cycled back to the primary school, went to the staff room to collect the other copies of gymflash that i deposited in my locker, at 5:50am. yes, not 5:50pm. then cycled off to jalan kayu prata shop, had two prata telur and a teh ais and that was breakfast. went back to nie to have the makeup lecture - fluid dynamics. seemed damned simple, especially with all the reading of tonnes of stuff regarding aerodynamics in cycling. i mean, look at this...


team csc on a team time trial. notice the aerodynamic designs - the bike, the helmet, everything...

so frankly, it was at ease for me for this lesson. have to meet up the other group members to do the work on thursday morning at lincoln's place. then also prepare next week's lesson plans, and have to do it better now that it's only the last few lessons left - and i have to return back to the school to do another attachment in july, assuming everything falls into place. met imran, who i got to know during my running days back at ngee ann poly at jurong point in the evening, and later at masjid kassim at kembangan, fedly gave me a surprise by appearing right in front of me.

just when things didn't seem brighter - i think i may have found something interesting enough.

from slowtwitch.com's article, i've found that this pose method of running makes some sense biomechanically. and from its recommended shoes, are the new balance rc150rw and rc240sb. i think i may get the rc240sb instead, have to stake out queensway shopping centre soon...


new balance's rc240sb


nice bike? only s$2400 for frame, fork and seatpost...

just got an email quotation from bike haus' colin for the cervelo soloist team frame - it costs s$2400 for the frame, fork and seatpost. wonder how much it would be to get the other components as well. if i can, i'll get it on credit...

what can i do now?

nothing seems attractive to me. suddenly i'm facing a massive limbo.

music is not as interesting to me anymore. i don't know how to read notes, no money for drum lessons, no money for that massive mike portnoy drumkit. next!

cycling. no money for that fantastic cervelo. bullhorns/aerobars or drop bars? i can't figure out. some even call me poseur for that. guess who's spending the money if i were to get it?

running? sure, once a year - the army half marathon. that's the only thing i can train for.

photography? fuck it.

swimming? haven't even finished reading through total immersion.

what can i do?

running has lost its attraction for me.

cycling has become monotonous for me.

biathlon, triathlon - i won't be seen dead or alive in a triathlon ever again. i said, i will not do it until i have a decent bike. and since the former statement says that cycling has become more of a chore to me, let's forget it. biathlon remains undecided for me.

photography - i'll come back full force with my own eos-10d or eos-1ds when i can afford it. it's a personal thing.

suddenly, i feel so lost. what can i do, now?

one thing for sure - i will not hold a single camera in my hands, until i'm ready to buy one myself. i will not shoot a single photograph, lest i be condemned by the words i type. i will only touch a camera when i'm at the moment of buying it.

no worries about taking pictures anymore - i'm privileged to see what i'm was able to see, depending on where i am and where my eyes look. photography is but only a way whereby i can share my views visually to others. it's a good thing - when one of the five senses is cut off, the rest are super-compensated. now that my "eyes" have been cut off - i'll improve in my other arenas.

no worries about no going to the navy biathlon today - i don't see anything that is able to give me some drive in life other than a person for company. there's suddenly nothing that i'm having a passion to in life - i'm starting to feel like a vessel without an anchor, no port is too safe to try mooring at. oh, by the way, most of you would be bored to death reading my site in the future, now that i've lost my "eyes" on this site. urm... you are all welcomed to stay and read what i blah blah blah out in text - but if you can't take it - please forget about this site.

feel so much better now that joyce listened to me voicing out why i'm stopping photography - though she got progressively sleep nearing the end. but it's great to have some friends who are having seemingly better lives than i do - they're my role models whereby i can learn to emulate.

cool! this site will be text-based for good from today onwards. why?

i've given up photography - will be returning that olympus camera to the old man.

now i think i can sleep in peace.

i'm fuckin' agitated right now - i can't think straight and i don't feel that i can sleep tonight.

a young sparrow wandered into my place this afternoon, managed to shoot some pictures of it before i opened the window to let the poor, scared thing fly out.



