Marina’s Bloggariffic

28th February - The graduating students from the past year comes back to school again after 3 months of holiday to receive their O level results. There were some faces which was relieved, there were some who looked sad when they looked at their slip of paper. I felt sorry for some of them, having since going through the same thing many years ago.

It was inevitable that I did, since I’ve been with the school since mid 2003 and was with these kids for quite a while now. Jason, one of the most responsible student I’ve ever come across did not manage to go to his choice college that he wanted to go to since his points was a little off. He tells me that he would go to a centralised institute instead. I adviced him to consider making an appeal since I thought that he was a model student.

Albert, Jason (with the vid cam) and me at the National Junior Robotics Competition

Jason really helped out in a lot while in the club, that I was really grateful in what he did. I’m amazed that there is a student that actually took alot of initiatives. There was a time when he actually brought Yu Sheng (a type of dish the chinese eat during chinese new year to bring prosperity and luck) to school!

Well, suffice to say, I’m mightily impressed. And I wish you all the best in your future endevors Jason :)

—

In recent weeks, I realised that I havent been able to remember my dreams anymore. I remember dreaming, but it would disintegrate immediately as I wake up. I’m not sure if its a cause of concern since I’ve always prided on dreaming everyday (in colour! Wide screen! THX surround sound!)

These days its nada, zip, zilch, nothing. The interesting thing about dreams is that I truely believe that it unlocks alot of hidden messages in oneself. Either it could be a message to reflect, or a message to solve a problem. Sometimes it could be a message of the future.

I’m sure many have experienced dreams where by they dismiss and then suddenly one fine day BOOM! They look around their surroundings and realised that it was a scene that they actually dreamed some while back. That type of dream is categorized as a “Deja Vous”

I believe that humans are still evolving, and that our forms at the moment are not the final stages. Who knows, perhaps we could communicate with each other through our thoughts and could have an insta-deja vous at will. Pretty much similar to John Wyndham - the chrysalids which I enjoyed reading tremendously

Speaking of books, there are couple of books which I’ve been *trying* to complete reading. Some of them, I havent even read in a span of a few years! Terrible isnt it?

One of them would be:

and

Heaven knows how absent minded I can be. Alot of times I’d be raring to do something and when I start, I’d completely forget what I wanted to do initially.

Tony Buzan is a man I look up to (even though I dont really practise his steps faithfully lol)

One of the method of remembering Tony teaches is memory pegs which I found facinating. He converts numbers to codes.

0 = s,z, soft c
1 = d, t, th
2 = n
3 = m
4 = r
5 = l
6 = j, sh, soft ch, dg, soft g
7 = k, hard g, hard c, hard ch, ng qu
8 = f,v
9 = b, p

For example, if I wanted to memorize a phone number, for example the number 2665431

I could break it up as 26 (niche) 65 (cello) 43 (ram) 1 (day)

Making a picture of a huge, gigantic niche playing a solid brown cellow but always gets disturbed by a black wooly ram, every sunny day. I havent really gotten to memorizing the list that I’m supposed to though. Although I really like the idea of memorizing all of the phone number list of my friends. And remembering important dates without having to use my diary.

A friend lend me this book when she asked me on the phone what the audio I was listening to was (I was hearing rich dad, poor dad at the time on internet streaming) and she lend me the book to read. The book was an interesting read. Although I have to admit that I havent gotten past half the book. I keep falling asleep while reading … (yes thats horrible of me! LOL) And its been at least 4 or 5 months since I’ve been keeping that book.

I bought this one about 2 years ago while on a trip to Malaysia. 55 petua orang berjaya means “55 advice for being sucessful” Its an interesting reading full of simple to follow and logical advice that makes you think “why didnt I think of this before” And no, I havent completed reading that one either. For goodness sakes ..lol

Speaking of books and novels, I stumbled across this link which I found hillarious. Click and be prepared to chuckle : Alternative Romance Novel Covers

Thats all for the moment. I’ve got to do something else now … but I just cant remember what … let me try to recall …

Just thought I’d post real quick about whats been going on lately. Yesterday, I registered to retake my A Levels again. I dont know why it took me so long to have the initiative to do it again. I guess, when I started working, my entire perspective changed and wasnt able to give my whole attention to it.

But the stigma of living in a country where the paper is more revered compared to experiences, really makes one feel the sting. I hated the fact that the paperless were labelled as having of a lower intelligence and such. But anyways, I asked around for recommendations about for flexible and affordable part time courses (having had bad experiences at private schools)

Hizam, my cousin recommended that I register at the ITE since he has taken the course there for some months. Coincidentally, he’s a proud father of a baby girl now. So congratulations to you Zam! :)

Anyhow, I chose the following subjects

• Economics
• Geography
• General Paper
• Literature
• Malay

I studied sciences back in Jurong Institute, which was probably a mistake since I was not very good at these subjects but was just too strong willed at that time to consider taking the subjects that I was good at. I reasoned that I could have more choices when I was done with it. Little did I know that I would do so badly in them that I couldnt proceed anymore.

