Investiture Programme

This week of seminars, talks and excursions, dubbed the Investiture Programme, will mark the end of my NIE course. I can't help but look back at those memorable times when I was physically present but mentally absent during lessons, bitching with my favourite mates Dappy and Peiying, meeting assignment deadlines, and observing weirdos around us and wondering how they could be teachers. It is amazing how this year has passed us by just like that, and it is getting increasingly daunting as the start of the three-year bond looms nearer. Maybe misery loves company, because the three of us love to whine about the pains and hazards of teaching and forecast about our definite job switches after the three years. I am so grateful to have met them.

Today, we had a compulsory excursion to the Science Centre, as they wanted us to experience the latest initiatives there and tap it as an educational resource. However, many of us felt that this seems more relevant to the Science teachers. Nevertheless, we had a great time enjoying playing around with the exhibits, especially the walk through the eco-garden.

Peiying having fun being an illusion

Me and Peiying

We spent the whole week attending talks on financial literacy, MOE code of conduct, pay package, CIP, health matters etc, but Peiying and I spent most of our time planning our own future expenses while Dappy was sleeping away. On the last day of the week, there was another excursion to the Sembawang Air Base, to look at helicopters, tanks, choppers and hunks in uniforms. With that, it concluded my honeymoon stay in NIE, but not the friendships I have made (and the $9.90 library fine I incurred).

Ah Sir's Birthday

Celebrated Ah Sir's birthday by having a yummy dinner at Sushi Tei, followed by dessert at nydc cafe.

Those chummy staff at nydc brought Ah Sir a slice of cheesecake and insisted on singing her a Happy Birthday song, despite of her embarrassed protests. It was our sneaky attempt to help her solicit unwanted attraction in public, and we succeeded.

Our birthday girl

Our birthday girl could not wait to gobble down the cake

Ah Sir, don't forget your birthday resolution! We will be watching!

2/2 Chalet

Was honoured to be invited to 2/2's chalet at Costa Sands in Pasir Ris, and it was a great joy seeing them again and asking them about their results (is the latter an inevitably-acquired trait of teachers?). Was initially warned by friends not to go to students' chalets, lest I see heartbreaking sights of them smoking, drinking and making out. Fortunately, this is a really decent class and the only vice they indulged in was playing mahjong (although they did not have monetary stakes, their deep knowledge of the mahjong rules made me feel slightly uncomfortable).

So I just sat there, enjoying the tasty food and catching up with as many of them as I could. It happened to be Godwin's birthday that day, and they had planned a nasty surprise for him. At 9pm, his buddies carried him (he weighed only 45kg!) in the darkness from the bedroom to the main door, where the rest of his classmates waited there and ambushed him with loud poppers, confetti and a plate of whipped cream smashed into his face. While everyone roared the Happy Birthday song merrily, he stood there stunned and wiping the cream from his face in disbelief.

Tengkang and Sidney dragging Godwin by force

The real cake emerged after they finished singing

Godwin gamely posed for a picture despite his greasy predicament

And who is gonna clean up the mess after all the fun?

Took some shots with them, which I can add to the huge heartwarming photo album they presented me during Teacher's Day.

Why is everyone from 2/2 so cute and innocent?

When two girls and I were about to go home, some of them escorted us all the way to the main road. How sweet of them.

Taking our final shot at a kiddie playpen at the lobby

For a moment, I wished I could go back and teach them again.That's the problem when you get too attached to something or someone.

Are our jobs 24/7?

Just read a Wanbao article on the primary school teacher and her sexy bikini shots, and was fuming when a parent who was interviewed said that teachers are on the job 24/7, meaning that they have to be on their most appropriate behavior all the time. And because students are everywhere, teachers cannot do things that tarnish the respectable image of a professional, mature and decent teacher.

What nonsense. We have our lives and we are free to indulge in the vices that we embrace. You cannot guarantee that all teachers abstain from smoke, alcohol, carnal arts, gambling, cussing, lunch-time affairs (I was shocked (and slightly inspired) to read a confession of a teacher on her lunch-time affairs in school in this month's Woman Weekly), sexy wear, indiscriminate littering, maid abuse etc. Of course, as teachers, we are conscious that we are being watched in society and we do feel the pressure to be an 'exemplary role model' in public. But not all the time! (But of course, carnal acts with students is a HUGE no-no, no matter how horny the teacher is).

And why do parents have to slam this stereotypical image on us just because we are in this profession? And when we make mistakes or go against their expectations of us, we have to undergo their criticisms, eat the humble pie and be shamed. Before they look upon us with their holier-than-thou attitudes, they really need to examine their own upbringing of their brood, which for many, is even more inferior than how a zookeeper takes care of an otter.

