Annual DHSNPCC CIs 团拜

Jiansheng's 21st Birthday Celebration @ His Place

And our squad blog (finally!) was conceived in his room today.

Check out http://check1bang.blogspot.com!

Happy Birthday To You!


To all human beings, let's toss to our birthday!

Pussy

is the name of Chen Qizhen's latest single. And Mai-chan co-sponsored it as a belated birthday gift! Thanks GOH buddy!

Besides Pussy she released two other special-edition products. Really cool aren't they? Her music shall occupy me for now, till Yanzi comes out with her "逆光". =)

Wednesday Inter-Faith Conversations @ Buddhist Fellowship

28 Feb Conversations with Catholics
07 Mar Conversations with Protestants
14 Mar Conversations within Buddhism
21 Mar Conversations with Hindus
04 Apr Conversations with Muslims

All the above will be held at Buddhist Fellowship at 7.45p.m. on the respective dates. Contact me if you are interested!

My Kitchen During Chinese New Year

I can't think of a better heading really. Every Chinese New Year there is a certain ritual my parents will perform in the kitchen. Not the spray holy water type lah. Just some simple and symbolic stuff like...

hanging a bunch of garlics at the window (cos' garlic is suan tou and suan means count in Chinese and a lot of garlic means a lot to suan in the new year!!!)

filling up the rice container to the brim (cos' like that means man and man means full in Chinese and we'll have enough of everything in the new year!!!)

stuff the freezer compartment with prawns (cos' when you say prawn in Cantonese it sounds like "Ha" and many prawns would mean "Hahahahahahahaha!" and that means we'll have a DAMN funny new year) and fish (cos' nian nian you yu)

I wonder if your kitchen is somewhat like mine. And I wonder if I'll do all these when I've a house of my own. These things, when you start doing, you can't stop. I would think my parents will feel uneasy if they stop this ritual for a year.

Breakfast during Chinese New Year is one convenient affair.

Just steal some bak kua from the container and kiap them between slices of bread.

And complete the meal by dipping love letters into hot coffee. Yes, this is my kitchen during Chinese New Year.

Hana-kimi!

Surprise! I spent the whole of today watching this on Youtube. This makes my first ou xiang ju watched, thanks to the various recommendations and of course Ella the butch. The role is totally meant for her. Jiro Wang is hilarious! Wu Zun is the good looker who is introverted, who remains still when everyone claps and cheers, who walks away from his clique when angered. Dai sai huh! And the ending theme song "Zhuan Shu Tian Shi" sounds doubly nice after watching the show, as one makes absolute sense out of its lyrics.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

May everyone enjoy the holidays!

In school today...

"Teacher how old are you? You look like you're 18."

"Teacher you very handsome I sexually erect."

Nobody's ever underestimated my actual age. And I didn't know I had such universal appeal. To add, I suspect (can't confirm, sadly) some girls used their phones to snap shots of me. Cool! Soon I'll be the Mr Chan whom students will curse their subject teachers to fall sick just to get to take them for a period.

Ok I was half-joking about the last sentence. But the trip to school today was really ego boosting.

I recall in 2005 when I was in the same school and Yaochen (from Dunman) was the only other male relief teacher. Overnight he became "the good-looking relief" and I became "the other relief". Rarrr! It didn't help that there was another female relief and the students (we had some common classes) happily paired them up and I was outcasted as the moronic ugly third party!

But now, I get all the attention! Muhahahahah!

Now you know there's someone more desperate than the students.

It was a hot Valentine's Day for me, wearing long-sleeve from dawn till dusk. Bedok Town Secondary called me in the morning and I went to relief teach. Straight after I went for my last shift of bus ridership surveying.

Came evening and couples started streaming in to Marina South Pier. For your info it's quite a good place to romance! There's a bar, a restaurant and a ship which is a restaurant among the options. Anyway the girls all had flowers and the guys all had cars and all these made me unusually lonely and pressurised.

And there I was, in formal wear, sitting on a chair at the bus stop, looking out for the bus every few minutes and checking my phone periodically for the time. The uninformed ones at the pier must have thought I've waited for my date since afternoon and that the date chose not to appear and at 8p.m. I decided to give up waiting and head home to hug Mummy.

I really thought I looked sorry enough just now to invoke feelings of bliss in the couples who walked past the bus stop. How noble of me.

What's (hair)ppening?

