emcee, treasurer and the picnic

the day before sat's BGM for my grassroots thingy, i was asked to emcee the event. 'it's scripted!' the chairman assured me. and i accepted, unable to think of a reason to turn the offer down.

and i have to say it's abit like teaching, esp the part where u have to take in the response of the audience and react accordingly. except that the audience is more numerous, and the guests of higher social importance - Lim BH and the local grassroots leaders really did unnerve me abit.

but it was a new experience. and exactly what i was hoping for when i chose to engage in the local grassroots committee. later on, during the comm elections, i was expecting to be proposed, seconded and elected as one of the comm heads/vices, as i felt i had displayed enough enthusiasm and potential (they dun know me too well yet) in the past 3 mths, despite me being the newest member in the 24man team.

and so i was fairly surprised when my name came out immediately when the treasurer post was contested. the normal progression's that of a comm head/vice, then a treasurer/vice-chair/hon-gen, followed by the chair. guess i skipped one rung up the hierarchy. hehh. obviously i won la.

and i finally had a chance to talk to fellow comm-er yuxi (justine: my 6th sense tells me u'll like her type!) proper during the k-box gathering after tt. aiya, if someone's willing to be isolated by you it's like an invitation to know them better le la. i'm terrible in grps so the other party has to be cooperative la. (yes i know, i have the nurse alr!)

then rushed home to fry some beehoon (ok, i only sliced the fried eggs then napped whilst my mum prepped the rest). tired mah! then took a cab (cos late le, as usual), but was delayed cos it was the cab changeover time and few of them wanted to go to khatib from jurong.

kies picnic time! was half an hr late but was the earliest there. lol. weather was hot and i was kinda worried that the rest would hammer me for choosing such a terrible place and time for the picnic. but heng ah, got a tiny hut with a shelter to camp in for the duration. nice!

it's sure changed alot since the last time i came. but i guess everything changes with time, however much you hope it doesn't transpire, however much you hope that certain things remain the status quo.

played bridge (i dun like the game cos i dun like card games in general and furthermore i dislike thinking/analysing/memorising when playing games, daidee is fine tho hahaha) with the old flaggers. really do feel happy and at ease with the bunch of them, like i was telling dil on msn thereafter. the food was great too! salmon/crabstick salad and sandwiches, nice cakes, sushi, beehoon, and erm.. old chang kee kindly sponsored by josh. hahaha!

think the next picnic will be at ecp or marina barrage. bottletree park's good for prawn catching, fishing and maybe even the swan cycling on the lake, but def not for picnics. but i really damn enjoyed it la - the company really counted in this case :)

date with the nurse

ok i'm not sure how to start abt this 1st date post but it's sure better than updating thru msn to different pple.

hmm ok a quick runthrough of the itinerary: met at mph along citilink at 1715 (my habit's to meet for early dinner to avoid the queue), wandered ard marina square, settled at waraku for dinner, esplanade for a live performance (not by me of cos), then a long walk along the riverside back to cityhall area, ending with dessert (darkdevotion - thx for the recomm zhu!) at tcc, the only place open at that late hr.

as expected she was more of a channel 8 person, and i tried to switch from 5 but i ended up roughly at channel 6 i think - eh alot of thoughts and ideas v hard to express in chinese one ok! hehh. expended most of my prepared topics by the 2nd hr in the midst of the mutual questioning process, and moved on to food, travel, and lifestyle related stuff after that.

i guess both of us were still figuring each other out and reacting accordingly to avoid outright confrontation at such an early stage. after realising tt she wasn't a beef person, i probed further and yes, the religion isn't a mismatch. i wouldn't want to face that shit again, definitely. and i felt it was a good thing she's not a phone person either - more of sms, msn and meetup which is my style too.

overall it was gg well for a blind date with potential for future development until we started talking abt what my uncle/aunt had told her abt me. amidst all was the comment that i was shy and quiet. and i suddenly lapsed into a shyness attack for like.. 15mins, in which my mind totally blanked out, i lost the power of coherent speech and i couldn't but look helpless despite my best efforts.

i call it the self-fulfilled prophecy syndrome. think it's happened in varied intensities for everyone i've dated thus far. but ok la, i dun think it was tt bad, but definitely not a good thing. ohwells, it's the 1st time, can afford to screw up abit.

