targus wireless presenter

wireless presenter

the jc people bought this targus wireless presenter for my bday. to date, it is the most PRACTICAL bday gift i’ve received and i LOVE IT!

there are many functions on this particular model. one of my favourite is the mouse control. imagine being able to walk around the class to check on distracted students and delivering the lesson at the same time w/o having to stand at the computer! yay!

another cool aspect is its USB receiver can be cleverly slipped into the battery compartment. you can carry the wireless presenter around w/o the worry of losing the other small parts that come with it.

thk u everyone, and esp tan en for travelling down to sim lim to look for it i’m having the first lesson tmr and i’ll be bringing it to class!

love ya’ll!

first day @ dili

East Timor is a country not many people have on their list of ‘to visit’ places and so, there isn’t much information about it on the web. I tried to do as much research as I could in my free time prior to the trip, and chanced across a few documentary videos on youtube about the lack of job opportunities and unrest among its own people.

At that point of time, I thought this country is one of its kind, unlike the countries I’ve visited before, and I definitely want to rough it out in the next few days.

The plane ride took about 4 hours. As the plane descended, I looked in awe at the rolling mountains and the deep blue sea that embraces it. I’ve never seen a land formed in such a manner. From the plane, it looked as if Someone has crafted it with love and careful thought.

But as we were finally going to touch down at the airport, we caught a glimpse of an UN helicopter and several of its vehicles parked on the roads. It was then that the reality of how much East Timor is a nation still in need of aid hit me. 

The airport is just minutes away from Dili, its capital. Though small, the beautiful mountains that surround this patch of flat land make up for its humble size. Sometimes it is enchanting and almost tickling to be traveling around Dili in a car. There is this entire stretch of coast line dotted with embassies, which is only about 400m long. 15 minutes away is the famous monument of Jesus on a hill top. Another 20 minute’s drive would take you to the site where Datuk Edw ard Ong plans to develop his hotel chain, while passing by the Istana on the way there. It is so tiny you can figure out where everything is within half a day. This is also why Dili quickly feels cozy like home, resembling the island of dwarfs in Solitaire Mystery.

coffee from timor leste

yesterday morning, we were in dili (capital of timor) and pastor cat brought us to a coffee warehouse to shop. we were all excited because this is where starbucks purchases coffee from! 

i’m not a coffee drinker and neither do i know how to appreciate coffee. but i just can’t resist checking new things. after reading a few articles on ‘how to brew coffee without a coffee maker’ on the net, i made myself a cup of coffee!

it was a simple affair. some of you coffee drinkers might even disagree with the way i brewed my coffee. but anyway, this was what i did. i boiled water on a kettle and poured it over a tall glass filled with coffee powder. i let it sit and waited for the coffee powder to settle at the base. this took about 5-6 minutes.

by this time, a rich and creamy foam was formed and floating on top of the mixture. i carefully tipped the glass over to separate the drink from its the sediments and took a sip of it. and ohhh myy, the coffee is really creamy and fragrant even without milk or sugar. i totally love it.

if you love coffee and would like to try this coffee i bought, pop by my house and i’ll make you a cup ; ) but be sure to come by soon cos grinded coffee beans can’t be kept for too long.

note: will update on the trip to timor leste in the coming days (or weeks if i’m feeling lazy). hehe.

primary six kids @ old folks home

we went to an old folks home at tampines on the second day. a performance was put up for the old folks on stage while they were waiting for their lunch to be served and we spent the next 1 hour or so mingling with them.

the kids were surprisingly well behaved. maybe they know they’re on a ‘mission’ and there are people to be respected there. however, about 75% of the old folks suffer from dementia and it was very difficult for us to communicate effectively with them. most of the time i see the kids nodding and smiling away at every word they say as if they understood what was being spoken.

i had to use the ladies halfway through the program and when i was inside, i saw vomit on the floor. an extremely wrinkled old woman was bending over a trolley with trousers at her knee. thinking she’s having problems, i went to the coordinator but she said this old woman  has been collecting card boxes all her life and was found sleeping under a highway few years ago. when she was sent here and the home workers removed her trolley for hygiene purposes. but as soon as the trolley is taken away from her, she would throw a fit, develop fever and had to be admitted to the hospital. so the only thing that keeps her sanity right now is the trolley she’s been using to collect card boxes.

there is this uncle who is perfectly fine and healthy. he has two sons in london, one of them being a professor. he had a glamourous life performing on a saxophone with the biggest stars of his era. you would think he has everything, but no… for some reasons, i didn’t dare to ask, he had to stay under a highway until he was being transferred here.

meeting these people really made me think about aging. i really think it isn’t so bad to be staying in an old folks home. at least there is a shelter over my head when i sleep at night.

a day with the primary school kids @ science centre

together with 17 other teachers, we brought about 150 primary school children to the science centre. it is part of our school’s community service project where we’ve to do something for these needy children during their june vacation.