Everyone seems to be colouring their hair after getting that pink card. Isn't black "in" now? Ok, maybe not for the next week. But look at Jolin Tsai and Show Luo, looking as great in black. Or maybe we're just too sick of them topped with golden locks. So, should I?

I forgot to show off the other day.

My handsome Sec 3 look is back!

And I scored impeccably well in my Certificate of Service. *Sneers at those with no 'VERY's* Despite three unserved extras and other random misdeeds. Oh well, it's over.

Jinxing's 21st Birthday Celebration @ His Place

Remember her?

She is Clara Tan, the Campus Superstar 2006 contestant from Dunman High. 'O' Level results were released yesterday and she's got 7 A1s and 2 A2s. Congrats! Her cohort did well, given that 4 classes of better students were exempted from 'O's for IP. 100% eligibilty for JC. Average L1R5 of 9.1. 75% scored 10 points and below.

7 A1s. Sigh. I've always wanted 7 A1s actually, because it will show that I'm somewhere there but yet am human enough to err and settle for less for a few subjects. But it turned out that I was too human. Smarter readers please don't take it to heart.

I wonder if people are confused by reports on the top scorers. The English papers normally take information straight from MOE, whereas the Education Correspondent at Lianhe Zaobao Pan Xing Hua will bother to include Mother Tongue results which were released the year before.
And I'd like to think most schools release their results using the latter way, which means the top scorers of this cohort should be the 18 students with 10A1s in all and not include the other 7 who didn't have an additional A1 at a previous taking.

It matters! CNA was flashing a headline something like "St Nicholas Girls' and Methodist Girls' produce 4 top scorers each" and it turned out that 3 of the 4 MGS girls didn't have an additional A1. Misleading isn't it! But of course they can't trick me. MGS got so good meh! *Sniggers*

Ok I'm done with my annual 'O' Level report.

Xueting's 20th Birthday Celebration @ Cafe Cartel Raffles City

Yenghian's 21st Birthday Celebration @ Newton Food Centre

Camp Facilitators Needed!

Hey guys I've got a senior from Buddhist Fellowship who runs a company which organises camps for schools. Not Buddhist camp lah. Those normal 3-day camp with games and campfire. And he needs around 10 to 15 facilitators.

Date: 9th, 10th, 11th March 2007 (Friday afternoon - Sunday morning)
Venue: To be confirmed
Pay: $200

Not bad right. No prior experience needed. I was thinking the March ORD personnel can collect their ICs on the 9th and then come for this camp for quick bucks. Of course all other people are welcome! He really needs people and I guess we really need money so let's win-win ok? Haha.

FINALISED list of people who've indicated interest:

1. Me
2. Yenghian
3. Anntat
4. Xinhe
5. Fabien
6. Derrick
7. Zhaowei
8. Gerald
9. Fookweng
10. Philip
11. Kuixi
12. Jiansheng
13. Weibiao
14. Yexing
15. Wenxuan
16. Ben
17. Jana
18. Zhiqi

ORD.

Congratulations to Daren!

I'm no fan of his but I just think he deserves the title more than Diya. At least when he sings he emotes well and most of the time is in control of the song. Diya's got the package but I just don't see what's nice about her voice? Oops. And I wonder why her mum looked like she was at a funeral when the camera was on the family. Your daughter performed her best and thanked you on stage and you had to be expressionless. I know it's none of my business but seeing her mum like that made me really bu shuang. Look at Daren's parents, glowing with pride; if I ever do my parents proud I want them to be like that too.

With many handshakes and much hitchhiking, I've got most of my clearance done over the week. The next time back to camp will be the day to collect my IC. I can't say I look forward to it because this period of leave clearing has really been enjoyable.

Marcus (Teo) offered me a one-week job and I took it up. So from 8 Feb to 14 Feb I (along with Derrick) will be stationed at the Marina South Pier bus stop to collate the ridership figures of Service 402 I think. Hope it'll be fun.

After that one-week stint I intend to fully immerse myself in the spirit of Chinese New Year, meaning I won't be looking for a permanent job so soon.

I may be applying for internship at Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery Youth Ministry (Guang Ming Shan). Still hesitating because there is bound to be politics in any workplace and seeing the true colours of fellow Buddhists may just be demoralising.

Weeknights are kept busy with tennis lessons on Mondays, French classes on Tuesdays & Thursdays and sutta studies on Wednesdays. It's good because I don't like to be at home at night.

That's about all the updates! I have some one-day job lobangs coming up so stay tuned! Really!