But thats the past. I’m really looking forward to starting the classes again - Wish me all the luck :)

Once upon a time, there was a princess. The princess was graceful and beautiful. She had fair, soft skin and long shiny black hair that flowed like the night sky. Everyone would smile at her whenever she passed them. She radiated a beautful soft aura around her. Everyday, she would play around in the kingdom - not a care in the world.

The as beautiful as the princess was, she was also very clever. She lapped up all of her studies with such ease that she was easily admired by her classmates.

Unfortunately, times were bad in the kingdom. A black magic surrounded the kingdom. People became poorer and suffered. The royal family was hit the most. The princess suddenly found out that she had to live like the common people. She could not do much of the things that she used to do. To earn some money to support herself, she decided to sell some of her wonderful cakes. The princess was a talented baker and walked around the kingdom to sell them.

“Buy my cakes! Come buy my delicious cakes!” She called out every now and then on the path. But there wasnt anyone to buy them … the forest was still and quiet.

The princess sat down on the pathway, looking dejected and longed for the old days when she would play all day, be with her friends in class…She remembered a conversation with her father a few days ago…

Father, I implore you! Please let me stay in school! I am so happy there, father, please! Father, please dont do this … Father … No …

Alas her pleads did not budge the king. The black magic was too strong.

No my child, you must take care of your mother and me. Be a good girl and do not disobey me.

Hot tears flowed down on the princess’s cheeks. How she longed for past! With her eyes blurred with her tears, she slowly walked down the path

Its been said that the best way to cure ones sadness, is to listen to other people and not concentrate on oneself.

That makes sense since when one is sad, and always thinking about one’s personal grief isnt healthy. Because human nature would be when one think about sadness, sometimes or most, the same thoughts would manifest into another. And those thoughts would grow into another type of monster altogether.

Our problems sometimes seem insurmountable and the solutions cannot be found. We allow the problem to become so close to us, that life seems pointless. We disregard and neglect the things which can still give us joy and meaning.

Last friday was one of the most depressive days I’ve had in a long while so much so that I’ve almost lost my light completely. Close friends would know what happened exactly. But in a nutshell, I felt completely useless because of alot of factors happening in my life.

I was in deep depression

I feel better now, but I’m worried if when my next depression would strike. Its strange really. I’ve never imagined that I’d ever feel like that before.

But I’m still breathing. I still have to go on. And a short tenet to go by when loss and disaster darkens our heart :

“Make the most of all that comes, and the least of all that goes.”

Holy toot, the red shirt that I wore yesterday runs! Silly me for soaking it together with my white knit top and my skirt. Now my skirt has a interesting red splotch design. Hope the fabric stain remover works …

Anyhow, speaking of clothes, here are one of the worlds greatest mysteries. You toss in a sock in the washing machine and after it has been washed, you’d find that there are at least one side of the sock missing. Where does it go? Did it go the magical black hole of missing laundry? Is there a magic sock bunny that takes it away? And where did my denim skirt go to? What happened to my brown knit top? Did my green sailor top sail away? Where did the rest of my underwear go??? Where? Where? Where?

Very puzzling indeed …

Anyhow, to continue with yesterday’s story, I went to have lunch together with geri at bugis. We went to Sim Lim Square first as she needed to buy a pair of speakers for her lappy. We were both nervous that the shops will be closed since I have to admit that the speakers that she bought looked a tad heavy and bulky. I looked around the shops for the prices of some of the stuff that I contemplated on getting. But then decided otherwise when I remembered how much I’ve spent on computer parts in December. Maybe another time.

Moreover when I checked at the ATM machine downstairs, as expected my mid month pay hasn’t arrived yet. Even with the message they sent to all staff:

“Hi all, accounts has confirm salary will be credited tomorrow. The company all chinese staff, gong si fa cai”

Word for word. And that was on Monday the 7th. The day when its payday. Come on now accounts. Your department of all people should know that the bank doesn’t work on public holiday eve. And it doesn’t work on public holidays either. So we wont get it on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday since these are all Chinese new year holidays. Checks clear only after 2 days. So it will only clear at the very least on Saturday!

*cough*stupid*cough*

What really made me mad about it is that they have been constantly delaying it since last year. What is up with that? Really annoying.

