today, mr. k observed the first pe lesson that i conducted for class 6a6. it was a disaster, depending on what i'm looking at. the lesson plan was planned from 0730 hours, but after national anthem, pledge and school song, that took us to about 0735. by the time i even started to lead the class out of the hall, it was already 0737 on my watch. adding 2 or 3 minutes for the students to change, that would have been 0740 hours. you wouldn't have known how irate i was when the hod discipline was yakking away to the children on stage...

but on the observation sheet, the only negative thing that was noted was that i was only a tad too talkative, that's all. phew!

after the observation was over, an oddball scene happened - a boy, with the lower body uncovered, was half-crying and peering out of the boys' toilet. he'd soiled his shorts, undies, both socks and both shoes with a trememdous shat. oops. mr. k got me to run to the school attendants, asking for spare children's attires so that the boy wouldn't walk around in a straw skirt... not! took care of the shorts problem for the boy, and mr. k had to leave. i ran over to the "childcare centre" facility within the school and borrowed a pair of slippers for the boy as well, and asked him to return it tomorrow, little realizing "tomorrow" was saturday...

i may not be able to teach students well for sports yet, but i'm sure i've seen one of the saddest sights in my life ever. the students didn't know it better for themselves, i guess, although they're mainly primary 5 students. i just witnessed, while i was walking around the school compound to take pictures of the facilities so that i can plan my pe lesson layouts better, a herd of boys playing football on the basketball court. there was nothing wrong with that, of course, it's just that they were playing football on a basketball court using empty plastic drink bottles. what a sad sight. it's akin to dogs - you deprive them of the food that nourishes their growth. sure, some foods may cause sicknesses and such, but nevertheless it's still growth. what's the use of having facilities in a school, if they're consigned not to be used? even the school field is locked up.

facility - a piece of equipment, a building, a service, etc that is provided for a particular purpose.

i have not felt so sad for a long time now. i was already sort of expecting such things to happen when i heard a "no ball" ruling in the school when i first visited it on 10th february. and i'm right. why couldn't i be wrong?...

i'll be meeting leo from australia, who would be picking up a maha mh-c401fs charger set and two sanyo 2100 mah nimh rechargeable batteries. total is only s$96 - that's s$89 for the charger set, plus s$7 for the two batteries. and i'll be "throwing in" a battery holder case as a goodwill gesture too.

once school was over, i just practically flew over to nie to take my ele spoken tests. patricia told me that nora isn't what she seemed to be - she's much better than the impression that she gave us when she was stressed out during the initial ele test incident that we witnessed. once i finished with the test, i went back to see mr. k, and updated him on the things that i would be doing for class. also talked to dr clara too, long time no see. as i was going back, i suddenly realized that i had to get that add/drop form from sas, and then i flew all the way there, got the form, flew all the way back to pess, got the signature from prof teo, and then flew back again to hand in the signed form, all within 14 minutes. damned tough a workout, i'd say!

i'd left for clubsnap's seed tonight, and look at what i've just got! cost me $320 including gst though. ping is a little red-eyed that she doesn't have an underwater casing for her camera... oh shucks, poor thing...


just bought a new piece of equipment for my camera today from cathay photo - the olympus pt-010 underwater casing. this will be in time for the confined water diving we're having this weekend. yaay!

it's unexpected how life deals its cards. mr. handphone passed away in a what do i call, a freak accident at pasir ris park last night.

anyway, back to my work - i think i've got a couple of activities for my students for their hockey lessons that they will like - i tried it out with a couple of primary 5 students, and the results are positive - the children are more than eager to try master controlling the hockey stick.

mr. k made a morning visit to me in my school today - and he gave me some quite important pointers that i would have never been able to have bervyn patiently telling me. things like, to get the session master timetable so that i have a good idea of how many concurrent pe lessons there are for any period of time, so that i can make plans for equipment and space during the worst case scenarios, especially during rain.

i made mention to caroline that i want to woo her. she's ok about it. folks, are we going to witness suan getting attached in a similar manner as lauban's framework, and debbiesaurus and gorilla and angie?

