Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Photo blog

Just another photo blogging post about the stuff I've been up to during this hols...

3-1 class chalet

Glad the fire was up and starting before I managed to locate the BBQ pit..for a moment I was wondering if I'll have to watch them start the fire and start eating at 10pm.... :P
Though I had to BBQ some of the food myself...was overall quite enjoyable spending time with the class...


See my nice class t-shirt?!??? =)

Love my obnoxious cat shirt that I bought from Thailand... :)
And the den of gamblers in the chalet..haha..the rest were all gaming..

Really hope the chalet served its purpose to bond the class closer together... =)


Funny newspaper cutting
Saw this stuck on my friend's room's door. Haha...apparently her father cut it out from the newspaper and stuck it on her door after he noticed that she was overworking herself..haha..



C & K's wedding
Yes another pair of friends got married to each other.

And this is the group of us who sang at their wedding..haha...
The reason why we're holding all those toy stuff in our hands while taking this pic is coz they were our props for one of the songs called "Going to the chapel"!!

Haha...coz one part of the lyrics goes..
Spring is here & the sky is blue
Birds all sing as if they knew..

So when these 2 particular lines popped up, we raised the props that we were hiding at the back of us at the respective key words like Spring (we raised the flowers), sky (we raised the back of the Doraemon, Doraemon coz my friend C is in love with Doraemon), birds (we raised the little bird toys)..HAHA..
Think the wedding couple was quite amused, but at the same time, very appreciative of our crazy efforts in trying to make their wedding more special...

Don't you think this tiny pair of platypuses are so cuuuute???!!?
Haha..couldn't resist taking pics of it...they were one of the props that we used...super cute..

And this is the whole jing gang of VCFers who turned up for the church wedding.. =)


Christmas carolling

This is the ACJC choir carolling at the Esplanade on 24th Dec. I never fail to watch them carol every year, ever since I stopped singing with the alumni in 2001. Had really wanted to join them for their carolling this year, but somehow the timing was just inconvenient. Guess I'll have to wait till next year.
Next year happens to be the 20th anniversary of the Choral Programme in AC....REALLY tempted to join them to sing for the 20th Anniversary concert in July next year. But I'm not sure if I can make the time commitment...haiz....

So much memories of my choir days.....







Well, Christmas has come and gone, and school's starting in like...4 days???
Oh my.....but I guess I've been thinking about school and the upcoming year's responsibilities and all so much...that I've become a little numb to school reopening.

Excited...but yet...worried...that's what I feel about the new year.....I really hope that I can cope..and cope well..

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Greetings from Hong Kong!

Hey hey hey!



Greetings from Hong Kong :)



Nice, cool, air-con-like weather we're having here...only between 20-24 degrees. So no need to be dressed up like a polar bear...according to my mum, it used to be reeeeeeeeeeeal cold during December in Hong Kong..but now it's just getting warmer and warmer each year....

Will be returning tomorrow night...or should I say, Sat EARLY morning..
Not so many pictures to post at all....coz, I've been here a godzillion times...haha...

Well, time for breakfast...my yummy carrot cake!!

See you online in 2 days di ;)

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Krabi

Hmm, by right, I ought to be doing my lesson plans now.....but...feel quite tired of doing it liao.
Sec 3 AND sec 4 classes...here I come..
Have not taught 2 levels simultaneously for some time now...feeling the pressure already..
*DEEP breath*

Have been trying to do as many lessons as I can over the past week or so....before I board yet another plane and fly off to Hong Kong next Mon! Goodness me...will be there for 5 days.
Not that I'm not looking forward to it, but the naggy feeling that school's gonna start soon keeps bugging me....and I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling it..haha..
This will be my 3rd consecutive year going back to Hong Kong during the December break...but this year, there's just be 3 of us, instead of 4.....


Oh well...as promised, more about Krabi and Bangkok coming up....

So this the beginning of the Krabi adventure...having to walk on soft easy-to-sink into sand to reach our longtail boats to get to Railay coz it was really low tide at that time of the day. Railay is one of the further away beaches that can only be reached by a boatride..

