Sampling the wonders of the 5-day week. I used to have a policy about it -- it was once sacred to me. When I was studying I mugged like mad (relatively speaking, of course) from Monday to Friday, and when Friday evening came along I totally fasted from work until Monday came again. It's time to revive old habits. Yes.

Today wasn't a complete fast though. I marked, but I also watched John and Jennifer Burb grow into an elderly couple and their daughter, Judy, become an adult. I've helped them all with their careers and their relationships, though Judy didn't get much attention initially. I think from now on, it'll be Judy's story and I'm now trying to find her a boyfriend or two or three, as she desires. Indulgent "parent," I am.

So very tired of the food served at the coffee-shops downstairs. Same thing all the time so we went to Northpoint's Pasta Cafe for their linguine primavera in tomato sauce. It was the sauce I've been craving all this week, for some reason. Dunno why. Wandered around Popular for travel books (watch this space) but couldn't find any. Pah!

Swenson's 'Ice House' for dessert. Fresh, clean tasting after-dinner treat; nothing more than vanilla ice-cream, some little butterscotch topping and a sprinkle of ground up roasted groundnuts for texture. Feels light going down because there's no chocolate anything to be found in the sundae.

Total stands as follows:

> Today's tally = 6
> Cumulative total = 77

Getting close to the end, though it's still a stretch to go yet.

Holy cow! 4 a.m. already! I been a baaaad boy! Spent too long in Pleasantview, neglecting all my other needs. At this point my personal stats look like this:

Hunger: medium
Comfort: low
Bladder: very low
Energy: depleting fast
Fun: way high
Social: medium
Hygiene: very low
Environment: low

You guessed it! The Sims 2 has finally hit the shelves and everyone's favourite human life-in-a-fishbowl desktop toy is back and better than ever! Spent pretty much the whole evening getting myself reacquainted with the controls and gameplay and trying to manage (manipulate?) the lives of a young suburban family that came prepackaged. The Burb family has 3 members, Dad, Mom and daughter and for the moment, I'm playing their lives almost like my own: slightly introspectively. This gameplan may not work well for the daughter who's Aspiration is Romance. She doesn't meet enough people, but I'm focusing on getting her grades up first (ain't that typical?).

This game is so open ended that watching your Sims fail is as fun as helping them succeed in life, sometimes even more so as they tend to become neurotic and fall prey to all sorts of unpredictable, irrational behaviour. However, as a gameplayer I do my best to fulfil the goals set for me in the game, so I generally have happy shiny, well-adjusted people living in this little house in Pleasantview. Perhaps when I'm more facile with the game, then I'll start 'helping' my Sims get what they fear most rather than what they aspire towards. That'll screw them up nicely, and then the fun and hilarity can begin.

Meantime, I'm neglecting my real life and my real marking which stands thus:

> Friday's tally: 5
> Cumulative total: 71

Must make up for it this uh... afternoon.
bhyclare.lgtmb//g... zzzzzzz...!

Between marking, invigilation and not much else, life has ground almost to a halt. Hate to think how this life might translate in the coming year when the 5-day week gets fully implemented in college. You'd think that we'd be celebrating a 2-day weekend, but that's just only one way to look at it. The days of work may have been reduced, but the hours we have to work remain the same, it's just that with the new scheme, we have fewer days in the week to do it all in.

This backlash doesn't afftect just us teaching staff but all our students as well. We have so many students and staff, but so few tutorial rooms to use that the time we're supposed to be saving is going to be spent queuing up for space to have lessons in. We can still expect to start our days before 7:30 a.m. but don't expect to knock off before 6 p.m. or thereabouts. We're all looking at 11-12 hour days 5 days a week just to have an extra day off on the weekend. And we haven't factored in our CCA committments yet. God help those of us who have 2 CCAs and have to supervise them both 2 of the 5 working days in the week since CCAs won't be held on Saturdays either. Then we have stuff to do in our so-called free-time: the marking, the lesson preparation, the research, the committee meetings, staff training... who would have guessed so much misery might come out of working 5 days a week?

Actually, the idea isn't bad. The execution, though, is always the problem. The rationale behind the directive is to reduce the workload from 5 1/2 days to 5 days, but the implementers will still demand 5 1/2 days work to be done in 5 days instead. Ah, well, it happened in Genesis too. The people complained so the Pharoah ordered that brick production be doubled, while straw be reduced by half. The civil service was just as efficient and pragmatic then as it is today.

