 2-hour visit and we were done in 1. It was early enough to join the guys at the CSC for another practice round.

I did good tonight. 3-game average: 169; and my personal best game total: 187.
I'm starting to strike more often, but my spares still suck, else my scores would have been even better. My score, though, showed a steady decline with each consecutive game, probably because I get tired easily(...?). Conclusion: don't bother throwing a warm-up game else we'll get too tired by the time the tournament starts.

Entry for 2 days again.

Saturday: College Day, so spent a weekend afternoon in long sleeves, tie and proper shoes. Arrived early fearing lack of parking lots on campus and parked outside in the HDB parking lot anyway. Spent $5 on parking as a result. Interesting how the brain of an idiot works, no?

Due to withdrawal symptoms the Gutter Boys hatched a plan to get some practice after the speeches, prizes and politeness of the College's most important day on the calendar was over. We were unlikely to get lanes on a weekend evening so we got Weng to book a lane for us at the S'pore Swimming Club where he is a member. But because he couldn't join us, he instructed us to seek out his mom at the club first to obtain his membership card so we could sign for the lane in proxy.

Now, that seemed like a bit of a hassle so Amy tried getting a lane at the CSC instead and scored one most unexpectedly. So we bowled there in the early evening; 3 games until we got kicked out when the people who had a prior booking showed up.

The night was still young so we did as Weng suggested and used our booking at his club. We would have to pay a no-show fine if we didn't anyway. We were meant to follow each other in a convoy but Amy and I lost the lead car (Anthony's M3) in heavy traffic so Amy drove on by instinct and I kept doggedly on her tail trusting she knew where she was going. She didn't. She made a wrong turn at Old Airport Road instead of Mountbatten and wisely stopped her car on the side when things started looking unfamiliar to her.

Fortunately, I knew this part of the neighbourhood and managed to get us the rest of the way there, though I made a mistake and parked in the Members Only parking lot. After our training session, both our cars had warning letters planted on them. Next time we park there we'll have our tires clamped and face a $100 fine. Never again.

The team's doing well, Yee is running hot now. He posted a score of 211, the high game for that lane for the day. The weak link now is me, posting lower scores than the others, though higher than my usual. If we continue bowling like this for our tournament game this Thursday, we should see certain improvement in our standings.

Today:
Our contractor finally dropped in to see our bathroom. June basically entertained her while I hid in my study in denial. The repairs are going to be such a painful process for me, but for June it's the final product that motivates her.

Went back to washing the M2 by hand and got it nice and shiny again in record time. Now that we have a system that we're used to we're a lot faster now than before. Except that I left our sponges to dry in the sun and we forgot to collect them when we packed up and drove home. Fortunately, the washing bay is only a short walk away and Q-tip got an unexpected outing just to retrieve them.

Picked up parents and bro in bright and shiny car to meet sis and family at Casuarina Road for dinner. We celebrated Mothers' Day and my bro's belated birthday with more food than was possible to finish. Drove back to my sis' place to plough into the cake we bought. A lovely chocolatey one it was.

One of my passengers (don't know who) tracked a wad of chewing gum that had stuck to the sole of his/her shoe into the M2. My rear right car mat now has some indelible stains and a nice pepperminty smell as well. Nah, I'm not upset with my passengers, but that inconsiderate turd whose indiscriminate disposal of gum has messed up my car's pristine interior owes me a new car mat. Not that I'm ever likely to collect though... grrr.

Barely a week after our major event, the Drama Club is up for another gig. A very short item for the NLB for the launch of its new reading campaign. Am assigning our J1s this performance, though it has come at extremely short notice. What else is new, right?

The job is nothing more than a dramatic reading of a section from "To Kill a Mockingbird," the trial scene, to be exact. The on-site rehearsal is next Thursday, performance the following Tuesday immediately after the long weekend break. Let's see what our new blood can do.

Despite meeting the Club members this morning to seek willing hands to clear the remnants of our set from LT4, only Jaz showed up at the appointed time. There was a long ladder to maneuver between the lights and flybars and 5 wing-obscuring flats to cut down and stash offstage. Between Jaz and me, we cleared the set within an hour, with me climbing up the rickety old ladder and she holding it steady at the bottom. I must say, Jaz is strong for her size. A few more hands might have made the job less strenuous and dangerous, but there you have it. When things are glam, full attendance; but when things turn absolutely unglam, you see lah! Definitely must scold people already.

JY discovered why we usually bowl on Monday nights instead of Friday. The simple reason: no lanes available on Friday night, no matter how ulu the bowling alley might be. Sad because JY doesn't get the urge to bowl very often, so we lost out on an historic moment due to a lack of facilities. Amy remarked that there is a surprising number of Singaporeans who bowl. My take is that as long as an activity can run without experiencing sunlight, moreover in air-con comfort that activity is going to be mega popular. Bowling practice tonight cancelled. Withdrawal symptoms are setting in...

Thanks to Amy we got tix to watch Hossan and Selena in "It Takes 2" at the Vic.

