Finding the courage to blog

Contention: Whether I should revive my blog

Main arguments:
1. As a GP teacher, I have a reputation to protect and expectations to live up to, especially when I write in a public domain, thus I am not sure if I can meet these lofty standards.

2. Teaching takes up so much time and effort that my life is embarrassingly bland outside of school. It depresses me when I realize the only thing I can blog about is...school..and students...and school...and students...

3. Blogs can be a never-ending source for trouble. Just look at the recent hoo-huh in one of the CCAs because of what a teacher has been blogging about. And who knows, one of these days my blog might be used as evidence against me when someone tries to claim that I harbour insatiable lust for my students.

4. 06S23 has previously printed pages from my blog...and * horror * plastered them over the walls of G101, much to my embarrassment. They didn't even bother to censor what I said about Brandon's underwear! (read 3 again) While colleagues came up to me and compliment my writing, or said that I had provided them with amusing entertainment while they were invigilating an examination, I am not entirely sure that I have not ruffled a few feathers among other colleagues.

5. I'm quite confident that nobody reads it anymore. Afterall it has been six months since I last blogged. Who would keep returning to a blog which has not been updated only to be disappointed time and again? (Okay, to be honest, I do, but that's an isolated example and I am not representative of the human population.) And I am not the sort who publicizes his blog in his msn nick, that is just so not the kind of thing I do. (To be inferred: somebody else should do it for me.)

Counter-arguments
1. The hordes of students who beg me to start writing again. (which just further confirms my fears for arguments 1, 2 and 3 stated above)

2. As a linguistic major and a GP tutor, I must admit that I do like writing. Meticulous rearrangement of words down to the syllable-level; rummaging through deep recesses of my brain thinking of the most effective word to convey the most subtle nuances; putting thoughts to paper (okay, fingers to keyboard) and laying out ideas to achieve the rhetoric effect that I desire. Yeah, that sounds like fun. (cue: shouts of "LOSER!" and rolling of eyes)

3. Encouragement from a student who says my blog is interesting, and different from the other dumb blogs he has seen. (Identity of the student is concealed so that his friends will not realize that he thinks their blogs are dumb)

4. As i re-read the earliest entries, they did bring some joy and nostalgia to me, and I could hardly believe that NIE 2005 seems so long ago, or that I used to * gasp * write Chinese poems. It would be nice, I think, in two years' time, when I have done sufficient damage to the minds of our youths and moved on to the subsequent phase of my journey, to look back at this short but momentous stage of my life.

VERDICT: Unsure. I know inconclusive writing with an unclear thesis is the hallmark of a failing essay, but I just can't bring myself to commit.

Advice Given For Free

I was walking back towards my car when I noticed from about 10 metres away that there is a piece of tissue paper under my windscreen wiper with words scribbled on. My first instinct was that somebody had scratched my car while he was parking, and has left his contact number behind.

But when I was close enough to read the words, they say "Please be more considerate. Driver cant get in." and signed off with "Advice given for free".

Then I remembered that when I was parking the car, I did notice that the car next to me has actually crossed the line and was slightly intruding into the lot that I was about to park in.

To: whomever it was that left the note on my windscreen

1. I parked perfectly within the confines of the yellow box, you are the one who had inadvertently (I hope) encroached into my space.

2. Yes, I could have parked my car closer to the other edge, but I see no reason to inconvenience myself just because you chose to invade another parking lot. Please do not depend on other people's generosity and kindness, especially when you are not considerate enough in the first place.

3. You left out an apostrophe in the word "can't". I would have dispensed this bit of information for free as well, but too bad you were no longer there.

There you go. Students screaming at me to update my blog, and with the innumerable rubbish and nonsense I get from my students , this is the one incident which annoyed me enough to write about it here.

BONSOIR!

The City of Lights! (That's Paris by the way)

Straight away I realized that Paris is not going to be as easy as London. The problem of the language barricade aside, it is a totally different kind of city, so unlike those that I've been to.


1. The French make out. A lot. And in public. In the museums, in the parks, even while crossing the road. And seriously some of these PDA goes beyond mere kissing...by the way I am not complaining, i'm not a prude anyway, i'm just stating what I observed. =p

2. And I just realized this internet cafe charges me a bloody 4 euros per hour. That's like 8 dollars! Gosh. And I thought London was expensive. So I'm not going to extend my time..and stop here..haha..anti-climax I know, but AU REVOIR!

LONDON!

I was determined not to let my blog become a domain where I talk ONLY about school and students, but that's hard for most teachers because our work takes up so much of our time, and like what many people guessed correctly, our social circle is indeed rather limited outside of school. Hence the lack of updates on my blog. =p

But here I am blogging...at a small little cybercafe off Charing Cross Street, London. Actually, I logged online to ..ahem...set exam paper * sigh, very tak-glam * (have to email exam questions to my colleague), but seeing Glen's tag I decided to blog..just a bit.

