四代同堂

Took 1/2 day leave today to meet up with the 3 special students. It's not easy to find a common free time slot as they each have their busy work commitments and attachment or coming orientation appointemnts too. So after 4th or 5th try...then we all decideddo meet up abit early in June.



It all started with a casual MSN chat with CY 3 years ago...when she is my PEM then. And I got motivated to start doing something, I just did it as an impulse and continue to do so repeating the pattern yearly since.




So CY was the 1st member of the followship, and thanks to her, the movement continue as next batch member is Cowgirl. Not my PEM...but she says that I know her better than her PEM.



And this year we welcome the latest member - CX, my graduating class PEM. Almost missed her totally as all along I never thought she would defer her Uni study!!! Was originally about of offer the followship to someone elase actually. Until I heard CX was coming back to work as DT....almost fell off my chair and called her immediately to discuss her possibilities.




Finally after some consideration, she finally accepted and now going to NTU Chem Eng to further her studies. Really glad to see that happening.



So it was a joyful occassion. We all deserved a good meal togather.

And only today I realised that all 3 are attached to Seraya shell!! They certainly have alot to talk about during lunch about their attachment. That also explain why they like to build longest road during Settlers game...same pattern!!

And now the search is on for this year 4th member of the followship....

GT2008 Bali -- part 1

I last visited Bali island on a company WITS team trip more than 10 years ago. I had a vision then - to revisit this place again with my family! Then i got posted to PRC soon after that ...then the Bali bombing happened...not once but twice!!....then I switched job to join the school 5 yrs ago...then finally the vision became clearer and clearer when I started to organise Graduation Tour for the students. Law of attraction at work?...I would say so.

Organised this 4D 3N trip with packed activities with only 1/2 day Freen Easy. During these 4 days - I had no use of computer, no use of handphone, no newspaper, no football ....the last time such thing happens is when I go OBS (outward bound school) during the army for 11 days. But it feel good to just concentrate my attention to the actual happeninings in the beautiful island.

Each year...there will be students joining the trip with no previous travelling / flying experience...the they provide the most fun fot the tour group. I still remember last year was student Y..this year...it's student CY. She checked in her hp into the counter...thinking she will get it back later...and did not switch it off. So the whole flight we are expecting the captain the announce the flight navigation is receiving interference...maybe we will land ia Jarhata instead....and she was obviously worried...we told her police will wait for her on the ground even if we managed to land safely.

Though we had BK dinner at T1, by the time we reached and check-in, it's 11 pm and most of us are hungry again. And we had supper along the beach and had a first tast of what the local food. Still abit surprise to see bottle drinks available there!!.

First activity of the trip the next morning -- Ayung River rafting!! Don't know if we are considered unlucky or lucky...June is actually a dry season...so the river flow was shallower and not so fast. To 1st timer like me, it is already quite an experience...but i think i can take abit more challenge.

But one thing we know for sure we are lucky - our rafting guide was a fun seeking person. I think he also know the trip will be rather boring with the low river flow...so he made us paddle to bang against the rocks and river banks purposely...plus the splashing competition, funny command...that made up more than sufficient for the missing extraordinary excitement.

We really had fun!! I would rate the fun factor as 8.5/10...though excitment factor is 4/10.

Then we go for shopping along Kuta beach shops...and got chopped. Those who are not thick shin enough to bargin for 30% of the original price will help contribut to Bali economy alot. Ask Agnes.

After that we went for the famous Monkey dance at Uluwatu. The pictures show the four girls posing in sequence - Ah Meng (pioneer batch), CY (2nd batch), PY (3rd batch) and Agnes (4th batch, current graduating class).

The grand finale of the monkey dance was rather exciting - with fire too!! I was lucky enough to manage to capture it on video and will be able to add this clip to my future safety lectures.

Finally it was dinner at the seaside. Lucky they serve BBQ chicken beside seafood. Setting of the place was just fantastice with sea waves and singers to entertain you. Foodwise have rooms to improve.

Overall I think the 1st day was really good. After the rafting in the day...we have not much energy left and think of teh full day next day ahead of us...we sleep early..at 12 midnight.