The show was quite a friendly one in which the 2 performers seemed quite at home with their audience. Selena was an entertaining hostess, natural and at ease, as if the 600 or so of us had made ourselves comfortable in her living room. Hossan seemed more practiced and precise with his schtick and perhaps the contrast between the 2 might have made it appear that he was trying a little too hard to get the laughs.

The pacing was easy, just a little hint of racyness and a couple of ribaldries but really nothing to offend anyone over. The duo did their share of poking fun at Aussies, Yanks and a certain Charles and Lady; and added some cabaret singing into the mix. The topics of their patter shifted and varied with smooth fluidity. One moment Selena is discussing the difficulties of finding a good travel partner then switching over to discuss tips for married couples to stay interested in each other. Hossan was in his usual self-depricating persona talking about the differences between guys and gals, to experiences during NSF days (what else do guys talk about anyway?).

As the night went on the talk turned more and more toward local political satire, though again there wasn't much there that all of us in some way or other haven't already discussed amongst ourselves: criticisms levelled against gay parties, for example, to policies over maid abuse, to the Great Casino Debate/Debacle. Humour going along the lines of Mr Brown, et al.

A fun evening out. No new information gathered, same kind of breakfast talk rehashed, but presented by a couple of pleasant comics with a little music and colourful lighting thrown in.

Parking tip: to watch a show at the Vic, people usually park at Parliament House though I stupidly parked at Funan Centre (1st parking lot I came across) and had to walk a bit further. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my parking charge for parking between 1730 and 2230 amounted to only $2. I was expecting to pay a bomb. Don't know what the charges are like at Parliament House, but I doubt it could have been much cheaper.

Yesterday the whole college packed up shop and took half a day to support our volleyball teams at the Schools finals. It was the first time in many years that both the boys' and girls' teams qualified and we were quite hyper about that.

At the girl's finals, we sardined out half the TP Sports Hall, while JJ stuffed themselves into the other half. Our opponent's supporters were um... interesting to observe. They were fully into their cheering, coordinated in both voice and movement, and loudly in unison. Their leader was a rather large individual who would not have looked out of place if he wore an animal mascot's costume, a racoon, say, or a rhino. He moved, they followed; he bellowed, they roared as one. Many of our staff were very impressed with their spirit, and indeed, watching them was far more entertaining than watching the game.

What does it take to build such pride in one's organisation? I think it comes when all members equally suffer personal humiliation to such an extent that each individual is glad to pin one's pride on a collective identity instead.

Cheers are embarrassing. They have inane 'lyrics,' the most basic of nursery-style rhymes, and when you shout them out with gestures and other unnatural body movements, other people look at you funny. No individual would dream of exhibiting such behaviour amongst a polite audience, especially if the individual is a hip, cool teenager with a shred of dignity. That is, I repeat, if the teenager is an individual in a crowd of other hip, cool teenagers.

So, personal pride gets in the way of a collective spirit. Take away that pride and then perhaps the group identity becomes all that more important. Cheering, singing, dancing, united teenagers lending full encouragement and focus to their winning team. Yes, our college could not get past their very simple tactic of return-the-ball-no-matter-what and in a contest of not skill but will, we lost the battle 3-2. Our v-ball girls' are runners-up this year.

Our boys' didn't have too much trouble with their opponents, though. A straight 3-0 victory against TJ in a more aggressive match than the girls' game was. Well, maybe not as aggressive as the women's Olympic Beach V-ball matches, and a whole lot less eye-candy, but we won.

After the prize presentation, we filed out of the sports hall. JJ continued cheering as we left. No doubt they would lock up the place when they're done.

Life is back to routine now after Drama Night, and thank God for it. It was grand excitement for the last 3 weeks, constantly battling uncertainty, adapting to minor but numerous changes and disruptions to schedule, adrenaline high and high-strung all the time. But that's not me, and not the life I enjoy over a protracted basis. Things are more predictable again, pressure finally easing off a little.

I have evenings to enjoy again, evenings spent by myself and June and pets, or following a varying, spur-of-the-moment agenda as and when I like, instead of adhering to some pre-planned schedule (ironically, one I planned myself) with a final product to rush out. Tonight June and I celebrated my 'homecoming' with steamed crab from our regular haunt. Finally, a proper sit-down meal together to enjoy at our leisure.

Q-tip does not like crab, BTW. Instead of gobbling down the morsel I gave her like she usually does with other table scraps, she sort of trampled it and made a mess of her chair which I then had to clean up with a wet-wipe. Spent the rest of the evening with June and the cats in a mindless stupor in front of the TV. Ah, family life.

Post-production euphoria over the weekend. We put up our show; a musical, as the kids asked for; made them sing and dance, put them in colourful costumes and let them blow the socks off their audience. New standards, new heights achieved for the Drama Club, everyone seemed to enjoy the performance, even Tina's illustrious guests, though there were still problems with audibility, occasional missed cues, unauthorised ad-libs (not usually so much of a problem) and OTT overacting by certain cast members. The dream has reached fruition and it's a great feeling to accomplish a task this scary to this level of success.