for the test paper for the first aid course, i managed a miraculous 29 out of 30 questions, topping our small class. passed the sfa course, including the bandaging and cpr - essentially, now i'm pretty confident about doing first aid in the open. it seems that this same kind of feeling, i'm having about my repeat teaching practicum now. i feel more... in control, unlike last year, where i was lost all the while - which was exactly how i felt when i was asking myself if i were ready to take the first aid examination last november.

had a good time talking and yakking away with eunice earlier from about just after midnight to 2 am. glad to know that she's feeling ok now, and boy, this girl makes a very very good advisor strategist regarding some things...


i think i'm more natural when it comes to taking pictures with girls now

the shoot at the ntu surf and sweat was great! met a lot of old friends... shaun nik, heng chong chee (whom i didn't get to see them a second round later on), cleve chia and maybe a few more. saw other familiar faces too - weixiong, shiu yun, the red cross medic, plenty of pess folks now and then, sha, adeline, pauline, jin kiat, kien mau,

and of course other clubsnappers - willyfoo, violett, dagger, taicw, nekogotch, afiend, digipix, fooxx, zplus and i were busy all throughout the morning to the afternoon snapping away at the various sights and scenes of the event. also, there was this other cute girl who was actually dolphie's schoolmate in the same level - boy, her eyes, smile, figure, everything about her stunned me - i could only helplessly snap away at her...


from left - jesslyn, jasmine, me, owyang, phyllis

just got home and barely had time to settle the photos from ntu hall 5's production, a show to call our own. and i've got to prepare for today's (sunday) ntu surf and sweat at sentosa's sunset bay. anyone going there can give me a call to meet up. right now i'm comtemplating cycling over there - so that i get a workout myself, and that i need not squeeze with the weekend crowd on the buses.

for yesterday, it was a mad, mad rush. woke up at 8:43am, quickly borrowed 10 dollars from mom to take a cab down to go for a 9am red cross standard first aid course held for meridian jc odac students - met their teacher-in-charge, mr tang, and the instructor for red cross, stephen. after the course ended, i flew over to nie - but i got off the train at clementi because my somehow misbehaving nose decided to flush like crazy on me. saw christopher, one of the tall guys back in my secondary school with his girlfriend on the platform, but i wouldn't want to say hello, because i had one hand pinching my nostrils to keep the mucus flow in check. i hopped on a cab to make a beeline to nie for the dive theory lesson, just on time. liza will be my dive buddy for the trip. cassandra had her armsling removed, thankfully. she'd dislocated her shoulder joint because she tugged at a basket full of medicine balls without taking a second look, nor knowing what's inside. *gulp!*

after the lessons ended, it was yet another mad rush to make it over to nus' ucc for the hall 5 production. managed to take a couple of snaps with huiling dear in her get-up for her nus show, re:mix. too bad i couldn't watch it, since i was occupied with the first aid course friday night, and watching the hall 5 show saturday evening. met some old time vs folks, like jackson pang, pin yan (who happened to be the head honcho for the show), and chong yee at the ucc as well. and one more - jianfa, who was siangling's junior in squash in vjc last time.

after giving two separate primary 6 classes dressing-downs in two days because they couldn't get the class cleaned up to my expectations (no litter on the floor), i held them back for about ten minutes each, and talked to them about belonging to the class and that they shouldn't be selfish and wait for only the duty personnel to clean up the mess. hope they learn their lesson. i also devised two simple, isometric exercises (i don't call them punishments, since they are really isometric) that are pretty tough mentally. first "exercise" - hold a 500ml filled bottle, on an outstretched, straightened arm, either fully extended to the left for the left arm, and vice versa for the other arm. the second "exercise" - starting in a squatting position while holding the ankles, straighten the legs without letting go of the ankles - and do that continually for 40 times or more - that will be killer!

just got back home after the first aid course's last session before monday's examination - met my bmt recourse platoon commander, phua kok kiong at serangoon bus interchange after i hopped off the bus.

yaay! new toy! bought it at champion sports in peninsula shopping centre in the evening for 30 bucks. stickbag was an additional 10 dollars.



thankfully mr hui is donating 46 of his used tennis balls to me for my purpose, so i can conduct hockey lessons for my children using tennis balls first to let them brush up on their ball control first before i let them use the actual heavier and harder hockey balls.