sniperd's ef f/3.5-4.5, 70 - 210 usm lens is going for only $260, bought only last november for $500. i thought it was a wonderful deal, and i wanted to get it, since i would use a long telephoto lens a lot, but the old man just told me that if he wants to get another lens for the camera, he'll get one anytime he wants. fuck him. i knew something like that will happen. so what if you have the money, can afford a camera but can do nothing with it? let it grow fungus? and i'm not allowed to go to sentosa with the new camera to shoot tomorrow - he alleges that i don't know how to handle the equipment with care. fuck you! i've handled cameras that are more than s$10,000 (dagger's nikon d1x) as well as canon's flagship eos-1ds (selling at around s$15,000 for the body alone) and touched a s$22,100 ef usm 600mm super-telephoto lens, during the clubsnap zoo visit. and not to forget handling $1000+ gitzo tripods as well. what is a paltry s$3200 compared to that? and what qualifies him to think that i don't know how to take care of the equipment? my tioman diving trip, i've already advanced technically to underwater photography - has he even held an underwater camera? fancy someone ignorant to think i'm ignorant...

i curse the fucking camera to grow fungus. for s-meone who buys a laserdisc player who only buys karaoke laserdiscs but doesn't even watch them often, and instead hopes in vain that some stupid the mask or pirated jurassic park - the lost world vcd will make his audio-visual system rock the room. fat hope. he's one of those to turn the bass and treble of any audio system to full, instead of compensating for room acoustics. he doesn't know what is panning, or what effects can be done with a slr camera. his last two cameras died of lack of use, i'd say. i remember one time when i was young, we gave up going to the botanic gardens that i was so eager to go then, all because his camera spoilt. and he hardly even shoots any photos at all prior to that at all. just look at the ease i can do a panning shot!


this photo may be good enough for a car advertisement, don't you think?

and i'll get my own underwater camera system once i have enough money. and my own eos-10d when i save up my own money.

bought a usb 2.0 6-in-1 card reader from joyce's store at $50 instead of the $59 that it was tagged with. not bad eh! called dad when i was buying it, only to have him telling me that he also bought one already... sigh. when i reached home (after going to safra bukit merah to pick up my navy biathlon entrance ticket and event t-shirt), i was shocked to see that what dad bought was most likely a usb 1.1 device, priced at $55! imagine that i bought something that looks better, at a lower price... that's the problem with dad, he usually buys things without reading up more, or consulting me. the worst part was that he bought it from photo-finish, not from any store in sim lim square! *sighs again* anyway, i gave him the 6-in-1 reader, since we will both use one of these readers rather than plugging the camera to via a usb cord to the computer. i'll get another one from joyce some time later, along with a usb 2.0 controller card for my computer...

at least the eos-10d was a good buy - though $3700 is a large amount of money we're talking about here. i'm contemplating to go down to sentosa this sunday early - but not to take part in the biathlon, but rather to snap photos of the event instead. could do with another battery pack or two for the camera - two oems packs for about what... 60 to 80 dollars in total should be more than enough to cover full day events for me. gotta find it later today at sim lim square and tower.



haha... in the future, if you have events for me to cover, depending on the nature of the event, i could charge s$50 per hour or so... and i'm still building up on my event coverage experience by helping the ntu sports club to take pictures - it's beneficial mutually. by the way, coke vanilla tastes... good, in an odd way. hmm. also, anyone who wants to watch the core at shaw towers (beach road) this sunday morning at 10am, can leave a message on my comments box - charmane has a pair of the tickets going for only $7 each. reminds me too, effy also has her own auction site, one of the latest items is a pair of salomon inline skates going for under $200...


i'm free!

in wake of the sars-related events happening now in singapore, please sign this online petition for the local tertiary students that they may suspend school term until the dust settles.

you're reading from a strictly personal point of view here.

frankly, whether these two major world incidents are related is as good as anyone's guess. war, and sars. only the swine himself knows if the sars is related to his country under fire. concerns over whether he would use biological or pathological agents against the world, was all along of what i was thinking of. think 9-11. america is so big, but yet vulnerable. buildings have no feet - once you hit it hard, it's a goner. similarly, if this sars was the work of some related bugger releasing a human created, near-fatal disease from the side of hong kong because most people would associate that with its problem with avian flu over the last couple of years - would get absolutely nobody any wiser. could be a really stinking move against the world, you know. just thinking aloud, all those villians in james bond movies have never been that bad. at least all they wanted is money. kamikaze fanatics who are in love to drag planet earth to hell, can easily do so - but the world doesn't know who to eradicate to remove the problem. the massive problem of anonymity.