Spent yesterday not doing anything constructive for a change. Caught 'Kingdom of Heaven' and it was nice to be entertained passively, just sitting there in my cinema seat, mindlessly sipping on Coke as scenes of bloodshed passed before my eyes. The movie had some nice touches in its focus on the 'kingdom of Heaven' being in reality in the mind and in the heart of every person living. It isn't in the structures we build, nor in the political borders we raise, but in our humanity towards each other, regardless of colour or creed. That's the problem with being NE coordinator. You read NE into anything...

Today, the dream became cold, hard reality. Performance over, it was time to put away our toys. Large, heavy pieces of set carried up several flights of steps to be stowed securely behind the College Hall from LT4. Bits of costumes, hand props sorted into reusable material and trash, then disposed off properly. We celebrated our newly assigned drama (store) room, though the room is diametrically opposite campus from LT4 and with me leading the way for our tired NYeDC members struggling with armfuls of barang, I felt like Moses leading the Exodus into the promised land -- the people kept complaining how far away it was all the way there. Then when we finally reached our room, it was "too small," "too hot," blah, blah. Kids, ya gotta love 'em.

P.S. How close we are to facing death, maiming, dismemberment or disfigurement on a daily basis. On the way up the atrium flight of stairs, six or seven of us schlepping a heavy raised platform back into the classroom where we had taken it from turned a corner too quickly and too abruptly that one side slammed into the steel bannister with a jarring thud. A couple of seconds ago, my left hand was supporting that side and might have been turned to powder if I hadn't just moved it to get a better grip elsewhere.

Woke up at 0900, a luxury after maybe 3 weeks of early mornings. We're pumped, opening night of 'Oz' being quite a hit with our crowd.

As a club NYeDC 05 pulled together and focused on getting our show out. Whether in training, rehearsal, technical, handicraft or artistic activities, everyone found a niche and gave everything they had and more. Every rehearsal found a new angle, a new toy, or a new gag with improvisation and seat-of-the-pants ingenuity; necessity being the mother of invention.

Right down to opening night, the cast and crew still found new ways to play, and last night the Timekeeper and the Wizard came into their own as characters in the show. Must credit Timekeeper who was sensitive enough to notice he was stealing limelight away from the main action and sensibly stopped his antics so focus could go back to centrestage.

Having a competent 'live' band to support the action is definitely the way to go. Our musicians have very little to do with the club but they found a way to believe in the show enough to ask to be a part of it. We left them to improvise on their own and kept the soundtrack flexible. Result: action, underscored with music and effects, that would otherwise have fallen flat.

If there were any problems on opening night, it would have been from the soundboard. Condenser mikes not picking up well, actors sounding soft in ensemble, in contrast to the loud, clear sounds of our individually miked up solos. Need to balance the sound better, and avoid feedback, which was another nagging problem.

The house last night was larger than I had been mentally prepared for. Last night sold well and let's hope tonight's show will be just as good. Must thank 'sif, HT, Ramzi, Shariffah and Durga of 04 for their time and for creating a gorgeous front-of-house set with fabrics, a couple of fedoras and a ruby red shoe (shaped phone). Must also thank the AV guy for hanging around in the sound booth giving me a hand with a twitchy soundboard.

Tonight is closing night. Let's avoid complacency and let the success of our previous night get to our heads. NYeDC 05, let's go and break some legs!

Looks like another major expense heading our way. HDB came over to inspect our bathroom to determine the source of our downstairs neighbour's roof leakage. Assessment: We're going to need a whole new bathroom. Floor tiles out, crapper out, and while we're at it, wall tiles out, bathroom sink out -- hey, and maybe get a replacement water heater too!

It's likely that it was our darned air-con contractor's fault in the first place, giving us an a/c drainage pipe that drained impractically into the drainage hole of our main bathroom floor instead of the shower hole. Because the drainage hole was at the far end of our bathroom, the contractor ran a long PVC pipe all the way across our bathroom floor which became a tripping hazard for us. June got fed up with the pipe one day and had it hacksawed off. So the a/c drained directly onto the bathroom floor. The water must have eroded the sealant between our bathroom tiles and thus started seeping into the floor below. Hence, new waterproof lining has to be installed, and hence, our new bathroom (minimalist in design due to budgetary constraints) will rise from the rubble of the old.

Um... in case there is anyone out there who is looking for evidence indicating whose fault is the greater, the above raises mere speculation on my part and does in no part constitute a confession.

What happens now? An HDB contractor will be engaged who will bring steely tools and beefy men to tear up our bathroom fixtures and install new ones with more gusto than finesse; and will gleefully send us a huge, hefty bill at the end of it all. How we then proceed with the apportioning of the bill between the parties involved will be another story for another time.

Finally, this week we move into our auditorium. For one week we can call our space truly ours. No more dealing with squatters in our rehearsal rooms, no need to move furniture around and back; the stage, the flooring, the lights, the sound system, they're all ours and we have smugly taken possession of them all.

The lights are plotted and almost set, much of the major pieces of set are onstage, props in labelled boxes backstage and costumes sewn and hanging on their racks. We've used up nearly 8 rolls of gaffer tape ($20 worth!) in a day, which must be a new record for us.

