九月的最后一天

九月的最后一天。。。心情是灰色的。

昨夜你问我们是什么关系，
我说是朋友。

你的脸色变了。。。

你沉默了一会儿，接着问：
“只是朋友？”

我说：“是好朋友，非常好的朋友。”

你眼眶红了。。。

回家的路上，你异常的安静。
我感觉得到，你有很多话想说，但总是欲言又止，
也许是害怕又听到不想听到的话。

到了即将离别的时候，
你叫我亲你，
你紧张的眼神和颤抖的嘴唇迫切地等待我的决定。

我什么也没说，什么也没做。
我的沉默和犹豫已经告诉你我的答案。

就这样，我们最后连再见也没说。

九月的最后一天。。。心情是灰色的。

Fatherly Feeling?

Tired… went Concourse today to buy presents for the coming children’s day… tink I abit cheapskate… went for all the cheap bulk items… in the end spent onli abt 30 plus dollars… on budget lah… cun blame me… have to save up money again… anyway it’s the thought tat counts (but honestly, the thought is not realli there coz I din realli feel like giving presents… it’s juz tat they keep pestering me… dun wana disappoint them)…

Anyway… getting out of point here… tat’s not wat I wana tok abt in tis post…

I did something tat’s beri “not me” yesterday… I saw 3 kids selling newspapers (some 健康日报 or something) at the hawker center while having breakfast… they were dressed in quite old (& dirty-looking, colour faded) clothes… the youngest one approached me and said “买啦，支持一下啦”… he looks like still nursery age, at most P1… a sense of sympathy & pity rose in my heart… working at such a young age… ? ya hor… why ah? My paranoia level started to rise… is SOMEONE making use of these kids to sell newspapers? For ur info, Singapore is quite strict against child labour… worse still, are these kids being ABUSED? Do they have enough food? Are they beaten if they cun finish selling the newspapers? Tink I watched too much drama liao… but at tat moment in time, I realli worry for the kids… so guess wat I did?

I FOLLOWED THEM…

Found them walking around the neighbourhood… selling their newspapers at the hawker center… then the coffeeshops around… trying to find the SOMEONE who’s behind the scene… I mean, these kids are too young to be roaming around… there must be an adult telling them wat to do… so I kept following them…

FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR…

Finally… I found them meeting a man at the carpark… the man was taking out newspapers from his lorry for them to sell… trying to find out more, I posed as a passerby and purposely walked past them to hear wat they were saying… well… one of the kids called the man “pa”… and the kids were actually smiling when toking to the man… so I assumed tat they were not “abused” as I tot… tink I realli tink too much liao… anyway a sigh of relief to see tat they’re ok…

Anyway, I still sympathise with them lah… so young… when other kids were playing & enjoying life, they oredi started working… actually, I’m beri against child labour… I did for a moment tot of reporting the matter to the police… but then again, the family must be in real financial difficulties… I dun wana end up causing the kids to be separated from their parents or breaking up a family in the process… and most imptly, the kids looked happy… so I decided not to pursue the matter in the end… I ended up buying a newspaper from each of them at different locations (they were going around)… so I got 3 in total… nv read thou coz it’s about health issues, which is not realli my cup of tea…

Why did I behave in tat manner yesterday? It’s juz so “not me”… I am a super bochup guy… and honestly speaking, my sense of sympathy is usually low… u can even describe me as cold and unfeeling in some aspects… well… I was brought up & “trained” tat way… being kpo & meddling in other ppl’s business is definitely not my style…

Maybe… I’m tinking… juz maybe… subconsciously, being a teacher & facing kids almost everyday has increased my emotional bond with kids… maybe I am starting to care more abt them… worrying abt them like a parent… maybe tis is wat a father feels like… alamak… lidat no good ah… if realli the case, then next time I realli become a father, then the feeling will not 新鲜 le…

Upgrading In Progress

Many days nv blog… coz my house undergoing upgrading… lots of drilling going on… damn noisy… amount of dust generated is atrocious… I have been extremely “hardworking” lately, staying in school until around 430pm to 6pm everyday… well, actually I’m juz trying to avoid reaching home b4 the construction workers stop work at around 5pm…

For those of u who nv experienced upgrading before (I mean inside the house, not those lift upgrades), I can tell u… it’s a total hassle… my whole family has to squeeze into one bedroom (mine) to sleep at nite… and mind u, all our stuff are inside (2 wardrobes, bookshelf, study table, tv, sewing machine and lots of boxes containing our belongings) becoz the other rooms are all affected by the upgrading… so my room became the “storeroom”… to put it simply, it’s juz like suddenly being reduced to staying in an one-room flat…