the day was pretty frantic i guess - after i finished shooting pictures of me doing the push pass and the cricket stop for the hockey assignment, i rushed back home before it started to rain. then i quickly made a beeline for peninsula plaza to get the hockey stick first. after getting the stick, i popped over to cathay photo to get a slik camera tripod bag for dad that he wanted for his sony tripod - then it was over to novena square to his office. met his two colleagues there, johnson and err.. what's his name? johnson succeeded in helping me to exchange a stick of faulty kingston memory for another - so right now, i'm finally back to 512 megs of memory in my computer! yes! after we parted ways, dad and i went over to orchard, where he went to accompany mom back home after her work, while i went to kinokuniya to shop for magazines...

ooh-la-la! rachel lee's up on fhm for fhm bikini heaven international! look at this!

damned tired yesterday night - slept at 9+ pm without even opening my backpack.

damned tired today too - rushed to school, reached there at 7:10am (late, actually - 7am's the time to report), observed 3 lessons by my ct (i am nice when i say the lessons didn't go well), tested out on five different primary 5 kids on hockey dribbling (they loved it), had a super long contact time (ended after 2pm), stayed back after school up to 5pm just to clear up the pe storeroom so that i have a rough inventory of what's available there for my pe classes, rushed back home on my bike, hailed a cab from home to sim lim square, picked up a usb hub, two separate usb cables and one usb mouse, and flew on down to red cross training centre for tonight's instalment of the first aid course, and got back home just after 10pm. what a day!

you can look at pictures of what's available in my pe store. worst thing i heard today - my hod telling me that hockey isn't safe. just to quote what lauban told me over the phone - "look at everything. where is there anything that is safe?"



dedicated to ilmare:


on a separate note, my dear russian agent katie d sms-ed me just when i was nearing home, that she scored 1480 for her s.a.t. papers. hmm. the girl's willing me to give her an ice cream treat the size of lenin's head!

i'm intending to buy myself a proper hockey stick and bag tomorrow evening at peninsula plaza/shopping centre...

sooo tired today! went to the school, stayed back at the school trying out the equipment, and discovered lots of what i saw last year was... gone! at least i found that the school has almost 50 hockey sticks around, with 11 proper hockey balls - so there's much likelihood that i'll try teaching hockey this time round for the primary 6 students. for the primary 2 and 3's i'm trying to figure what exactly to teach...

visited the serangoon mrt station open house around 4+ pm. took some pictures as well. then after leaving, met eastgear with his girlfriend at the busstop - what a coincidence! bade them goodbye as i went on to magic cut to get my hair cut today. i was stunned by the bochupness of the prostitutes around the area, practically standing brazenly at the back alley behind the hair salon, with all their "clients" standing there, with the icky behaviour... yuck! thankfully, as soon as they appeared, they vanished too. anyway, got the hair cut for $22. plus wash too. hmm. time to sleep now. school in the morning!...

reading blogs around, and thinking about it brings me to a new revelation - people who are attached during v.day, and those who aren't. of those who are, i'll leave them out of the topic. but for those who aren't attached - i'll subdivide them into two groups - those who are affected by v.day, and those who aren't. and of this former group i belong, somewhat - and i'm getting better at this every year - i'm getting harder and harder to be swayed by the v.day bug - i'm transiting over to the "can't be bothered with it" group. from "it's necessary to have a partner to spend the day with", i'm going to "i'll enjoy shooting pictures that uses composition and cognitive processes, be it i cycle to shoot them, or street photography". hmm. i'm growing in more ways than i thought i was capable of.

though i must admit, when i'm sick, there's the temptation to wish that i had a girlfriend. a no's still a no, but i'm not that fanatic to say, i'll rather die than not have one...

better go get a haircut before i get booked by the school prefects tomorrow.

sleep beckons. goodnight!

went to nie in the morning, did some updating of my assignments in the library, but too bad for us (me included) using the library computer systems - the print server was down. for that alone i was stuck with this uncouth trainee teacher who was spewing all sorts of expletives in the book. all because he couldn't print? duh.

took the f&c test, handed in my rugby test to tony, and handed up my maths assignment to dr fan. he may seem slightly eccentric, but he sure is a swell guy! stayed on to take photographs for siva and the pess club - woody's the new chairperson! woohoo!

