National Stadium

Buzan says the brain always remember the 1st and / or the last things much much clearer. It's called the Primacy and Recency effect. How true.

I still can remember my very 1st football match watched live...at Jalan Basar Stadium. It's a local Singapore Div 1 match between Tempanies Rovers and Farrer Park United. That was when I was in Sec 2 then. Tempanies was my favourie team then...hosting the Quah brothers of Singapore football. Kim Song / Kim Seak and Kim Lye all in the same team. I can still remember my Idol Kim Song scored that night and Tempanies win 2-0 eventually. As a young first timer there in the stadium you can bet I was thrilled then by what I saw and experienced.

My last match watched live....it's in National Stadium. Singapore vs North Korea world cup qualifier. The star of the match is a young boy call Fandi Ahmad, at 20-21 years old. He scored twice that night and Singapore beat N Korea 3-1. That was the last time I watched the Singapore national team played live too.

I spent 2.5 years in England...sad to say I never watch a live match there...Travelling to Manchester on Sat is a real hassel...and tickets are always sold out. Only chance is for Man U to travel on away matches and the closest team in Div 1 then is Swindon Twon. They didn't survive long and was demoted soon. Oxford also not doing welll then. So in the end i didn't even visited The theatre of Dreams. Just TV live matches instead.

Tonight i may have a chance to visit the grand old National Stadium. It's Singapore Selection vs Brazil Olympics team. Hope it don't rain in the evening. I have past the age of being crazy enough to watch them play in the rain. Nor to send $120 to sit in covered seat. So it depends on the weather. Hope to take a pict of the stadium finally b4 it get demolished for the new one.

Certainly if I manage to walk along the stadium entry / path / seats ...it will bring back lot of memory. It always good to manage feel what u feel 25 years ago...

Open letter to DT A / PY

Times flies and it's a almost a year since you work with us. Still remember vividly the UNI application saga we went through together and lesson learnt as well. Since I suggested you join us as DT and you have trusted and accepted, I kind of feeling respondsible for your well being despite you are not working directly or indirectly with me for the past months.



I started by bringing all of you out for a good lunch once a month. Still remember we went to Carls junior with DT S / Lulu. Then to Taka for mooncake shopping, extra extra spicy meal at chinatown, also playing badminton and act like ghost in Q4 after that. I was rather worry both of you may be too pressureised or uncomfortable working with us, but I guess my worry not needed.



Especially for DT PY, from not speaking to me a single word throughout your 3 years until we go GT2007 Macau GT 2008 Bali and now we can chat freely during meals, it is such a transformation!!.



I also find it refreshing to hear your views during discussion, as it gives a the perspective from the students view point rather than the usual lecturer's view. Some of the stories u tell also gives me better insight to the students' circle too. (In fact i am even presurrised abit cos I dun want to repeat the same mistakes.)



Now that it's time for you to move on, I wish to say to you : Good Luck!! and All the best!!



You know, it's a rather funny feeling :- I started to want to make your stay better for the past months...in fact...in the end...it's your stay that make me feel easier to cope with the life in school !!



What comes around goes around isn't it?

Secret belivers

These are the bunch of Secret Believers this semester...they also each received a Gratitude Stone from Taiwan too!! (Aimi try to take the whole bag when I say you may take 1......!!) In the end i think all choose the yellow (Study and luck) ones...no 1 dare to pick the pink ones in public...hahahah.




From Left: LC / Radiah / PY / Fathima / what's the last girl name?? Someone help!!?
(that's my major problem this sem...no tut / lab with B1...dun get to know them well at all).

YoYo last year graditude rock receivers!!! Is the rock still with you? have you been treating the little stone well?

Ice Cream Party!!

It all started with wanted to treat my PEM class...then I added my specialty chem class...then I add the DTs / TSOs, the Mr Luda add his PEM so to help me aviod delivery charge, then we added the senior / graduates, the expanded to 10 more others of the safety class (mainly due to quite afew of them help me in the care n share program)...In the end i have to stop invitng becos it's just getting out of control..sorry I have to say no to the last few cos I am just not sure there will be enough to share. Paiseh!!

