Friday, June 30, 2006

Excel ExCEL

I am buried to my nose, even to the strands of my nose hair with work. The holidays is barely a week ago, and I feel like I need one again. thank god for the holiday of youth that let me revitalise and recuperate again.

Given my first sacred task to head the school project in the ExCel fest, I am so overwhelmed with the amount of decision I have to made for this 2 day show. incase you are wondering what this excel fest is all about, It is actually to showcase innovative and student initiated activities; besides this the festival will also showcase interesting teaching strategies which made learning interesting. This year for totl defence day I came up with the idea of letting students design their own lessons to encourage them to have better learning and ownership of total defence day and thus they made videos based on that theme. This idea was perceived as innovative and will be showcased in a booth at the school hall in Ahmad Ibrahim Pri. This year, instead of having it in Suntec city like the few years before, they decided to spread to the different zones and bring these ideas to the teachers. Well they do understand that teachers are so busy and they have no time for all this innovative learning etc..

Anyway back to my stress and predicament. Since I was away the good part of the holidays, the team only managed to meet up last week to finalise ideas. that is when the frantic writing of the write up. brochure designs and the booth design come in. It is such a mad rush and on top of that the Sec 4N exams are coming soon and now we are in the midst of preparing them for revision for the N levels. It can be oh so stressful...

Nevertheless wish me luck, and if you have time, dorop by Ahmad Ibrahim Primary on the 7th (for fellow teachers) or 8th (teachers or parents or any inquistive person) and say hi. :)

Sunday, June 25, 2006

The One with the last night before school reopens

Procrastination is a difficult word to spell but yet such a easy thing to do. But I am gald that I finally got my avalanche of photos from my Perth fieldtrip into bubbleshare. A freaking 800 plus pictures, no wonder it took me almost a whole day to get it up. I am jsust going to shamelessly insert the itinerary of the trip which I have gottten from the tour agent to my blog. I guess you smart people will be able to make sense of all the pictures while keeping in mind the itinerary. Here it goes..

10 June
2200H
0005H
Singapore / Perth
Assemble at Changi Airport (Terminal 2)
SQ 225 Flight leaving for Perth.


11 June
0615H
Welcome to Australia / Lucieville Farm
Flight arrives at Perth International Airport, met by our local driver cum guide and proceed to a rest area to freshen up and have breakfast.
We will visit Kings Park where you will get stunning views of Perth City. A short drive orientation drive around the city, taking you to Northbridge, Hay Street.
We will then begin our drive down south.
Lunch enroute.
Arrive at Bunbury to visit the Dolphin Discovery Centre
We shall then proceed to Lucieville Farm.
Afternoon, take part in the activities on the farm.
Tonight, we shall do the animal spotting. Lots of opportunities to see the Australian norturnal animals.
Dinner on farm.


12 June

Lucieville Farm – Margaret River – Pemberton
Breakfast on farm.
After breakfast, bid farewell to our farmhosts and we shall proceed to Margaret River to explore the local attractions as well as Geographical features.
Get a glimpse of the River tributary systems.
Learn how the climate and soil in this area is suitable for grape growing and how it has helped make Margaret River a world famous wine region.
Visit to Jewel Cave. The cave is noted for its Beautiful formations including the longest straw Stalactite found in any tourist cave.
Also, visit to Cape Leeuwin, where there is a lighthouse to guide the ships away from this rocky coast.
From Margeret River, we will proceed to Pemberton.
Visit the Tall Tree Lookout.
Overnight Gloucester Motel


13 June
Pemberton – Albany
After breakfast, we depart Pemberton and proceed to
Albany. En route, we will visit the Valley of the
Giants-Tree top walk where you can explore
Western Australia’s world famous forest of gigantic
Tingle trees and take a bird’s eye view of the towering
Forest from Tree Top Walk.
At Albany, we shall visit the Albany Wind Farm.
Overnight at Metro Inn Albany

14 June
Albany - Perth
Breakfast in the hotel
School Visit. Cultural exchange with Albany High School.
Students interaction and classroom experience.