I think the safest image is to wear long-sleeved tops with pants, accessorized with dorky specs and an equally nerdy husband and kids.

Night Out with Daphne and Peiying

Hitting Powerhouse again! Could not believe they have actually made the hip-hop aerobics exercise a permanent feature every Wednesday. Boring!

At least we could use the time for a toilet break

It was a bizarre mix of patrons there. As soon as the groovable tunes rolled out, a bunch of angmohs started jumping and stomping around on the platform. A lot of Filipinos in the drinks queue. A while later, some PRC girls (accents and mannerisms unmistakable) gradually infiltrated onto the platform, which left us dumbfounded and gawking at them. Some of them were dressed in oversized tees, capris and sneakers with chunky accessories, and one had big Afro hair. What a sight.

Lolita gyrating her hips and her swaying short skirt inviting us to take a peek up

Met my DSS ex-colleagues who appalled us by having the guts and strength to come clubbing when they would need to go to school in a few hours' time. Free flow of liquor (which made Peiying unusually high and giggly) and free sight of dirty dancing at their table. We realised that the PRC babes were nowhere to be seen and a bunch of vampish trannies have taken over the dancefloor.

Me and Peiying

At Jingyang's table

Jingyang wanted some of the camera fun

Did not drink much tonight, and left Powerhouse feeling clear-headed and sober for once. Peiying tried to prove she was not drunk by calculating our cab fare to the exact cent after her bath!

Not Paying Attention During SS

Usually we get very bored during Social Studies lessons because ... SS is freaking boring and I know nuts about the conflicts between the Catholics and Protestants, the Sinhalese and the Tamils, the fall of Venice, blah blah blah.

Today's SS lesson was just like another typical SS lesson, but today, I was more distracted than usual, so I started drawing fishes out of the triangles on Dappy's foolscap pad. After I signed my name after finishing my masterpiece, Peiying, Dappy, Jieying and Jasmin followed suit just because they each contributed pens of different colours!

And I took discreet photos of my classmate scratching the soles of his feet. Yucks!

Was he really concentrating on his notes ...

... or was he concentrating on peeling off the dead skin?

When the tutor got us to do groupwork and brainstorm about the advantages and disadvantages of the US war against Iraq, we got bored again and started doodling away, drawing anything related to the war from torpedoes to oil barrels, from bombs to hot-air balloons (okay, this one is seriously off), and even to tribal people (I hope it did not appear as racist).

Abu and Fati, what nice primitive names

Oh well, it was the last lesson of the week. Looking forward to the two-day schooling weeks in the rest of October and zero-day schooling weeks in November! May the year 2009 NEVER descend upon Earth!

KTV with Peiying and Dappy

Decided to go for a KTV session in Orchard after school. I hated KBox, but Peiying and Dappy chose it because of the value-for-money package, and that they were able to sing for 5 hours (with 2 free drinks thrown in for each of us).

I hated the user-unfriendly song ordering system and the measly capacities of drinks served as well. Moreover, I had to put up with their singing and dancing (it is not their singing that is horrible, it is the way they get high (and speaking of which, Dappy will suddenly shriek "Oh oh oh, GET HIGH!" from FIR's stupid song). On the other hand, they also had to put up with me singing obsolete '80s and '90s tunes (okay, I admit 小虎队 is obsolete, but Beyond is NOT!) and Cantopop.

Peiying brought her camera, as usual, and they pulled a hapless me into their wacky shots, but I tried to act as normal as possible.

They (especially Peiying) love to jump on the leather couches

Okay, we can see that Dappy was seriously very high

Amidst the tugging of my arms and pressing their faces against mine, I remained rooted to where I was seated and sighed inwardly in consolation that at least I was sane!

Now, back to the flurry of assignments, all with a common deadline!

Dinner at Chong Pang

Had dinner with Slug at Chong Pang steamboat restaurant, which had moved from Marina South to the old Turf Club. Just when I thought the Marina Bay developments will permanently evict our favourite foodie haunt, we were blessed to come across it again!

Same old ingredients (especially my favourite chicken shreds in all sorts of flavours - chilli, sesame oil, black pepper and satay), except that the price has increased and ice-cream is no longer included (free flow of drinks though). We tucked in with nostalgic relish, reminiscing those days at the crowded Marina South steamboat restaurants and its casual atmosphere. As the restaurant has been occupying the current venue for barely 2 months, there were not many people and it was quieter.

Ready to start the feast

Aftermath - egg shells, chicken bones and lots of charred bits on the grill plate

Everything was typical BBQ and steamboat ingredients except for the crab which was somewhat disturbing - it had a strong ammonia smell, akin to the smell emanating from toilet bowls which have not been flushed for days. Maybe that was the reason why I had a mini diarrhoea later in the night.