China Tour Itinerary

Instead of doing my work (which has been piling up), I made a list of the places we’ll be visiting in China for our tour package… “China party”, u can use this for reference… the rest of u, just take a look if u want…

八天上海江南游行程表

新加坡 往 上海 往 苏州

苏州

芋园, 金鸡湖风景区, 玲珑湾, 望湖角公园, 文化水廊, 湖滨大道, 水上邻里巷, 金姬墩, 湖中波心岛, 寒山寺, 七里三塘街

苏州 往 南京

南京

长江大桥, 故宫博物院, 明城墙

南京 往 无锡

无锡

三国城, 乘船游太湖, 蠡湖公园, 崇安寺, 洞虚宫, 公花园

无锡 往 杭州

杭州

西湖风景区, 吴山城隍阁景区, 远观雷锋塔和六合塔, 钱塘江大桥

杭州 往 义乌

义乌

中国小商品城

义乌 往 横店

横店

横店影视城

横店 往 南浔（水乡古镇）往 上海

上海

东方明珠, 上海新天地酒吧一条街, 城隍庙, 上海老街, 明代古城墙

乘搭悬浮列车往机场

上海 回返 新加坡

Going China

Went NATAS travel fair today… wanted to research on possible holiday destinations, prices & packages… but we were tempted by the promotional packages… worried that we may not get the promo prices after the fair… the dates we want may run out… blah blah blah… end-result is…

I am proud & happy to announce that we have booked our year-end trip !!!

Destination : China (Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Yiwu, Hengdian)
Duration : 8 days
Date of Departure : 03 December 2007
Price : $728 per pax
Tour Agency : Travel Link (人人假期)

Additional Note : Was seriously tempted by the Hokkaido & Tibet packages… but there’s always the “budget constraint” to consider… been trying to jio people to go Hokkaido for the past 3 years but cun find any khakis… haiz…

Nv mind… back to the happy stuff… looking forward to December… China, wait for me… I’m coming…

Genting

I'm in a bit of a dilemma here... duno whether to post the Genting pics anot... coz in case u din know or forgot... my blog's policy is not to post any pics of myself... Pei Ling tell me to put "square square" (mosaic) over the faces... aiyo... u tink porn movie meh? might as well dun post in tat case... looks toopid & damn mafan loh... hmm... tell u wat... I'll post some not-so-clear pics to "test water" 1st... haha... mai hiam lah... beta than nothing loh...

Photos in random order... "Enjoy"...

Group Picture... Our party of three... From left: Xiujun, Pei Ling & Me

Tis pic is our reflection in the "哈哈镜" in the Ridley's Believe It Or Not museum... PL fell in love with the mirror... I tink if possible, she would have taken the mirror home...

I tried the "flying experience" at the Genting Sky Venture... tat's me in the picture... and no, I dun mean the malay guy... tat's the instructor...

It was a cold day when we visited the outdoor theme park... see the fog? luckily the fog lasted onli a while... and it rained heavily only AFTER we completed our outdoor rides... heng ah...


On the mini train ride... candid shot while xj was... well... tying her hair... haha... see the sign for "Bumper Boat" in the background? we oso played tat... however, verdict was tat the queue took too long... coz each round was ten minutes for around only 7 boats... and it's not realli fun (esp for PL who kept spinning like a teacup... haha)... bumper car was more more fun... we played two rounds of tat...

Me at the indoor archery... cheaper than Marina Square... I hit 2 bullseye...

Xj & PL on the rock wall... winner is... PL ! she reached slightly above the halfway mark... great for a first-timer... no, tat's not me on the right... I din play... else I would have ended up at the bottom half of the pic...

On the venice gondola... where they'll take u one round around the ceiling of First World Plaza... nothing much... plus the "cage" spoils the pictures...

Ran out of things to do... so we went to the arcade...

Here's Xj on the dance machine...

Xj in action again... tis time at the basketball machine... she's quite good... or rather, me & PL were lousy... oops...

On the "Tobogan"... one person per cart... to sum it up, it's juz a bumpy ride... PL's leg got "blue-black" from the ride...

Grand finale to tis post... I present to u... MY SHADOW !

(well... tis is a machine tat will "freeze" your shadow onto the screen... one word of warning... dun look at the flash... I almost got blinded... x:)

Overseas Notification

Away to Genting for holiday from 7th (today!) to 9th September...

Bon Voyage to Me ! Wahaha...

