The One with the wisdom tooth extraction

I have been feeling enormous pain when I eat.  After month of procrastination, I decided to visit a dentist to see what's wrong.  I havent visit a dentist for years.  And I have this irrational fear of a going to the clinic.  Sitting inside the dentist chair  My worst fears were confirmed when the dentist that I have to extract my wisdom tooth.  The tooth is already decaying badly and that's why it is causing so much pain.  Pain clouded my rationality and i decided to have a minor operation.  That tun out to be a really harrrowing experience.  The drilling, the cutting, the cracking of the tooth that typify the 1 hour ordeal was really a mind opener for me.  I have never felt pain like this ( other than the time when I dislocated my right arm then again it is a different type of pain)

 Now with a bloated left cheek and difficulty eating, i guess this is the best opportunity for me to go on my liquid diet plan..

The One with the White Side ( Short Notes)

I have gone totally to the white side...

My Pee Cee has died on me and I have lavished on this...

Behold the new member of the family the Imac.

Muahahaha... I am really off my bonkers with all the edited pictures and speech bubbles

The One with the Chinese New Year reflections

Before we know it, it is already the end of January and the chinese new year, the year of the ox in another 12 hours time.

I looked back at my years of blog entries and felt a sense of nostalgia. I first started the blog in 2004 as part of my attempts to bond with my sec 3 IJ form class students. Since then it was a channel for me to reach out to them and shared with them my thoughts on certain things that was happening in the school, in the classroom and of course on some of the colleagues. After I left IJ in end 2005, the blog continued to serve as a way of maintianing contact with some of my ex-students who were keen/interested/curious to know about my being and things that I was doing. There were many a time that i wanted to shut down the blog as it has not really serve the purpose that I wanted to do in the first place but now it is more of a cesspot of grievances and grudges and unhappiness. It is almost like a negative online tome of grievances with my name capitalised on the front cover. A online tome that had even me resisting going in to look. There were the occasional entries about happy things, but I realised over the years there were more of the negatives than the postives. From the 90 posts in 2006, to 20 in 2007 and finally in 2008, the entries had been insipid and uninspiring to read. Have I really gotten caught up with all the cloud of unhappiness that there is nothing postive I can write about? Am I so unhappy about the things that I have now that I am now cynical to all the things that I have?

My wife stared at me yesterday - nothing surprisingly, though, but she was looking at my hair and proceeded to brush her fingers through my hair and then a slight tug. She looked at the strand of hair and commented,"OMG, a strand of wihite hair" - much to my horrors, and that (meaning the hair) was not all, there were more hair ( white ones I mean). Signs that i am really getting old. My wife joked that a couple of reports, and my constant worries over my work had resulted to me turning to comfort food ( ie spoilling my plans for a trimmer me in 2009) and my hairs turning white. SIGH.. maybe it is about time to really ponder about "acting my age" :P

(to be continued)

The One with the new appointment

I attended yesterday KP meeting, seeing some familiar and some unfamiliar faces, as we prepared the avalanche of things coming: School Opening Ceremony, EV for Autonomous Status, Preparation for the first day of school and so on and so for. For the uninitated , th last week of the school holidays is usually dedicated to the series of meetings and trainings so as to put the next year in place.

The swop of appointment was confirmed yesterday, I have relinquished my post as Subject Head History and take on a new appointment come February 2009. Perhaps after 3 years of toiling in this appointment, I have not really distinguish myself in the appointment which I have hope would catapult me to greater success. However I hope the swap would allow me to showcase what I am good at and allowed me to have a good all rounded perspective of the various leadership position that are open up for me. I look forward to the new challenges in 2009 and hope that 2009 would be as good or even better for me as 2008.

The One about the Christmas

So, christmas came and went.  As I laze infront of my hifi, listenign to the nonchalant tunes of Scott Hamiliton, I was quite surprised how time flies these cuples of days.  It seems not so long ago when I was eagerly anticipating my Perth Trip, and now I am back and tomorrow, I will be back in school for the mandatory key personnel meeting for the preparation of the new academic year.

I woke at an earthly hour at 6 this morning and act as Santa Claus, placing all the presents bought under the christmas tree.  I am not a Christian but after sharing with my daughter about the wonder of christmas, I think she would prefer to see her presents under the Christmas tree rather than receiving it from daddy or mummy.  You should see her face of misbelief and excitement when she saw that there were indeed presents under the tree.   My girl got a movie binoculars, those where they show images a la slide projector.  My boy got a toy car with donald the duck sitting in it, which made funny noises as it move.  My wife got a nice Braun Buffel handbag which was a little extravagant on m part.  As for me, I got a gift from my insincere wife who bought me along to buy the gift and also use the vouchers that I have gotten from Tangs to buy the gift for me.   YAh it is the thoughtless gift of a wallet which steered away from being over extravagant and practical.  Pretty much the type of gift I would expect from my wifey.

Anyway after a heavy lunch of a turkey, pork knuckle and a couple of red wine, I had a heavy seafood dinner with a couple of red wine in between...

I think I am going to be so fat and drunk

But then again, that is also the spirit of christmas, porking out and enjoyign the company of family.

I enjoyed the last few hours of X mas peacefully and in silent contemplation...

Merry Christmas everyone!!

The one with the end of the year reflections

It seems pretty masochistic, but I am actually looking forward to the start of the new academic year.

I realize I haven’t had this feeling for a very long time, since I joined the school. 2006 was a year of trepidations as I just joined the school. 2007 was also not much better as I was unhappy over a lot of thing that was going on in school. 2008 was slightly better, understanding how the school functions and finally getting the hang of things. In fact 2008 was supposed a year to look forward to as I was actually planning to take the escape route to move on to green pastures. 2008 come and go, and my dream of leaving the school did not materialize. Instead of feeling bitter about things to come, I was actually quite excited to be back. Perhap it was the whole thing about familiarity; maybe I have already build up some bonds and friendship with colleagues, maybe I have some bonds and attachment to the kids I am teaching. Or just maybe I actually enjoyed what I do now in the school…

The past few weeks since returning for my trip to Perth have been spent mostly in school, clearing up some backlog, preparing reports and of course getting psyched up for the new year. The challenges I am going to face next year is not something new, I will again be a form teacher of a graduating class, a sec 5 class again. The past few days had been busy with the students admission and meeting with parents. In fact this class seems so much more challenging than the previous one I had 2 years back. With the experience, I believe I can do a better job with this batch.

2009, here I come!

The thing about the performer streak

About a month back, the school ahd its own version of a Singapore Idol thingy where students are allowed to showcase their talents and perform in the school hall. the performance was entitled "The Big Bang" and what a bang it was for the teachers as we were told to put a performance by department. This was quite like the CHIJ Youth Day where teachers perform to the delight of the students. Anyway I happen to see this clip on youtube and decide it is worth trying something like this as part of the department performance. And here the fruit of our labour..
Enjoy!