One of my PW groups arranged to meet me for an OP rehearsal, but didn't show up at the appointed time. No word from the group to postpone or cancel, so maybe they forgot? Fortunately, there were other duties to perform on campus today, so I kept myself busy and made quite a productive day anyway.

Bowling training as usual in the evening with Vince and Amy. I did good tonight, posting a 5-game average of 158. My highest score was 195, a bit low for a Clean Game, but what more can you expect if you can't string strikes together? I had one awful game though, a paltry 124; but Amy just had to record her latest personal high, 150, beating both me and Vince soundly in that game.

Had dinner at Founder's Bak Kut Teh (the signboard on the side of the building says, "Bar Ku The Founder,") on Balestier. The walls are plastered over with blown-up pix of celebrities posing with the unsmiling Founder himself, who scarily looks a little like June's dad.

The pork bones are meaty and chunky; the soup is well-peppered, giving the stomach a warm feeling going down. Their xian cai (salted veg) is prepared with lots of garlic and is slightly sweet as well. Even their home-made barley water is sweet and cold, very refreshing. Will definitely go back again with June when we get the chance.

Oh, and as a service to Vince that he'll probably appreciate, let it be recorded herein that he, Vince, got to drive the Swift before Anthony. He drove us back from Founder's to collect our cars at the CSC. Thank you.

Amy sent me her photos from yesterday, so I'll just upload a couple of her best shots below:

Q-tip prepares for a lengthy modelling session.


JY warms up with Q-tip. She'll go find a golden retreiver to hug next.


"Are we going to walk some more, or are we just gonna stand here and take pictures all day?"


"We are not impressed." Q-tip is such a diva.

And before I forget, Happy Halloween, everyone!

Am kicking myself for forgetting my digi-cam this morning. We woke up late and in the rush to deliver breakfast to Sunday service I left it lying on my desk. Doh.

We had Q-tip with us, so not really knowing our church's policy of having dogs in service with people, we did the prudent thing and deposited our sandwiches in the breakfast area, then took Q-tip out for our breakfast elsewhere. We tried our luck at the Cartel, Raffles City, and were indeed welcomed as long as we sat outside on the sidewalk, in the furthest corner possible from the outlet's doors. We had a decent continental-style breakfast and a free-flow of tea and coffee. Despite it looking like a blazing hot day, the corner we sat in was unexpectedly breezy and cool. Wonder if it's like that all the time?

Q-tip came with us to celebrate World Animal Day at Bishan Park -- our weekend hangout these days, it seems like. Which is why I missed having my digi-cam. So many photo-ops of dogs and their owners (well, mainly dogs), and nothing to show for it. Grrr. But Amy and JY both brought their cams and were happily snapping away at every cute canine walking by. JY promised to pass her shots to me later this week, so maybe a delayed upload in these pages over the next couple of days.

Knowing how fearful JY is of dogs, it was amazing how happy she was, getting up close and personal with some of the larger retrievers. I never pegged Amy as a dog person either, but she seemed pretty comfortable ambling amongst the crowd of 4-legged friends. June was, of course, right at home flitting from booth to booth, animal to animal, looking for causes to support or dogs to pet respectively.

Broke for lunch at... the Cartel again, this time in nearby Gardens. Guess if Q-tip gets accepted at one Cartel, she'll get accepted at another too, under the same conditions. Amy split after lunch and JY followed us back to Bishan for more 'blading practice. While she's practicing moving forward, I'm practicing moving backwards and I'm quite happy that today I managed to actually move backwards with intent, at least for a couple of steps. That's better than before when I couldn't move at all.

Meantime, June was persuaded to sign Q-tip up for the "slow dog" race, top prize going to the last dog to cross the finish-line. Q-tip was the fastest to finish, which meant she lost big time, but the sponsors were generous and gave spa vouchers (for human beings) as consolation prizes.

'blading over, JY and I rejoined June at the event tentage. They both got me to sign up for a 'poetry for strays' contest. So I penned quite a depressing few lines echoing a dogcatcher's thoughts while on-the-job. The judges thought it was quite good (we talked to them) but because the objective was to encourage people to adopt strays, my poem was so depressing it got disqualified. Oh, well.

It turns out the organizers were current student-teachers undergoing "service-learning," their version of CIP. Despite their anxiety that the programme wasn't turning out well, I'd say that considering that so many people and their pets showed up; that there was a brisk trade going on amongst the booths in the tentage; and that everyone and their pets enjoyed themselves under the trees and basically said, "hello," to each other, the event was quite a success. Well done, future teachers!

Day began with June waking up earlier than me, an unprecedented event on Saturday morning. She did a little marketing then returned to awaken me for breakfast. Chong Pang market for chui kueh, yu tiao and tau huay on a brekkie delivery run to the Wongs in Sembawang.

We rushed back home to get Q-tip bathed, then back off to Bishan Park for more 'blading. Meantime, I'm coordinating orders for a KFC take-out which Amy picked up for us on her way over. By the time June, Q-tip and I arrived, Vince and NBS had already done quite some exploring of the park on their rented in-lines. JY joined us soon after and we all had a picnic under the trees when Amy pulled in with our lunch orders.

After another hour or so in the rink, we broke up the party and took Q-tip home to get her ready for tonight.

Robertson Walk threw a "Halloween with a Howl" event in which pet owners could bring their pets and dress in costume for prizes.


Q-tip went as a fairy dogmother. Haha.


But in order to participate in the festivities, we had to spend some money at any of the F&B places there. We chose Bistro Cameleon where the tuna sashimi salad (above) was deliciously fresh, the tuna so smooth, and the garlic chips were surprisingly addictive.


My order was the hot-plate beef (again served with those yummy garlic chips). The beef was tender, juicy and had streaks of cow fat, so it tasted really good. Have to remember not to soak the beef too long in shoyu. It doesn't need to be that salty. Cameleon's menu prices don't seem too expensive for individual items, but it all adds up if you lose control and order whatever the staff recommend.


The coupon booklet entitled Q-tip to a free pedicure (above), us to free ice-cream, and some discounts on other stuff we bought for her, like food and fashion accessories. Blush.

But when the festivities ended, we were such lucky sods. We walked away with the 3rd prize in the Grand Lucky Draw, thanks to No. 0040 who didn't collect the prize she won, thus causing the re-draw that our ticket won. $100 worth of Centrepoint vouchers, though only redeemable at Robertson Walk. Good enough! Food and drink. What better way is there to spend unearned money?

This is Amy's car as at 0709hrs. A dark green Echo. The interior has lots of nooks and crannies to fill up with all sorts of her plushies.

This is my CT for this year. Congrats on your promo results. It's great you're all staying together next year! Keep up the good work, 'k?

And as of 1620hrs today, Echo got traded-in for Amy's new car: a pearl-white Swift. Hardly any space for plushies, except for a cubby hole in the front dash. It's now being occupied by a duck and a baby seal jostling for elbow-room with a blue hippo. Good luck!

Too bad Anthony isn't around to see the car-shopping process we started through to completion. But he's off to Japan so he's probably got the better end of the deal.

Since we're on the subject of halloween, this news item is just sad. click.

Just realized that Halloween is around the corner and for the first time in 4 years, I haven't made any plans for it. When I first proposed the idea in 2001 to the college I had a great team of librarians (led by ZL who was heart 'n soul of the inaugural fete) whose ingenuity and passion overcame our meagre resources and made it a truly memorable event, for me at least. 2002 we had a 'live' band jam session and a movie screening, 2003 a bhangra-themed event (although I suspect the bhangra music was more accidental than planned). And 2004, despite the valiant efforts of the Drama Club, and a few other CCAs, that was all she wrote for our post-exam celebration. Doubt it'll ever be revived again, and suddenly I'm in mourning.

Times have certainly changed. In these last couple of years, the JC1 cohort lost the post-exam period. That's because immediately after the promo exams were over, they all had to face a real Cambridge exam -- PW. And a lot of importance has been attached to this new subject, too. It amounts to 10% of local uni admission criteria and as such it's not to be trifled with. Kids are all so busy preparing for the exam after the exam there's no time to celebrate the end of their first year in college. As of last year, we threw a party, but hardly anyone came. This year, no one can be bothered any more.