hmm and chemistry wise.. i thought the wavelength's quite there, me being an educated beng and all. felt it wasn't as strong a match as once upon a time in a chem lab but it's definitely sufficient to justify a 2nd date. afterall i'm far from a dating maestro who can work wonders on just the 1st date. need time to warm up to pple.

but my choice to take the damn red line from cityhall to woodlands then back to JE did pay off. thought it was a necesssary/minimum gesture and was only expecting friendly, perfunctory conversation after the long night and the fact that she was heading the ICU audit (informed at 10pm by colleague) the next day. but i was proved wrong. in a good way.

on the journey both of us probably felt that the trial was over, and we started to truly relax in the company of each other, indulging in inane chatter (damn amusing, her) and she truly endeared with her bubbly demeanour and v unglam actions, for one, knocking her head on the mrt handlebars whilst walking to sit down. and i felt the natural myself emerging and engaging with her readily and enthusiastically.

after commenting casually abt her transformation from demure to unglam over the course of the evening, she laughed it off with a lame saying 'zhi ran cai shi mei', albeit her slight embarassment. i agreed with her, but then added that it would be advisable to be more 'jing chi' on the 1st date. haha!

ok that's it! maybe 'll go drop by to visit my nephew and her some weekday evening b4 the meetup on sunday. looks good so far, but i always believe it takes at least 3 proper meetups to really have a clear idea of the other party. let's wait and see ba :)

1st ever bowling tournament - over!

i know my 2nd lesson (successful!) and e flagger bbq at xb's yet to be updated.. but today was my day!

shall talk abt it now. ok from the diagram depicted below (lol sounding like some teacher now) i attained 5th position overall out of abt.. 54 (18lanes x 3) bowlers. not too bad right! esp considering i was using only my spare ball throughout and wasn't playing too well.

it can be seen that there's a sizeable gap (104 pinfalls) btw the 1st (my coach btw) and the 2nd-5th bowlers, then a 50pin gap btw me and the 6th placed bowler, after which the point differences are negligible. goes to show that i'm in a different league from those insignificant, common gnats. i'm so proud of myself.

and from the team scores shown above, i cannot but help notice that i was instrumental in my team's relatively high ranking, esp in light of the fact that 2 of them couldn't play.

and i take whole credit for their tremendous improvement in the 2nd game, and breaking the 100 barrier for the 1st time - afterall, i'm a good teacher, having gone thru all the common mistakes that one can make.

sometimes, not being talented in something and having to work hard for it, justifies u being a good teacher in many senses. i'm not pleased abt it, but i sure am proud of it.

my 1st lesson

taught my 1st lesson on 13th Jul (Mon), 1140. an experience which i'll take with me for the rest of my teaching career (hopefully it's not too short). hurriedly prepared my 1hr lesson plan for my 5NT class from 0200 to 0500 the day itself, only catching an hr's worth of sleep. the last-min prep was an omen of what was to come.

spent whatever little time i had rehearsing my lesson, and 5 mins before it, i decided that i should just go and buang it and then learn from the experience. joked to my fellow attachees tt i would likely go 'G-G-G-Good morning class' and get laughed at even before i start my lesson proper.

but after all the presentations in uni (which are effing easy by comparison cos the pple are normally attentive and non-disruptive and one only presents for a relatively short while in a predictable setting) and dealing with subordinates and peers in the army, i honestly expected a certain level from myself.

well i obviously din meet it.

got damn nervous standing on the platform infront of the class looking at some disinterested and zoned-out faces - only the minority but still. started off by asking questions to recap their knowledge on magnetism before i went into magnetic effect of a current and force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field (which is damn hard to uds even for express kids).

spoke at a breakneck pace and the students had to appeal to me to cool down. "slow down cher!, relack cher!" and etc. and i recall saying dumb stuff like "a current produces a magnetic current (supposed to be field) in its vicinity". basically all my knowledge was jumbled up and even if the words came out clearly, the ideas and concepts weren't. and after recounting to them the story of Oersted and his discovery of the correlation btw electricity and magnetism, i forgot the order of the lesson plan i prepared and had to refer to it.

ok la so far it seems like a disaster.

but it got better over time, as i started composing myself and seeing the surroundings for what they really were. felt the steady and logical flow of words from my mouth and my strident voice soothed the nerves. the class participated readily with qns (which are really trivial) which i answered easily.