Stuff we bitch about at breakfast. Wanna trash out problems honestly, avoid having committee meetings. The informal meal where no one takes things, each other or themselves too seriously is the ticket.

Sympathies to Jong Yann who is having a wisdom tooth problem today. Hope her dentist will be able to do something about it tomorrow.

I've been sort of good, despite having a chemistry invig duty in the afternoon:

> Today's tally = 12
> Cumulative total = 66

Rewarded myself dining in with June: Classic Greek (with feta, moza and edam cheese, yum!) + Meat Lovers' pizza from Canadian 2-for-1.

We wish Anthony good fortune as he leaves for Paris tonight with the Singapore national team to compete in the Championnat du Monde de Petanque 2004 -- that's the Petanque World Cup to translate from the French. The competition will be held in Grenoble where he will be travelling to once the team gets acclimatized in Paris.

Forewarned of his destination, some of our colleagues (I'm tempted to mention them by name 'cos it would be fun, but I won't) accosted him this morning to place their orders for LV merchandise which, apparently, is cheaper when purchased at the source. What better way to train one's stamina and competitive acumen than fighting tourists and bargain-hunters over luxury items at rock-bottom prices? So thus, and over breakfast, we bade him fare-well.

He should be boarding his plane right now so, Anthony, the hopes of all Singapore lie with you and your team to deliver what Ronald and Jia Wei couldn't at the Olympics -- a medal from a world competition! No pressure! We'll also be happy if you came back with an Eiffel Tower paperweight or an LV wallet or something. We're nice people.

As you might imagine, my morale for marking is pretty low today after all that excitement. Here's the score so far:

> Today's tally = 9
> Cumulative total = 54

Fatigue is setting in. Must take it easy...

I have to be honest. I love the prelim and mid-year exam periods. It is such a rare thing for me to have breakfast on Tuesday morning as lessons usually begin immediately after assembly. But today, students are taking their papers, and I can concentrate on clearing my pile of essays, and that's pretty much it, as I wasn't down for some exam duty or other. Breakfast itself isn't worth mentioning apart from the fact that it was a necessary rest-stop and energy recharge procedure before being able to face that rather daunting pile of marking again.

Lunch at GFC, same-old same-old, but in the afternoon, Amy developed a craving for ice-cream and she kindly surveyed whomever in the English Dept was still in the staff room to see if anyone else wanted a snack. She took our orders for different kinds of ice-cream and soon returned with a whole bunch. I got a very chocolatey Nestle Cornetto -- the topping comprised little chocolate spheres and chocolate sauce in alternating segments, and even the cone had been dipped in chocolate. It was slightly melty so it didn't last very long. Better in my stomach than on my desk, or worse, on someone's essay, eh? It went well with my afternoon coffee.

A small morale boost and here's my score for the day:

> Today's tally = 15
> Cumulative total = 45

Heh, so proud of myself!

Had lunch at The Dubliner's and I must say, it's nice to be back.

Back? Yup, this downtown Irish pub now occupies the site where once had stood the Orchard School of Arts and Commerce, where at the ripe old age of 23 I attended class hoping to pass my 'A' Level cert.

In most respects I was a model student, except where wearing the uniform was concerned. The Principal and her hubby were starting to introduce some idiotic uniform rules, and I, having been through 2 years ('O' Level holders did not qualify for 2.5 years' service) of wearing camo-green military uniform, plus the fact that I was legally an adult, was not about to comply. I tried to compromise by wearing a white button-down shirt with blue jeans, but I could tell it was only a matter of time before I'd get on some unpleasant list or other. Providence then opened the door for me to take my studies overseas, thus avoiding any unnecessary confrontation. I tended my resignation with glee.

Many years later, I'm back at the exact site of my last Singaporean Alama Mater and I'm lunching on shepherd's pie with my teaching colleagues who are here for not just the food and the um... malted beverages but also for a pleasant environment in which to continue their prelim marking (yes, call me obsessive).