i was informed by alvin regarding the shutdown of schools yesterday evening, just as dad and i were in cathay photo making the purchase - in my mind the severity that i was concerned about has already taken place - the necessity to quarantine people. life is so hectic now - how can people even have the time to be able to be checked for massive diseases that pack a punch? although i'm in the civil service, i believe that the government was slow to react. 3 index cases - once they infect people, and using a networking "strategy" because we humans are gregarious (not hermits) and get in close contact with each other, guess how easily anything can have a breakout. then once you apply the fact that the media for this transmission is not known yet - that's the worse thing. so person "a" has probably met 10 people he/she knows on day 1, and on day 2 meets and another 5. applying the concept of fractals, and networking, this is really bad. who remembers this site called sixdegrees.com, that claimed that you will be able to be linked to another person on planet earth, via a maximum of a 6-people degree? imagine this - through six other persons, we all may know the 3 index cases in singapore... scary? the last thing i want is for the scene of warsaw during the world war 2 from the pianist, with all the rubble and not a soul around, to become real life scenes. how much have we even prepared ourselves for anything? how many of you have even a single face mask in your home? when i saw one of the students whom i know was born in china (or was it hong kong?) having a fever in school yesterday, i was fearful of what could happen. if he's infected, and just by (assuming) breathing, i could have picked up sars, and next thing i know, the entire clubsnap seed crowd, the staff at cathay photo, edward, and finally my family members all could just get it from me.

dad signed out a massive s$3700 for the canon 10d along with lens, a lowepro street & field reporter 300 aw camerabag, a 512 mb compactflash card. my part to play - to pay back s$200 monthly for all these items. gosh, that will take a loooong time for me to pay it all up...

i don't want to die so soon - not before i get to get caroline to say "yes", and having shot loads of pictures with the new camera.

my goodness - good things come in triplets, i think...

#1 - joyce told me that she has a lobang for us to do diving in one of underwater world's tanks to feed sharks. no prizes for guessing that i'll be lugging my camera underwater, as well!

#2 - the gymflash cards that we ordered for teaching gymnastics, are ready to be shipped tomorrow. will be meeting melvin goh from icon tomorrow to settle the payment of s$731.12 for the items.

#3 - dad has just sms-ed me not too long ago telling me that he's placing an order with cathay photo for the canon eos-10d for s$2750!...

triple whammy!

sigh... had to spend 19 dollars for medication yesterday, for my not-yet-recovered bout of flu. feel much better in the throat after the cough mixture seemed to somewhat dissolve the sticky phlegm i had. but at least it sure beats being totally sick...

did a confined pool dive instead, when we were told that the waters around sembawang was terok-ly low in visibility. so here's a picture for the day - joyce and me.



damned, my hairdo in the water looks just like the beatles back in those days!

helped angie diagnose a viral infection on her computer by leading her through careful step-by-step prompts over the phone while i was back in the staff room. good that i was able to get her to open that infected .doc document which appeared as a program (because the virus renamed the extension to .com or .exe) as a text file, from it she read out to me the textual contents - which didn't seem right - what kind of microsoft word document would have a text string saying "this program can run in win32 mode"? so it was a dead giveaway to the virus, whatever species it was. for your information, i've only one time in my entire computing life that my own computer was struck with any virus - and that was the chernobyl cih virus, which struck my computer after i did a hard disk fat recovery for alston. i should have been more vigilant then. but fortunately i was able to contain the outbreak immediately. summation - only one viral infection in my near 11 years of personal computing, starting june 1992 when i got my first personal computer. now beat that!

"something's wrong with the world today, i don't know what it is..." - livin' on the edge by aerosmith

one of my xiaomei's (yes, there are many) told me that her boyfriend is an astounding eight years my senior! that's right, my senior, not her senior! she's 19 this year, and he's 32 this year! i hope she doesn't get into any of those unwanted problems. just a couple of days ago, a local girl wrote into the straits times forum, writing that she now fully understands the concerns of the parents - why they nag, why they put curfews, and all those stuff we hate parents to do - because the girlfriend of one of her siblings asked her to lend her identity card so that she can go to a nightspot. i mean, what the heck is this? last year, qingqing also asked me to lend her my identity card for the same purposes. not that i'm cursing her or what, but when nubile beings go to nightspots, the imagery (that same writer wrote along these lines too) of the girls having their advantage being taken by guys when they're drunk, senselessness by not taking care of their own bodies bestowed by their parents, and the oh-so-often raped-while-drunk headlines all come into my head. i guess that i can't help that girl qingqing, so good luck to the sec 4 from crescents' last year from my handphone. there. just deleted her off my handphone and my contact list.