What's ironic is that before PW became serious the kids were informally working on a real project that actually had to come to fruition -- they had to pull it off for real. They were already collaborating with one another, and even across disciplines by involving talents and skills from a variety of CCA groups who were willing to pitch in mostly for the fun of it (ok, maybe I'm romanticizing a little here). They had to plan schedules and activities, organize logistics, mobilize human and economic resources, and be ingenious in creating something out of very little. There was an actual purpose behind the Halloween Project. It was entertaining, it was student-led and run, it was creative, it was compassionate (proceeds went to charity), and there was potential for community outreach as well, given time.

Wait. Did I say Halloween is dead because of PW? Maybe not. It'll take a brave PW supervisor to mobilize a CT's worth (or two) of project groups to make Halloween the focus of their group projects. Each group could focus on different aspects of organizing the festival, after all according to the Ministry, the project task -- regardless of how the question words it -- is flexible enough to accommodate any proposal the kids wish to put up.

Halloween might be the perfect project focus because of its timing in the PW cycle. All the plans have to be laid down, carried out and documented in the groups' Written Reports; following which there are a few days left before Halloween to get the logistics and publicity together; there can be one huge bash involving the entire college and maybe the community outside as well; and everything ends just in time for the groups to report on their involvement during the Oral Presentation.

But like I said... that's gotta be a brave PW supervisor, or a pretty smart one, anyway. He or she will have to run by his or her own schedule, not necessarily in keeping with the college's schedule but still abiding by Cambridge's. Not easy. Anyone wants to revive Halloween, next year's JC1 tutors?

I hadn't anticipated it, but it's turned into another mad week. PW rehearsals seem to be going ok. The kids are taking this last stretch of the PW cycle seriously, maybe because most of their hard work is done already. Now it's time for the assessors to get into full gear rehearsing, assessing, commenting, calibrating and recalibrating our standards so as to be as fair as possible to all students in the final assessment exercise.

It's going to be like this for the rest of the week, plus a few other duties and details to take care of as well.

Am lookin' forward to the weekend already...

Since Anthony visited Blue Jaz a couple of weeks ago, he's been highly recommending the place to us. Today we got our chance to see it for ourselves. It's located on the corner of Ophir and Beach Roads, parking is anywhere in the Arab Street area -- it just takes patience and just a little luck, especially around lunchtime.

We sat in the outdoor area under a large canopy. It happened to be breezy and cool at the time, so outdoors was a good choice. No set lunch today, but today's special was the sirloin steak. It was quite a large chunk, quite thick and reasonably tender. On the side were a handful of crispy home fries and a stir-fry of zucchini and carrot. I ordered my steak rare but it came medium instead -- pink inside, not bloody. Kitchens tend to be rather conservative around here, I guess. Price-wise, for my steak and fresh lime juice: roughly $11.50. Not bad, indeed.

It rained for a spell during lunch, but the canopy held up well and we didn't even get splashed. But the one important thing I found out about this place is that it probably is pet-friendly, as long as we sit outside. "Probably," because the wait staff said, "yes," but her face looked doubtful. Q-tip will have to take her chances if we bring her next time.

Amy and NBS abandoned us after lunch, not at all interested in our after lunch activity: to drive over to Weng's and use his PS2 for the rest of the afternoon. Male bonding time, then, over Pringles, Tai Sun garlic flavoured peanuts, coffee and Konami's "Winning Eleven 8." At this game, Vince and Anthony make a pretty good team. Weng and I are still barely getting used to the controls. Silly afternoon. Wheeee!

We introduced Q-tip to JY today. Q-tip seems to be the perfect advertisement for owning a pet because she has such a good public face. She's quiet, unexciteable, fluffy and allows strangers to pet her. No biting, no barking; sometimes it seems she isn't even a real dog at all but a toy -- a bicycle with training wheels on. Hee.

But because we had a dog in tow, we had to lunch at dog-friendly Acacia rather than at J8, our original plan. No regrets, though. Acacia serves up very generous portions of presentable food, particularly from the a la carte menu. No set lunch on weekends.

My fettuccini with mushrooms and ham was such a delight. The pasta was bouncy and the cream sauce was light and tasty. There was an assortment of mushrooms and small chunks, rather than slivers, of ham. Each mouthful had a satisfying bite to it, and it all went down easily without the feeling that it was too heavy a meal.

Amy's orange duck looked gorgeous: the drumstick lashed with an attractive orangey-red gravy and resting on a mound of mashed potatoes. JY ordered a wild mushroom salad. She went wild over the sauteed mushrooms but couldn't finish her salad. But June's fish 'n chips came in such a huge platter that even with us picking from her plate, there were still quite some chips and June's 2nd chunk of fish remaining at the end of our meal. We were sorry to see it wasted, but there was no help for it. Where's NBS when we need her?

Amy was tired out from last night's nuptial duties (er... coordinating the festivities, not what it sounds like) so no bike for her. June kept her company in the shade but JY and I hit the rink again after lunch. Yay! After 3 sessions, JY is off the railing and is gliding on her own. She still takes tumbles every now and then but she's learned to fall without hurting herself, and she can stand up again without assistance. She's moving with much more confidence and all that's left, as I told her, is to work on looking like she was enjoying herself. Q: can JY rollerblade now? A: She's passed basic theory. More learning needed, but congrats for making it this far.

Next step: to do the stuff the inline hockey guys were training to do. Hur hur.

Things to drool over in anticipation:

Doom (opening 3 November in Singapore though it's already screening in the US).
Quake 4 (released 18 October)
New graphics card so that I can play Quake 4 (my current Radeon 9800 Pro has tragically crapped out on me, rmb? Well, maybe I should bring it back to the dealer 1st to see if they can help, though my warranty has probably expired by now.)

Time to bring the year to a vicariously violent end! Heh heh!

I started the day feeling anxious about M2, though initially I couldn't think why I should be. Then I remembered my dream from last night. I was driving along a busy road when the lights changed. A truck stopped in front of me and I did the same. Except that my leg went weak and couldn't step on the brake hard enough. M2's front coasted into the truck's rear fender and I could only watch as my hood crumpled inwards in slow motion. I remember being upset at the damage in my dream -- the huge dent and exposed wiring dangling out of it -- but when I woke up I had temporarily forgotten everything.

The nasty scratch M2 sustained for real yesterday morning must have been more upsetting to me than I thought. My parking lot at home faces a row of market stalls that take delivery of supplies early in the morning. For their convenience, delivery trucks double park leaving a narrow gap for legally parked cars to squeeze out of. Yesterday, I found myself squeezed too tightly and as I was maneuvering out of my lot I grazed against my (legally-parked) neighbour's fender and got stuck. My neighbour was a beat-up looking pickup BTW so no harm done to it.

I had to wait until 2 delivery trucks moved out of my way while in the meantime being verbally pressured by the uncle who owns the orange March to get out of his way 'cos he was late for work [like I wasn't?]. When the uncle exhausted his patience he resorted to hand signals (no, not the impolite ones) to guide me out of my predicament, but the damage was already done. M2 has a lovely scratch along the rear-left passenger door and a long indentation where the pickup's fender had made contact with him. Fiddlesticks.

Poor M2. He's beginning to look like a bumper car!

"The 40 Year-Old Virgin" is a laugh-aloud take on how difficult the human mating ritual can be. A couple of memorably unpleasant experiences with the opposite sex causes Andy to withdraw contact from womenfolk, until his misguided but well-meaning colleagues discover his "condition." Observing how reserved Andy is with people, they enthusiastically share their individual and collective "wisdom" with him while pushing him in the path of different women, anxious to make a man out of him.

The trouble with Andy is that he's locked himself into permanent boyhood. He surrounds himself with "collectible" toys, cycles to work ("bicycles are for 6 year-olds!"), and is reluctant to take on more responsible roles in his workplace, especially if such roles entail meeting and talking to people, including eligible women.

The trouble with his friends is that while they're sexually experienced, they prioritize sex over their relationships. Hence, they themselves have difficulty holding on to their mates over the long-term, which tears them up inside.