Lunch at The Dubliner's is at a 30% discount off menu prices, though I don't know how long this promotion will last. Shepherd's pie, as I discovered, seems to be a mutton(?) stew covered over with a thick layer of fluffy potato mash for the pie crust. The meat is a very fine mince, stewed very tender and the dish generally goes down easily with small-talk and sips of liquid refreshment. I wonder if it really is mutton, though. The stew is so fine, I'm not absolutely sure, but won't shepherds lose the trust of their sheep if they went around smelling like mutton? Sheep are dumb.

Eating al fresco is quite a pleasant experience here. Partially shaded by tree foliage, we sit and dine as shadow patterns alternate with sunshine spots on the cobbled terrace. The gentle trickle of water from the landscaped waterfall add to the ambience of a lazy afternoon, but we were there for a reason. For me and Gerald, it was strictly lunch; for Vince and Anthony, after lunch was marking time. It was still early afternoon when I left them there to slowly ruminate over the imponderables that are students' answers to GP questions.

I caught the MRT home for some pet therapy... and to update the scoreboard which reads:

> Today's tally = 11
> Cumulative total = 30

Spent most of the day marking essays and am now wondering what we have failed to teach. Normal, rational arguments generally follow this pattern:
If A = B
and B = C,
then A = C. That's logical, right?

The essays I've been marking generally look like this:
A (therefore) = C.
And that's all!

The answer (A = C) may look the same BUT the process and the development of the answer simply doesn't make sense because the linkage (B) is almost all but ignored. Typically, this kind of argument works if you were the Dictator of a banana republic and because you repeat it often enough and loudly enough your people will start to believe you. However, try this kind of reasoning with a group of rational people and it's goodbye, Senor Presidente, as your shoulders bid a fond farewell to your head.

I've also been doing some math (oh horrors!). A balanced argument doesn't seem as important as it might appear. An essay with a strong, well-presented, cohesive argument may score a maximum of 18 out of 30 marks for content even if it is "not necessarily balanced" (quoted from the essay marking scheme). But an essay riddled with contradictions because balance is poorly argued (worse -- forced because it is "required") risks scoring a maximum of 12 out of 30 content marks for making a mess of the argument. That's the difference between a D and a C grade, and it could be all the difference in the world. Those of you consistently scoring D and below, please take heed.

If this rant isn't making sense to you, please go find a GP tutor to speak to BEFORE you take the exam for real. If there's a problem, let's fix it now!

After blowing off steam, heeeee...re's the scoreboard:

> Today's tally = 14
> Cumulative total = 19

And we're off and running!

And so the nightmare begins. Prelim marking is going to make me look back over the next two weeks and remark that I once had a life. A lovely stack of essays await their fate as I turn Freddy Kruger again and hack and slash until I am waist deep in mire and gore. I think we've been here before. Deja vous.

I think just to motivate myself, I'll run a daily scoresheet on the number of essays I've marked. It'll be inspiring to see this figure advance as my stack regresses. But in the meantime, I'll also be dealing with assorted distractions like sleep and meals. I guess this is the only way we tutors can keep you company as you struggle through this difficult period. We comiserate through mutual suffering. Fair?

Did the statue thing again today as I will be doing another three more times in the next two weeks. I modelled for "Stamford Raffles (standard)","lout and lampost", "slut at her dresser" and "Buddha's meditation on a writing surface." Too bad there weren't any AEP students around to immortalize me in an 'A' Level sculpture submission. Invigilation in 03-49 is not a pleasant thing. The room looks smaller than the others and when the students bring their belongings in and place them along the front and side walls, there's hardly any space left to walk. It becomes claustrophobic and it gets worse when the first few bars of "Heart of Gold," by Johnny Hates Jazz, starts repeating over and over in your mind for no apparent reason. I was thankful to Mei Lian who subbed me for 25 minutes each paper, and for some mindless administration that shut Johnny up for a while.

> Initializing 'Marked Essay Scoresheet'...
> ... Initialized
>
> Tally 'Marked Essay Scoresheet'...
> Number of Essays marked today = 0
> Cumulative Total = 0

>sigh< I'd better get started.

Edit 01:
8 hours later...

> Today's tally = 5
> Cumulative total = 5

Well, it's a start, I suppose.

