Teacher's Day

Teacher's Day today! A special day when teachers are able to cast benevolent smiles at the students (for once) and a special day when students suddenly appear so sweet and adorable.

Early in the morning, the principal was giving out awards to teachers for various categories, like Most Humorous Teacher etc, and they were voted by students. Unexpectedly, I was voted as Most Inspiring Teacher, and my mind was in a blank as I walked up to receive the award. Underneath the bright fake smile, I could see in the principal's eyes a burning desire to ask me 'What have you been inspiring those kids lately?', but I could only stare stunned and speechless at her and at the camera. Ah Tan was voted as Most Caring Teacher. The two of us felt like plunging into the school pond and hide there until the ceremony was over.

The whole school was buzzing with activity as students were busy preparing for their class parties and teachers flitting from class to class to join in the celebrations. I was swamped with gifts from the students, ranging from sweets to chocolates to soft toys. Awww ...

Some sweet 5C girls giving me a personally-decorated plate and a jar of folded heart-shaped straws

Me and some naughty boys from 1C

My form class was sweet enough to perform a dance for me! The two fat boys in a sweet embrace weren't even supposed to be in the dance, but nevertheless it was amusing watching them making a fool out of themselves.

My form class 1F

Me and some students (with cheeky Imran trying to sniff at my hair)

Now I had trouble finding space to store these lovely keepsakes ...

A beautiful hand-made cake (with *gulp* PURPLE icing)

The best part was ... HALF DAY! I was raring to go home and take a rest, and as the exhilaration wore off, I knew things (the usual scoldings and chasings) would be back to normal the next schoolday.

Teachers Day makes all the hard work done worthwhile.

I&E Day

Went to the Live Science Symposium organised by my school at a primary school during its annual I&E Day. The morning event started with a talk on marine biology and I fell asleep promptly, until my savior, Ah Tan, came along. She led me to the Homec booth set up by her and a student served us some oatmeal cookies and pandan tea! Nice!

Ah Tan and I at the Homec booth

My beautiful Saturday morning was totally wasted.

Trip to Science Centre

Went to the Science Centre with Slug. Maybe our stunted mental growth granted us this amazing ability to be perpetually fascinated by the kiddie optical illusions and interactive exhibits there. That is why we keep returning to this place!

We first visited our favourite marine ecosystem section.

Australian Snow Crab (someone bring on the sweet chilli sauce and bread morsels!)

My ever-favourite moray eel!

Coral that glows under UV light (quite a lacklustre glow, though)

Then it was on to the biology section ...

Venus Flytrap!

Let's mingle with our common household friends!

Mouse foetus, chicken skeleton and rabbit anatomy immortalized in goo

And the ever-favourite incubator! How many chicks has this incubator help give birth to, but the mystery that must have been bugging most primary school students is - do these cute and fluffy chicks, after earning our adoring oohs-and-aahs the moment they poked their heads through the shell, end up on our plates three months later?

Nevertheless, we were lucky to actually see some of the chicks hatch!

We ended our visit with a picture of Slug having fun with an optical illusion.

Dinner at New York New York

Always passed by the huge and perenially crowded New York New York restaurant at Citylink, but finally decided today to have dinner there. Nothing much out of the extraordinary, but value-for-money.

They even served free apple-flavoured candy floss, much to my delight! Made Slug queue up to get his hands on one for me. Yum.

Slug and I are growing horizontally with each day of unregulated consumption.

Vicious Meow Meow

Meow Meow is really getting on my nerves. I just cannot fathom why he treats lizards as tasty bites.

He was out patrolling the block that night and he came back to recharge (ie: get some cat biscuits and water). Suddenly, he gave out a loud wheezing and to our horror, he threw up a glob of lizard flesh. It was all pink and minced up, soaked with gastric juices, and with the head still intact!

We were utterly disgusted, but does Meow Meow look like he cares?