I love the portrayal of comradeship amongst co-workers in this movie. They may initially appear intimidatingly full of male bravado and enjoy somewhat perverted activities, but below the surface they are nice guys at heart and really do look out for each other. Though their initial intention is to have a lark at Andy's expense, his colleagues prove to be a strong support group that keeps him encouraged and motivated in his quest for a mate. And it's all not just focused on Andy either; the guys also help each other out in times of personal crisis. Ya gotta' have friends amongst your colleagues. It gets sad and lonely otherwise.

Thanks to his friends, Andy, the 40 year-old man-boy learns to grow up and put away his childish things. When he does, a whole new world of adventure in adult relationships opens up for him. He may be a late bloomer, but better late than never.

Tag-teamed today's essay review lecture with Avril using the material I uploaded in the previous post. I went on talking as usual, leaving Avril with about half the time she had been allocated to cover her section. Good thing she doesn't panic easily. Hope the audience got the answers they were looking for, though I also hope we didn't scare them too badly seeing as how high our expectations were of their essays. Oh well, pitch 'em high so they'll reach higher next time.

Had a late lunch with a slightly different crowd. There were Vince, Josh, Joanna and Baggy, all sharing Indian Rojak and prata variants at Rosyth. The place is under new management and the pratas are slightly bigger, firmer and chewier. Nice.

Joanna and Baggy both had thosai. Joanna's looked like it had an unfortunate accident. Instead of the long roll it's supposed to be, it had collapsed into itself and lay on its tray flattened and full of shards. Baggy's came out looking OK so it had probably won the Thosai Rumble in the kitchen. Josh couldn't get enough of the chutney dip the thosai came with -- maybe he'll get his own one day.

Nice, quiet evening with June at home. Watched another couple more episodes of 'Lost,' and later 'CSI:Miami' on AXN. And another 2 PW Written Reports to look at before bed, so maybe I should get back to work.

I've been tasked with drafting a couple of essay outlines from the GP promo paper for the review lecture tomorrow. I just finished one and already the outline is longer than the minimum word limit for the paper. I wonder, then, if my expectations for the kids are unrealistic when I'm marking their papers? The question reads: "How important is censorship in today's world?" If you're interested, check it out.

Do 16-17 year-olds think like this?

Not much happenin' today. We're down to the final consultations for the PW groups about their written reports, though the time is so short till Friday's deadline. Somehow, after seeing only 3 groups today, I have to squeeze in time to see my 8 other groups by -- OMG -- tomorrow! Else there won't be enough time for the groups to make my final comments worth anything. I have another 3 confirmed appointments for tomorrow, but the remaining 5 groups... better see them 1st thing tomorrow and find out when they're available to talk.

JC1s are freakin' out. They got back their promo papers this afternoon, and now they're worrying if they've done well enough to be promoted next year. I'm familiar with this feeling. Every year I spent in secondary school there'd be a couple of weeks like this one. Only for me, there really was a chance that I wouldn't make it. Such a terrible student I was then. Thankfully, that period is just a memory now, only occasionally resurrecting itself in a nightmare or some other manifestation of Post-Traumatic Exam Stress Disorder.

Not much else to report. Threw another few crappy games on the SAFRA lanes, then stopped by Jalan Kayu for supper. Mmmm... prata.

Rain, rain, go away...

Stuck at home pretty much all day, no thanks to our capricious weather. Well, we did give Q-tip an outing to West Coast Park's McD's, just in time for breakfast. Must remember that June wants Egg McMuffin, not Sausage McMuffin with Cheese and not order wrongly again (repeat 100 times).

This side of the park is a kid's paradise of things to climb, dangle and swing from. The park was just crawling with hordes of little ones, parents in tow. And dogs tend to be in the tiniest minority. June has the idea of bringing the nephews here at the next opportunity. Guess it will be fun for them, and a good excuse for me to test out the facilities for "safety" reasons. Heh.

But the dark clouds gathered very quickly, so immediately after our hot beverage, we left off our recce of the area before the South China Sea got dumped on our heads.

Back home I checked my correspondence with my contemporaries from the Class of '81. They held an informal meeting last Friday evening. It was the first time in years that they had seen each other. Judging by the 3rd person perspective, obviously I wasn't there, already too tired from the college Open House. Let's see if the lo-res pix they uploaded into our Yahoo! group can be seen at all here:

Hmm... just enough to be unrecognizable. It'll do. I only remember 3 of these good ol' boys: Alex (standing 2nd from left), my best friend in Sec 1-2; "Cherry-ann" George (standing 2nd from right), political commentator and the guy I blame for the permanent scar on my right shin in a soccer-related incident; and Mark (seated extreme right) whom Alex and I used to bully all those long years ago.

The others, well, either I have no memory of, or I never really had any contact with them at all 'cos I was never put in the smart classes :P

Don't they all look like responsible, prosperous chaps with families and important careers? And I have to wonder, what the heck have I done with my own life?

Reading through the forum messages, I noticed the guys were also discussing those of us who didn't make it to 40 years old. I hadn't realized that there were quite a number of us already deceased. Accidents, automotive and industrial; disease; and suicide have already taken some of us along the way, leaving the rest of us to raise a glass in their name as we vaguely recall who they were and what they did whilst we were still young.

Being alive at 40, and of reasonably sound mind and body: guess that's enough to be thankful for, eh?

Another weekend day out in the fresh air and bright sunshine. Back to Bishan Park continuing JY's training on her in-lines and Amy on her bike. NBS joined us today as well, so I had 1 other experienced skater in the rink to help keep an eye on JY. June took a bike out again, but once she gets her courage back up in the next couple of weeks, she'll want to resume training on in-lines as well.

It was fun having NBS around. She added on some of her figure-skating insight to JY's training and got her moving better, though JY is still pretty dependent on the railing. Next time, like it or not, JY has to come off the railing else her progress will be stunted. NBS also showed me some "pre-alpha" moves like the "cross-over" which I spent some time practicing.

After the in-line and bike rentals expired, we chilled out in the al fresco area in front of the bike rental store while watching on enviously at the kids who had come for afternoon in-line lessons and who could already do so much more fun stuff that kinda' put us all to shame.

Later, June went for more petanque practice. Today, Eddie put her to work with her new little friend, Geraldine, running pointer drills. Me? I found a nice shady spot to sit and relax, while watching the progress of the exercises and sipping orange-flavoured 100Plus.

June and I joined Adrian, Jen and Mary at Blooie's in the evening to celebrate Jen's birthday. It was odd giving Adrian a lift to the restaurant. Many years ago, Adrian was one of the lucky few people I knew who owned a car, and as such, drove us around wherever. Today, the roles were reversed, though perhaps not for long. Adrian is now considering getting his own car again. Hmm... make that still considering. A white 5-door 2.4l RAV4 maybe? We'll see.

Though it wasn't my birthday, the drinks were on me. That is, my drink was on me -- a whole glass of ginger ale which I accidentally backhanded off the table, the entire contents of which (including ice cubes, brrr!) landed on my lap. The staff was nice and presented me with a new glass FOC. Fortunately, June had the foresight to bring a change of clothes for us, so my evening wasn't as uncomfortable as it might have been.

Happy Birthday, Jen!

Trying to pack too many things into a day shows its effects the next day. I promised NBS to design the signboard for our booth at today's campus open house, but by the time I'd got home last night, my mind was almost a complete mind-wipe. I couldn't think past the fatigue, and in the end in my somnambulistic state I came up with a total piece of crap which we just had to make do with. That was disappointing.

Guess that pretty much sums up the rest of today as well: NBS and I trying to promote the New Subject, but few prospective JC1 students seemed interested. Those we did talk to had the look of deer caught in headlights; helplessly staring wide-eyed while a torrent of unsolicited information about some esoteric new OPTIONAL subject comes barreling down their way driven by some obviously demented teacher whom they are too polite to cut-off in mid-lecture.

Kids, they just want to know if the subject is easy to score in or if they can slack their way through it. They don't view their subjects as life-changing experiences. We'll let the marketing department know ASAP.