cycled home in the rain that started from lakeside mrt, that eventually dwindled by the time i was somewhere in bukit batok. stopped by at macritchie when i spotted a race going on. so it was the tan soo liat relay going on. saw quite a few familiar faces, including stacey and found out that she's not running in the stanchart hong kong marathon for two good reasons - one - it's to be held tomorrow, two - she fell sick about a week ago.

got home in a super drench, and was a minor bit upset that my longmans pronounciation dictionary got a little wet at the base. but it's still ok, considering my digital camera didn't face getting drenched...

oh, any of you remember that i mentioned i've got a lobang, an olympus c730 ultrazoom going for 800 bucks? i can check for you if you're interested...

yesterday was atrocious - this nora samosa is such a rude turnoff! imagine one of the meekest in the class, debbiesaurus observing this samosa turning off people by being rude. and mind you, debbie is not a person who's easily riled, so when she says this, there's a lot of truth in it. i saw for myself, how when three other nie trainees were checking if they've come to the right timeslot, this samosa just grunted like a wild boar who didn't have a mate for valentine's, and shut the door in their faces! in case you don't know who she is, she was one of the cast from masters of the sea, a channel 5 production that sucked so much that it sunk. the only cultural heritage it left in our hearts was, "i'll squash you like a ka chua (cockroach)!"

on a separate note, i sniped claudia in the nie canteen after i caught some newbie sniper using the flashlight... a-ha!

is this date, 14th february, a jinxed date for me? missed out the f&c test, the ele voice recording test, and the ele impromptu speech test. and i still have to churn out two frigging big assignments - the rugby quiz, and the math investigative task assignment tomorrow, complete with mc's! argh...

ping is telling me that our padi open water diving course seems really cheap, compared to her cheaper-by-8-dollars naui open water to pulau aur... yeah baby! i'm going to tioman for sure then!

p.s. but i think i need to loan around 300 bucks from dad to buy that underwater casing for the digital camera... otherwise, no pics!

one of my former students just called me over my handphone, asking me what time i would be going back to school. well, i have no idea if i'll be taking them for class or not, so this is a big question mark for me. i wonder who it is - the voice seems to be jianing, i think. and as far as i understand, i'll be working with mr bernard foo from monday onwards, with him as my ct. wonder if he's taking 6a1 this year. as i understood from mdm koh today, i'll be taking one pri 2 class, one pri 3 class and two pri 6 classes for a total of 10 pe periods a week; and 10 more periods of maths a week.

"i just decided, i'm never going to waste another day thinking about tomorrow. this is it. today is all i have." - lance armstrong

went to the school with thomas, germaine, nani, kai li, and zahara on monday morning. embarrassing to find out that my name wasn't on the school's list, due to my special case. kai li asked me if i knew clarinda. of course! i should have remembered that they were schoolmates... when we left mcdonald's hougang south, we saw chew chor meng in a very, very lok-kok attire - homelander for sure! also, somehow i was touchy (very) for the day - but it was all ok by hockey.

rushed to the red cross hq for the course, late, reached there at only 7pm. thankfully i had a light dinner first. performed better and didn't crack under pressure for cpr as i would have in the past.

yesterday was horrid. woke up, rushed to nie, passed hui that yellow duckie, finished f&c. took a whole load of photos for the class' folks. attended m&m's tp briefing - but was told that i could opt in for the gca thing if i wanted - because that shouldn't be my priority right now. went over for s.e.e.d. at peninsula plaza with the clubsnap folks - dagger made me sooooo happy when she allowed me to snap using her nikon d1x. 6 megapixels of professional-level slr joy! woah!


how you like my cyclops eye? it's the highly revered nikon d1x!


finally met up with eadwine before he flies off to aussieland on the 15th

should someone ask me what i do for a living, i should tell them, "i work in a gems factory. all of them unpolished when they come in, but when they go out, i want them all to be as beautiful as they can be." too nice sounding a title for a schoolteacher, maybe?

reminds me - it is not failure that pulls a person to an emotional low - it's the people surrounding you looking down upon you that deals the biggest blow.

i've just completed writing a review of the maha mh-c401fs charger, do go take a look at this item that those people blessed with digital (instead of "green") fingers cannot survive without!