after hitting them with difficult concepts which they needed some time to digest, i then used the time to prepare my next sentences and look out for the lost sheep, after which i took action accordingly. felt in control during the 2nd part of the lesson, albeit it wasn't gg exactly to plan cos i kept having to repeat my points and recapping them as quite a few of them expressed doubt openly.

during the discussion of my 1st lesson by my mentor, he stated that i had been too ambitious, trying to squeeze 4 periods worth of lessons into 2, therefore causing them to be unable to follow the lesson well. and that it was very obvious that i was v nervous at the initial stage but improved dramatically after the students called on me to relax (haha they're q cute actually). one more fault of mine was that my whiteboard (cos i din use powerpt slides) diagrams were all over the place with no order whatsoever.

so i told him that i was darn jittery la, and just wanted to look for the closest blank space to draw my diagrams and write my points thus the disorder. we laughed, amused at my open admission.

but hmm good points mentioned: my strident voice (projection too), steady eye contact with students and quick catching/questioning of the lost sheep. also, most importantly, an obvious desire to help the students, as shown when they were openly asking conceptual questions. and he mentioned that one thing i had was an affinity with the students, as they felt v comfortable asking qns and expressing constructive views, one thing he rarely experienced with them, which i observed previously despite him being a really damn good teacher.

but oh i definitely dun look v friendly and affable that's for sure. clarice (dropped by for 1 period cos she had nth to do) stated that i was damn scary and intimidated her cos i looked vv serious and unapproachable whilst teaching, other than the times where we was stealing knowing glances at each other or me answering qns from students. well, it's likely amplified by the fact tt i'm never really serious abt stuff when it's not work-related and i've been hehe-haha-ing the past 2 weeks with her alot.

well. it was a good experience overall, for i thrive on failure. i always have, not entirely by choice though. i'm looking forward to the day when i will look back on this post and reminisce abt the old days where i was still a sucky teacher. i'm sure i'll improve and become the person i aim to be, moulding the minds of tml.

P.S: linky: enjoy ur last yr of sch. u're really gg to hate the kids and teaching. i'm q sure of that.

ecp (again!)

went to ecp on sun with glad (she asked me out one lol). it was a v tiring experience cos i really abhor travel (even tho i have my books and all), esp trips where u have to change buses/trains. like i always tell my friends, i'm willing to spend up to 1.5times the amt of time req to get to a place as long as it's a direct trip.

so we went cycling - a good 2 hrs with no break. my knees couldn't take it in the midst, given i had been playing competititive badminton and abit of tennis a few days back w/o knee guards cos i kinda forgot to bring them along. and i figure one should lift their bike seat as high as possible such tt one is tiptoeing on the floor whilst seated - it reduces the strain and effort required in cycling.

concussed on the train back. in uni i never was able to just doze off and lie on someone else's shoulder unlike nowadays when it happens so often. guess i wasn't pushing myself to the limits back then. teaching's really tiring - can't help but want to nap whenever i reach home.

dangerous blogging

linky once again commented during tennis today tt he felt tt my blog posts cast myself in a bad light and tt i should stop revealing too much (i think tt's what he said haha). yeah but then again if it's all untrue propaganda abt myself, no pt keeping a blog i feel. not tt the pple i give my blog add to dun alr know i'm not exactly what i appear to be. ok maybe some don't. ahahha.

tt's why i don't give my blog address freely. hehh.

swimming with a worm

in preparation for his impending IPPT, i got wormy to join me for a nice sunday swim. but when he met me at my void deck b4 taking the bus to safra jurong, it was already drizzling.

me: wow wonderful weather we have here! the dazzling sun and clear skies. couldn't ask for more la! him: yeah dude! good weather. looking forward to a good swim later!

then we promptly moved under shelter cos the mild rain was getting us abit wet.

went to jurong west sports complex (only indoor swimming pool in the west!) instead cos of the weather. and i must say tt i've gotten v picky abt swimming pools and changing rms. can't stand pools which are too chlorinated/crowded nor changing rms which have grimy floors and slightly cracked tiles - the latter turns me off immensely.

so far safra jurong's the best followed by NTU. NUS being another viable option esp since i go there for tennis often.

tried out the long slide (1st time trying the one there) and whilst waiting at the top both of us were looking at a huge sign with multiple human positions inside red circles with diagonal slashes. i then jokingly commented tt it was the recommended actions tt we were supposed to perpetrate inside the huge tube cum slide.