Preparing for college open house tomorrow. Have a table for displaying books and flyers and hoping to interest some little children in the New Subject so that some might actually consider taking it next year. NBS and I will be manning the desk and maybe answer questions about it as best as we know how.

Also for the open house, I worked with the Drama Club this morning on a rip-off from Quidam's interactive mime segment. Simple plot involving (what else?) a love triangle, as demonstrated by our members, then the challenge will be to get audience "volunteers" to recreate the scene and embarrass themselves at the same time. This game will run for 3 slots during lull periods in the programme, so at least things will still look busy. We've only had a couple of runs-through today and we're already on tomorrow, so wish us luck!

And, at last the men beat the ladies' team in a friendly petanque match-up this evening. Anthony, Eddie and me took on Vicki, HB and June and narrowly scored our 13 points first. Anthony's penultimate ball was a wild, high lob that sent us all scrambling for cover, but he made no mistake with his last ball. Game! Yay! Too bad Vicki was actually playing with an injury, but we'll take the victory anyway. Ha!

Finally, let's congratulate Amy on the purchase of her new pearl-white 1.5l Suzuki Swift. It was both fun and an honour for Anthony and me to play a role in your decision-making process. Can't wait to ride in your new baby when it arrives!

It's that time of the year again when the JC2s get thrown out of the nest and are now flying on their own. No more being bogged down by the time-table; college rules of punctuality and dress; and the constant haranguing of tutors demanding homework and assignments. They are free to negotiate their own schedules with their tutors, terrorize their tutors with "another practice essay to mark/comment on," and basically catch up one-on-one with everything that had already been presented to them during the previous 18 months.

At this time of year, it's great to be a JC2 tutor as well. We get to see students who really want to learn, and are anxious enough to finally start asking real, practical questions and actually pay attention when we tell them things. We also get to design our own consultation schedules and tailor them so they suit our natural biorhythms as well as those of our students, rather than be at the mercy of a timetable designed around logistical constraints instead. Once independent,rather than put pressure on tutors to teach, the students have to put pressure on themselves to study, which is the more ideal educational scenario.

Never thought I'd sing an ode to being a JC2 tutor. But I'm a JC1 tutor this year, and I'll be Productively Working until term ends. How the Wheel of Fortune has turned.

I sent a letter to the traffic cops a few months ago appealing against the "inconsiderate driving" charge they filed against me. My appointment to set matters straight with them was this morning, at their HQ in Ubi.

The officer handling my case explained to me that although a truck had right of way, I had shot out into its lane causing it to "jam brake." So, really, I had done something clearly dangerous, though it was fortunate that no accident occured. But considering my extenuating circumstances, the officer offered me a reduced charge of "failing to give way," effectively reducing my demerit points from 9 to 4 (>50% discount!) and a small reduction in the fine incurred as well.

It wasn't the best case scenario I had hoped for, but it's better than nothing. So now I'm living with a total of 8 demerit points, including the 4 I chalked up earlier this year for "crossing a double white line." 8 points to remind me to be more careful on the road. Sigh.

When I mark stuff, I sometimes encounter ideas that I find interesting. Today an essay triggered an X-rated thought which I'd like to share, but only to those who willingly and of their own accord click this link. (To avoid any misunderstanding, NO kids under 18, please).

Edit 01:
Going car shopping is lots of fun, especially if you aren't the person buying the car. I won't say who the prospective buyer is yet, until things are more firmed up at least, but we shopped around the Ubi area looking at Toyotas, Suzukis and eventually a Mazda.

It's fun because we got to poke around the cars on display, comparing the aesthetics of design and comfort. Besides, driving around in a showroom car comes with the excitement of parting with a huge amount of cash and selling your life away knowing you get a nil return on your investment.

Because of budget constraints, we limited our shopping to Toyota's Vitz and ist, Suzuki's Swift and Mazda's 2SP. For the moment the preference looks biased towards the Swift with it's responsive engine, compact shape, leather interior and clean dash; though where the 3 of us disagreed on was the choice of colours which to me just aren't inspiring. We also test drove the 2SP with it's more powerful engine and sports tranny, but for it's current price it doesn't seem to come with enough bells and whistles to be attractive.

Well, tonight our prospective car buyer must do the math and ask more questions. Hmm... to be able to consider buying a new car; it's a situation to relish. Yes.

Check out my new desktop wallpaper:

Day of physical rest, as it should be. Time to catch up on my marking of exam scripts (I'm so close to finishing I can taste it!) and some neglected household chores as well.

Probably catch some CSI on AXN in a few minutes, then turn in for an early night. We're looking at another mad week ahead. Better rest while we can.

M2 almost became a complete Sports Utility Vehicle for today. In his trunk there were a bowling bag containing ball and shoes, 2 sets of petanque boules, and a pair of inline skates complete with protective gear.

Our day began in the rain. June and I met Amy and JY at Bishan Park. We were a little late and we missed HP, but we arrived in time for lunch. We felt like Japanese, so we drove off to Toa Payoh for sushi. As we hoped, the weather cleared up while we ate. Then back to Bishan Park to complete what we planned to do from last night: Amy to learn cycling, JY to try inline skating.

So while Amy sat on her rented bike trying to gain confidence to kick off and pedal, JY armoured up and took her first steps in the rink at the skate park. June rented a bike too and did her rounds while I accompanied JY, trying to encourage her and give her confidence as she orbited the rink staying within grabbing distance of the railing.

Within an hour, JY had begun to take several steps unsupported on her inlines, though she suffered a nasty fall at which she decided to call it quits. Amy was still struggling with her bike, even though June was dangling a cold, refreshing 100Plus some distance away as motivation. If we all do this again next week, I'm sure there'll be some major improvements in their respective new skills.

After we left Bishan Park, June and I went back to the Toa Payoh petanque courts to train with Anthony, the youth team and the Ladies' team. And to clear our debt with Vicki over our equipment purchase.

By 8pm Anthony joined us to meet Amy and JY again for bowling at the CSC. Very busy, athletic day. Of course, it would have been healthier if we didn't finally end up at Swenson's for dinner and dessert. All my calories burned today, I bet I replaced in just that 1 meal. Hic.

JY didn't disappoint me like I did her last Wednesday. I invited her out to lunch with us, promising her a ride back to Bishan after, but when she met up with us, I was nowhere to be found because some last minute stuff cropped up and I couldn't have lunch after all. Tonight, she showed up for bowling as promised. 2 thumbs up for you, girl!

Not that we had a great series of games. After a break of more than a week, you could see the rust forming as we seemed to inspire each other to bowl nonsense. Also, maybe since the pressure's off us now that the competition is over, there's no urgency to take things too seriously and we just enjoyed each other's company instead.

We've committed ourselves to petanque now. June and I purchased a set of boules each from the clubhouse, on credit, heh heh. We decided that if we came early for training and no one else was around to open the store for us, at least we would have our own equipment and we could play or run drills with each other while we wait.

Having our own boules also means we can practice anytime, anywhere we like. Beach, park, wherever we can find a piece of open ground, preferably flat and not too bumpy.

Training today wasn't too bad. Vicki taught me some shooter's techniques, but it'll be some time before I would have had enough practice to actually use the theory effectively. But, as with the pattern so far, when the Ladies (June and Vicki) paired up against the 3 guys (today Anthony, Weng and me) they still wiped our faces in the dirt, though we did chalk up more credible losing scores than the last time. We're learning too, though maybe not as quickly as the girls.

June's gone pretty much into serious training with her new sport. She spent quite some time learning from Vicki, the local petanque Ladies' mainstay and shooting ace, and her form has improved quite impressively in just a couple of hours of practice.

Later, Vicki and June teamed up against Anthony, Vince and me for a couple of games. Sad to say, we guys sucked and got trashed by the 2 ladies in both games.

Now June wants her own set of "boules" so she can kick my butt every day. Oh well, guess that takes care of what to get her for Christmas!

Lunch came in 2 parts today. First P catered lunch for the staff, her treat. It was an all-vegetarian affair. Thankfully, the dishes were mostly oriental stir-fried or steamed fresh vegetables and not the fake meat gluten stuff. She also spared a thought for the carnivores amongst us and brought in a satay man to keep us happy. And as an afterthought to the younger staff of the fast-food generation, there were also a couple of boxes of pizza. Guess there was a little something for everybody.