The NE course was quite enjoyable, though I was the only one representing our college. Should have invited some others to join me as it felt a bit lonely and strange, and I think a few of our staff would have enjoyed themselves too. Anyone interested in storytelling would have benefited and those of us (like me) who love stories but can't tell one for beans got a real boost in our storytelling abilities as the presenters slowly built our confidence up step by baby step.

To be honest, most of the NE stuff was forgotten as we learned to craft tales from our personal experiences and from a chosen story that we had to prepare last night. At least, I was more interested in learning the skill to see how it might apply to GP and to lit. After all, storytelling is such a forgotten art form that only a select few know how to do it really well, and the rest of us don't seem to bother with it so much any more.

As our opening speaker, Gopi, said, today we let other people tell stories to us, usually large corporations under the behemoth known as "Hollywood." We now rely so much on 'realistic' visual stimulation from TV drama and cinema SFX that we have lost the need to listen to each other and create for ourselves individual interpretations of reality using our own imaginations. Instead of sharing a common vision, we are all plugged into the exact same one and we lose ourselves in the process. No wonder we are now having so much trouble with studying literature -- the subject forces us to utilize the brain 'muscles' that we have allowed to atrophy due to a severe lack of constant exercise, all thanks to the convenience and attractiveness of modern electronic media.

The seminar showed me a couple of things. First, storytelling is an acquired skill, and anyone can pick it up regardless of how incompetent one may feel initially. Second, the craft is really honed in the telling of stories in front of an audience, not so much in the rehearsing of the story beforehand (i.e., to be a good storyteller you must tell stories). Third, simple stories work best for both teller and audience -- don't get too clever or creative or whatever; a delivery that is natural to oneself always works best. Fourth, we all love telling stories, despite what I said earlier. That's why some of us blog, right? The rest of us just yak till the cows come home.

Since storytelling is such an important skill, perhaps my next batch of year ones will begin first term next year just learning to tell stories. GP as a subject can wait. What do you think, folks?

Other notes: Apollo Hotel fed us really well. Lunch was a luxuriously long 1-and-a-quarter hours at the all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant. Must especially mention the salmon sashimi which was so fresh. Haven't tasted sashimi this good since that breakfast at Kansai Airport's Takashimaya last year. The spread was generally light and dainty, so you always felt that there was room for one-more-plateful... This includes the meat dishes, fish, chicken, satay and whatever else there was (I'm not big on buffet meats, myself) and the desserts as well. And, yes, we must always make room for dessert. The brownies (a bit sweet), American cheesecake (cut to look like tiny sailboards), chocolate cake (that looked like nougat on a chocolate base), and ice-cream bythetubandhelpyourselfthankyou. *waves to Jenny and Bina who kept me company at the lunch table. MINDEF officers, if you must know.

Oh, and one more point. Jack Neo didn't show up after all. He was scheduled for tomorrow's session but since the organizers combined both sessions into today, Chan Soo Sen (him with the big portfolio), today's keynote speaker, spoke instead.

OK. To all who are taking tomorrow's GP prelim, go sleep now. Come in with a fresh mind and a rested body. Good luck and enjoy your paper tomorrow!

Today I checked TRAISI, our online course planner. I knew I had sort of applied for an NE course scheduled for some time around now but I wasn't too sure when. I also didn't know if my application had been successful. TRAISI confirmed the approval of my application and informed me that the course is on, like, tomorrow. Gasp. Good thing I checked else there'd have to be explanations a-plenty justifying why I didn't attend a course that cost the college $250. I don't think a sheepish, "I forgot :-P" is going to be sufficient.

Now it looks like my free Friday has become a full-day event. 8:30-6:00. And I have homework to do to prepare. The course material is a whole bunch of folk tales and stories which we have to look through since we'll be discussing them to some length during the hands-on workshop sessions. Jack Neo is the invited guest speaker, so it could well be quite entertaining. Still, a whole day of activity... I don't know.

Health concern: lower back pain that's lasted almost 4 days now. Think I'm starting to walk like an old man. Scary thought. Must've screwed up my back sitting on my butt too long hunched over Watson's keyboard a couple'a days back. When will I be free to get my spine straightened out again? Hopefully, it's just another temporary ailment.

Also, for the record, after patient preparation, training and quite some persistent stalking I finally caught Latias. There. I've made full use of my bragging rights. 'nuff said.