London's been great....staying at this backpacker's hostel which is like right smack in the middle of West End, where you can barely walk 100m without walking past a theatre. Plays, musicals, drama, it's everywhere! Sharing a pod dorm with 5 other people: Rachel and Amanda from America, sweet Hirokochan from Tokyo, veteran and seasoned traveller Auntie Boots (she's lived everywhere it's impossible to categorise her nationality, although she looks Chinese) and an American guy who parties the nights away so I have never got to talk to him so far. Great fun in a backpackers' hostel!

Although I intended to spend minimally on this trip, I realized that it's next to impossible. The musicals and plays are so tantalizing that I have to indulge myself. (at an average of £30 per ticket I think indulge is the right word.) But they are so fascinating compared to anything i've ever watched before. So far i've caught Les Miserables and Equus (staring Daniel Radcliffe, i.e. Harry Potter stark naked). Hopefully Phantom of the Opera tonight?

And the selection of DVDs here is AMAZING. I am referring to world cinema/arthouse films from all over the world. And some are actually cheaper than in Singapore, like only £3 - £5. And the selection is so much wider compared to Sinagpore where censorship is practiced with an iron glove. The oh-so-notorious-in-Singapore Borat hangs on HMV's shelves in London like nobody's business, and it is actually rated 15+. All the famous movies that I could only hear/read about in the past are all calling out to me. Another indulgence.

Okay okay..now I have to get back to setting my papers...because London awaits me! More when I next get online....

Yeah...haven't been updating my blog..obviously. Was feeling lazy..and boy have I been busy.

Firstly I am now officially living at Jurong West. TWENTY SIX kilometres away from where I work. Leaving behind all my favourite hang out places, places filled with nostalgic memories from the time I was a student. Aljunied, Serangoon, Hougang, Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio, Paya Lebar, Bedok. Very near places which brought back unhappy memories...especially NIE and Sungei Gedong army camp. =p

Well actually I was born in the West (West Coast Road) and only moved to the East halfway through primary school. Nevertheless, my friends are mostly living in the East and there is like hardly anywhere to hang out in the West except for like Jurong Point and West Mall. Maybe things will get better as I slowly explore Holland V. =p

Secondly it's the start of Term 2... and now I'm the proud civics tutor of 07A08, although I've yet to purchase my Romanis house T... (bye bye Loy Fatt..maybe in two years' time) My class is rather endearing and I feel comfortable with them (so far)...a pity I'm not teaching the whole class for GP. As for my other GP classes...well still awaiting further observation haha ..but there is this class which kind of reminds me of 06S23..it's also filled with sportsmen, and the silly boys were trying to convince me that they are members of the school netball team...just like Colin claimed he was from the Environmental Club and how the s23s were pretending to be someone else.

By some strange twist of fate, I'm not teaching any of the students that I was teaching in the first three months.....kind of miss them, but do still see them around quite frequently in school and online ..

Oh...and can I just gripe about my timetable. It's night time and all dark by the time I reach home everyday. And since I leave my house in the wee hours of the morning, I hardly recognise my neighbourhood in broad daylight. * fumes *

07S09!

My very first PAE form class! And a fairly interesting assortment of personalities, from the seemingly unobtrusive to the blatantly attention-seeking. (No prize for guessing who falls into each category)

A fun-loving lot, the students have bonded with each other pretty well (judging from the amount of camwhoring and level of noise from the chit-chatting during tutorials), especially since they bothered to take the effort to take these class photos even though it is a temporary class.

This one, in particular, was pretty memorable. Other classes were having PE and running around the track, so we had to make use of every bit of time to pose, shoot, and get out of the way before we get trampled on.



Having received their O level results last Friday, there are only 2 weeks (with plenty of holidays in between) left before the JAE posting results come out and PAE 07S09 will cease to exist. I guess it's impossible for the whole class to stay together, and I'm not even sure if I'll be teaching them in term 2. Still, I hope it was a fruitful and enjoyable PAE for them, and that everyone is happy with wherever they are going. =)

proud owner of a set of wheels

Just collected my new car today. =) While people around me are all congratulating me, i am not exactly overjoyed because the car is a painful reminder that i am moving to the god-forsaken place known as jurong West. (And having spent 1 year in NIE and 2.5 years in Sungei Gedong I feel that I am fully qualified to say thatJurong West is indeed a remote place. To give you an idea, if you look at the street directory, there are only 10 other blocks of flats which are located further west than my own) In other words, the car is out of necessity, not out of luxury. =(