Night Out with Daphne and Peiying

Finally hit the club after a 14-week hiatus. Was excited at visiting Powerhouse, but somehow, things seemed to have changed.

For one, Bellini was replaced by Firefly, which obviously was not interested in contributing to the Ladies' Night cheer by demanding us to pay the cover charge. That left us with only 5 free drinks from Powerhouse on Wednesdays, bummer!

And just as we suspected, all the ladies (some tackily dressed) flocked to Powerhouse. After we got in, we got a shock - at 11.30pm, what should be a dim and dizzy dancefloor with shimmying bodies and an intermix of Madonna and Sean Paul, turned out to be a quiet aerobics lesson delivered by some ang moh hip-hop guys. We stared at one another in utter disbelief. Did so many things change while we were gone?!

The queue for the free drinks got longer and moved slower as well. Took almost 30 minutes to finally get our booze, and luckily by 12am, the aerobics class ended and the desperate dancers infiltrated onto the dance floor.

Me and Dappy (my affectionate nickname for Daphne)

Me and Peiying

The music was a tad disappointing, and there was a couple (a Caucasian man and a Chinese slut) who was making such a nuisance out of themselves by intertwining their bodies together, groping all over and bumping into us. The free show was quite interesting initially, but we were soon disgusted. Decided that maybe we were not drunk enough (how to, with only 5 drinks!), so left for a toilet break and more drinks.

Dappy wanted to usurp my drinks coupons because we all knew that I have a tendency to start losing my memory with every shot, but ... isn't that the highlight?

Ended the night a bit tipsy, but sober enough to escape paying for the cab fare. Haha!

Night Out with HTF

It was the holidays and Practicum had ended, and the 6 of us (the HTF) decided to hold a barbeque ... because we missed one another!

We intended to hold it at Paolo's chalet, but he suddenly came down with high fever and checked out early, leaving an angry Gavin stranded with kilograms of marinated chicken wings and sambal sotong. To pacify him, Ai Kit and I decided to continue to hold the barbeque, but on a primitively self-constructed pit at Ai Kit's house in Simpang Bedok.

The three of us went to shop for the barbeque foodstuffs and other essentials at a nearby supermarket, which we then brought to her house to prepare. Then it was the setting up of the pit at a remote corner downstairs.

Gavin setting up the pit using two aluminium foil trays and bricks

Gavin proceeding to light up the charcoal

Foods to be barbequed included chicken wings, sambal sotong, prawns, crabsticks, hotdogs, otahs, sotong balls, and my newly created savoury treat: golden mushrooms wrapped with bacon strips. Ai Kit's mother was kind to fry us a tray of beehoon.

We started setting up the fire at 6pm, and finally managed to get some of the charcoal pieces glowing weakly after 90 minutes of furious fanning and lighting up of numerous fire starters. We were getting increasingly famished and so impatient that without waiting for the raging flames to die down, we had dumped the wire gauze onto the tray and proceeded to barbeque the food. It was a bad move because very soon, the flames disintegrated the aluminium foil that lined the wire gauze and left a sooty crust on the hotdogs. Yucks.

Night had fallen and still no fire

At 8pm, the three of us were seated by the fire, cooking and eating away. We certainly drew many curious looks from the passers-by, who seemed to be wondering how come we had the audacity to hold a barbeque in the residential area (and on such a pathetic self-made 'pit'!).

What a spread!

The ESE trainees, Marie, Song Guang and Jeff, joined us at about 9pm because they had to take the grammar test that started at 6.30pm, and then rushed over all the way from NIE. Xiao Fen and Serene joined us much later, bringing along the mango pudding that Xiao Fen had made for us. As we ate, we exchanged updates about one another, NIE and the sucky school, as well as bitched about the sucky school staff (I had the most opinions to contribute, and with much agitation).

Me, Serene, Ai Kit, Xiao Fen and Marie seated on Ai Kit's straw mat

Jeff could not hide his hunger

A group shot in the darkness

I must admit, Gavin really could marinate chicken wings and sotong. Tasty! I could not understand why Rockhampton's hotdogs were so salty (than usual) and why the bacon strips did not sizzle like they do on frying pans. And I could not understand why they did not buy any ice! It was a displeasure drinking lukewarm Coke.

In the end, we finished all the food and incurred no food wastage. We cleared everything up - threw away the litter, picked up food bits from the ground, extinguished and disposed of the glowing embers safely and even washed the ground of its soft drinks spills. We then played cards till late into the night.

Back to NIE next week, and we will all still be meeting up during our own Contact Time, ha!