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.

Started the day early by driving down to Pasir Ris to be part of the Yellow Ribbon Walk. This event is to remind ourselves that ex-cons should be given a 2nd chance to rebuild their lives once they have paid their dues to society. The walk began at the old Changi Prison gates and extended for 3.2 km to end at Pasir Ris Town Park. The walk symbolized the road to freedom from confinement behind bars.

It seemed appropriate for us to walk the route too, considering that for the whole week we were too busy to take Q-tip out anywhere. It was an opportunity for her to make up for the lost exercise . We smuggled her in her carrier onto the shuttle-bus taking us to our stating point, then slowly let her emerge at various stages throughout the walk. First, we opened the bag, then we let her stick her head out, then we carried her outside her bag, and finally we let her walk the last kilometer or so on leash.

My CT was too scattered to meet properly, but I did catch sightings of a number of them along the way. Hope y'all had a fruitful morning!

In the afternoon we were off to the petanque courts to help Anthony with his International. It was exciting being tournament officials for an world-recognized event. We and Weng handled the administration of scoring and the assignment of courts for the different countries to play their games.

It was tiring sitting in the afternoon heat despite being under tentage and the wait between the arrival of new scores was tedious. Then as scoresheets are handed to us there is a flurry of activity to fill up the just vacated court and to get the scoreboard updated.

June and I were assigned official scorekeepers for the Individual section of the tournament. Weng hastily explained the game to us, then threw us into the deep end with pen, clipboard and scoresheet in hand. Basically, our job was simple: watch for the Arbiter (judge) to decide how many points to award for a throw, then agreeing with his assessment before writing it down in our scoresheets.

Didn't get finished till after 2100 hrs. Supper and socializing at Newton hawker centre the rest of the evening. More of the same tomorrow, then BKK the day after!

Finally we get to the end of the term and a much needed break. Today I had fun discussing facets of Singapore life with small groups of kids from within my tutorials. I assigned different small groups to look into parts of the NDay Rally '05 speech and we had a good discussion (i.e., not me talking all the time, but hearing what the kids had to say about things) on issues such as our ageing population, the need for I&E, remaking ourselves, service culture and whatever else he said.

As we discussed, it was interesting to see how you tried to put forward politically-correct viewpoints, then getting yourselves stuck because you didn't really believe what you were saying. "We should take care of the elderly because, ya know, they brought us up and all." "I&E is good for our economy because it can increase our productivity and our country will prosper." Ad nauseum. Platitudes and catchphrases; buzzwords but nothing within the realm of genuine experience for you.

But because of the small group (3 pax max), as you talked you began to see the implications of what was happening around you because it does directly involve you when you become young working adults:

JC no longer has the 'elite' status it once had. It's now a level playing field and your competition isn't from the "top 5" any longer. You're competing against all your peers including those from the Polys and the Technical Institutes as well! So...

If you want to eat, you've got to stop priding yourselves on your ability to copy and replicate things (old-school mass-production mentality) and start generating your own ideas, dreaming dreams, and making things happen for yourselves (KBE) and learn to serve others with pride instead (service culture) -- abilities that your competitors quickly develop in a more hands-on environment than yours.

And you can't think of feeding just yourselves alone any more. As we old fogies continue to grey our population, our age is eventually going to put us out of work and we're going to count on you, youngsters, to foot our bills. And pay for our ever increasing healthcare costs as well. Suddenly your position has become a lot more precarious than you thought, eh?

What was most fun was putting you a little on edge, making you think about things that directly affect you in a real way, and watching worry creep across your brows in a way I've never seen before. How will you adapt to these new realities? What will it take for you to survive and even enjoy the upcoming few years? Guess that's going to be your holiday assignment from me. We'll talk more next term, ok?

3 straight hours of this sort of discussion can be terribly draining, though. By the time the 4th tutorial hour came around, I was drained and grew increasingly incoherent. Those of you I advised in my late afternoon slot I have no recollection of what I said to you, so better not take me too seriously.

