What the...

Another bad hair cut from Supercuts.

I am officially boycotting this salon from now on - even though I've been its loyal patron for 11 years, for which you'd think there'd be benefits, but NOOooo.

Sigh. Now I've got to brace myself for comments from my students. It's like high school all over again :'/

Javalicious Personality

Do you like ...

1. A strong and aromatic Espresso to start your day?
2. A rich and velvety Cappuccino for a pick me up?
3. A smooth Cafe Latte for your fix?
4. A Cafe Mocha with that added hint of chocolate?
5. Or a nice and cold Iced Coffee to go with that mid afternoon treat?




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If you picked...

Espresso: You are intelligent and sophisticated. An organized and determined individual that puts your best foot forward in whatever you do.

Cappuccino: You are a bubbly and jovial person, and the focus of attention at every party or soiree.

Cafe Latte: You are amiable, generous and obliging - perhaps too obliging at times and people take advantage of you.

Cafe Mocha: You are charismatic and alluring, can always be seen in your sartorial elegance.

Iced Coffee: You are cool and composed, reserved in your own way. Carefree in what you do, and emancipation is your philosophy of life.
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Info tidbit courtesy of tcc (the coffee connoisseur)
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You never know what interesting things you can pick up off a table to read on a boring afternoon waiting for people to show up at a cafe.

At any rate, I believe such trivia remotely appeals (if you indeed found it so) because we like to see ourselves reflected back, not just because we are egotistical but also because on the contrary, we are insecure and require constant re-affirmation as to who we are...

Salman Rushdie wrote in Midnight's Children: “As a people, we are obsessed with correspondences. Similarities between this and that, between apparently unconnected things, make us clap our hands delightedly when we find them out. It is a sort of national longing for form – or perhaps simply an expression of our deep belief that forms lie hidden within reality; that meaning reveals itself only in flashes.”

Zen: Everything based on the mind, led by the mind, fashioned by the mind.

Finally got down to having a go at the mini Zen Garden my brother had bought back for me from Melbourne (don't ask me why he considered it an Australian souvenir).


According to the handbook, this garden...

"... is a portable way to escape the tensions of ordinary life for people who are always on the go.
Zen, the Sanskrit word for meditation, is a discipline. The purpose is to clear the mind of the chaos of everyday life in order to achieve a greater state of inner peace and harmony."

That the first thing I did when I began to fuss over my garden was to make sure every last itsy grain of sand was within the wooden platform does not begin to illustrate the irony extant in my attaining serenity and relaxation via this 3" x 4" box of another-thing-to-worry-about.

First thoughts over a long haul

A few posts ago, I made a list to celebrate my 25th birthday - a list of all the firsts I've had this year in order to count my blessings. This post, however, is an addendum to that list because since then, I've had a lot more "new experiences" to commemorate the year with, and while it may all seem to have taken place over a month and a half - it didn't!

You can't imagine how many things can go on at the same time in 14 days until you're a teacher, and I'm only now having the time to start (and hopefully stop) reeling from it all and actually blog about it and this is only possible because the september hols have just started, and I'm taking a minute (or sixty) to indulge in reflection before marking takes place full swing again.

To begin, this is the year that I first got pulled over by a cop on the highway. It should have been more traumatic there and then but I was too preoccupied with the fact that I was already running late for a briefing and that this cop was wasting my time lecturing me, and all I wanted was for him to get on with it. But he had to do the teacherly thing and ask - or rather, two-finger signalled - me to get out of my car and (to his credit) begin socratic-questioning me:

Cop: M'am (he actually m'am-ed me !) - do you know what I'm pulling you over for?
Me: (innocently and naively owning up to something that turns out was probably not what he was booking me for) ERm, speeding?
Cop: Anything else?
Me: (genuinely puzzled and annoyed at the seconds flying by now) No...?
Cop: You were swerving in and out of lanes, and you caused a motorbike to brake abruptly. Do you know what that's called?
Me: (rolling my eyes all over inside my head) No...?
Cop: Reckless driving.
Me: Ok.
Cop: Where do you come from?
Me: (for some reason thinking that he meant where I hail from) Er, east?
Cop: No. Where were you before this?
Me: (the light dawns suddenly) Oh. Home.
Cop: Are you rushing somewhere?
Me: (my eyes momentarily light up in the faint hope that he will let me off if he knew my plight) Yes, actually!
Cop: Ok. I'm going to write a ticket for you. The fine will be $156 and six points.
Me: (the light goes out) Ok.
Cop: - (stunned at my aquiescence stands there awkwardly before he decides to get on with writing me up).