of cos i did it la. switched to a superman position immediately after gg in normally, then tried the backwards one. and when i tried to go back to the normal sitting position before emerging (25 yrs old le must at least appear to be mature!), the process was ridiculous cos the turns and the rushing water made it nigh impossible - tumbled ard like an idiot before being ejected in the water unceremoniously.

oh on to the lazy pool where currents flow in one direction for easy lounging on a float. tried to swim against the currents with a small extent of success - obviously wormy ended up swimming backwards being a weaker swimmer haha. then attempted gg with the flow, with glowing results. "i think this speed is roughly Olympics level la!" i exclaimed to my dear friend.

later whilst we were walking ard JP, with our typical relaxed demeanour - loud, raucous conversation and animated hand actions, one familiar looking girl walked to me and greeted me. omg. even tho i dun have a class of my own, apparently students do recognise me. and obviously it's gg to exacerbate once i'm a teacher in a sch.

ok i'm not exactly a disgrace in public but i do enjoy doing random childish stuff with the guys which doesn't exactly portray me in a proper light. and i wouldn't want any of my students overhearing my conversations cos some can be very nasty, improper or simply wrong.

ohwells. not like i din know what i was getting myself into when i chose this profession over journalism 4 yrs back. but it's been 1 week into the attachment, and so far i truly feel this is my calling.

writer's block

it started with her adding me on fb and msn (which she seldom uses cos she's a nurse and works unearthly, unpredictable hrs). now's my turn to initiate contact, i felt.

and the thought triggered an all-pervading sense of dread.

after all, i never did venture in the area of knowing random girls thru online means. always knew the individual thru activities or courses - begun with good vibes even b4 the initial online/phone contact.

after procrastinating for several days, i finally got down to it and sent her a msg on facebook. trust me, it was a nerve-wracking experience. nth i've been prepping myself for during the past few years really helped in the process.

so i cybersta.. erm, got better acquainted with her online persona thru fb and the such, in preparation for the msg. i then clicked on the "Send Annabelle a Message". after which i closed the popup window in fear and trepidation.

after mustering enough courage, i wrote some stuff. then deleted it. and the cycle repeated itself:

too eager-to-please.

too cheesy.

too typical.

too nonchalant.

too self-depreciating

too narcissistic.

too "insert negative connotation"

after drafting a decent-looking copy (30mins!), i looked over it thoroughly, more for the tone than the grammar (her english isn't too wonderful anyways). ok sounds good! either way it's better than doing nth right. and i can always salvage it thru msn.

furthermore my photogenic photos (lol!) on fb will help prevent her from thinking i'm single and desperate lol. former yes, latter definitely not. my career's more impt to me at the moment.

ok we shall see the results of my writing soon. i shall try not to be devastated in the case of a non-reply or a disinterested, short one.

the all-impt 1st date

ok so i've been introduced to this girl by my relatives. and since i'm photogenic and all, she's decided tt i look fine from my fb profile, and the feeling was mutual. she's my type la. haha.

but the thing is, i've never really done blind dates b4. always date pple whom i've met thru activities or sch stuff mostly. now i have to figure an approach thru fb, msn, then calling (i hate calling new pple). of which must seem natural (like real it is) and portrays me as being undesperate yet engaging and fun.

the meetup should be.. imminent. but of cos it may not work out too la. it's not exactly just a casual date cos i somehow feel there's more to it (marriage?) but anyways i'm not tt young alr.

and i always like to tell my friends that friendster/facebook is the ultimate cyberstalking tool assuming u have the person in your friend list. one can get a clear idea of what the person is by the way their friends respond to their status changes or photo posts, their unique typing style, the way they look and act in photos, as well as the friends they're most often tagged with.

not to mention notes like '25 random things' that pple do.

oh but of cos i dun cyberstalk.

yeahhhhh right, u say. whateverrr. hahahaha.

i estimate that it'll be 1.5 mths b4 the date (eh i'm busy also la). meanwhile, other than focussing on gettting the most out of my teaching experience at boonlay sec, i shall buffer my knowledge on my preferred/relevant topics and acquire an interest in her interests. well, since i'm interested in learning anything, i dun think it's contrived. hehh.

ok back to prepping my 1st ever classroom lesson for my 5NT class next week.