When the ice cream Chefs still missing at 2.45pm...I am in real panic mode and cold sweat n hot seat both flowing non stop!! Finally they arrived soon after and the party starts!!



6 of my PEM 0501 still comes back for party!! Congrats to XN who passed her driving test on 2nd attempt!! (I failed driving test 3 times in Singapore actually).



My current batch of PEM 0803...a fun loving bunch i figure, hope they survive their 1st semester! 3 i think already down...hope no more follows!!

All the seniors!! Student Fis the champ I think...she had 5 scoops. Oh...how am I going to explain this to those I say no...omg...

My current class of specialty chem class pioneer!! Just finished feedback exercise w them, and they are v kind in the feedback comments. Thank you. But somehow 1 among them still not happy with the module...hmmm wonder what can I do really to please the student??

Anyway...to all, thnaks for coming for the ice cream party.

Ice Cream Chefs in NYP!!!

Saw the adverts on Sunday...reminded by by wife to see the nesw about this ice cream novelty. So decided to invite them to come to school for a ice ceam party!!



Those of you still not sure what it is pls go refer to their blog at :



http://icecreamchefs.blogspot.com/




Date : 15 Jul Tues 3-5pm



Venue : outside LTQ 3-5 area



We have booked total of 80 slots, each of 2 scoops.

20 of the slots goes to my PEM group CP0803
20 of the slots goes to Mr luda's PEM CP0802
20 of the slots goes to my 3rd year specialty Chem class
10 of the slots goes to the Dts / TSO / and some staff
remaining 10 slots I open for graduates who can make it back to school to join us...

If you wouls like to join us on the occassion, pls register !!! 1st come 1st serve!!

I will try to contact them on exactly how many flavours we can get for the booking of 80 ppl.

See you next tues at 3pm!!

Translation of Jin Yong (金鏞) Novels

最近看了蔡澜先生的一本新书, 里边提到世面上已有金鏞小说的英文译本. 只是里面一提到武功方面的翻译描述, 看了还是不禁令人喷饭, 笑坏肚皮.



以下是在书里提到的一些好笑的例子: 与大家共享:



"九阳神功" - 被译为 Nine Men's Power

"九阴真经" - 变成了 Nine Women's Story

"九阴白骨爪" 更滑稽, 译成了 Nine Women Catch a White Bone

"胡家刀法" (雪山飞狐) - 被译为本: Dr. Hu's Sword

"吸星大法" - Suck Star Over China

"打狗棒法" - Guide of Dog Beating

"黯然销魂掌" - Deep Blue Press

"濳龙勿用" - Don't Bother me while I am sleeping (creative!!)



最妙的是 "葵花宝典" - Sunflower Bible from Gentleman to a Lady.



我在想, "射雕英雄传" 应该可以译为 - Story of shoot bird hero

"天龙八部" - eight chapters of the heaven dragon

最后最后, "笑傲江湖" 我的部落格的主题- Laughing proud in streams and lakes



真是一百岁不死, 天天都有好笑的事物可看.

VIVA 2008S1

It's VIVA week and students are busy revising their notes taken during their safety videos (or are they really??) This semester I decided to inspect their notes before offering them their score. Maybe next sem I will even stamp their notes to prevent passing the notes around...that's continuous improvement. :)

During the 1st class only 1 student (Ah Lun) opt for the camera VIVA....and score better than offered. Class 2 ZM was also not happy with the her marks and opt for camera...and score 98!!

When I told class 3 the stories...2 wanted to try their luck, unfortunately both did not do their home work thoroughly enough and their points dropped instead.

Last class to di VIVA is B4, which is also my specialty Chem class. This semester we have spent considerable time together in the class room and they have more or less understand my delivery style abit better than others. I guess me and them, both parties are relaxed about jokes and can also take jokes too.

I did plan to get HQ as my camera target, and purposely showed them the law of attraction video too to state my point: "DO NOT FOCUS ON THING YOU DO NOT WANT!!" I bet she has been thinking NO VIDEO NO VIDEO NO VIDEO for the past 3 nights and then she realised that the law of attraction do not take the NO into account...she what she get is the VIDEO.

The rest of class are also fun to deal with. Many improptu laughters and action just to get extra 2-3 marks. I think that is a good sign that they are happy with my way of conducting deliverries.