1 weekend out from BKK. I'm in vacation mood!

And today in brief:
Sent M2 for 10000 km servicing.
Met June, Amy and HP for lunch at Maestro Bistro, Cineleisure.
Watched Herbie Fully Loaded with Amy and HP.
Watched MU's Open Rehearsal Performance in which our Drama Club contributed an item.
Ran over to M-i-L's to eat nephew's birthday cake and deliver a "present" to the birthday boy.
No wonder I'm tired.

Today was the Teachers' Day celebration in college. Oddly enough, the staff performed concert items, the students sat and watched. Usually, it's the other way around. But anyway, this occasion marked the inaugural usage of the new parade square for official college business, and here P announced her retirement to the whole college as well.


Q-tip is happiest beneficiary of my TDay gift from the college management -- 2 punnets of strawberries.

And S3D, thanks for the card and your individual messages -- all the nice things you said. :)
I'll continue working hard for you, just remember to keep me on my toes, ok?

Spent 2 hours after the celebrations helping to facilitate a staff workshop on Reasoning a la Richard Paul, though most of the attendees already knew something about it or were already using it in some form or other in their classes already. Guess it's good to consolidate and standardize everything for all departments, but it does make for a dry session when preaching to the converted. Talked too much during my section of the sharing, but if you look at most of the entries in this blog, you'll know it's a trait of mine to ramble on and on and on...

Still reading? Wow!

Celebrated with Vince, Amy, Yee and HP at the Gardens' Country Manna, then went bowling [again!!] the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening I made a turkey delivery (don't ask) to M-i-L's, met June there then drove down to meet Anthony at the petanque courts in Toa Payoh to help him set up for the International petanque tourney scheduled for this weekend. We strung up bunting, ran cable and attempted to assemble the rather large scoreboard in an easily seen location. June also busied herself cleaning up the grimy-looking water-cooler from which the participants will be drinking during the competition. By 2220 or so we were done. For our assistance, Anthony treated us to a Milo Dinosaur each at The Prata House. We gratefully lapped it up, then went on a mooncake delivery (M-i-L's homemade masterpieces) to my Mom's.

Dragged ourselves home past midnight and to bed immediately, hence and forthwith. 'night 'night!

Yay! Table #1 at the annual staff dinner - Anthony - Bhagia - Yee + Gerald.

Our table was in the darkest corner, and for most of the evening we were left to our own devices. Staff dinners are usually semi-formal occasions where the CC-NY schools we belong to recognize our hard work by buying us a 10-course Chinese meal. It also doubles as an initiation ceremony for new staff who put together some "entertainment" to display their talents for singing, dancing, acting and humiliating themselves in public. Essential qualities for a teacher to have, I think, considering the environment we work in.

This year's theme was "Cartoons," so Table #1 came as ourselves. 'nuff said. JY dressed as Snow White but it was just too bad that the dwarves at her table were taller than her. Haha.

The usual highlight was the Lucky Draw. Appropriately enough, Table #1 emerged luckiest table being drawn for the 1st prize in the Table Draw. We each got $20 worth of vouchers from Isetan. I have no doubt June will put my set to good use as will Wendy for Anthony. In the Individual category, Mel won a Metro stored value card, $25 I believe it was. Guess they're telling us to go get some grown-up clothes for ourselves to wear to work. :P

Despite Anthony's and Vince's will to win a top individual draw prize, they were no match for Tam who warded off our lucky charms and spells with the occasional incantation and a wave of his hands and secured the 1st prize for his table mate, TSL, who had only a couple of days ago remarked to me that she had never won anything before in her life. I told her she won the cubicle directly opposite mine, but that probably wasn't enough for her. Tonight she staggered home with a mini home theatre system including the all-important DVD player. I feel so belittled now.

Went bowling [again!] after dinner, and because she had left her make-up case in M2, Mel came along for the ride and bowled with us. And got very excited. Another bowling kaki in the making? We'll see.