Finally came to the part where I talk about the weekend before last!
I'm actually a member of a student's club in SIM, the Film and Performing Arts Society (FPA), the ex VP to be exact. Just when I thought that our year was not too great, I worry that this year's batch may end up being worse than we were. Turns out that this year a lot of the people on the committee were more or less coerced and persuaded to come into the comm. Other than that, quite a few work and cannot commit the time required of them to make the orientation a success.
Went to help out in the two day school orientation. Couldn't really believe how little preparation had been done. Luckily somehow we still managed to pull the thing together. Not a great talker to strangers myself, so I didn't really manage to convince too many people. Luckily we have Adrian, Eric, Jason, Peilu even Zizhe on board or we wouldn't have managed to get as many people as we have. Hopefully out of the many who have expressed interest there are enough of them who genuinely want to be in and contribute to the club.
They'll meeting up with Benny to discuss about the play this evening. Hopefully everything goes well. Would very much like to be there but I happen to be teaching today and can't make it This sucks! I always seem to miss the most important meetings.. grrrr.....
~ ponders~
Oh well, perhaps it's better this way. I'm retired after all and shouldn't be so meddling. As much as I would like to help, there is a point where it borders on intruding on their committee. Will provide assistance as and when they need it. =)
Am now only worried about the 29th. Have they got any of the details ironed out at all at the moment? What games have they planned? How long for each game? What time to meet? Where to meet? How many would turn up? What food are they preparing to have? These are but a few basic questions that I would like to know that they have answers to. Hopefully they have started making calls to the freshies to ensure their attendance. If not... Let's just say it would be bad if no one but ourselves are to turn up for this year's Sentosa...
Sigh...... I'm a worrier alright....
Was introduced into the world of online monopoly by my brother, quite enjoy it but hate it when the opponent is 1)relentless 2) too nice and especially hate it when my game hangs. Was having a great game with a nice person and all of a sudden, my game dies on me. And I could possibly have won that game too! It really sucks for this to happen.
Am now just delaying time before I have to go do my dreaded task. The hanging of clothes.
Teaching at 3 so would have to do it sometime soon, now would be a great time actually. Still, lazy Mingmei is trying to drag it out for a while longer. ;0p
Pouring and pretty cool today so it feels like a perfect day to laze about, hmm.... Better remember to bring a sweater to Timothy's, can be quite cold there with such weather...
No delaying anymore! Must go carry out my mission now! Maybe when I come back I can start to backtrack and talk about last week ya? Tata.....
Though I had not intended to get any stylist in particular to cut my hair, I have to admit I was a little disappointed that Lancelot wasn't around. Seeing that his namecard wasn't there, I thought he no longer worked at the place.
It wasn't that he was exceptionally handsome or anything like that, it was the fact that he was nice to me, even though I was a mere mei4 mei4and probably didn't look like I've got a lot of purchasing power. In my lifetime I have met loads of hairstylists, mostly female, some male, and most are nice but for various specific reasons. For eg, Aunt Liping was nice cause she knows my Mum from way back, Aunt Jennifer was nice because I had always gone to her salon when I was younger. The rest were nice cause they were hoping to push hair products. A few are not even nice. Therefore it struck me when he was so gentle, nice and I guess xi4 xin1 with my hair. Not only did he not push the products, when I asked for recommendations for hair products he seemed to hesitate and didn't recommend much. It felt like he knew I probably didn't have too much money and was thinking to help me save money...
Zhixian mentioned once that there are many cases whereby there are girls who find themselves liking their male hairstylists, I suppose I do like him, but not in the same way lah. I like him in the way that I'd probably always trust him with my hair. ;)
Turns out Lancelot's off to Australia to work. He must be really pretty good to be sent overseas to work I guess. I wish him success in his work!
The lady who cut my hair today was Linda. Guess what! She was the assistant manager! Wow! I didn't realise that I was so lucky. In any case, I'm pretty happy with my hair now. It's getting a little bit more pong4, think some time next month I'd probably want to get it rebonded again. Sigh.... Another expense expected down the road...
Now if only my family were a little more supportive. My Mum said my hair hardly looked cut at all! Psst! At least I know better, I got to see the hair collected on the floor after the cut. It's lighter, I feel better about it, and that's all I care about. =)p
Was going to go backward and write about the orientation and our night out at Zouk but maybe I'll leave it for tomorrow or something. Not really in the mood to write a whole lot today. Till the next time, ciao!