Bored at home so I went walking around the Heeren in the late morning. Checked out the DVDs at HMV, but didn't see anything I wanted. Actually, I was more like pretending to shop around but really I was watching the episode of Friends that HMV was screening. It was the episode where Chandler and Monica were being interviewed as potential adoptive parents of a baby. Despite Monica's desperation in trying to capitalize on a mistaken identity, Chandler's honesty shone through for a happy ending.

Lazy afternoon, not getting anything important done. Dinner found us at Blk 419 again but this time we ordered the Thai fish head curry for a change. This dish is a specialty of the coffee-shop here and we've noticed that it's a favourite amongst many of the customers, but it always looked way too big for just the two of us to handle. It was good that the coffee-shop could handle a dinner-for-two order. We had half a fish head in a gorgeous tom yam gravy and a side of kangkong to go with our rice. The combination of spices is still making it's presence felt in my stomach, but there's no denying that dinner was delicious tonight.

Uneventful. *purrs with satisfaction* this is as a vacation should be.

My 'normal' entry of the day:
Spent a pleasant afternoon with good food and good company. A week ago, Jo invited Boon Sin to lunch. Boon Sin made some phone calls and Jo wound up with more folks at her door than she had initially expected. Apart from me and my potato salad (good guess, Gid); there were Vince and BS (who shared the ice-cream); Agnes (chicken wings); and Bhagia (chicken curry). Avian flu? What avian flu? Jo herself prepared the staple -- bee hoon with lots of crunchy fried shallots.

I think we were prepared for more people than for who eventually showed up, so there was food in abundance. Light, silly conversation around the table with BS bearing the brunt of the jokes. BS also took care of entertaining Jo's older daughter, leaving the rest of us adults free to yak and eat. Learned Agnes is giving up her car and Vince will be too once his stint as CPE is over in December. Hmm... I ought to feel guilty about that since I turned down the "opportunity" first, but I'm relieved, really. Not having a car multiplies the stress of CPEship by a lot.

Q-tip hasn't gone out for 2 days straight already. Strangely, we've been too busy to look after this detail. Maybe I'll go fetch her leash now...

This entry was inspired by Mei's blog. Last minute tips for handling the General Paper essay, just before the Prelims. If this issue is of no interest to you then don't bother reading on...

Gather materials that are current by having a daily read of the newspapers. News that tends to get repeated every day is worth paying attention to.

Use the news as relevant to your question -- drop names (people, places, organizations), refer to incidents, but don't waste time retelling the stories.

Choose questions that you have the most to say about. It doesn't matter if you don't have an opinion on the issue at the time you choose the question.

Give some thought to what the question is essentially about. Most of you answer to the topic but fail to pay attention to the question. LISTEN to the problem first before you go blindly solving something you don't really understand.

Completely answer the question in 1 paragraph within the first 20 minutes of the paper (if you answer the question in the sequence the question is presented in, it's hard to go wrong). By this step, you would have formed your opinion on the issue and not before. This paragraph becomes your introduction para.

Develop your essay according to the sequence of points you raised in the intro.

Do not bring up new points in the conclusion. Conclusion must agree with the intro. You may conclude with an insight into human nature, or about society, but only within the context of the points you have raised and discussed.

Balance: your job is to NEGOTIATE a fair position between 2 conflicting points of view. Your position must be realistic and fair (repetition for emphasis). Remember that both conflicting parties are idealistic children, but you are the rational adult arbiting between the both of them. Do not sink to their level.

Refer to the following web resource for more general instructions on essay writing and language use: OWL at Purdue.

Try hard to get a good grade in the prelims. It'll give you confidence in preparing for your 'A's.

English Lit advice:
My best advice is, unless you are dealing with early 20th century poetry, do not first approach your texts with your brain. Instead, pay attention to what your senses are telling you, i.e., your sense of sight (imagery, metaphor, simile), sound (rhythm, rhyme, metre, alliteration, other sound effects), touch (texture), not so important are smell and taste. When you can discuss what your senses are telling you, then only can your brain start processing how the author/poet is attempting to manipulate the reader into fully participating in the story, to see things in the first person instead of in the third.

Being intelligent (brain smart) doesn't help in lit. Being able to utilize our 5 human senses helps us appreciate lit a whole lot more. Remember: no author sits down to write "literature." People write to people and they make contact using the tools that are common to everyone, our 5 senses. Everyone connects, but lit students see how the connections are made, and appreciate the author's craft in doing so.