360Ski -- WOHA!!! Fun!!!

Thanks for the news update from PL/SL, this semester I have found a new outing place for the semester break. Those who sign up are 95% from my specialty chem class...I showed them videos of previous outing every week...so I guess they are abit brainwahed by me and sign up almost automatically. In teh end I need to change date to 11 June so that Christof and Allen can join in the funn too!! And it was a wise decision too.

Never see them so attentive b4...not even in my safety lectures!!

Doing the water ski seems easy...but it actually take a lot of arm power and balancing. Especially the 4 turning corners. Many of the guys are very adventurous and jumped straight into the most demanding wakeboarding...and for me I just stick to the easiest kneeboarding to get the feel and control b4 trying harder things.

No matter how much the unstructor say...nothing beats trying it out the tough way yourself.

I consider my results not too bad at all...able to complete 2 full rounds on my 3rd attempt!!!

(so is Christof...he did it on 2nd arrempt).

In the end we have to gave up and rest because the arms are just too tired to hand on. Best skier of the day is Kabir...he went more than 3 rounds non-stop. Then proceed into double ski n did well too!!

One skier was not so lucky and had a safety incident. Nose was hit by the board as she fell. Gave us a big scare to see the blood oozing. Have to stop to aviod infection and need to see doctor after that. Lucky she sign the form to say Mr Goh not responsible for any thing happening during the outing...

Now with the photos and videos taken during this rip...I will have a new clips to show the juniors for the next semesters to come. :)

Say goodbye the the sporty group at 1.30pm, and Christof and I rush back to school to play settelers with Hua/Na/Mei/Ling. Good to see them again and laughing too! Play dice and heart attack too to finish the jellies.

In theend the only regret is to allow Hua to win a game...so the record of her NOT winning is ended!! Many be now the new record is Ling never win a game!! :)

next week going bali.....will have more to share after the trip!! :)

Memory workshop with my PEM

Today is the 1st day of the term break and decided to spend some time with my 1st year PEM. I thought that it would be a good idea to conduct the memory workshop to fill the 2 hours period, also it will be timely to show them how they memorise things and forget things.

Actually would like to take this opportunity to invite some of the 3rd year or graduate students to come back to share the workshop too. It's always nice to see them back in school again. However, initial feedback from the class rep is "almost" the whole class wanted to come...so i think there will be not much room left in the tutorial room left so finally gave up the idea.

Then in the end only 11 turn up...so classroom was only 1/2 filled and pizza order was too much...so have to force them to eat more and pass some to the DTs and Mr Luda (he loves pizza!!)

In the end it was a rather fun session, they are a more demnading bunch as their description of items are now more elaborate...rather than just 1 word item. It's good that I revisit the techniques again...helping myself to remember the lesson even better and more experience and better linking experience too. So Iy's win-win for both sides.

As promised Let's recall the 20 items that we have tried to remember this morning :

1 - Bun - Grand father's clock

2 - Shoe - Pacifier

3 - Tree - Chimpanzee

4 - Door - Cookies

5 - Hive - Soap

6 - Stick - Banana Milkshake

7 - Heaven - Skeleton

8 - Gate - microphone

9 - Vine - SHOW ( 罗志祥 )

10 Hen - Marshmellow

11 Chopsticks - Pizza

12 Swan - Orange and Banana fruit juice

13 Heart - Musical notes

14 Yatch - radio

15 Hook - Angelina Jolin

16 Elephant trunck - Tennis racket

17 Cliff - pink elephant

18 Snowman - Blueberries

19 Flag - Oxygen tank

20 Donut - Harry Potter Quite easity done actually. :)

After that rushed down to Taka - to catch the ManU EPL trophy on dispaly and took picture with it. Donated some $$ for the Sichuan earthquake box and got 5 ManU GV movie cards. Due to some communication problems with those directing the crowd, I thought the 4 girls following me can only take 1 picture together...instead they are actually allowed to take 4...so they can actually change position and patterns until they dunno how to pose. Where as I am only allowed to take one. 真是太没有天理了!!!!!