for those of you who are using digital cameras, you know how quickly the cameras can suck the life out of your newly bought alkaline batteries. so what can you do? the best and most economical solution is to buy a good set of rechargeable batteries (or rather a few sets, if you shoot up to hundreds of photos in a day or two, like me), and then use the best charger there is available too - but which is the best charger out there? ponder no more - the answer is maha's maha mh-c401fs 100 minute cool charger! with two highly favourable reviews of it at imaging-resource, and steve's digicams, there's no need to think twice about getting it!

i've been using one myself for just over one month now, and i absolutely can't do without it. those who want to acquire this fantastic charger can now get them at the special price of s$89 through me. i'm currently writing a short review of my own. for a product that sells in the usa for us$60 (including shipping and handling) it's a steal at this price locally! do wait for my personal review, or you can refer to the two links above. there is a 14-day local one-to-one exchange warranty as well. it may take a day or two for delivery though. comes complete with the following items:

• 01 x instruction sheet
• 01 x 3-pin power adapter
• 01 x cigarette lighter car adapter
• 01 x Maha MH-C401FS charger
• 01 x Maha PowerEx battery holder (holds 4 x AA/AAA batteries)
• 04 x Maha PowerEx 2000 mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries

send in your orders today!

for those of you who are reading my site, and would like to start off with digital imaging, my classmate handbag's has got a couple of items to sell off -

Dear all, I've got a Palm M125 PDA for sale (Very new, less than 6 months old). I rarely use it as you all can see. (You don't see me clicking it as much as Azhari and Angie right?) Frankly, it is under-utilised by me I have to admit. Please don't have the impression that I am selling 2nd hand stuff for a living or got some side lobangs somewhere. I bought these things myself. You all should know by now that I keep my stuff in very good condition & this is no exception either. It may not be the latest model available on the market but if you are looking for a cheap digital personal assistant to keep all your schedules, telephone numbers, play games or type & open Microsoft word documents, this is very suitable. You can check the reviews of this PDA on the web & I've actually cut & paste a sample below. I am throwing in a free protective case & screen protector to keep it in excellent condition. All manuals, accessories, warrantee card and installation CD are still available. All these are going at an attractive price of $250. Let me know if you are interested by calling me at 96944291. Foward this to your friends if you are not interested in it. Thank you, Edward

and this...

Dear all, I've got a Fuji FinePix A101 1.3 Megapixel Digital camera for sale. I am planning to upgrade so its gonna be quite redundant if I keep 2 digital cameras. You all should know by now that I keep my stuff in very good condition & this is no exception either. It may not be the latest model available on the market but if you are looking for a cheap simple no frills type of digital camera to take all the photos for your powerpoint presentations or use it as a regular camera, this is very suitable. You can check the reviews of this camera on the web & I've actually cut & paste a sample below. I am throwing in an extra 64Mb smart media memory card for that extra storage space. All manuals, accessories, warrantee card and installation CD are still available. All these are going at an attractive price of $250. Let me know if you are interested by calling me at 96944291. Foward this to your friends if you are not interested in it. Thank you. Edward

prices are negotiable, please call handbag (edward) to inquire more if you're interested.

went for the seamaster padi open water diver course briefing cum q&a session - learnt a fair bit of stuff. we're going to tioman for a sum of $388, instead of $290, to dive in the renowned murky local waters. i've booked liza to be my dive buddy - assuming she's signing on for it. i'm all game to get an underwater case for my olympus camera! the idea if for me to take the photos using my c4040, while someone else writes the article - voila! one more for the album! i then stuck around with siva, handbag and faisal for the mawai prep trip briefing, for the trip next weekend. i'm still comtemplating, s$130 for two day, one night trip to malaysia to take photos? i don't mind, actually... but the return timing from malaysia is my concern, since the next day would be t.p. day one.

saw so many people i know today - pess senior francis just outside west mall, yew fei and his girlfriend on the mrt when i was alighting at orchard mrt; yitian, a girl from my primary school days - not sure if she ever was my classmate before though; chen keng juan, my primary school's principal, evergreen! and when i went to borders, i first saw spyder, then moments later, tan leng.

finally passed kian chye the photos from the ultramarathon, after a super month long plus delay...

took a cab from home to nie in the morning - bill - $17++. after ele tutorial, it was back to the canteen, where i practiced/shot a lot of pictures of ceqin, lily, melisa, siva and lauban. terence joined mel and lily for two pictures too. met shirley see at the canteen too, and mentioned to her that i saw melvyn of late.