Bzzzt... ERROR: INFO OVERLOAD. Allow time for processing...

Today's the kind of day you smash your hand down on the snooze button of your alarm clock and continue sleeping. You wake up disoriented, suddenly remembering it's Monday morning and your wife has left for work before you. Then you remember that it's the first day of the term break and snuggle back into bed enveloped in the best feeling in the world.

Not for long, though. I still had to get on campus by 11 for a Drama Club meeting. Just before I left, I had the urge to smoothen out the living room carpet which had somehow got scrunched up in one corner. I was about to beat it back into place when the messy corner miaowed. Momo had found a new hiding spot to nap in. Stupid cat.

Drama Club looked like it had everything in order, but during the discussion, Mel and I took a sudden interest in Chinese mythology. I went off to Popular at Northpoint and picked up some research material for further study. Perhaps it's the fault of the authors, but the myths I scanned through were dry, boring and episodic. Formula looks quite simple: something happens (usually on a fairly regular basis); someone does something about it; there is some kind of result; and that is why some custom or other is celebrated to this day. Fine, most myths follow the same pattern, but there is usually more drama to the telling of the story than what I've been reading. Hope the other books I bought aren't going to be as bland.

Met June for dinner at the Crystal Jade la mian place at Northpoint. The noodles and soups taste fresh and healthy, though a bit expensive. Still, the noodles, are hand-pulled on site so I guess we are paying for the extra effort, though I can't afford this luxury every mealtime.

Also did a bit of grocery shopping for tomorrow's pot luck lunch at Joanna's house. Bought russet potatoes, celery, spring onions and Kraft mayo; so guess what my contribution is going to be?

Watched a documentary on Hong Kong's dim sum on Discovery Channel last night which made me hungry. So this morning's breakfast we settled for an el cheapo coffee shop version downstairs of our flat. I must have a peasant's taste for dim sum as I find the expensive, restaurant version too rich (read "oily") and fanciful for my blood. According to the documentary, our breakfast menu comprised a "large chicken bun," "prawn dumplings," "steam-and-sell (a rough translation of siew-mai)," and some other standard things that didn't feature in the programme. We were too full to face lunch after that.

Yan had gone home so I decided not to bother her after all. That left 2 things to do today: go watch the petanque international at Toa Payoh's petanque courts and the SAF Open House at SAFTI.

Anthony and Weng had gone through a lot of trouble organizing the tournament, so I thought I'd go lend them my support. Weng and one of the team's youngest instructors -- a Sec 1 kid with a seriously aggressive playing style -- taught me the basics of the game while Anthony warmed up for his match against Australia.

Concept is simple enough: each player has 3 metal boules (balls) and the idea is to throw the balls to land as close to the target ball (the jack) as possible. When all the players have exhausted all their throws the player who has the nearest ball to the jack gains the point and a new round begins.

Players have to decide how to make the best use of their throws to ensure that their boule is closer to the jack than their opponents' at the end of the round. Players can simply throw their boule to land as close as possible to the jack (pointing) or they can knock their opponents' boules away from the jack with their throw (shooting). That's about the sum of what I learned today. Maybe I'll attend a couple of training sessions next week to see if I can be any good at this game.

We left before Anthony finished his game against the Aussies. We sat and watched for what felt like an hour and the score was 5-2 in favour of Oz at the time. They were going to keep playing to 13 points, and we decided we couldn't wait that long. Wonder who won? I believe the match was for 3rd placing in the secondary tourney.

The weather turned nasty on us so SAFTI will have to wait until next year for our visit.

It was a strange experience sharing my blog in an impromptu show-and-tell at an IT course I attended today. The course was about how to create a website for our Civics Tutorials and there was some sharing on getting resources to help maintain the site and other materials to help our students with their study and other needs.

My show-and-tell was unplanned and haphazard and I doubt anyone else but the instructor knew what I was talking about. On hindsight, I should have focused on showing them how easy it was to create and maintain a blog page using the WYSIWYG and html interfaces, and how all the other plug-ins fit into the Template editor as simple lines of html coding. But, as usual, my mouth got away from me and I just showed them the various features of my page without telling them how it was done, which was why they were there in the first place. Maybe next time K decides to teach the course again, I'll offer to co-instruct with her and do it right (if she'll have me back again!).