I tried calling up the Ministry of Manpower a couple of weeks back but couldn’t reach them, so I left a email instead. I recently received this back

“Section 21 of the Employment Act stipulates that all salary, other than payment for overtime work, must be paid within 7 days after the end of the salary period. Salary for overtime work must be paid within 14 days after the end of the salary period”

I should lodge a complaint. I’m nearly having it up to here. And I’m not sorry that I have told the principal about what was going on with the company. I’m still waiting for the Central Provident Fund to reply back to my calls. Loyalty my ass. Treat your workers like crap, crap will come back to you.

Besides, its “Accounts has confirmed that salary will be credited by tomorrow. The company wishes all staff: Gong Xi Fa Cai” *coughcough*

Sigh …

Anyhow, Geri and I went to Long John Silvers for lunch. I love LJS a lot since it brought plenty of nostalgia for me. I used to hang around here a lot when I was back in secondary school - back then it had the cheapest prices any fast food restaurant had. For $2.99 we could have two pieces of chicken, fries and coke and we could make it last for hours and hours while we studied in the comforts of the cool air conditioning. Sure it was a little noisy, but it wouldn’t be as distracting as the noise back at home. Screaming matches are frequent in my household. So I’ve evolved with the unique ability to hear only the things that I want to hear. Its called “selective hearing” All I hope for is that I don’t have “selective thinking”

Out of the blue Geri asked me why I never changed my watch. I looked at my watch.

me : whats wrong with my watch?
geri : its old
me : its not old
geri : Its old!
me : well, I got it in 2002, it’s not old.
grew : you should change it
me : well I like it, its been with me for a while, I’m quite attached to it
grew : You should change it. You’re being defensive

Well, I’m not being defensive am I? I mean, my watch has been with me for long while now. It accompanied me through a lot of journeys, its been with me with all my trips and was there for me through all the bad things and the happy things. Its been with me longer than any of my relationships even. My watch has never failed me once. Its the most loyal watch and has never died on me when I needed it the most. Always ticking away night and day, rain or shine.

Its so loyal to me, in fact, I think I’ll give my watch a name. Albert. That doesn’t sound bad, in fact, I kind of like it. Albert. Albert the watch. Yes, Albert is very loyal to me. I love you Albert, you’re the best pal a girl could have. May you live a long and happy live Albert. And I’ll keep you close to my left arm and I will keep you for always.

Oh. No. I’m beginning to realize that I’m growing to be neurotic all over again. I refer to one of the journals I wrote about last year.

“Anyways, I noticed that to my horror, I’m becoming to be like one of those over analytical ladies that tends to analyze each and every behaviour of something … not that rationalising is bad, but when one over reads the lines, that’s something kind of obsessive, I think.

Lets just look at this scenario : (not that I’m in this scenario, but, you know what I mean)

man : we’ve been together for 3 months now …

woman thinking : uh oh … he thinks we’ve been together for too long … I think he’s gonna break up with me, why is this talk going on now?? Is it something I said? I don’t look good enough? I know I’ve been bingeing lately .. does it show? 3 months? Is he bored of me? Why is he doing this to me? Did he meet someone new? I knew it .. that bustard! He’s breaking up with me .. He’s actually breaking up with me … AFTER all that I DID for him!!!

woman screaming : I HATE YOU!!!

man : what did I do???”

If the Asian version of Ally Mcbeal or Bridget Jones ever come to Singapore, I think I’d be the first person to audition for it. I’m neurotic enough, and I’m eccentric enough. I’d be perfect.

Speaking of Bridget Jones, I came across this really funny blog while searching for yakult vs vitagen in google. It was so funny reading this articles that I spent a couple of hours just reading it non stop from August 2004 till the present post.

Its about a character who calls himself as Eddie Neo Chee Beng who is stuck in a job that he doesnt enjoy, but couldn’t find another one since he’s only armed with a diploma, thinks of himself as very unattractive and is a NBK (never been kissed)

I think that he would definitely be a male version of Bridget Jones. He definitely has the wit for it :)

I also looked forward to reading this blog
because its so fascinating and in depth and conversational without being in your face. And I look forward to when the author updates her page :)She had me at “insalata caprese” lol

Anyhow, I’ll end here for the moment. Till then :)

Not sure what to update the blog with, so I suppose I’ll just write what what happened to me today.

Woke up and left home much earlier than usual today since it was the chinese new year eve. That means that there isnt any teaching today and in place, would be a concert followed by a class party. Left the house at about 7am-ish and I must say, that after going to work much much later, I have to admit that seeing the early morning sunrise is really beautiful. I love to see the early morning fog and dew and the cool soft morning breeze. I should take a picture of the area in the early morning one day. I think that would make a lovely photographic project.