We only had 1 run today with costume, and it's good that the cast know now how much faster they need to change clothes backstage as they shift from scene to scene. 2 more days of rehearsal left and then it's showtime!

Because we now have 2 cars between us, my entire family could have an outing today, this Labour Day holiday. We started early and collected mom, dad and my bro to meet my sis and her brood up on Kent Ridge Park. For the first time ever, my whole family took in the air in unfamiliar territory together.

Kent Ridge Park is the site of the battle for Pasir Panjang Hill and there is a small monument there to commemorate the event. There is even a leftover AMX-13 light tank on display, though it's presence is misleading. That tank never saw battle up on this height. It was imported in much later after WWII. It was still a talking point between my bro and me, though, as we reminisced over our own NSF days in the local Armoured brigade.

But we were here not for the nostalgia but for the trek through a pleasant canopy walk above the trees (a short one compared to the one at MacRitchie) and along the walking paths of the park. Not much to see of nature around our built-up areas, but where we have set aside some space for nature, she is lovingly preserved. The lush greenery and the abundance of wild animal life (think birds, butterflies and squirrels, not lions and tigers and bears) could almost make you think you were in some other country.

Here, even the public toilet is clean and dry -- a nice surprise considering the alternative might have been the biggest tree within sight -- and as the conspicuous signage proudly declares, the toilet is lighted by electricity generated from solar energy.

In order to get to the pond indicated on our map, we had to drive back to the much smaller car park 'A', a little lower down the hill. We weren't disappointed with the pond and its environs. We found a pavillion to sit in and chill out while my sister's kids decided to mostly hang out with mom who was intent on exploring the pond a little further. We had more important things to do, like decide where to go for lunch.

Settled for the Ghim Moh market hawker centre. Cheap and good. Between June and myself, we ordered a whole half chicken, with liver and rice, all for less than $10. Not sure about how the others enjoyed their lunch, but June advises that there is nothing special about the ah balling (glutinous rice ball dessert) and that she's had better.

Took mom, dad and my bro back home where we devoured some ice-cream before vacuuming the M2. Mom lent us a hand-me-down vacuum cleaner: a Miele with a printed label that suggested it might be at least 20 years old. That this antique could work with such effectiveness attests to just how well they made stuff back then, 20 years ago.

Too lazy to wash the M2 manually so we drove to our nearest petrol station where we had it foam washed instead, going quite against Eddie's injunction. Cost is $6 for cars, $7 for SUVs, $8 for trucks.

Managed to catch a short nap at home before heading back out to return Mimi to her home. We had dinner at mom-in-law's place where she fried up a delicious fish & chips.

Had another bowling session later at the CSC. Average: 151. OK, still maintaining.

Amazing how many activities we could pack into a day, if we simply woke up earlier.

Lazy day, and no, I didn't get bored. Took Q-tip to Pet Safari, Eastpoint Mall, for a stroll. We were looking to restock up on kitty litter, but decided not to get it from here after all as we could get it marginally cheaper at Sembawang Shopping Centre. We did pick up a new line of dry dog food from Eukanuba, made from "lamb meat, not lamb meal." Hope Q-tip will like it, else...

Later we drove to Sembawang to pick up Mimi. We brought her back to our place so she'll stay another night or two with us. The cats are now so used to Mimi they no longer fear her. Not that they are so welcoming either, but at least they don't run off into parts unknown to sulk any more.

Tomorrow is one more day to rest up before the frenetic sprint up to Drama Night. It's been fun, stressful, rewarding, breathless, and I'll be glad for a bit more rest when it's over. Sadly, tix sales are moving only very slowly so far despite our efforts. People, buy a ticket and support English Drama in our College, ok?

2 day's worth of updates in 1 entry. Go!

Yesterday's rehearsal saw a bunch of special guests from The Odyssey cast dropping in to see how their juniors were doing in this year's production. Apparently, all came in without anyone making plans with anyone else to coordinate the visit. Nice to see them so supportive and encouraging to our current cast and crew.

Mel and I, with HT (thanks for the Black Forest cake!), 'sif, Sam, and Gid (who joined us later) and Cara gathered after rehearsal at Pastamania, J8, for dinner and a rousing good time. Vince, Amy and JY expanded our company later in the evening, so we had a strange mix of student alumni, staff alumni, 1 current student (Ben), and current staff. Given a little more time, I'm pretty sure we'd have been on first name basis with each other, and why not? Who cares for our formal titles, "Mr...," "Ms...," whatever, anyway?

June joined us after dinner when we staff abandoned our current and former students and, once the parking payment machines were working again, drove out to Tg Pagar where Anthony had got us a table at the Eskibar. He's been talking so much about it the past couple of weeks we had to experience it for ourselves. It's a bar with a gimmick that it's name suggests: air-conditioned to a temperature approximating a mild temperate winter. So cold you can borrow a parka from the bar so you can hear the techno beat instead of your chattering teeth.

Unfortunately for us, we chose to go on a Friday evening of a long weekend. It was so crowded, and the main door kept swinging open to allow a steady procession of patrons in and out, thus dissipating the chill into the muggy atmosphere of the outside world. Cheapskates that we are, June and I slipped outside to a coffee shop a couple of doors down for a can of coke ($1.20) then went back into the Eskibar just to cool off and yak with the guys some more.