~
Am actually learning to drive but am quite behind my brother in progress, mainly because I hadn't gone for my Basic Theory Evaluation and couldn't book for my BTT as a result of that. Hate having to go down to BBDC time and again so I booked myself in for all two Final Theory lessons as well as the evaluation. I passed for the evaluation! Finally booked the test date, if nothing goes wrong, will be able to start the practical lessons after the 20th!
Maybe it cause I was in a good mood or it might just simply be because I've been saving up money for so long, on a whim I went shopping in Bugis. I walked around intially looking for my recent fetish (a cheap and good sports bra) but having found none to my liking, I ended buying a whole load of stuff from The Face Shop. A mask, some serum, facial blotters, a nail file, nail polish, a make up remover, it was almost as if I had gone crazy. Turns out that it was quite a worthy buy, been using the products and they seem to work quite well for me. Glad that I didn't have to suffer from post-purchase dissonance. *chuckles*
While I was still walking around in Seiyu and considering going home, received a msg from Zhixian. After a few back and forth msgs we decided to meet in Orchard after I'd reached home to put down my purchases, freshen up and wash the laundry.
Saw a six year old boy playing on the drums on my way to Paragon to meet the girls. I was so impressed! He's only six and he's already so talented and so good at beating the drums! His name is Ethan Ong, think he will definitely have a very bright future when he grows up. Was playing to a very familiar song. Asked my brother and then realised it was actually a song from Hillsong called One Way. Hmm... Nice song. =)
We ate in Ding Tai Fung! Was really quite an experience going there during peak hours. They were so... efficient! The food just kept coming and once we finished they started clearing. Really don't lose any time huh? Oh ya! Must remember to return the $14 I owe Xinrong tomorrow when we meet again...
Went off to Birkinstock to look for footwear. My sandals are quite badly ruined and was hoping to look for a replacement but simply couldn't decide on what to choose. In the end I didn't manage to buy a pairat all. Sigh... Hopefully will be able to find a pair tomorrow! Will probably go buy the Clark Shoes in Taka though. It seems that is the only pair I'm truly happy with.
Meeting Xinrong and Zhixian and their friend Ruru tomorrow for K-Lunch. After that, will be meeting Adrian and the com in the evening. Hope it goes well at the meeting!
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Wed 29th June
For the first time since I've begun teaching him sometime last year, Jason really got me angry. Ok, maybe angry's too strong a word for me to use to describe how I felt, it was more, hurt and disappointed...
Before school closed, Jason showed me his report book and it was less than satisfactory. Been attempting to get him to take his work more seriously and hand in his assigned work on time but this proves to be a long uphill process. Hence, I started a stars programme for him. The idea of it was that everytime he hands in his work on time, he would get a star, for more difficult tasks like compo and compre, if it's completely done, I sometimes would offer him a bonus star. Once he reaches the target of 50 stars, he can make a request for a gift (something not too ex of course) from me as an encouragement.
A few weeks ago I realised that he quite likes Star Wars. Was talking to him and asked if he'd seen Episode 4 before. Apparently he hadn't and was very eager to borrow it. I agreed, upon condition that he consistently hands in his work for some time.
On Wed, he asked about it. Unfortunately, every week there seems to at least be one assignment that he hadn't gotten in on time. Makes sense for me to reject him right? I tried explaining to him that no, I will not lend him till he's shown me he can hand in his work on time. I don't assign of work actually. If what I assigned happened to be a compo or compre, that's all he gets for the week. Aside from that, he gets 3 to 4 pages of Maths, which is a manageable amount for him, and then a few pages of Chinese. No Science whatsoever. Only English is due on Wednesdays, Chinese and Maths on Sundays so it frustrates me when he does not complete his work on time. This time, his homework happened to be a compo. It was not done at all.
I tried explaining to him that I would lend it to him, provided that I see that he had gotten in his work consistently for 2 weeks, I even relented and said I was even willing to give in, as long for one week, his work is completely in, then I would lend it to him. At this point, he cried.