many people have changed of late. some changes are good, some are not-good, but not-bad either. i've sensed something wrong with me also. i'm also becoming pretty flirtatious with joyce, and this is not good for my professional image. good friends, ok, but nothing more than having diving and underwater photography in common. i have to constantly remind myself, i'm wooing caroline not anyone else. i must, and will change for the better.

i've found two photography subjects that will be wonderful for me to shoot, while destiny allows them to be around - my parents. i happened to shoot a picture of my mom, and she looks so frail and fragile - and i just told her off last night - i should, and will apologize later on today. dad too, he's getting senior in his years - i've had the honour of watching him age ever so slowly, because we're a family. i must remind myself, when i see relatives whom i have not met for ages - i can detect their apparent aging easily, but not my folks, because i watch them grow so slowly - akin to watching intensely at the germination process of a pea for a short duration, yet hardly seeing changes.

i love my parents.

found this little tidbit that gazza did back for me back in polytechnic days... a little gem...

long long ride... but it was good - my first fenr in goodness-knows-how-long-i've-missed-it. at least did 60km in cycling, more than what i could handle with my half-sick condition.

i need to tear up my pedals soon, and service the internals... let me make use of the lennard zinn book that i bought on bicycle maintenance...

it's tough being sick...

*blows excess mucus outta nose*

*sneeze*

*whiff*

got myself some difflam lozenges, as well as regular trachisan from a nearby pharmacy yesterday - feeling better today, after a long sleep. gotta return back to my primary school this afternoon, to grab my books and papers so that i can plan my upcoming week's lessons. will need to postpone the dinner date/treat with katie d to this coming monday instead of today, because passing her the flu bug is not the nicest gift i have in mind.

and i'm dating joyce for wednesday evening... for clubsnap's seed! wahahaha... i guess it would be best for her to see truckloads of cameras in such a scenario and let it be an eye-opener!

joyce was so kancheong, that she bought a sony cybershot p9 and the accompanying marine kit yesterday - less than 24 hours after i was telling her about underwater cameras. it's alright la, basically, but if she held on and bought an olympus c5050 instead, she'd get a much larger f/1.8 aperture instead of the f/2.8 that the sony has. but girls being girls, i guess that she doesn't want to lug around a small behemoth like the way that i lug around my lowepro camerabag.

i'm eager for this sunday's dive - $25 per tank, or so i understand. this is just like how i was when i was younger - if i couldn't do something as well as the other people are doing, i'll do another different thing altogether. that philosophy led me to distance running, that i did pretty well. and this time, i'm moving into the realm of underwater photography. wish me luck. though singapore waters aren't noteworthy for visiblity, it seems that there are nudibranches all over, i guess. at least i can shoot them. worst to worst, i'll shoot joyce instead...

two of the samba boys and girls have marriage pending already - thing that i do not know of is only, when. ah good. two years in nie makes a lifetime's worth of changes for some of us, indeed. it's part maturation, part evolution. need to rest soon - sore throat pending on me now.


the orion constellation, taken at costa sands pasir ris
shutter: 4s, aperture: f/1.8, iso 100

i totally omitted the fact that fila singapore is having yet another sale at their old premises at 83 shell house, #15-02. that's where i bought all the stuff that i mentioned yesterday at the low prices.

here's a picture of what i splurged on - in the foreground, the shorts at $10 apiece, and the spikes at $29. i also helped joyce to spend $40 on a windbreaker that was originally tagged $184++! the main zipline is also assisted with a velcro foldover to keep the chill out, plus a hood at attached via "pop-pop" buttons to the collar area. too bad i didn't take a picture of it when we were having bak chor mee last night - it would be funny to see a girl dressed in a businesswoman power suit wearing a windbreaker at a hawker centre, you know?



go! buy buy buy!

her house is sooo big... but that aside, it's funny how she manages to survive without email, icq, msn messenger... i can't imagine myself back in those 486 era, playing dune, wolfenstein 3d and doom... so many things have evolved so rapidly over the last few years, i guess that people writing those timelines would have too much to squeeze in for such a short duration of time...