Eventually, traffic thinned out enough for us to grab all the available stools at the bar to cluster around our table so that everyone could have a seat. But just when it was starting to get a little chilly, it was late and we decided to head on home and catch some rest before Parents' Day II this morning.

... Woke up early on a Saturday morning for the second Parents' Day of three this year. Yes, there will be another after the mid-year exam. Today, the heat was on the P, and her retinue of HODs as they fielded a Q&A session with concerned parents over the plight of their offspring in our college.

Parents as a whole can never agree whether their kids are too stressed out or not worked hard enough, so there the senior staff are in the spotlight assuring parents that we have programmes in place to cater to academic rigour, personal development, career guidance, confidence building, leadership training, ad infinitum so that boy-boy or ger-ger won't lose out to their peers in the "Top-Five." HODs take a lot of flak from parents, and I'm glad I wasn't up there on stage today giving those answers to those questions.

After all the parents, their kids and the rest of the staff left, I remained behind with a small crew of our backstage hands to meet with Yee and Wan Wen for some training on rigging and focusing of stage lighting and to get the stage ready for our big bump-in on Tuesday.

Right. Long weekend ahead. Brought back a bunch of PW preliminary submissions to peruse and comment on in case I get bored.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Hope Tina will like the modifications I made with our Scarecrow's movements in "Oz." Until today, JT's been playing a very grotesque scarecrow, and for a long while I've been puzzling over what was wrong with the shape she was delivering. Then I realized what it was: JT's Scarecrow looked like she was making an effort to sag, droop and be weak-kneed.

The problem, if we employ real-world physics, is that a stuffed humanoid caricature is naturally floppy, so there is no need to purposely make it look like it was going to fall over any second. Instead, where the effort should go is not downwards but upwards. The scarecrow should be fighting gravity all the time, should be the tallest and straightest character on stage during movement, and only at rest does the Scarecrow sag, just a little.

Now that I've thoroughly messed with JT's brains, she's now got to practice a completely different posture for her Scarecrow. A different motivation for her movement. Hope it will look more "correct" by next rehearsal. Tomorrow.

Shah came in to polish the opening dance number and worked the cast line-by-line with each dance movement. A painstaking workout for them but collectively they do look a little sharper now. Ended rehearsal early as today was supposed to be a rest day for the cast.

As it was early, I managed to have another bowling session with Vince and Amy at the CSC. Good decision! My average came up to 155 in a 5-game series. I hit a personal high of 184, and if I had converted that darned split on the 9th frame I could have surpassed 200 in that game. Where were these scores when I needed them during the tournament? Hope I can sustain this form in the next session.

Here I am right now, having already showered (in cold water 'cos the water heater's on strike), biting into a Wall's Magnum and for the first time in a long while feeling relaxed. It's only just past 2200 and there's the promise that if I really wanted, I could get an early night's sleep tonight. It's a temporary respite, I know, but it's a feeling that you get when a whole bunch of things you've been stressing over are indeed over and, though not exactly perfectly accomplished, the world didn't get destroyed by your incompetence.

72 kids went on tour to P Tekong; a little short of the 120 I was supposed to bring down. Make that a whole busload short, but people adapt to changing situations. NY short? SR short? So combine both groups to make the optimal number. No-fuss practicality at work and everyone's still happy.

The tour's pretty much standard from the last time I blogged about it last October, was it? The only difference, or rather, development is that the recruits' physical fitness tests are now conducted and scores recorded automatically by computer. Saves time, saves human resource, and the atmosphere is very much like a games arcade rather than a sweaty gym.

This time I managed to actually put some of the soldiers' combat rations in my mouth. I accepted a package of "corn and mixed beans dessert" which came chilled in a catering container. It was wet, sweet and cool, just the refresher I needed since it was a blazing hot day and none of us had time for any lunch before the tour began. Then I took a bite of some rice-based thing that came in a different green package. The instructor briefing us earlier had spoken true: "combat rations are not meant to suit your tastebuds..." You'd probably enjoy the stuff only if you were really hungry. Good thing they include Maggi mee, biscuits and fruit bars in the 24-hr pack as well. A guy's gotta have something to eat.

Aileen did manage to clear her schedule so I sent her to supervise the other of the 2 buses that left campus this afternoon. She's been such a great help, and she's not even considered a fully trained ed offr yet. She'll be leaving us to complete her training during the term break and I'm going to be so shorthanded then. I will miss her, though maybe since I have 40 NE reps from amongst the JC1s I can exploit employ them to my heart's content.

Returned to campus as scheduled and dropped by rehearsal again. The actors are off-script now and though still fluffing lines here and there, it is an indication of progress. The whole 3-piece band came together for the first time during this rehearsal and they're playing nicely with each other. Keyboard, sax, percussion... mmm. Lots of scenes and transitions to polish up, tighten up and energize, but at least now we have something to work with where once there was just a rough idea. Lighting designer came down today as well, so all the pieces are falling into place.

So tonight, I shall relax.