Dozed off in the bus again. Its such a bad bad bad habit. And I’m not too proud of that. I wont read in the bus since its bad for the eyes and seeing the same route again makes me so bored that even with kylie on my mp3 player didnt keep me awake enough. Blame it on the one hour journey. I didnt have to wait that long at the old location. It used to be a speedy 30 minutes. Even an episode of “60 minutes” is much shorter than that. Fortunately, and amazingly, I guess I’m in sync enough with the bus journey that I always wake up at the right bus stop. I stretched, pressed the buzzer and waited at the exit. I then looked at the bus driver and waved goodbye at him.

Bad move. He thought that I was waving to say that “no, this isnt my stop” so he continued driving. So I missed a few stops because I got stunned that he didnt stop at the right bus stop to press the buzzer again.

Lesson learnt
Do not wave at bus drivers until you have safely departed from the bus.

Thus, I went to school a little late. And pretty much missed the lion dance. But anyways, I’ve seen that ceremony for at least 3 times every since I went to West Spring so it wasnt such a let down for me.

I plonked my bag at my already horrifyingly barren undecorated table (compared to this)

yes I msn at work, so? :P

Anyhow, I proceeded to go to the hall where the concert was held. There were a few number of performances. While I was there the emcee’s were just starting to introduce the dikir barat.

*Dikir barat are a group of singers that sing accordingly to the clapping of their hands and does intricate movement of their hands while sitting down. They are almost always accompanied by a gong and a small drum.

Anyways, there was this giant chicken that came over. I reckon it was to symbolise the year of the rooster in the chinese zodiac

What made me chuckle out loud was that the chicken was constantly being bullied by the kids. Many were pulling its tail, some where smacking its beak with their hands and you’d see the poor chicken trying desperately to dodge them. Even the teachers were holding the chicken’s arm trying to figure out who it was.

“Hmmm … too skinny cant be so and so”

Anyways, here are some pictures of the kids in action

cameragirl taking a picture of the camerawoman

After which, there were a class party held by some of the students here. Free food is always good :P I was just having a little chat with Evannia and congratulated her upon winning the overall class decoration. She said that her classmates pooled up 70 dollars just for the decoration and my eyes popped out. Yikes! Thats alot of moolah for just decorations. But since her classmates chipped in (and there are about 40 people per class) it isnt so bad I guess.

This is evannia, isnt she adorable? :)

some decoration I found in a class

Stylo mylo pretties in a revamped kebaya style outfit

And finally …

Okay, kind of tired now, I think I’ll continue with part two later :)

Havent taken riding lessons for a while, I think I’ve been a little rusty. Well, I could start the bike and move it, lol at least thats something eh? However, I’ll have to try again to get my turns perfectly. Keep forgetting my signals and blindspot checks .. bleh. Just a little bit more and I can start to practise on the main roads .. I can do it. Just stop day dreaming already! LOL

A few months back, I started on the small circuit and then the instructor brought us to the main and bigger circuit. Shift to gear two!! He shouted. NO! I screamed back to him. Gear two!! Gear two!! And I found myself speeding (well, it seemed pretty fast to me) at a high speed, at that moment didnt think about letting go of the throttle, and nearly bumping to a car that just decelerated suddenly. All that I was thinking of, was why in the heck did I decide to take the motorcycle license. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die.

While now, I wouldnt bat an eye if going at a high speeds. Its just a matter of practise for me then, I have to practise more to get it perfect. So even if I dont get it right the first time, I shouldnt give up. I should just try again :)

Anyhow, the reason as to why I took up riding lessons was mainly because I’ve always been interested in it. And the desire got even more when my best friends julie and hema and I went to thailand for our vacation. There wasnt that many public transportation there and the only way for us to move around was to either rent a van or a scooter.

I didnt know how to ride, neither was julie but we were very keen about it so we actually went up to a scooter rental kiosk and decided there and then to try it out. And after 5 minutes of lessons and seeing that we didnt fall - the person seemed satisfied and we went off.

Of course we were still wobbly then. I had trouble starting the kick start. Julie nearly ran someone down. And after having hema as my pillion, she absolutely refused to ride with me anymore. But we really had fun and I vowed that I’d start my license as soon as I could. So I shouldnt give up now. Its really really something that I’d love to have. Plus it would be useful, 1 hour bus travel is really no fun at all.

Anyhows, look at what I found from sgforums

Mmmm … mmmm mmmmmm … I’d love to go - I’ve asked close to everyone I knew to go to it. Well, even if they dont go for some reason or another, I think I’ll go there by myself! *chuckles*

However reading the fine print … Its only Monday - Friday 11am - 6pm. There’s no way I could go … unless I played hookey. Which I dont think I could do now :\ Dang.