over the phone during the wee hours, i suggested that she got herself probably an olympus c5050 (currently selling $1250 at cathay photo), then an additional olympus pt-015 underwater casing - but that casing may not be in stock in singapore right now - and american online retailers are selling it for us$300... big money we're talking about here! even if she does not carry the camera into the dives she does in the future, it sure would be a great upgrade compared to the canon powershot s100 (ixus) that her family is using now. also shared with her the amount of stuff that i've read, such as first time divers being very likely to lose their underwater camera assemblies due to task overloading... that's why i would rather accompany alicia and darren when they go for their open water diver course tentatively set in june, in tioman.

latest update
joyce just called me that she's thinking of buying either a sony p9 with the sony marine kit or a canon powershot s45 with the marine kit! damned! so sudden... last night we were just talking about it, and today she's already buying?!?!


indulgence

just found out that joyce's dad is the boss of atf computer in sim lim square. my goodness, isn't the world small? we had bak chor mee at bedok blk 85, and mavic was unable to join.

bought myself two pairs of the super-luminous fila running shorts at $10 each, as well as the fila md middistance at only $29! to think that a few years ago, i spent $99 on a similarly designed steeplechase model by fila for $99 after discount...

slept like a log today - still tired from the last three days' journey. but it's well worth it - the pictures are priceless. and being able to move underwater with a camera, it's even better. and having the fishes swim close to you, since when can you do that, since most of them are lying on the side in the market? go scuba! long live jacques costeau!

the dive trip was good - i've got my photos from the dive up online now - at http://sehsuan.clubsnap.org/padi-openwater. some of the better shots i've already picked out for you, at a clubsnap thread that i started. go on and enjoy!

tiring, but well worth the money. at least you can see corals, fish (goodness knows what kinds of fish they are...), urchins, and of course other divers having a ball of a time.

i won't retract what i said about seamaster divers' anuar, but keeping my distance away from him during most of the entire dive trip helped to make things better. i may be joining seamaster's group this weekend for a dive at 25 bucks in local waters - won't be expecting to be able to see much anyway - but i sure could practice shooting underwater shots though.

the adidas warehouse sales will be on at the singapore expo hall 4B from 14-16th march, 11am-7pm. enjoy your shopping spree! go early to avoid the long queue!

but in the meanwhile, look at what siling has just sent me through my email! is this supposed to be a yearbook photo? interesting move the two girls have in the foreground - did they both pa jiao and kiss the wrong person, or what? but looking at their hands' positions, i doubt so too. and trying to find a gap at the mouth proves futile. so what's the truth? i guarantee this picture will spread like wildfire... and the poor teacher in the photo, watch out!... moe's gonna chop your head off for that... erotic, isn't it? jo, any similar lip-locking move you have done before?



going diving tonight! see you folks soon...

i thought i had a big time bad case of piles, scared the daylights out of me when i was pooping in the loo at home this evening. after much huffing and puffing, i finally got it out. and missed the clubsnap seed, all because of it. in the end, i think i haven't been drinking enough water over the last few days, that's why. literally when it came out, it's like sooooooooo satisfying...

played badminton with about four of my school's primary 6 students in the school hall - now my back's achy breaky... no, that's not a spoof of garth brook's achy breaky heart. at least i'm glad that i didn't lose much of my badminton skills although we all were doing the module late last year...

hey, most of you know that most of the links i feature on my links site are girls, and here's the most wow girl blogger i've ever seen yet - presenting... jo sze!

p.s. paiseh ar, one time can advertise for only one girl... the rest will get your turn ok? teeheehee...

just received a call from philip goh from seamaster divers. i guess he just got back to singapore - at least he sounded more sincere about meeting my need than anuar. anyway, after this outing, i won't go back there so long as anuar is there.

just had a row of three back-to-back pe lessons, started off with p6 hockey, then p3 pickleball, then p2 bounce/dribble. i lost my voice during the p2 class. mr k told me perhaps the kids at p2, cannot understand the idea of "staying in the four cones"... thankfully i stocked up on two boxes of trachisan last week, knowing well i could get a sore throat anytime later.

felt close to the edge of breaking down when mr k was talking to me. it's not him - i can't take the bloody stress of having three consecutive classes, having to set up the equipment, taking the class, managing the class' behaviour, sending the class back and keeping the equipment. two back to back classes are alright - but three? i can die if this continues. we'll find out in the progressing weeks that come...

went swimming after dinner around 8pm - met zahara and her boyfriend there. of all places, at the swimming pool? tried out my polar s710 hrm, it works - but i have to wear it tighter, that's all. i helped to get rid of the singapore marathon 2002 banner by taking it down (it's more than 4/5 months old), and gave it to kit leong.