So darned tired last night. Today not much different. Military chief-of-staff paid the college a visit to answer whatever questions the JC2 kids might have. One of these questions showed the kid's faulty interpretation of our national pledge, a quibbling point around the word, "regardless..." which he took to mean, "despite..." But thankfully, the visit went well, generally speaking, and it's one more headache over.

Again, without Aileen's and Cikgu's help I might have fallen apart sometime this morning trying to coordinate all the small, unnoticed things that a visit such as this entails. Print attendance sheets, drape speaker's table, drinks, gifts, distribute attendance sheets, distribute feedback forms, arrange for an impromptu photo shoot; and collect attendance sheets and feedback forms after the dialogue session is over. Ok, listed like this it doesn't sound all that much, but still...

Tomorrow the JC2s are visiting the army boot camp on Tekong. A total of 120 invitations were sent out to our JC2s though I could only round up nearly 80 kids to go. Odd because last year there were so many respondents, I almost had to throw people off my buses. Learning point: don't plan for any major events to take place in the April-May period. Too many activities already happening including sports competitions, the SYF and other in-house matters. Kids and tutors are stretched so thin I was also having trouble rounding up a fellow tutor to help accompany the kids, 1 tutor per bus full of little monkeys. Once again, I'm counting on Aileen's help here. Hope she can get out of whatever she's involved with so that it's not just me with 80. I'd really go crazy then.

The bowling club announced the date for the annual college bowling challenge: 4 May. Great. The date of our tech and dress rehearsal for Drama Night. Don't think I can compete this year then. Wonder which Pegasii Anthony will have to partner? Boo hoo.

Oh, and the latest standings for the ministry's league are out. If you must, click the sidebar link to see how the Gutter Boys are doing.

Edit 01:
Hmm... I seem to have lost my comment service. I'll give it another day, then I switch over to Haloscan or something. How annoying.

The Oz banner! 'nuff said... g'nite! 

Brought pizza for NYeDC kids who were busy making a huge banner advertising Drama Night. Yee's design: 7 long rolls of I-don't-know-what-kind-of heavy duty industrial paper, duct taped together to form the base ; then a patchwork quilt of coloured paper pasted on for the background colour. On top of that are the lettering announcing the title, "Oz," the date and declaring that everything had been done by ourselves, in-house. June and I delivered the motivational pizza at a little past 1400...

... and we only completed the banner after 2100. By then the janitor had gone home and we couldn't get access into the atrium area where we intended to hang the banner to greet the early Monday morning crowd. So, reluctantly, we had to roll up our "tapestry" and place it against the atrium staircase for safekeeping. Tomorrow at 0630hrs, we're calling all hands to help carry the banner up to the 5th storey where we will drape it over the top railing. Hopefully, we'll get it ready before the main student body arrives.

Just got home from taking a few of our willing hands home or wherever else they needed to go. Thanks have to go out to all our helpers today: Aaron, Faz, Grace, Jane, JT, Suzhen, Shan, Yit Han, Mel and, of course, Yee and June. NYeDC owes y'all one!

If I'm getting to college by 0630 tomorrow, what time do I have to wake up? OMG, time for bed!

It's mom & dad's 43rd wedding anniversary so we took the opportunity to have a family dinner outside for a change.

The day began a little late. We overslept a bit but still managed to get to Sing See Soon Flower Garden at the junction of Paya Lebar and Bartley just in time to grab their last bouquet of purple roses for mom's pressie. The shop people called the species, "super-rose". They and a whole lot of other imported flowers were kept in a cold-room -- air-conditioned to match European spring temperatures. Cold enough to make breath visible to the naked eye.

The flowers here go for wholesale prices. A bunch of 20 gorgeous super-roses for only $8! Someplace to think about if Valentine's Day or some other special occasion rolls around for your sweetheart, eh, guys?

Drove to Gardens market for brekkie. Bought a lot of the usual local breakfast things like carrot cake, vegetarian noodles, yu tiao, and tau huay. We had Q-tip with us so we couldn't eat there. Instead we brought all that stuff over to mom's place for their second breakfast and our first.

Rushed off soon after to get the M2 groomed at Eddie's. M2's 2nd appointment for car grooming this year. I sent M2 looking filthy after last week's wash and I was a little worried that I would bear the brunt of Eddie's approbation over the state of my car. Last time I saw him, he had instructed me to wash the car twice a week, and if it rains, wash another time. Reasonably, which car owner's got that kind of time?

Caught a cab back home where we arranged to meet our neighbour from immediately downstairs of our flat. According to her, water from our bathroom is leaking into her bedroom and is becoming an inconvenience for her. We went in to look and yes, water does seem to be collecting in her ceiling lamp and a large piece of paint has peeled off from her bathroom ceiling and is now hanging pathetically downwards awaiting gravity to finish the job. We assured her that we'll get HDB to send a contractor right away to assess and repair the damage. As with HDB policy, we'll split the bill between ourselves. Watch this space for further developments.