It's actually not the first time he cried. Everytime he felt tired or could feel the pressure at all for not handing in at all, he'd break into silent tears and refuse the tissue I hand him. I want to feel sorry for him but at the same time I don't wish to be manipulated into giving in and allowing him to do as he wants. In the end, five mins before the lesson was supposed to end, he stalked away angrily.
It was the first time he left like that. It got me very upset because although I technically hadn't done anything wrong, I felt guilty for making him cry. I was in part angry with myself. I left a message for him to read about what I thought of his behaviour and left.
On Sunday, for the first time since I had begun teaching him, I felt like I didn't want to make my way there. I felt like despite my best efforts, he just isn't that interested. Yet, I didn't wnat to give up on him, not when I have seen students who are genuinely uninterested in Timothy's. He's a nice kid, a bit lazy but a great student overall...
In the end, he gave me quite the surprise yesterday. He completed Wednesday's assignment before time and did his work due on Sunday. Think he did feel a tiny bit of remorse then. Was really happy that he at least put in a bit of effort. =) I happened to bring along episode 4, was thinking that I might want to make peace with him if he's completed his work. Lent it to him after all. Hope he appreciates that rewards are meant to award effort. Hope he continues to strive to work hard. Have rather high hopes for this kid, got room for improvement...
In some ways, our stay in Amara did feel a bit lame this year. When we three were much younger, Ma used to take us to Amara annually. During the week we're there we would visit all the interesting places in Singapore, have fun, take pictures, relax, basically have a tour around Singapore as if we were tourists ourselves. Back then, it was always so much fun. Now, Ma's work is more hectic, I sometimes have to teach, Di has his own commitments and training, and Kor has NS, just makes it that much more difficult to coordinate amongst us. Ended with Di being there most of the time, me there sometimes, Ma there a day or two, Kor only there on Sat...
Ma mentioned that it seemed that the suite's smaller now. I think really the suite had always been around that size, the difference is that we have all grown since our last trip there so the place just feels relatively smaller (since it's meant as a perk it really wouldn't have made any sense for them to offer a larger one to us). She's right about the couch though, would be nice if the couch were still around, would have been one extra place to crash on...
Nevertheless it was still a great opportunity for us to spend time together. =) Before Amara, I can't recall the last time the four of us sat round to eat a leisurely meal together. The buffet we managed to go to on that Sat gave us that opportunity. It gave us to reason to make time for each other and have really family time you know? Can't express how much I really appreciate that....
Next year we'll probably have to plan ahead and make better arrangements. Maybe take Dequan's suggestion, split it up and have a few days each and maybe have one or two 'family days'. Hmm... We'll see...
~
Went K-Lunch with Xinrong and Zhixian on the Tuesday of that week. Was really fun as usual! The food for once came early and wasn't half bad. Probably finally decided that it's not worth it to always have to think up new things to serve...
Xinrong really has a great voice, as well as a lot of confidence. I can sing, but I simply lack the confidence to believe I can sing well. I waver, all the time. Besides, I really don't listen to Chinese songs all that often, so most of the newer Chinese songs that I sorta know would have been introduced to me by Xinrong or TV ads. ;p Wished they had more English song selections nad a more comprehensive song selector for English songs. One like the one they have for Chinese songs. Would be infinitely easier to find songs that way.
I teared when Rong was singing Ye Zi by Ah Sang and then again when she was singing Tong Hua. The MTVs were just so sad that I got very affected emotionally. Zhixian had to pass me a tissue twice, it was totally embarrassing! Nowadays, I get affected by notions of death very easily. It reminds me of things that I'd rather forget but most likely never would.....
Went shopping around Kino and just generally around Taka. Wonders of wonders, we actually bumped into Yaozong and Zixu. Was pleasantly surprised that Yaozong still remembers me, it has been years since we've met after all. Really great to see them, it's not everyday we get to see old schoolmates on the street.
~
Hoping we do get to meet up for a primary school gathering sometime soon. There seems to be talk of it but nothing's confirmed so far. Maybe it was a self-fufilling prophecy, it happened that the last gathering we had was the one at Mrs Ng's place on Chu San of the Lunar New Year 2003. Legend has it that that's not a really good day for gatherings as San1 sounds near to san4 which means to separate. I'm not good at organising at all, and so far, I don't see much confirmed responses online. Sigh... Might not materialise after all.....
Hope for the best and pray that we can arrange something. Really hoping to see how's everyone doing now...