Part 2 came around after 1 o'clock. A small convoy led by Anthony headed for Ambrosia on Arab Street for a snack, a drink and marking time. Unfortunately, Ambrosia was closed when we got there so we wandered around a bit before settling on Samar, a Middle Eastern F&B place. Interesting that the backs of the menu carried designs of posters calling for Palestinian freedom. They made me feel for just a little while like I was "there."

Despite having had lunch earlier, I was still peckish so I ordered a saltah. Apparently, it's a Yemeni recipe for a lamb stew soup. It came in a small soup bowl with bits of cabbage, some shreds of flat noodle-like things, and tiny pieces of lamb which were good to chew on. I had an almond flavoured laban (yoghurt drink) sprinkled with cinnamon and cardamon powder. It wasn't sweet like I thought it might have been, but was cold and tasted quite refreshing.

Amy and NBS left to pursue their own agenda soon after lunch, while Vince, Anthony and I stayed the rest of the afternoon to mark essay scripts. Quite a productive afternoon, I must say.

flik... flik... flikflikaflik... flikaflik tak. tak flikaflikaflikaflik taktak. flikatak flikatak flikatak thump. tak flikatak flikatak thump. thump tikatikatikatika(flik) tikatikatikatika(flik) tika(flik) tika(flik) tika(flik) thumpthump....
shikaskikashikashika... tap tapitty... tap tappity tappitty tap tap... tappity tappity tapitty tappity tappity tappity... BOOM CRASH!!!

You get the idea. That's Amy, Vince, June and me at the Esplanade Theatre for "Stomp!", the art of turning noise into signal. It's therapeutic to whack dustbin lids, hubcaps, oil drums and metal buckets to transform your aggression and frustration into a sonic assault against all of humanity, but Stomp! takes it one step further by making music and dance out of it. So with a little rhythm, lots of high-energy movement and a touch of light comedy you can bash away on pretty much any household implement you can get your hands on and go on a world tour. If noise therapy catches on, I wanna sign up too!

Edited:
We went to the TP petanque courts this afternoon where Anthony and the other 2 members of the Women's team coached June through her first petanque experience. June was such a serious student. I could see her really focusing hard on her targets and trying so hard to get the flow of her throw right. Later, they tried her out as a pointer in a couple of games where she did pretty well for a first timer.

Nice that June's learning a new sport that we can play with each other, one probably not as expensive as bowling either. Haha.

We were at the courts until quite late then eventually broke for dinner. Anthony and Wendy introduced us to Blooies, an essentially expat hangout place in Siglap. The place was full of Ang-mo types having a good time, most of whom were ignoring the Man U game on the TV, preferring to focus on their own conversations.

We were there for the food so June ordered the black pepper chicken as recommended by the rather frazzled-looking wait staff. From the fragments June offered me from her plate I could tell that the chicken was delightful. Tender and juicy and flavourful , and so fresh too. Likewise my mussel penne in tomato sauce. Lovely. I'd like to know which brand of ginger ale they served. It was sweet and not as dry as it usually is. That was a nice surprise 'cos given a choice I'd go for ginger beer (for the smoothness) rather than ale.

Celine and CW joined us a little later for coffee, chat and gossip. CW let us gawk at his Jazz in the parking lot. He'd recently installed a new grille, adding on to the other mods that supposedly "improve fuel consumption" -- aerodynamic fins and a bloated exhaust pipe, for example -- and other more cosmetic enhancements as well. He's a seriously "poisoned*" dude.

Blooies is one more dog-friendly place we can add to our list. Next time lah, ok, Q-tip?

*Term describing someone with car-upgrade mania.

Finally got to see the inside of a doctor's consultation room after nearly 2 years of being in the pink of health. Well, a dirty-pinkish shade, anyway.

Smashed my knee on the lanes during training on Tuesday -- way harder than usual -- and by yesterday my already knobbly kneecap developed an additional contour that looked a bit alarming. Left alone, there wasn't much pain but when I pressed my finger into it, it felt mushy and it bloody well hurt. Time to get it looked at by a professional.

June's office covers spouse's medical claims so I took the opportunity to make use of this fringe benefit at least once before the policy expires permanently. This meant going to an approved company doctor, and there are 3 or 4 in the Yishun area alone. I found one just behind the MRT station, in block 744.

The GP is a slightly elderly gentleman who is very talkative and detailed in explaining all the possible injuries my knee could have sustained. After various leg extensions and rotations on the examination table, he confirmed that since I still had full movement in the joint, the injury was thankfully locallized to the patella and that the swelling and pain should subside within a week, given rest.

Got from him a painkiller, and anti-inflammatory and a gel-ointment (external application only). No permanent damage, then. Phew.

Edit 01:
Since I was on medical leave, I arranged to meet Vince to get my stack of essays to be marked over the weekend. At the same time, I took Mimi and Q-tip along for an afternoon outing. We met at East Coast Park, which Vince said was a good place to get an afternoon's quota of marking done.

And so it was that me, 2 dogs, Vince, Anthony, Weng and Amy ended up on the beach. First, we had lunch at the Beach Hut (sorry to say, but the food wasn't very good); then casting our cares and scripts aside, played petanque instead. Ahhh, rest... just what the doctor ordered.

Lovely, lazy afternoon. Thanks for the company, y'all!

Today's the day the promo papers begin. All the work we've been putting in this year now culminates in this one big push to the half-way mark. And another giant pile of marking awaits me now -- all essays -- and a slightly more than 2 week deadline hangs over my head. My best wishes to all my students, and I hope to see you all continuing the work in year 2.

Today's also the last day of the bowling league. Amy got blooded after all, Anthony deciding not to change the arrangement we made for last week and letting her bowl in his place. Because of this historic moment, NBS and HP came along ostensibly to form Amy's cheerleading squad. But the game became too long-drawn and repetitive for them, so eventually they disappeared to watch TV instead. Nevertheless, NBS did stay out with us past pumpkin-time, and this will be a fact Amy won't be letting us forget anytime soon. Yes, Amy, you win.

June was, of course, our most faithful supporter. She stayed through good throws and bad and even had to motivate Vince a bit during his execrable 1st game. Thankfully, he picked up in his subsequent games, as did Yee who was our best bowler tonight.

Me, I had a pretty decent 1st game, then slumped back down to average again, cock and lock notwithstanding. Bleh. So it wasn't quite the bang we were hoping to end the tournament with, but we had a great run and we've enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Next year the trophies are OURS!

Yahoo! news: Poor_Have_Difficulty_Eating_Healthy_Foods

Here's a strange turnaround of events. In today's world, it's the poor who have a problem with obesity, and the ill-effects inherent therein.

Amazing that processed foods: the convenient, fast-to-cook, additive-enhanced, attractively packaged concoctions of mass production have become more affordable than fresh fruits and vegetables. Economies of scale are to blame for this, I suppose.

Worse still that the poor have to work so hard and for such long hours that they have no time to cook for their families either.

No $$$ + no time = eating junk & crap.

It's just so ironic then that the poor are now developing health problems once associated with the rich. Fat, prosperous bodies and diabetes (caused by too much intake of sugar, once considered a luxury product) seem to have been discarded by the rich who can afford to take care of their dietary health. And it's left to the poor to pick up the refuse, as usual.

So, how are you treating your body today?

"Cock" and "Lock." 2 words that I had all but forgotten over the last month in competition and in training. I had kept on diagnosing and re-diagnosing the problem I've been having with my wild throws: change standing position, change aiming point, change angle of attack, whatever... and almost every time, my throw will still go off in every which direction, and I have been pretty moody about it for a while already.

This evening's practice took me back to the basics. Pick standing position... centre self... focus eyes on target area... control breathing... COCK wrist... push-off (not too far)... walk up... swing back (also not too far)... genuflect... LOCK wrist on the downswing till release... point thumb at precise target area and follow through... let balancing arm do it's thing intuitively. 2 very simple steps in the procedure makes all the difference between a good throw and crap.