mr k's coming down to my school tomorrow for two observations. time to rumble!

i just ask kai li if she wants to go down to bedok blk 85 for that bak chor mee that i've missed out for so long. i'm already craving it now. clarinda is also invited, as well as henry "boom boom" sng!

anyone else interested? mavic? state in the comments the evening you can make it down there. current possible days next week are: monday, wednesday and thursday. time-wise i think 7pm would be a good time...

next monday, tentatively scheduled, kai li, thomas, fedly, nanie, germaine and i would be going to johor for a daytime makanfest...

grabbed this from san's site...


congratulations. you are the kiss my ass happy
bunny. You don't care about anyone or anything.
You must be so proud
which happy bunny are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

loving someone, i think, is like opening a secure tunnel from your heart to the outside world. put on the other side of the wall, is a shiny red button that is only meant for her to press, so that she may enter into my heart and make a difference in my life. similarly, i would be looking for a shiny red button that she puts in a similar fashion, so that i may enter into her realm. then the two entities become one.

damned, why am i writing like this? i have to be patient... breathe in... breathe out...

this will be the first and the last freaking time i'm dealing with seamaster divers. i haven't been so pissed ever, ever in my life as a client of any company, other than magic kingdom. here's what happened.

last sunday i mentioned at least twice to anuar, the big oversized guy that i'll be opting to do another confined water dive next week (that's tomorrow, in other words) so that i can get used to my camera underwater, because i was thinking that i would do better with added practice on buoyancy. he said that it would be ok - and said he would call me during the week. by tuesday when he didn't call me, i tried to get someone, anyone at the phone numbers listed on the divemaster, philip goh's namecard - and both numbers were not connected. great! and how do i get the security clearance through the dive company then so that i can bring my camera in then? i checked out their website and found a new number - i tried it, but no one picked it up. i was getting worried. by friday, when i still couldn't get philip personally, i knew chances of me going for the confined dive would be slim.

in the end, when i called anuar on his handphone number that i only got today from cassandra, he said was that i wouldn't be able to go tomorrow because my name was left out of the list submitted to ndu/safyc for clearance. what the fuck! i mentioned twice (or even thrice) last sunday, both (or three) times he said ok, and now this?!?! this is absolutely preposterous! he told me that i had another option - for 20 bucks i could meet him at costa sands east coast for a confined dive on wednesday so that i can do what i want to practice with my camera. fair enough - but 20 dollars after travelling down to east coast from home, do an one-hour confined dive, and head back home - i would be freaking tired the next day - i'm teaching my students the next day, for goodness' sakes! and it's too damned late - 6+ pm, for one hour! now that's a rate i would rather charge people for asking me to cover events via photography. and what do i shoot there? plain water? shoot him? now with this kind of fucked-up suggestion, i would rather use a speargun and/or harpoon and spear him! if last sunday i was able to get my camera through - i would have been able to shoot the group members while we were doing drills. if i were to be able to go tomorrow, i would have been able to shoot cassandra and joyce. still wouldn't be that bad - since last week i was the one who wasn't able to bring in the camera because of the lack of tactical movement. if i went on wednesday, who the fucking hell do i shoot? here's the last straw now - he suggested that i ask along another divegroup friend to go along so that i can shoot him/her! and we both have to fork out money for that! what the fuck! and when i called again later to think of a way around this tricky situation, he had the audacity to tell me that i "have to listen to instructions"... what instructions are these? these are excuses!

i spent 300 dollars, to get this new underwater casing,
with this hoohah that's happened, where you expect me to shoot? in a basin?
i'm a new underwater photographer, full of enthusiasm,
and now all these happened, where's your fucking professionalism?


try calling the numbers on the namecard - the phones are disconnected!

i'll pay the company after the course ends, after my pay comes in - and that's the last time i'm dealing with them. and stay away from seamaster divers like the plague, folks - you want to stay away from them 100,000 miles! message to the company - if you can't provide the pleasant customer experience that new scuba enthusiasts are getting geared for - then close down!



registered for the navy biathlon today too - ran out of t-shirts and sentosa admission passes though. safra will do a good job of following up, much better than seamasters i believe. the only bright thing today was that i saw two lancer evolution vii's on the roads. but they're not mine.