Was a bit disgusting actually...coz some parts of the sand was GREY in colour....and no I'm not about to guess why it's grey.....*eew*
Hahah...so these are my friends..all waddling through the water...eventually the water came up to above our knees...so my poor friends who were wearing jeans, all had their jeans half wet... :P
And the boat that we'd jump on!! =)
Finally on our way to Railay... :)
And this is Railay, doesn't look too impressive right now huh...coz it's low tide you see...and not much sun to show the colour of the water.....
My nice nice nice room :P Hee....this time round, my friends and I stayed at a place called Princess' resort. MUCH nicer than the previous time I was at Railay...heh..also coz all my friends didn't mind spending a little more to feel more pampered during our holiday. And to begin with, the rates are very reasonable...worked out to about $55 a night, and it's inclusive of breakfast every morning ;)
Heh, just playing with the macro function on my camera in my nice nice nice room... ;)
So this is what we were off to early next morning after breakfast....natural rockwall climbing!!
Heh, was a pretty fun experience...also coz I have climbed a few times in the Sports rockwalls in Singapore before, so I've at least got the basic techniques...
Pictures during the climb are pretty unglam, so here's one after I've reached the top and am on my way down..haha. My belayer was quite a funny guy...was talking and joking with me non-stop as I was climbing, and he even said "Go go go! If you reach the top I"ll buy you beer tonight!" Haha..funny guy....

A few of us, all smiles after our climbs.. :)

After climbing the whole morning, we decided to do some cave exploration! Haha..our belayer kindly led us up into the cave....
....through a little tunnel....











...and VOILA.. The beatiful view from being halfway up the cave =) This is also the view that we are able to see on our way down from the climb when we're dangling in mid-air ;)
Look at the super clear waters!
And this is my funny belayer, he's got like a super toned body lah!! Scary man... Can't remember why we were laughing so happily...must be something mad my friend said..

Heh on our way back from our climbing and caving, I spotted 2 flies mating! Keke...couldn't resist using the macro function on the camera to catch them :P
So after a late lunch, we went kayaking...see that kayak in the midst of the reflection of the sunset? That's my friends' kayak!! =)
And this is mine ;) Can you see the ridiculously large life-jackets that we're wearing??? It's so huge that if I buckled it and put it on properly, it'd go all the way up to my ears! Had to like talk to my friend through the shoulder hole...how silly is that..haiz..
And, the thing that I love....sunset by the waters....
Haha can't help but think that I kinda spoilt the picture by being in it.... :P But just couldn't resist taking super a lot of pics of the sunset...
That weekend that we were at Krabi, happened to coincide with the Loy Krathong Festival. It's a festival where the thai people honour and I think apologise to a particular river that they make use of in their daily lives. Krathong is this little lantern-looking thing that the people release into the waters....it comes in many shapes and sizes....
So this is our Krathong.. haha, the most simple kind of it. Just a coconut shell plus a candle and simple accessories on it..
Other than honouring the river with their krathongs, people will also cut off a little of their nail or hair and place it into their krathongs, in the hope that the krathong will take away their bad luck or any bad things that are happening in their lives in the coming year..

But I don't believe in that, so I didn't try to pluck a strand of my hair to place into the krathong...my friends did though. :) so all I did was float the krathong for the experience of it..
And these are our krathongs! I think basically Loy Krathong means to let go of the krathong, or to float the krathong..
I think I put my camera on night mode or something...so the picture turned out like that..which I think is pretty cool actually :P

And that marks the end of my 2nd day in Krabi.....

Talk more about the trip another time, if I remember... :)

Monday, December 03, 2007

One of the things I love.....

....is a lovely sunset along the beach...
Took this picture at Krabi during one of the evenings after we'd finished kayaking... just love the way the setting sun reflects against the sea...puts one in a reflective and nostalgic mood.
The sound of waves softly splashing onto the sand...somehow has a calming and soothing effect.
That's why I love being by the waters...be it at the seaside...or at MacRitchie reservoir in the evenings...especially at times when I feel I needed some personal space...or at times when I felt sad or troubled...