Went back home, caught some TV, then before long, it was time to collect M2 from Eddie. From Eddie's we drove over to collect mom & dad, then drove back into Gardens to Jumbo Seafood Restaurant. June cursing and swearing that she forgot to bring her Jumbo membership/discount card. Stuffed ourselves full with the usual boring stuff we invariable order -- couple of meats, couple of veg, some tofu, but with the addition of some very fine steamed sea bass and 2 huge steamed crabs. Who thinks steamed crabs are better than chilli crabs? Yup, I thought so!

After dinner adjourned for ice-cream back at mom's place, then home again. Phew! Thought Saturdays were supposed to be for rest?

Last day of the course, today looking at the assessment of Paper 2, the Critical Thinking component of the subject. I must be mentally fatigued or something as I didn't have many intelligent things to contribute to my group's discussion. I kept staring at the sample students' answers and it took a long time for me to make sense out of what I was reading. It wasn't that the answers were bad, but I simply couldn't focus. I kept forgetting what I had read before and had to backtrack constantly. Or is it that my own critical thinking skills are lacking? All I knew was I needed sleep, or at least a week's vacation on a deserted island beach in the South Pacific. Umbrella drink optional.

To celebrate the end of the course, NBS and I paid one last visit to the Ya Kun at Tiong Bahru Plaza. This time we tried the sugar toast and concluded that it's neither the kaya nor any other spread in the toast, but it's the butter that makes it what it is. Must have gained some serious weight over the last week. Too much good food in the vicinity, coffee breaks with catered snacks between classes in the morning and afternoon, and hence, WAY too much coffee -- more than I usually get under normal circumstances.

Abandoned NBS after lunch to attend my promo ceremony. Got to shake the hand of one of our senior directors, whose youthful appearance was a bit humbling. She must be one of the scholar-types on the fast-track to the up-and-up, while the rest of us (me anyway) are contented being the bottom-feeders in the fish-tank of the ministry.

Pete snuck us into an oddly unutilized LT4 for rehearsal this evening. We ran the whole play through and though it's seriously rough, it's coherent. 8 more rehearsals to go, so they're going to be really intensive. Better prepare mentally and physically. And Yee's creating a publicity gimmick that's going to make a big impact on Monday morning. The cast and crew will be on campus this Sunday getting our surprise ready. Hope it turns out as he envisions it.

Last note: Happy bdae to Jane! Gorgeous cake!

Day 4 of my course and it's a marking and assessment workshop of students' essays in KI. Cambridge stressed how scrupulously fair their marking of exam questions is, so today we bashed out what we thought 'fair' meant in practical terms at college (ground-zero) level. The main concern was with Paper 3, the independent study project: just how far does the definition of "independent" extend? As always, there is little consensus between those who want to push for as-much-help-as-possible for the students, and those who interpret "independent" as completely-on-you-own, no help from the teachers at all, or else it's cheating.

Someone has to make a decision on this, but in the meantime, I suggest keeping it real. For the independent study, students should be allowed to seek whatever 'help' they can get as long as the source is relevant to the question they set themselves out to answer; students must credit all their consultations, dialogues, divinations, etc., in the bibliography section of the KI Paper 3. This way, the markers should get a better handle on what kind of 'help' the student got. And 'how much' of it too. Since part of the KI curriculum comprises ethics as a key module, what better way to test the students' internalization of ethical principles than making them be honest about the information and other assistance acquired in the writing of their essay?

Bowling tournament tonight. Bowled a lousy 133 average, and this was after I scored a "turkey" (3 strikes in a row) during the last game. Then my subsequent throws went all over the place. Still, this is roughly my current average -- I haven't made much improvement, personally, but I think as a team the Gutter Boys are slowly getting better. Perhaps next month we'll see some real progress?

Day 3 of my course and today we're looking at the introduction of our first real independent research paper for JC students. This is the main reason why I decided to move my teaching in this direction from GP in the first place. A chance to work directly with pre-university students on the kind of stuff they will be doing at uni level. Something real, and concrete, and skills that have direct application to their near-future rather than some nebulous far-off date close to never.

It's a tough paper, all right. A 6-month programme during which individual students will submit a research proposal to be approved by a Cambridge board (not by the teacher!) followed up with a major essay of 2500-3000 words in length, about -- get this -- thought and thinking about a particular topic of study. For example:

We know that "Jedi knight" is becoming a recognized religion by the increasing number of people who are claiming to be followers of this pop-culturally derived belief system. So, by what basis do we identify a body of human activity as "religious?" Since a religion spreads by the successful transmission of a particular canon of knowledge thus creating new converts (who had previously believed in a different canon of knowledge), how might a person be attracted to change his/her religion which may entail the eradication his/her previous belief system in order to accept the new one? How might a convert deal with such a radical thought-changing experience? How might the convert's previous socio-religious circle deal with such a change? (I made this question up, so it probably needs work still).

Well, something like that. The focus is not on "religion," mind you, but rather on the creation, transmission, and perpetuation of the knowledge behind religion, and more importantly, how that knowledge is used to expand a religion's reach amongst people; and perhaps a further exploration into whether such usage might constitute an ethical breach in our modern day social contract to respect religious diversity amongst our people.

This type of exploration goes far beyond what GP ever pushed JC students to think about. I think they can rise to the challenge if they have guts and gumption enough. Wonder what my class size will be next year -- 8?