At Albany, we will view the coastal features. Visit The Gap – a 24m drop to the sea and the Natural Bridge a monumental span of granite, demonstrating the awesome power of the sea when a heavy swell is running. See also the Blow Holes which is a series of fissures in the granite rocks on the coast, which make loud hissing noises and act like geysers when water is forced by large waves through the rocks

Lunch followed by coach journey back to Perth
Overnight at Aarons Hotel


15 June
Perth – The Pinnacles / Kalbbari National Park
Breakfast in the hotel.
After breakfast, proceed to Nambung National Park
is 19 km south east of the township and it’s here you’ll find the amazing Pinnacles, thousands of limestone stalagmite-like formations that measure up to four metres high and resembles the ruins of an ancient city.
Join the 4WD tour and sand tobogganing.
Lunch is a picnic style.
After dinner, transfer back to Aarons Hotels & Resorts


16 June
Perth – Wave Rock (B, L, D.)
Breakfast in the hotel.
You will spent a day visiting Wave Rock. The Wave on Hyden Rock is one of Australia’s most famous landforms, situated 4 km east of the town of Hyden. Rising 15m above the ground and more than 100m long. Wave Rock looks a giant surf wave of multicoloured granite about to crash onto the bush below. En route, we will also pass through township of York. Here you can get a glimpse of the townships dependence on its location in the 1900s when it was serving as the crossroads for the farming communities traveling to Perth and the Ports at Fremantle.
(Lunch and Dinner will be at local restaurant.)
After dinner, transfer back to Aarons Hotels & Resorts.


17 June
Perth – Singapore
After breakfast, check out of hotel.
We will proceed to Fremantle to look at this Historic Port City as well as visit to the famed Fremantle markets.
A quick lunch, then its transfer to the airport for our flight back.

The trip was a great eyeopener to see Australia and most importantly bonding with my colleagues and getting in groove with the way the school do things. Anyway here is the link



The lazy sunday was spend by having some bonding time with Vernice and my wife. Went out for lunch at Paddyfields. And just wanted to share that this is a great thai restaurant with great food and great ambience. Situated at copperdome just at Anchorpoint, directly opposite Ikea, the place is a quiet place to catch up with my two friends who wanted to see Vernice. However the zen-like tranquility whole place was marred by Vernice incessant crying because of her need for moo-moo and her unhappiness of being interrupted from her beauty sleep. Thanks to my dearie wife who spend the whole entire lunch carrying her, we were able to keep her crying in alas short spasms/spurts?? do go and try the food there. But be forewarned it is a little on the pricey side....

Let me just spend the last few hours walloping in self pity.. :P

The Ego One

Saturday, June 24, 2006

The one with the last weekend before the term start (again)

I am writing this with a *sic* heavy heart as I count-downed the hours when I again have to wake up at ungodly hours and begin my "tireless 4 wheel drive" to my school. There is just a certain reluctance and unwillingness to go back to school, citing reasons like not enough rest or not enough holidays. However barring all these, I must say that this holiday had been really well spent ( not in resting though) as I am fully occupied with stuff in school and at home.

I would love to give a day-by-day account of the stuff that I have been doing during this 4 weeks but i guess I will really bore the hell out of every readers. Instead I am going to be really anal about all this and be so damn caluclative that I am going to put everything in a pie chart. in total there are like 4 weeks mulitply by 7 days multiply by 24 hours = 672 hours in this whole entire holiday. I have done a mental calculation and I realised that that I have spent almost 300 hours ie almost half of my holidays in school related activities. Some of you might sneered at me being so calculative.. but if you would do the maths again, that would mean I have about 372 hours and if you minus off 4 mulitply by 7 multiply by 8 hours of sleep = 224 and add 3 mulitply by 4 mulitply by 7 = 84 hour of meal time. That is a total of 308 hour which mean that I have only *gasp* 372-308= 64 hours which is like less than 3 days of break..

Hm... and why am I spending my remainder of 64 hours blogging something totally irrelevant?

Saturday, June 10, 2006

The One about don't know what to blog

As usual, it is the time of the year again when I am too busy/bochup/lazy to blog. Actually i am as usual facing my seasonal blogger's block where I am having so much difficulty trying to come up with things to bitch about.

Actually to have time is indeed a luxury for me. since the holidays 2 weeks ago ( has it been so long), i have been going back to school alomost every day to help out in the sec 4 enrichment camp ( so as to speak) and of course the mandatory NE quiz (yes that is part of my portfolio) Tonight at T2 I will be flying off for a 7 day fieldtrip ( yes work again...) to Perth for a geography fieldtrip.

I hope I will be able to get some inspiration to write about stuff there. Maybe the one that I will miss is peaceful nights of uninterrupted sleep in Perth. Surely Ytzens dont have a habit to cry in the night like my baby Vernice.


Anyway for those who read this post. i am planning a simple bbq at my place for those who would like to catch a glimpse of my little princess. it would be on 21 june evening. I know that 4/4 will be coming that evening. If you would like to be here and of course you are ok with the class, please drop me a mail or sms or leave a tag on my board. so that i would not end up having not enough food that day. remember 21 june bbq evening. See ya!