Let's talk

In case my blog fans had been wondering what had happened to me, I had a restful weekend. Tried not to think about work. Went to the Gym for a workout in the morning, put in about 2 hrs worth of pumping irons, and I am rewarded with sore arms, a bad knee and an overinflated ego. At least I am not having this sagging breasts whcih looks a bit like chicken down with bird flu. But then again, i am so glad that I have my full afternoon just lying on a comfortable bed, let the time passes by as I watched the two lizards on my ceiling mating.

Let's talk about drums!
In school a percussion group known as the Rhythm Masala came over to the school to give a spirited performance. It was great and what was better was when they invited the teachers to play on stage. "Urged" by our screaming fans and egged by the rest of our colleagues, a few brave souls ventured to the front of the stage. Don't let the confidence swagger bluff you for we are never comfortable about performing in front of a live audience. Well most of us are happy just amusing ourselves in the confines of the staffroom or merely banging the tables in utter frustration. Anyway the valiant ones are: Ms Yvonne Ng, Ms Indran, Ms Tan, Ms Teo Jin Ling, Mr Teh, Mr Francis Yap and myself. Not that we are really musically inclined say for some of us, but the moves were pretty easy and dummy proof. You hit twice on one drum, then thrice on another and then just continue the repetition. Not so bad. Good for stress release they say. What a great opportunity for me to release my pent up stress and frustration in a violent outlet of banging the drums like a mad man. It was a great performance judging from the response from the crowd. Now we know why people get the adrenaline rush from the audience... We didn't really know how world class was that (1st world, second world, tird world or developing....:P) But i ended up with two bruised thumbs due to my over zealous attempts to keep up with the tempo. If there are any spelling errors, it is not because I am too lazy to look up in the dictionary but because my two deformed thumbs are crying for some reprieve from giving the thumbs ups. Anyway I have suggested that the percussion to be placed a one discreet corner for teachers and students alike to drum their stress away. Maybe it will drum up the results.. I hope.

Let's talk about self awareness camps!
They say that the class take over the character of the form teacher. I agree wholly. My form class is fun loving, noisy, cute and an eager zest for anything academic. They also have this "kiasu" cannot lose attitude and the want to be the best in everything. Sometimes it become such a reflection of me that i have to really sit down and reflect (pun intended) about myself. I guess the present predicament that the student faced is also a show of me not able to prioritse. To me all I have to say is that soemtimes I feel that the class don't know when to prioritise. The most important thing up on our head is of course self awareness camp followed by Chocomania. I rememebr tellign the class what I mean by high priority and high urgency and people sometimes get caught up by the small things. DON"T SWEAT OVER THE SMALL THINGS because it si not worth it. I feel that taking the classs to a higher level is a more important thing than say winning the CNY. Let any other class who wants to win for once for GOD's sake. Let's not be too anal about this but I think it is important that we get our priorities right because in life there will be always tings that we need to worry about but then again ask ourself will u really remember the CNY deco as much as soemthing that will help to change the wholeperspective of the class?

Let's talk about gambling!
I am now typing this at my in laws' place at Jurong and just came back from a walk around the pasar malam. came along a small little Singapore Pools shop and overheard this conversation between two fellows. One of them was in the shop near the ticketing counter trying to write down bet for the soccer matches tonight and there was another one, a boy about 14 year old ( how do I know... he barely reached puberty..) just outside as though it was an evil thing to walk in the shop or there was this no under 18 allowed talisman somewhere in the shop. I was at first proud of the boy for not getting himself involved in betting when i heard this

boy: oi which match you going to buy har? buy 20 dollars for me
man in shop: got money or not?
boy: I returned you when I win, sure win one
man in shop: but I not buying for myself , aiyah never mind I buy for you
boy: wait wait wait, u not buying, then maybe something is wrong, I don't want to buy liao
man in shop: don't be a sissy lar, i buy for you.
boy: wat happen if chelsea win more than 3 goals har, then I lose money....

from that point onwards I decided to walk away. first of all, I am saddened by the fact that the boy's friend is encouraging the kid the vice of gambling and secondly how can the boy be so stupid to believe that he will win. If things are so straightforward I won't be writing teaching as my profession but professional gambling and of course being able to feed my family and others and even call the 1900-donate hotlines whenever needed. seriously when I was talking to some of my girls about the recent issue or hoohah about the casino, I told them that I am a neutral, not really acidic or alkaline about the casino stuff. But I had to say that although the casino can generate income for singapore, there are still alot of inmature singaporeans which still need to be "spoonfeeded" by the government. But of course the skeptics will say that there will not be maturity if the government continue to be so paternalistic. I guess that this issue of responsibility is a question of the slipping slope and your guess is as good as mine. Wanna bet on this?