Holiday Updates

Since I’m on a row, might as well make it a hat-trick of posts…

(NOT in chronological order)

Genting trip is confirmed… from 7th to 9th September… paid $172 per pax, inclusive of bus tix & two nites’ lodging at Resort Hotel… abit exp coz it’s considered peak period during the weekends… but din realli care… juz wana go abroad for the holiday…

Got a bagful of presents for teachers’ day… ranging from small paper messages to greeting cards… from pens to mugs to towels… they dun cost much (I know becoz most of them still have the price tags on) but it’s realli the thought tat counts…

Announcing… I have juz exceeded the count of 50 for “love letters” received from students… by “love letters”, I mean those containing the words “我爱你”… one gal even writes a letter EVERYTIME I get realli angry with the class… it will say something like “老师，不要生气，要开心，我爱你。”… so sweet… *ahem* dun misunderstand wor… I am not a paedophile… I juz find the whole gesture beri heart-warming…

I won a travel cooker in the lucky draw during my school’s teachers’ day dinner… it requires a power outlet and takes 15 minutes to boil a mess tin of water (I tested) so not realli useful when travelling… maybe I’ll use it to cook instant noodles in the staff room…

Brought my parents to watch the movie 881… been a while since we watched a movie together… we din realli like it, unfortunately, despite all the hype & great reviews about the movie… but the songs are quite nice… thinking of getting the soundtrack but my favourite song “十二莲花” is not inside… I’m not going to do a movie review here… decide for yourself if u wana watch it (if u haven’t)… but one thing’s for sure… if u dun understand Hokkien, forget it…

Holiday still have to go back school tmr… oops… juz passed 12 midnite so it’s today… have some filming to do… sai-gang (sh*t-job)… have to shoot a video to promote core values to students… then Tuesday have to go some toopid course… from 830am to 530am… kaoz… so bloody long… whole day burn liao… waste my holiday… they should set a law saying teachers cannot be “touched” during holidays… holiday still have to work, no wonder turnover rate so high… *grumble grumble*

The grumblings never end…

Don't Enter 1408

Yesterday went to the zoo AGAIN… my 3rd time tis year… nothing much changed since my last visit… and yesterday’s weather quite warm & stuffy… most of the animals were nuah-ing becoz of the heat… so the trip turned out abit boring… then it started to rain in the late afternoon… so our trip ended prematurely…

After tat, went bishan J8 watch movie… at 1st wana watch Ratatouille but only left seats 2nd row from the front… so I suggested watching 1408…

I had such high expectations of the show… it was based on the story by Stephen King… I realli enjoyed Stephen King’s books… and Samuel L. Jackson is in the show… his shows are USUALLY not bad… the idea of watching a horror movie during the seventh month… cool… but after watching the movie, it turned out to be…

TOTAL CRAP

I dun even want to waste my time describing how bad the show is… if u are thinking about watching the show, juz heed my advice – DON”T, it’s an absolute waste of time & money… juz read the book…

For those of u interested… 1408 is a short story in the book Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King…

Start Of Holiday... Start Of Blogging

Just realized I onli blogged once for the entire month of August… the previous post is juz a video so dun realli count… actually had a lot of things wana blog but been too busy… even when free, too tired-out liao… now is September one-week holiday (Yay!) so finally have some time for updates…

从何说起呢？Ok… let’s start from the CA… my students juz had their CA2 tests… 13 out of 30 of my P3 kids failed… which is normal for the class except tat a few students’ grades fluctuate drastically… a few got HALF their normal grades while a few others got DOUBLE their norm… conclusion: they most probably guessed their way thru paper 2, so it’s a matter of luck what their grades are…

As for my three P5 students, all 3 failed with scores of 24, 26 & 28 out of 100 respectively… and two of them actually IMPROVED… they previously scored 29, 24 & 20 for their SA1… for your info, they are the “cream of the crop” of the P5 merged stream… one of them actually THINKS he’s not Chinese, hates Chinese and refuses to speak in Chinese… although he’s realli 100% pure Chinese… hmm… weird…

Pls dun get the wrong idea that I dun care that my students failed… I DO care… it’s juz tat their results are WITHIN EXPECTATIONS… and honestly speaking, I definitely care more about their results than some of the students themselves… obviously, a lot of kids nowadays dun give a sh*t about the exams…

Here are some scenarios I encountered during invigilation:

Student A (raise hand): Teacher, I nv bring pencil box…

Me: Aiyo… exam why nv bring pencil box?

Student A: Exam need pencil box de meh?

*faintz*

Student B: Teacher, today wat paper ah?

*double faintz* , dun even know wat subject paper tat day…

Student C: Teacher, today have exams ah?

…………

And to rub salt into the wound, my P3 kid who got the LOWEST grade in class is actually HAPPY that he got only 7/50… he even went around boasting about it… duh…