after more than 10 years since i last set foot into the science centre’s exhibition area, i could see the place hasn’t changed much, except for this water playground right at the entrance. most of the exhibits are so ‘chim’ even i had difficulty understanding them. there is this really cool exhibit of a sealed eco-sphere though. it is a totally sealed spherical glass that contains some plants and shrimps. the amazing thing about this is it hasn’t been opened since 1993 and these organisms are still living, and as healthy as they were 16 years ago! 

the kids had SO MUCH fun running around and pushing every buttons they could find on the exhibits. my assigned group of primary six students even asked if they could take off their socks to play in the water playground together with the primary ones and twos. ha!

the primary one angels

we were having lunch break and i caught these primary one kids posing and taking photos of themselves. i just had to go over and ask them to pose for me.

primary six kids

i overheard that the malay guy in orange shirt had a bet with his friends that he could get my number. throughout the day he would walk beside me and tried very hard to make conversations. but i took out my handphone and showed him a photo of me and a kid (from previous post) and told him i’m married with a kid. these children believe everything u say so long as u look convincing. haha!

malaysian kampong

Tuesday Flea Market

see see biao jie (elaine cousin) offered to bring me back to her mum’s kampong in malaysia, which i happily accepted and went along. what an experience. i’m really grateful for the opportunity for if not, i would never have a glimpse into another way of life that is so close but so unnoticed by us.

first thing. we tend to stereotype kampong like areas and images of tattered wooden huts surrounded by wild running chickens come to mind. oh we’re so wrong…! 6 out of the 7 houses i’ve been to are so new and tastefully renovated i feel humbled by their magnificant deco.

the family is so huge, like about more than a hundred people, they hardly take notice of u because they meet people day in and day out. throughout the year, they celebrate newborns that are added to the family, marriages and birthdays. its an eventful life to have in a malaysian kampong!

Malaysian Boy

this is the cutest 3 year old i’ve ever met. he speaks with a heavy malaysian drawl which is really funny to hear. because his parents moved to the city and he only hangs out with adults, he learned to speak like one too. ohh this little boy really cracks me up..

fear

a few months ago i was elated and relieved to learn of my acceptance to NI E, which allowed me to steer clear of naughty kids for the time being. i didn’t think it would be so soon before i had to come back to face the same fear i developed from teaching the first N T class i ever taught. i just got posted to a  neighbourhood school, with a profile that’s more notorious than the one before. plus, what i find ridiculous is teachers here have to purchase their own paper for printing worksheets (?!).

woohooooo~ ha. a part of me didn’t want to believe i got posted there. but i thought again, and there’s really no way to enjoy what i’m doing unless i learn to like those i’m teaching. so i AM going to see all (EVERY) good aspects of that school from now onwards.

so you have my permission to hit my head if i start complaining about this school ok.

you have no fear, you are free – v for vendetta

rich ang mo country

source: bbc

wow the ang mo country is loaded man. this article here reads, ‘unlawfully large classes’ and ‘legal limit of 30′. let me explain… in UK, it is illegal to teach classes of more than 30 students. i guess this is to ensure that students get the most out of their education. if it is illegal, that means it is a criminal act to teach in oversized classes. wow.

eh, maybe we should pass the same law here in singapore. teachers are overworked people. if not, why are there so many teachers in IMH?

i remember going into a class of 20 and after 35 mins, i left dog-tired. the boys would not hesitate to shout at each other across the room. another bunch would chatter in a corner and occasionally burst in laughter (what is so funny about a home economics class?). a particular boy walks up and down the classroom, poking fun at his classmates as he went along. another one kept asking me,

‘cher cher, what is ur number ah?’

‘i don’t have a hp’

‘you don’t bluff lah cher. then you got boy friend a not?’

‘i’m married with two kids’

it was IMPOSSIBLE to carry out a lesson. the whole time, i was fire-fighting and trying to keep the class together. if you happen to be a principal reading my blog, maybe you wanna bring this idea up to MO E. thousands of teachers will be eternally grateful to you.

boys will be boys

recently a boy moved into one of the girl’s dorm on this level. oh gosh you can smell a boy like you smell a cockroach; both leave a trail of scent. everytime i walk pass that dorm, i hold  my breath in case my nose picks up the pungent odor that seems to be the result of dried salty sweat trapped in trek shoes, clothes and matteress.

the corridor along the boys’ dorm reeks. i never thought it would take just one of them to smell up our entire level. maybe this trait of boys is related to the animal kingdom, where male mammals leave scent to ‘mark off’ their territory. ha.

swine flu

please stay at home and quarantine yourself if you are feeling unwell…

you might wanna know that “In Singapore, changes made to the Infectious Diseases Act during the 2003 SARS outbreak allow officials to order suspected sufferers to stay at home or face a potential jail term.” - channelnewsasia 

to find out how swine flu emerged and the regions affected by the pandemic, click here - bbc website

there is a local website as well, here.