Kabir, though being the oldest (in fact much older) in the class...I can see he is actually very fun loving despite studying very hard. SCBA/SKI360 and now VIVA. He has already surpassed stage of worrying about marks, and just want to do VIVA for fun.

At this point I suddenly remember one quote :

" years down the road, the syudents will forget what you actually teach them in class...but what they will remember...is the way you made them feel."

I certain hope they can remeber this session. :)

GT 2008 Bali part 2

Bali Day 3 -- We watched tigher show , i mean tiger dance (barong) on the 3rd day morning. It's actually quite R(A)...so much so that even the ang mohs watching it are rather amazed by the openess of the Bali culture. Ah Meng and PY obviously enjoyed the education alot.

For me - I have a busy 1 hour there, left hand trying to cover my daughter's eyes and right hand busy fanning my sleeping wife. Hahahahahaha.

The we travelled up to the mountainous top to see the live volcano and lake. Nice lunch there too. Then we had a really good lesson on marketing strategy on our way back to the bus.

But compared to my experience 10 years ago, the T-shirt sellers were less effective now, they did not bring their babies out!!! I bought 2 shirts then because of that, this time I escaped!!

Then we visited the plantation to see and taste organic coffee, coca, vanilla, etcetc. Too bad there is no durian nor 3 in 1 coffee package.

Then the next 4-5 hours are spent on shopping again!! First to Ubud market...where we discovered prices can actually can be subpress to so low...many of us started to apply the law of average to buy more to cut losses. Only then we managed to see Agnes started to smile again!! Really should spend more time there if you are into shopping.

CY is busy counting the ,000 Rp whole day. She just want to make sure she have enougth for the big event later...seeing her so ganjiong, i "help" her to recount. She was really moody to realised that she did not have enough $$....(actually she did...I miss 1 zero and she never noticed). Easy rarget to cheat next time.

Then we went to Denpasar...actually wanted to go to town centre shops to see the middle-high class, tastefully decorated shops, but in the end the tour guide misunderstood us and bring us to the once a year, low-end night market instead. NVM...still an experience i guess, but we never manage to buy thing from there...just look see look see and eat some satays.

Finally...it late dinner at Hard Rock Cafe!!

After that we went back to hotel to wash up and continue our 2nd round of Hard Rock experience at 11.30pm to listen to the live band. After an hour, our ears started to hurt w/o PPE and we went back...abit whoobly for the girls cos they enjoyed free alcoholic drinks.

Final day --

morning is free n easy day. 8 of us chhose to go seaside for parasailing / bottom glass boat observation / turtle island. The others decided to go spa / rest at poolside.

At noon is the long awaited Roast pork lunch - Barbi Guling...But it turn out to be a major dissappointment. There are like more than 20 stores selling the specialty meal but the one we were sent to is definitely not the one I saw on TV. Cold , hard, spicy, oily....feel like kenna cheated!! For once Ah meng are smiling at us!!


Then it's CY show - Bunjee!!!! Brave girl...jumped twice!!! Now I have video to show the juniors how brave (or how desperate) the senior is.

Finally to Tanah Lot. The most beautiful destination of the whole trip. Too bad we only spend 40 minutes there. Breath taking seawaves, ancient structures, walkways which only appear when low tide.... This is the setting that makes u forget about shopping.







Then on our way to airport we drop by to shop for parwn crackers and peanuts. Quite nice and crispy!!

To me it was a harvest shopping trip. I bought 6 shirts and 4 jerseys and 2 leisure pants in this trip...quit a bighaul...the T-shirt i bought in Bali 10 years ago is still with me...almost wanted to discard it and then I changed my mind and decided to keep it with me...it now accompany me for Yoga weekly. That show how good the quality was!!


I enjoyed the trip very much...it was like a mission accomplished...a promised made fullfilled, a vision finally made real. I hope the rest also think the trip is worth and fullfilling too. And there are also another 11 (TH/EL/PH/YJ/C+bf/CL+wife/JC/LT/CX) who could not make it but due to parents/timing etc and did not manage to join me....wish you were here!!!!

And now it's time to think GT2009 March....Krabi??