Now all this would really be fine and dandy to me (because really, I accept my mistakes - I do) but for the fact that by the time I got to the debate briefing for judges it was all over, and after my apologies, the lady in charge simply handed me two sheets of handouts (which I had already printed out at home), gave me a few lines of instructions in less than 2 minutes and dismissed me - I was still panting from running up the stairs to the school hall when my "briefing" was over! AH. That's what pisses me off - that I could actually have saved myself the stress of speeding (at one point along the seleter expressway at 140km/hr) and killing myself in the process of getting to some meeting that wasn't important at all :/

This is the year that has made me feel for the first time a need to re-evaluate my priorities and question whether I take things about work too seriously. No, seriously. And another lesson learned from this all, after venting to my dad and friends about it, is that there's only one answer when pulled over: "Do.. do what? Was I doing something?"

Turns out at 25, there's still a lot out there I dont' know.

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Speaking of which, in all the years of National Education in Singapore and celebrating Racial Harmony Day, I have never learned as much about the Indian culture as I did in one afternoon when 3 colleagues and myself trekked down to Little India on a sari hunt for Teachers' Day Dinner: the theme was green, and our table decided to be Bollywood Greenhorns.

On Buffalo Street, watched my colleagues get their eyebrows and upper lips threaded (never saw that before) in a little quaint shophouse by these really dexterous Indian women who pull at hairs with a really fine string latched around their fingers and teeth, plucking away efficiently (and I guess, somewhat painlessly). We went through rows and rows of punjabis in Tekka Mall, pulled out packs of silk for saris on Campbell Street, and watched the art of tying a sari (and tucking it into a thin skirt beneath) from this really eccentric but kind old aunty in the sari store (who so willingly offered to let us go to her house even, to help us tie our saris for the dinner). We offered to give her "coffee money" in appreciation for all her help and patience, but she refused to accept it because according to her religion, goodwill is stored up and rewarded later.

This is the year, I made my first foray into Little India and discovered a friendly nook of Singapore, where beliefs continue strong and cultures still run deep.

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Tradition-wise, this is my first official Teachers' Day celebrations on the other side of the playing field.

At the school's dinner, (where I croaked out 3 songs and played the piano accompaniment to another 2), I actually got lucky (for the first time) at my Lucky Draw and won what I've always wanted - a mini warmer/ fridge! Still need to find the right adapter to use in my room but can't wait :)



After it ended, went out for the first time with a large group of colleagues to Mambo night, and actually wore my sari to Zouk. Apparently, my exotic factor (to quote a friend) went up that night, but so did the number of sleazy looks. Anyways, while fun, the sari was a pain to wear clubbing - it got dragged, stepped on, spilt on, not to mention the fuss with the loo. (N.b. pics of sari are on friendster).

The event also made it the first night I've ever stayed out till 3am on a weekday night having to turn up at school the next day at 725am. But I am glad to announce (in the light of my resolve to take things less seriously) that despite waking up late at 7am the next day (an hour half later than usual) and knowing that I could not make it to school on time particularly due to the massive downpour and traffic congestions on all the major highways, I did not speed nor curse along the drive there. It also became my very first morning to be late to school at 735am! For those who don't know me, that's really a huge accomplishment on my part.

All in all, Teachers' Day celebrations were fun - received many gifts, chocolates, cookies and cards. The best, however, were those cards written with heart-felt words. Cliched and corny as it sounds, they were really what made me feel the most encouraged - to know that at least, there are some things I was doing right this whole 2006 year of gabra-ing around in class.

Perhaps it's because the nature of a teachers' job has to do with a lot of trial and error, that the very last line of the Teachers' Day rally speech by PM Lee had to be this: "Do your job well, and we will secure Singapore’s future for many years to come."

But like an astute friend pointed out, that could also apply to lawyers... bankers... the cleaning ah-soh...

Truth be told, I hope we inspire more depth of feelings in our students than what's evident in our politicians.

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Happy Teachers' Day=)