KI has the potential for great fun and learning, and heated animated discussion, but it's definitely not for the squeamish.

Day 2 of my course. Yesterday we looked at critical thinking through the analysis of the reasoning behind chunks of text. We looked at argument premises and supporting points, and we looked at assumptions on which arguments are based. These components, depending on how they are related together make or break an argument and there is a logical, if technical way of determining if an argument is valid or not.

Today, we looked at the ethical dimension motivating decision and action for people individually and socially. We asked what was 'right' and what was 'wrong' and on whose authority do we make such claims? We looked at some simplified principles and ethical premises of various ethical schools of thought and we tried approaching various moral dilemmas on these disparate bases.

These moral dilemmas are to some extent similar to some of the decisions we have to make in KOTOR2. OK, I'm obsessed. Light-siders are motivated to do "Good" though there is the unlikelihood of gaining material reward. Sometimes, lightsiders even sacrifice material (making donations to "worthy" but unprofitable causes, for example) in the hope of gaining lightside alignment points. No material benefit, but your character's portrait appears enshrined by a column of bright, white light, stands up taller and straighter, and looks increasingly heroic. A virtue ethicist approach, as the end result of an action or the consequences matter less than the character building opportunity one gets from dealing with a crisis.

Sith characters, on the other hand, advance themselves through a more utilitarian approach. A pragmatic, what's-in-it-for-me attitude. Sith can gather more material resources this way, at the expense of an increasingly ugly (subjective term), twisted character portrait. Also, Sith get to use the cooler, more spectacular and deadly darkside powers at a discounted cost -- Force choke and lightning, for example. Who cares about 'character-building' when you can do cool stuff like this?

Hmm... now, how can I convince the college to let my students play KOTOR 2 so I can engage them in ethical discourse...?

This evening, Tina sent over the latest update on our Drama Night script and Shah is still choreographing for the Witch's big entrance number. If done well, people are going to love to hate our Witch as soon as she appears. HT dropped in on us to catch a preview. Hey, grrl!

And now for some good news: Girlfriend has recovered over the weekend at Dr Casey's and is now terrorizing the veterinary staff with her teeth and claws. Dr Casey arranged for us to take Girlfriend back to the Square where she belongs. She's a little tired out and annoyed with the blood testing, the sedation, the confinement, the drip and whatever else they put her through. She's eating again, so she should be able to fully recover soon. Hopefully, this is 1 cat that we have 'rescued' from this blight.

June thinks I am a control-freak, and maybe she's right. Today though I was supposed to be on-course I still started the day on campus to conduct my PW tutorial before taking off to Exams Branch. I felt I needed to explain the initial stage of this year's project tasks, and I hope they bought my explanation enough to actually find something useful to propose as their INDIVIDUAL project.

Was too clever and took a short-cut from campus towards the CTE, then annoyingly got lost on the way. It was a matter of knowing which lane turns where and I kept getting stuck on lanes that took me further and further away from my destination. Arrived nearly a half-hour late, and the course had already gone into full swing when I sheepishly opened the dors and tried to find a seat near some familiar face. Fortunately, I soon found NBS to sit with. NBS, my new partner in crime (or KI, anyway)... heh, heh!

Missed an opportunity to join Anthony & Co for drinks at the sub-zero bar tonight. After the course, I went back to campus for Drama Night rehearsal. After that I was simply too tired to go back downtown where I had just been just a couple of hours ago.

On the way home, another pick-up truck unexpectedly swung into my lane, and for once, I beeped my horn in anger. Nice to know you have this reflex at the time you really need it. I stepped hard on the brakes but thankfully the car behind me had been keeping his distance, so nothing more than a scare. Phew!

After our previous failure to secure Girlfriend, I purchased a proper cat carrier from the pet shop next to Dr Casey's. It has a locking door so no need to rely on cable ties and whatnot to keep the enclosure secure. This morning, Girlfriend happened to be sitting outside the NTUC and June lured her into the open with the promise of fresh kibble. It was then easy for her to pin Girlfriend down then pick her up and stuff her into the carrier. Mission Accomplished!

We brought Girlfriend to see Dr Casey but Dr Tan attended to us instead. We hospitalized Girlfriend for observation and further testing. Poor thing. Dr Tan called us later in the afternoon to ask if she should sedate Girlfriend who was getting increasingly agitated and defensive. In order to treat her immediately, sedation seemed necessary, and I didn't have any better options. So I gave consent, at the risk that Girlfriend might need more and more sedation from day to day if her attitude continues to be poor and her health continues to deteriorate. Too much sedation could kill her too.

Best thing would be for Girlfriend to quickly pull through this disease, then we can release her back to her natural habitat again. And after surviving this round of infection she should be immune to it if it should come round again. Today she's still looking pretty horrible with that stuff coming out of her eyes and making her face so dirty. Get well soon, Girlfriend.

This evening we saw Groucho who also looks sick. We also saw Nabiki (Girlfriend's daughter) who thankfully looks fine, except for being uncharacteristically quiet. Perhaps she misses all her friends who lived in the Square?