I followed this procedure on my last 2 practice games -- and scored a personal high of 209!!! Finally broke the 200 barrier, and earned a "clean game" and "high game" citation for my lane as well. Current mood: euphoric.

Team Manager, Amy, expressed concern about me peaking too early. The last game of the season is on Thursday and therefore a very bad time to slump again so, no. Must continue to focus, concentrate and not get complacent. Yes, ma'am, we'll end the season memorably!

Of course, the great tragedy about Thursday's game is that Amy won't be replacing Anthony after all. We thought the game was on last Thursday when Anthony was in Brussels, so Yee had got her all prepared with intensive training all week. But Anthony will be rejoining the team this week so the Gutter Boyz will still be together one last time this year. Amy's training hasn't been for nothing, though. She's since picked up her game to the 130s (give or take the occasional inconsistent 90+ games) and is still working hard to be a true contender. Maybe she'll consider joining us as a player next year? How 'bout it, ma'am?

We're in exam mode already. These 3 days are for the JC1's study break and the 1st paper begins Thursday. Between the JC1 and JC2 tutors, there's been a sudden role reversal since last week, and now we (JC1 tutors) have the more flexible timetable.

I'm taking the time between student consultations to read Phillips' "6 Questions of Socrates." It's slow going because it's a book I'm consuming in small chunks at a time. Though I haven't even made it past the 1st chapter so far, I find the duscussion groups Phillips organizes (and then writes about) to be quite fascinating. From culture to culture, people to people, he gathers a class-sized group together and asks them for their views on virtue/justice/moderation/good/courage/piety and lets the group just trash it out amongst themselves. Sometimes he asks for further clarification or some other leading question, but most of the time, the group members bounce ideas amongst themselves.

What's fascinating for me is that the participants range from the elderly wisened to the pimply teenaged, and so far it's been the younger crowd that seems the most vocal. 16-18 year-olds talking about the highest of human ideals, truly believing what they say and yet listening with open ears and hearts and minds in order to learn more from what the others have to say. Whether they're Greek or Navajo or Japanese the young have something to say about being human and aiming for the highest standards of human excellence, and they are neither afraid nor embarrased to say it.

The "lesson" goes in many different directions in quite an unstructured manner. The "teacher" (Phillips) doesn't actually control the discussion as much as he helps the group to uncover truth for themselves. Phillips doesn't have any answers to offer anyway.He's more interested in stimulating and sometimes provoking his discussion group to respond to the discussion.

Perhaps our biggest problem is in underestimating our kids. We don't actually engage them at this level. We feel they aren't "ready" to discuss such issues with us. Sometimes we don't even feel we're ready to discuss it with them either. Hope we get over our prejudices fast. Wonder what our kids might say, given such an opportunity?

To the owner of the SUV parked so inconsiderately at the egress of the Empress Place slip road turning out into Connaught this morning:

You caused a minor traffic jam along Empress because a tour bus could not find an angle to exit into Connaught despite many back-and-forth attempts by the bus driver. Traffic backed up to the end of the Asian Civilizations Museum and everyone grew increasingly irate at the blockage.

One-by-one, drivers abandoned their vehicles and walked towards your car to see what the problem was and how they could help the bus driver with his situation.

When enough people got together, they decided that it was more expedient to do something about it rather than wait upon your good graces to show up and drive off.

I would never have imagined that human hands could actually lift and drag a whole SUV aside, but I guess when coupled with adrenaline, an angry mob is not to be underestimated. Dear owner, in case you're wondering how your vehicle ended up parked on the sidewalk instead of on the road where you left it, the explanation is right here.

Please give more thought to where you park next time. Thank you.

Spent all of last night wiped out on the living room floor watching back-to-back episodes of ABC's "Lost." It's thanks to May's generousity that she's lent us her collection of this gripping TV series. I'm not surprised it won top drama honours at this year's Emmys.

The silliness of mysterious goings-on on the Island is just icing on the cake. The lead characters are strong, interesting people; and though their situation appears within the context of being marooned on a deserted island, the same situation could easily be duplicated in any other area of human interaction -- workplace or school, for example -- in which the same people come into contact with each other again and again over a prolonged period of time. It's the development of human relationships, the banding together of strangers for the common cause of survival despite the difficulties in communication between different cultures and their prejudices, and the so-human need to get out and explore the unknown that secured my eyeballs until um... sometime past midnight.

This evening, June came home fuming mad from the office. Bad day, apparently. Best way to cheer her up is to get her fed so we took Q-tip with us to Jerry's in Jalan Kayu for a bit of indulgence. Jerry's has built it's reputation on buffalo wings and they did not disappoint. 6 large wings, plump and tender and smothered in a hot sauce (your choice from 3 degrees of intensity). They make one heck of a mess on fingers and clothes, but that's to be expected from this kind of generosity.

June got herself a gorgeous filet mignon while I went for the ox-tail stew. Both of us for different reasons had ended up skipping lunch so by dinnertime we just needed to tear into meat with our teeth and claws. No apologies for our carnivorous behaviour. So there.

Sated, we dropped Q-tip back off at home the went to catch a movie. Not much to choose from this week so we ended up with Jackie Chan's "The Myth." Guess it was good that we didn't have any expectations for it. We tended to be more forgiving that way.

A present-day archaeologist, Jack (how original), has recurring dreams of himself as a Qin Dynasty general whose duty it is to escort the Emperor's new concubine back to the palace, but through the trials and tribulations of the journey, falls in love with her instead. Complications arise when Jack's friend, William, takes advantage of these dreams to send him tomb-raiding across Asia in search of the truth while reaping the spoils of each foray for himself. The scenes bounce between the present and the past as Jack's memory slowly reveals itself, though sometimes the movie gets a bit rambling, losing focus as stunt after stunt, fight after fight pile on.

What I thought was the highlight of the movie was a priceless scene in which Chan fights 2 Indian policemen and 1 fanatic religious devotee on a conveyor belt that has super-adhesive qualities. At the same time, his gorgeous Bollywood co-star is caught literally in this sticky situation and both she and Chan have to perform a strip-tease in order to escape. Heh heh.

The premise behind the closing scenes sounds a bit hokey, but it does set up the zero-gravity fight scene as well. Yes, Chan makes strange films.

Wow! College Alumnette and ex-librarian we can be proud of!

Hot bods

"Sweat" gets the fit and healthy to share their secrets

By Ng Sor Luan

Clara, 21, NUS undergraduate and part-time make-up artist

Height: 159cm

Weight: 51kg

Exercise: I jog a lot, at least an hour every day, and I do the occasional biathlon where I swim for 40 minutes and run for an hour after that.

I started blading when I was eight, stopped when I was 10, but picked it up again when I was 18. I used to do speed skating, but I just skate for leisure now. I also do simple toning exercises like weight training, push-ups and squats at home.

Diet: My poor performance in one of my primary school sports meets prompted me to do something about my rather plump physique.

I would get rid of all the fat I see in my food, but my health suffered as a result: I was pale, my hair fell off, and I felt cold frequently.

I've since wised up and am not so particular about fat in my food, preferring to exercise more instead. I like brown rice and eat fruits and vegetables, making sure I get one serving every other meal. I take infood rich in carbohydrates on the days I run or do endurance training, and cut down on food on rest days. I drink a lot of water too.

(Found in Sunday Times, Sept 18, 2005)

Delivered a 2nd hand office chair to SMA this evening. He wasn't home but the parents were, so we took them out to dinner. Just a couple of hours ago they watched a programme on TV featuring satay at East Coast Park Food Centre and, of course they were itching to sample it for themselves. Our arrival was an unexpected godsend.

As usual, we over-ordered. Dad got us 40 sticks of some very chunky satay in chicken, mutton and beef. June got the beef noodles she had been dying to eat since the last time we were here and she had to abandon the queue that never moved. I got us some popiah which wasn't very good; it was unusually heavy and had a strong fish flavour according to Mom.