just came back home via cab. the class gathering was small - me, alwyn, yili (don't know how to spell her name), gorilla, angie, debbie, ban hwee, siva, henry, hairil, nizam, janus, ceqin were the only folks who appeared.

the pianist is a lengthy show - it chronicles the during-war years of a pianist named szpliman, and how he made through the world war 2 in warsaw. i can't say too much - it brings the realities of wars to the doorstep. seeing the war atrocities only made me think more; how much we all have to be if war looms. senseless killings, elimination by genocide - all these cannot be understood through words alone. as published on the golden village website - "a brilliant polish jew pianist who witnessed the restrictions nazis place on jews in the polish capital escapes deportation and avoids capture by living in the ruins of warsaw."

go and watch it if you can. trust me, you won't take peace that we see daily, for granted anymore.

and for the sole cause of jo, the poor girl stuck in uk studying.. here's a picture for "appetizing"...



looks like a pile of worms, doesn't it? so now you know why you should avoid mee goreng...

the russian darling katie d did (in my own opinion) fantastically well for her 'a' level papers - she got 3 a's and 1 b! and one more merit for... was it history? yaay!

one of the boys from my primary 2 class apparently punched the pecker of another classmate, when my ct was having class with them, while i was sitting behind. that punched boy, of course, cried. sigh. i think he must have been damned worried that he can't make use of his male anatomy in the future to pee...

mr k came for the third observation so far... this time he put it as "average". not bad, considering that twice with bervyn i got straight fails plus a recommendation to change a profession!... mr k's getting popular with some of the teachers here - that's the charisma of the man himself. our dip pe class practically adore this charming man! i was reminded somehow, that he was supposedly a not-good student who eventually represented singapore ine asian games, got the silver, just an agonizing 0.01 seconds behind the gold place winner. i have to learn a lot more from him - his humility is so sincere!...

children. the joy and the bane of life...

had a flurry of hockey lessons with my students - the first lesson with 6a2 went on well, but the one with 6a6, i had to raise my voice quite a lot of times - i presume it mainly due to the added aural distraction provided by the lower primary kids who were having recess...

anyway, mr k will be coming tomorrow morning.

just clarified this, found out that cassandra is from wings athletic club. fancy the world being so small - i was invited to join by remy when the name was just a vision, now it's established.

just a test picture for all of you folks who found my blog devoid of bikini-clad babes, and underwater photos...



the picture was shot through a small plastic fish tank last night, with the tank filled with water (of course!)... not bad eh?

all the best to the dearies and buddies taking their a level examination results in a couple days' time.

for the bloke who drove up the wall (literally) into the mrt tracks last night, what's new? a bmw or mercedes flying off a 53rd storey multi-storey carpark? duh. crap drivers.

i'm on mc today - too weak to even do my lesson plans. yesterday i was feeling sooo weak - if only i had caroline for company, things may be a lot more palatable... mr. k called me last night to give me additional feedback regarding my hockey lessons yesterday. seems like i have to pare down the lessons back to individual based skills before i move them on to the group-based "follow the leader" activity...

cassandra seems like a blur blur girl... gave her a call just almost an hour back and told her that i had problems sending her pictures - only to have her reply that she doesn't know who i am... win already lor. until i told her that i'm from the dive group, then did she realize who i was... anyway, i'll be shooting her this sunday to see if she bloopers up like how liza decided to inhale water from a half-filled dive mask...

tested my underwater camera case by a roughly 24 hour immersion test - tests fine. will be shooting for sure!

mr. k came again today - only to be held up by the super-long assembly that we had in the hall - my class only left the hall at 8:10 i think. rushed like mad through the lesson, while being watched by mr. k, mr foo (my ct), and mdm lee (my hod). how often do you teach with three pairs of eyes watching you? sheesh...

sigh... couldn't get my camera past the gates of the place where we're doing our confined water dive. but i'll be back next week to shoot again! yeah! next week, cassandra and joyce will be doing their confined water dive, so they'll be my models!

jo, you want to fly back from england to be my underwater photography model? lai lai, don't shy...

it was really funny to see liza, my dive buddy fouling up mask clearing... she'd tilted her head back when she couldn't finish clearing the mask... of course, she inhaled water through the nostrils! i tried to pull off a ping by playing scissors, paper, stone with her, but she was befuddled - same for su...

i love the funny caption on the singlet that my instructor was wearing - it says, "self confessed underwater breathing addict"... what another name for scuba!