My page is too unfocused to be a proper CT web page, but I don't mind experimenting with it. Hence, I'll try install a calendar in the sidebar next to remind us all of what few important dates there are left in this year. Let's see if I can do that right now...

Edit 01:
There. Calendar up and running. Not quite what I expected, though. Still have to click the button on the sidebar to see it. As best as I can figure, I've uploaded the prelim timetable, though I won't vouch for accuracy. It's an experiment, after all. Feedback to me what you think of this facility. I'll update the calendar with other important dates if you think it's useful.

Dropped in on Pris. She was looking tired and it was sad to see Her Voraciousness on drips for a change. Found out that Yan is in hossie too for asthma. Might drop in on her tomorrow; Yan, be warned!! Must nag y'all again to take good care of yourselves. How worrisome...

That's it! The last day of formal curriculum for our current JC2s. Time is now yours to manage and though there are still some common exercises for you to work on and we're still around to help you out right until the last minute, you really are on your own. Enjoy the September study break next week and 3A2, please look after your health. Too many of you are falling sick at such a crucial time. Work as you must, but it's important to have adequate rest and a proper diet as well. So much to nag, so little time...

Me, I'll be around for personal coaching if you feel you need it. Call me and let me know when you want to drop by so I can schedule my time accordingly. That, and I'll be doing my best to conserve my own energy for the next mad round of marking prelim papers. I've maxed out on invigilation duties so my marking tme is going to suffer badly. This deadline is unalterable, though, so good luck to me.

Started my destress protocol from this afternoon with a long, leisurely lunch with Vince, Cara, Amy and Anthony at the prata place. Coincidentally, we all wanted some kind of byriani today, except for one order of Maggi mee goreng. It rained heavily and we had to run from table to table to find the best seating to avoid getting splashed. The noise on the aluminium awning was loud, though no more so than the noise of hand tools coming from the bike repair shop immediately next door. We were determined to have a nice lunch so we resolutely sat and ate and yakked until our other committments became pressing and unavoidable. Unfortunately for Sarab, I kept him waiting through lunch before I could attend to his administrative detail. Sorry, dude!

Finally caught AVP tonight. As with the first AVP comic book series (and in the Alien movies), the main character is a tough, resourceful woman who survives the ordeal while others around her fall like flies. Feminism isn't an issue one would expect to pop up in a genre like typically male dominated science-fiction but the Alien franchise is full of women's issues.

The movie was exciting though limited by the artificial environment of an isolated island in Antartica thousands of miles away from the next habitable landfall, and buried under 2000 feet of permafrost. So the implications of this earth-shattering secret from ancient history doesn't hit the world with any impact at all. It's like observing a tempest in a test tube, and then going away knowing a little secret that noone else in the world is likely to share, or even believe.

Aliens take the form of their host bodies. This fact was established in Alien 3 and in AVP. I was just thinking, wouldn't it be unfortunate for an alien if it's host was a bunny rabbit or some other fluffy small herbivorous mammal? Oh, the complexes it might have to live with, growing up with it's bretheren who had picked their hosts more sensibly. OK I'm getting silly here.

Quote of the day: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Alexa Woods in AVP

Had a weird dream. I dreamt I had woken up at 8:10am and I was in a panic 'cos I was missing a class at the U that started at 7:50am. Then I woke up for real and I got into a real panic 'cos it was almost 7am and I was late for real. There was no way I could make it from home to campus in time for 7:25am assembly but I still managed to arrive just as assembly was ending, so I guess I didn't miss much.

Disturbing that 3A2 is so under the weather. Fever and other ailments have ravaged my CT. Pris is in the hossie just after 'nette came home. Various other absences blamed on some bug or other. Time to take precautions like not sharing food and drink, which sounds anti-social but considering that goodwill isn't the only thing that's being passed around right now I think it's good advice. Apart from prepare for the prelims, please take the coming hols to rest and recover.

The year has been that stressful for all of us. The hip-hop crew gave me a souvenir coffee mug bearing the inscription: "I'm not over the hill, I'm still climbing, and that's why I'm tired all the time." Thanks for giving me a reason for my fatigue. Getting tired trying to keep up with you is worth sweating for.