But the real treasure was when Dad made contact with a dusty, disused memory from a decade ago. Perhaps more. Back then, whenever we ate here we tended to eat from just one stall: Tembeling Porridge. The stall has since dropped the "Tembeling" in it's name and now just bears a large, prosaic "zhou" on it's signboard. But Dad remembered the old proprietor and ordered his long-forgotten fish porridge and a dish that doesn't exist on the official menu: fish-roe salad. Only those in the know would ask for it and, yes, it's still available.

The salad comprises a very generous handful of steamed(?) strips of fish-roe on a bed of shredded lettuce and sesame oil. It's not a dish everybody can appreciate given that fish eggs are likely to taste fishy (like a very unsophisticated caviar), but it is an experience quite out of the ordinary. The 4 of us struggled to finish an $8 platter. Quite reasonable, though I'm more amazed that after all these years the old boy is still here to be found.

Current state of being: stuffed.

SMA directed us on a scenic drive from our place to Jalan Kayu via the Yishun dam and through Seletar Airbase. If we had started a little earlier the view of the setting sun across the water would have been spectacular, but as it was, the road was quite a bit dark and I had to pay close attention to where I was going. It's a narrower, windier route than I'm used to and in the dimmness I had to focus on the road and not much else. Love to drive through that way again just for the sights.

We stopped for dinner at "ChaoZhou Porridge Culture," a little Teochew porridge place that stands out from amongst the other prata places one usually expects to find in the area. It looks expensive, but the setup is an all-you-can-eat buffet of clear porridge and accompanying dishes. Each table is required to order only 1 main dish and the rest is a free for all. We ordered a decent braised fish dish, then pigged out on braised peanuts, salted-eggs, salted veggies, stir-fried fresh veggies, brinjal, pickled onions and olives, tau pok, a couple of other bean-curd based things, and fresh cockles, which June claims the Wong family wouldn't get enough of if they had joined us on this outing.

Very friendly service from the youthful English-speaking staff, one of whom lamented that some of the more traditional, exotic Teochew dishes had to be taken off the menu due to their loss of popularity from either ignorant or overly-health conscious patronage. If we wanted goose, or jellied wild-boar, or kana-chai (an olive pickle side-dish) we'd have to convince the chef that there's still a mass-market for it.

I don't particularly like porridge, but the food was palatable and easily eaten in quantity. Not necessarily fantastic, but the price is appealing. 3 can eat as much as we want for $24. Can't go too far wrong there!

June came back from BKK late last night, ending my most dreary weekend of solitude with only non-human animals for company. As much as I love them, they're not exactly the most communicative of beings.

Determined not to make the same mistake as last year, I drove to the airport to collect her. I missed her so much, and it was just only for 4 days.

Last night was a packed working/social evening. NBS and I finally went on our book shopping spree that we had been anticipating since June (the month, not the wife). We need to stock the college library with books for the New Subject so next year's kids can have something to read when they take it up. We went to Kino, Orchard, and pulled an assortment of stuff from the Mythology, Philosophy, Media, Mathematics and General Science sections. Filled up 2 baskets and did a rough calculation: over $1K worth of reading material in under 1 hour of shopping. Whoever said that education was cheap? Kids better appreciate the expense, else grrr....!

Then we took the MRT to PS to meet Vince, Amy, Yee, HP and her sis, SP for dinner at the food court. Got news from them that Amy has finally beaten each of us Gutter Boys at least once. They had gone training in the afternoon and through a Pearl Harbour maneuvre (actually Yee was just blur) Amy hit him with a 139, her personal high to date. I think she's ready to replace Anthony next week. Yes.

By 9 NBS had to go home before she turned into a pumpkin so we waved goodbye to her while we went on to watch "The Brothers Grimm." Yee had already watched it so he took care of his own agenda. Think I'll review "Grimm" after I watch it with June (the wife, not the month) next week.

After the movie, Vince got hungry so it was teh alia (tea with ginger) at Rosyth and miscellaneous chat and gossip till way past midnight. Hence this late entry.

Today was a completely different social dynamic. Just me alone with Q-tip and Mimi. Haven't heard my voice all day today except to order food; oh, and to murder the songs I sang along to played off my 'pod. If no one's around to hear me, I can indulge myself, ok?

It was a beautiful sunny day, so I took the dogs to Sentosa for lunch at the Trapizza. I owed them a major outing for neglecting them all last night. Ordered the Trapizza Linguini, a seafood pasta in tomato sauce. It was ok, though not quite what I hoped for. But if you asked me what I had hoped for, I don't actually know either.

Q-tip flirted with an Aussie couple on the beach and Mimi was an embarrassment, screaming her head off at a larger dog just passing through and minding its own business.

Evening I abandoned the dogs again and went into town looking for dinner. Was feeling restless and needed to take a long drive and blast music at the same time. No parking available anywhere in the Suntec City/Marina Square/Esplanade area. The whole of Singapore must have come out early to party downtown or something. Settled for parking at Funan Centre (again!) and found a beef noodle thingy in the basement food court. My order tasted like offal and tripe, gravy over-salty, beefballs mushy. Yuck. Couldn't down the whole thing but I still tried to eat enough to look respectable.

Whiled away a bit more time with a black forest ice-blended, a welcome change of the taste in my mouth after dinner.

Now back home again with a couple of comatose canines for company. How exciting.

June's off in BKK again, some family time and annual shopping pilgrimage. Left to my own devices for the weekend, though she left me with lots of provisions to keep myself contented and occupied.

But training goes on as usual. This time at the new alley at Marina Square. Primitive scoring interface, but authentic wooden lanes. Pins don't fly well. There are occasions where pins skim across the surface of the target area and still remain upright. Frustrating, that.

And our neighbours on our left were a bunch of good 'ol boys presumably out on a company function or something. Noisy and with very little bowling etiquette. They take a long time to line up for a roll, chatting while they aim. Occasionally they will decide not to roll after all so back they go to continue that thread of gossip they had left off. Irritating, but they were out to have a good time, so whateverrr.

Yee's getting better with his new ball and is now striking more often, I still have problems with consistency. Boo hoo.

Cirque du Soleil's "Quidam" is a perfect blend of physics with art. Loosely based around children's toys and games, the performance involves the use of leverage, gravity, acceleration, and lots of pendula in different designs. But these basic tools of a physics lab when fused together with the aesthetics of music and dance and physiological movement bring a tear to the eye. To take the whole composition in is to experience such amazingly breathtaking beauty.

The set is cleverly designed around 4 overhead tracks that fly props and performers in and out quickly and efficiently. These tracks get a lot of mileage by constantly changing new sights for the audience to look upwards and gape at. As the show's inspiration is child's play, there is ample excuse to fly in various swinging contraptions suspending artistes in mid-air all the better to exploit the audience's acrophobia. As for toys, the diabolo spinners and the jumprope item were spellbinding in their precision timing and group coordination.

The theme seems so appropriate to the show. When else in our lives have we truly let ourselves go physically and imaginatively into our fun and games other than in our childhood? As I watched, I thought back to my own days of yore and how much enjoyment I got out of playing on the jungle gym, on the swings, slides, monkey bars and other devices that put kids' lives and limbs on the line. What I watched today were basically the stunts I could only imagine myself pulling as a kid, testing my physical limits in the playground. 'So dangerous,' as parents today might say, but oh so much fun as well.

How do these artistes allow themselves to be tossed into the air so easily, and to tempt fate by risking falls from great heights? What does it take for them to let go of their secure handholds and footholds and go soaring into the air like they do? First, they have to conquer their fear as they subject themselves to performing that which normal, ordinary human beings would naturally shy away from. This wouldn't be easy to do unless there is the most implicit trust in their equipment and in their fellow artistes who stand ready and are well-trained to catch a flying body, thus preventing injury from occurring.

The trust and faith performers draw upon to go flying isn't a blind faith, though. They spend years training together, understanding each other, coordinating with one another. They check and religiously maintain their equipment again and again through a boring but necessary routine. And they discipline themselves too through personal conditioning. They train themselves to form the shapes that allow them to be caught by their fellows, 'cos there's no point having people stand by to catch you when you, yourself, remain uncatchable.

Flying doesn't come naturally to us, human beings. It's a learning process and during training and rehearsals there are going to be mistakes. I'll bet the performers all have a litany of bumps, bruises and worse to their names as a result. But if they weren't ready to accept their hurts as par for the course, maybe they wouldn't have thought of wanting to fly in the first place.

