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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Entry for 2 days again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So tonight, I shall relax.

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

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

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

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

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

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