Gave up AVP tonight for Singapore Idol. I will catch that movie someday, I just don't know when. Idol contestants not so outstanding this week. They all look like they have worked hard at their shot tonight, they've all got decent voices, but nothing that I can imagine a true star might have. Tough fight tonight then, though I can't really care who moves on to the next round.

Fragmented entry. Hate when this happens.

Day of rest. A timely one too, physically exhausted as I was. Too many late nights, too many early rises. Sound familiar? I'm glad I could use today just to unwind.

Woke up at a luxurious 7:30 a.m., in time to bundle Q-tip off for her quarterly haircut, then it was just me and the cats. Got bored after a while so I met June for lunch at her workplace. Wanted pasta, but Fiestamama's had a pretty standard and limited pasta selection. Went for the daily set instead.

According to June, the restaurant doesn't get very good business. Can't imagine why, though. Servings are generous and the food is well-presented, looking like it has been prepared with a lot of care. And reasonably priced, too. The set lunch comprised a brothy chicken soup, seafood/fruit salad, beef medallions for the entree, an odd Thai sweetcorn-red ruby dessert, and coffee or tea; and all for $9.90 before tax. Perhaps one thing that might keep customers away, though, is that the hot beverage arrived at the table first instead of last, which could offend purists and etiquette-mongers; or perhaps their choice of rap music to accompany lunch might have had something to do with it. I'm not sure which.

Planned to go watch AVP tonight, but got held up at mom-in-law's where we celebrated my nephew Shaun's 1st birthday. M-i-L went through a lot of trouble cooking up a festive dinner menu and by the time we blew out the candle, it was too late to catch our movie. Nvm. Tml we'll try again.

What a great Teacher's Day! Judging by the publishing time of this entry, you can tell I didn't have the chance to blog yesterday. So many other things keeping me occupied.

The 'workout' crew debuted our hip-hop number -- the one we've been working on since June. People said nice things about the item, and from my own perspective, it felt good, performance-wise, mistakes notwithstanding. Well, cheers to crew members; Staff: Cara, Jong Yann, Lynnette, me; Students: Hasif, Ramzi, Jane, Jasmine; guest breakdancers: Daniel, Leon; Choreographer, Chief make-up, Solo and Boss: Shyadina. Thanks, everyone, for your patience, committment and belief in us, and for imparting just a little bit of your talent to us, keeping us one step further from premature aging.

Photo time!


The crew showin' a little 'tude


Celebrating a great experience

For more pix of our backstage and post performance antics click here. 3A2, hope you don't mind me using our Webshots account to host these pix that aren't exclusively ours. And thanks for the boxers! Could be the start of new wardrobe trend for me. Love the colour too!

Lunched at Country Manna (Gardens) with Thad, Anthony, Cara, Mel, Amy and Shahida. Someone couldn't resist the cheap Tiger. Too bad yesterday was the last day of the promotion period though.

Had to get costumes ready for staff dinner. The theme was "Movie Night" and our table had the idea of going as Hogwarts School. NYeDC, honestly, we both came up with the same idea, though independently of each other. Because of your item in the concert, it took some soul searching before we agreed to proceed with our plan even though it might have been misconstrued that we ripped your idea off for ourselves.

Dinner was standard 8-course Chinese at the Royal Plaza Hotel, same location for the last 3 staff dinners. Same routine of presenting long-service awards to staff of the 3 schools, same compulsory speech by a rep of our SMC. But our table (No.9) rocked! We made off with the prize (memo pad holder) for the movie title identification puzzle with the only perfect score. We won 3rd best dressed table (a handy clothes peg basket), and 3 of our table members; Yee, Cara and me along with Agnes and How Wie won the movie trivia quiz (a cool water bottle). So in terms of dinner games, NYJC, in particular, table No.9, came out tops. We're definitely sitting together again next year!


Making magic at the Teacher's Day staff dinner


The Hogwart's table with 2 guest Olympians

More photos!

Phew! Almost done. Went for after-dinner drinks with Vince, Anne, Cara, Amy, (a very tired) Anthony, and were properly introduced to new PE staff, Victor and Chew Ring. Weng popped by to wish us a happy Teachers' Day too. Long day, but a lot of fun. Thank you, everyone.