How about that? Philosophy of the Circus 101.

Yee got himself new ball. A black Ebonite, 14lbs, drilled for a hook shot. Think he's still getting used to the hook, being a straight bowler for so long. Hopefully with a few more practice sessions, he and his new ball will help pull us out of the slump we're in -- 4th from the bottom of the table in League standings. Our last outing was such a disaster.

We're also going to have to cope with Anthony who'll be out of country in the next tournament game in a couple of weeks. Who can we get to replace him? Hmm...

Anyway, bowled ourselves silly and now I'm paying for it with aching legs and knees. Ouch.

My blow-up with June last week was one of my most difficult experiences to take. While the full impact of what happened fell on me, being pretty much the sole cause of the crisis in the first place, it also sent ripples and resonances through the Gutter Boyz as well. Crisis does things to a group dynamic and it does seem -- to me at least -- that our relationship with each other has changed a little.

When we first started socializing, then training in earnest, most of the time we got together just for the laughs. We had fun, and we chatted and joked around a lot. We pulled each others' legs mercilessly and then it was just great entertainment for all of us.

Last week, during the crisis, the Gutter Boyz became a solid support group offering their encouragement, understanding and their prayers for which I will always appreciate.

Today, from the 2 conversations I had, and I'm guessing from the other interactions around me as well, we started talking about something new. Instead of cracking inane jokes all the time we really started sharing deeper issues with each other. Hurts, fears, vulnerabilities out on the table. We started taking each other seriously and a new element of trust, I believe, has grown between us.

Today, we started seeing each other in a more human light rather than as just a bunch of clowns and cartoons. It's not that I hadn't taken our friendship seriously in the past, but I think we've progressed to a new level of friendship and I'm really happy about that. My crisis may have shaken us up a bit, but I think our ties are now stronger than ever in spite of it.

Adversity last week, a new perspective this week. God does indeed work in mysterious ways.

4 years ago today I caught events as they unfolded in New York through Yahoo!'s news feed. It began with an item I had very little interest in -- a report that a plane had crashed into the WTC building. I had thought it was just a small private jet that had inadvertently strayed off-course and met with the unfortunate. But as the story kept updating I knew I was 'witnessing' something that had once been only thought of in works of fiction.

When news came in about the second tower being hit, I just had to stop surfin' and watch events 'live' off CNN. I could only gape in horror at the many-times repeated replays of the 2 impacts and when the towers collapsed it was totally unbelievable. It felt like I had stepped through a portal into some alternate reality and there was no way back.

People say that 9/11 was a day that changed the world. In a way it did. America expanded its idea of 'national security' beyond its own borders; we began to wake up to the idea that ordinary people who weren't necessarily combatants in any clearly-defined conflict could still be considered valuable targets by hostile parties; and as such we took comfort in having armed guards patrolling our public places where it wasn't necessary before.

But in a way, the world also remains the same. Life goes on for us and we have other crises to deal with, sometimes more immediate than always having to look over our shoulders to see what the 'terrorists' are up to. For example, the US has its hands full dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. It's not just the physical damage to infrastructure and human life but also the 1st-hand experience of how quickly chaos can take over and rule once law-enforcement services are even temporarily disrupted. Barring a nuclear explosion, no terrorist attack could ever top this catastrophe.

Over here we're dealing with a huge dengue fever epidemic and trying to come to terms with the number of spectacular homicides that have occurred in recent months. Disasters both natural and inhuman. With news like this, it's hard not to think of the world as a scary place.

Oh, before I forget, I'd like to state for the record that I really do appreciate the support and prayers of our friends who stood by June and me and believed in us during our time of tough testing those last couple of days ago. It's great having friends like you. :)

Tina's do was a long table at Turkish restaurant, Cappadocia. Guests were a nice mix of old friends and some very new faces. Light, easy-going conversation kept our spirits up along with red and white wine (coke for me). A very pleasant evening indeed.

Birthday girl makes her thank you speech 

Tina's thrilled with the first pressie she opens 

June orders 2 coffees, Shirley just wants 1 

John and Shirley pause in mid-conversation to pose for a picture 

Q-tip's carrier bag gets her places where normally dogs aren't welcome. The bag looks like an ordinary sports bag but has a zippered netting through which a furry 4-legged passenger can look out of and breathe through. Unless anyone looks carefully, no one notices that a non-human organism has been brought into a humans-only restricted area.

This morning, Q-tip got her first look at Suntec City and CityLink Mall. June and I were shopping for Tina's belated birthday pressie. We knew exactly what we wanted to get: an original kimono material tote bag from Kokon Tozai. Tina liked the one she saw June carrying so we got one just like it for her.

We also passed through Chinatown and stopped for more sour plum juice, a little light lunch and some cheap CD shopping. Foo Leong Record in the Chinatown Complex sells original CDs at a slightly discounted rate. I picked up Green Day's "American Idiot" (Special Edition) for $18.50 (usual price: $21+) then I discovered -- thanks to the friendly sales staff -- that China imported original [repeat: ORIGINAL] CDs sold for $6.90 each! A bit backdated, maybe, but some new stuff as well. I picked up Linkin Park's "Hybrid Theory" (SE) and "Meteora" and Keane's "Hopes and Fears." The albums have Chinese legalese on the covers, but other than that they are well worth the price.

Now chillin' out at home before heading to Tina's bash at Cappadocia, Robertson Walk later. Will probably update about that sometime tonight. And hopefully some with some pix as well.

New page.

I'll leave my previous entry as is to remind myself of the biggest blow-up in my domestic history to date. Because of the personal nature of the misunderstanding I'll not provide any further details other than I've been an insensitive and uncaring clod towards my June and I nearly paid a very dear price for it.

However, my offer to kill this blog was more extreme than necessary to smooth the rough patch between us, hence I'm back! New title as well 'cos I've always thought the previous one was horribly pretentious but I was too lazy to think of a new one until today when it became necessary.

There is a matter of holiday snapshots I promised earlier so let's get to them, shall we?

The trip begins with great excitement at Changi Airport 

The only Thai meal we had in Thailand.

You've never been to a city unless you've visited the local HRC 

If the tourists won't go to the store, let the store go to the tourists 

Our romantic river cruise takes up to this unromantic souvenir store 

June and HP make sure our tour boat doesn't leave without us 

HP contents herself playing with a fake snake when there are real ones at the snake farm 

Ridin' the Skytrain 

Mention food and Vince shows up in a puff of smoke 

The watched pot valiantly tries its best to boil 

The deadly 2-handed twin-chopstick technique 

Truth.

I began this blog with the intention to record the true day-to-day story of my life. A bit like a soap-opera in that sense.

It was fun for a while, and having an audience -- a very niche but loyal one -- encouraged me to continue writing and honing my craft. But it also led to an addiction to constantly seeking out new experiences, new excitements to blog about. You could say that the life I've lived the past year or so was more for the sake of my blog rather than the other way around. It was great to read my past entries and think that my life was an extraordinary one after all. [Those of you who have been following up on my stories, indulge me this one illusion, ok?]

Through these entries, I've sailed dangerous waters, hinted at potential disasters, but it was fun for me to feel like I was in complete control navigating these choppy currents. But the thrill of the ride made me forget that I have a passenger with me who was getting seasick being tossed about with my erratic tacking. Someone who came aboard hoping for a more stable, secure ride and was getting increasingly annoyed with every stomach-lurching course correction.

Real life and blog life collided yesterday, and real life must always win out. My time spent blogging and finding things to blog about must be channelled towards matters of a more personal and domestic nature. Thus, and with great regret, the Off-Duty Educator is now off-line. Thank you all. You really have been a wonderful audience.

Full-stop.

Draw a line across.

Think my latest posts are becoming schizophrenic. I need my vacation and I need it now. Since I'm flying off to BKK tomorrow, I'll start there and recentre myself. Meantime, I'll try put up holiday snapshots if I ever get around to using my cam.

Thanks for being a great audience.

Check back Thursday to see if I have anything new to say.