i then went to see mr. k regarding the oncoming teaching practicum - he's willing to assist me in ways that he can - but i also have to do my fair share too.

returned to the canteen, called singapore red cross society's mr stephen sng, and asked him how i can clear my first aid module. he practically arranged it over the phone, just like that!

went over to the red cross headquarters, and my instructor is mr. kalai, the same indian man who took my class back in november. this makes things a lot easier for me, too! bought a dorling-kindersley first aid training manual for myself, at $30.

words to pave the path for me to start shooting at will have just been passed by azhari. it's game season!

wooi ling injured herself bad during netball today - hope she's fine. my netball play has improved quite a lot, but my man-marking skills have yet to be acceptable (to myself).

met ong chee ping, one of my former polytechnic coursemates at boon lay interchange today. took the eastbound train with irma, one of the captain azhari fanclub members.

i better dig out my additional maths and physics textbook that i used during my secondary school days - they're starting to show their usefulness during biomech!

forgot to mention yesterday's rugby class was a real fun lesson - the most fun session we've ever had - at least that's what i think. we learnt from gareth how to do rucks and mauls, and we progressed to practically full-contact rugby. in our final game, just looking at debbie running around on the pitch with the ball in a manner akin to the "lion dance" was funny enough - the way we played it was more like one of those scenes from national lampoon instead of anything else! and boy, she was the most tackled person in the entire game! garang!

when we were just taught by gareth how to do a two-man maul, there were some cues to be shouted out - "my rip!" and the next guy would go "my pass!" and when i was the man to be mauled (by lauban and lincoln, edward or siva) i went "my goodness!" needless to say, i was the only joker rolling on the pitch laughing away...

all the people in the class have to get ready to have their photos taken by me almost any time - because i have proposed to siva for the class to have something special appearing in the pess yearbook other than the typical class photo. sample below:



what do you think of the photo montage? siva loves it, hui finds it "not bad" (apart from azhari appearing twice - after all this is a sample montage) and i think it looks cool. with each photo of the montage being one person, it brings out the individual better, or so i think. but the photos can be candid, as you see, the gorilla posing with the banana... i'm sure i can do even better, given this one short week for me to do it.

problem is that, i have to get everyone ready for me to take portrait-style photos of them - albeit candid, or in sporting context - after all, you know what department we're from. but of course, siva will pave the way for me by briefing everyone to get them ready for my photoshooting. unless of course, they want to opt their face out of the yearbook - not a smart idea, of course. so this time, for me to help siva, he must help me to help him. confusing enough?

alright! my supervisor is now none other than mr k.! yessss!

like what mike mcneill told me, now the ball's in my court - i have to do my part too.

did a fair bit of experimental shooting today with siva, shaan and angie (the one from pgde). the results are not bad! will only upload some of the pics into my online gallery, though.

tomorrow morning we've got the hockey game against goodness-knows-what-primary-school, so i'm staying overnight in hostel. will have to reach my locker to get my tripod down, because we're wearing our "play" tees - our class colour!

just now andy's family came down for a visit, and my younger cousin nellie came into my room to talk to me. i was baffled when she kept on mentioning gnc and nature's farm, that she gets her aloe vera skin lotion from gnc, and that nature's farm seem to have higher prices. is this what debbie was telling me, that this very same thing is what i seem to exhibit in class?

bottomline: i don't know - i'm not a psychologist.

i can't recall who wrote this - but the chinese new year songs on radio, covered apparently by some local celebrity, is atrocious. it's basically a remix of background music, and a cmi (cannot make it) voice on the vocal tracks. even i could have done better...

watched shanghai knights at amk jubilee with sis and fabian today afternoon, courtesy of fabian. met felix there too, with his girlfriend.

the show was good! fair rip-roaring humour - good movie - and i loved the parodies in it - singing in the rain and john wayne, charlie chaplin, sherlock holmes and much more! and fann wong was sooooo dee-licious in the movie... owwww!!

by the way, it's my personal practice to turn in all the angpows that i receive from other relatives to my parents - regardless of value, so as to let them top back up their angpow funds that they dug into for angpow money. do you have the same habit, and if not, would you follow suit too?