MAD TERM 3

Last week of school is finally here...it's FINALLY HERE!!!  Oh my goodness..this has been the CRAZIEST term 3 I've EVER been through.  When I look through the pictures that I've uploaded for this post, I really wonder how I went through the last 9 weeks without having lost my mind :S  Thank God for colleagues and loved ones who went through all that madness with me, else I might have really gone bonkers.

And so here is the maddest & most horrendous Term 3 ever, now through the eyes of my Nikon D60 :)

NCC POP 2010

A first for the unit, our POP was actually held in July!  Haha, due to a variety of reasons and constrictions, we had to push back our promotion of the Sec4s from Part Ds to seniors all the way till the first day of Term 3.

This is the 6th POP that I've attended in my time here, but is also one which really caused me to well up with pride and a tinge of sadness as I saw the batch that I've worked closest with, and loved the most, graduate to the rank of  "senior".  Think P and I have never spent as much time with another batch as we have spent to nurture and grow this batch, and seeing them mature and pass on the baton to their juniors was really one of the sweetest feelings...

Finally promoted to the rank of senior :)

To the Part Ds:  You guys will always have a special place in our hearts.  Don't forget to come back to visit yah? :)

S1 Singapore Youth Festival Mass Display

One of the events that added most to the madness of this term, was the mass display that the entire Sec1 cohort was involved in this year.  The kids had been practising for the event since February, twice a week, all the way up to the end of June, and finally, the event was here in the first week of school. 

The Sec1s and their form teachers attended only half a day of school everyday for the entire first week of school, and travelled over to Singapore Indoor Stadium for rehearsals.  All that culminated in the actual Opening Ceremony of the Singapore Youth Festival on that Saturday itself.

One of the many facets of being a teacher..styling kids' hair with gel and glitter before major performances!

Look at what the glitter did to my finger!?  I think up till now, I still can find traces of that silver glitter on my camera bag.. :S

Final briefing before heading off to Singapore Indoor Stadium for the actual event.  Isn't it a massive number of people??

This is the situation of our boys while waiting for dinner and waiting to perform..look like squatters don't they?  All thanks to the tiny mini weeny 3 little changing rooms that were allocated to the 300 of us.. =.='

The marching contingents at the start of the event..

JUST before our entrance into the arena for our performance..it's another squatter settlement!!

And the performance itself *beam* :)

The other segment of the mass display, a performance by the Sec2s of River Valley High School :)  very nice combination of colours I must say :)

And the grand finale item by both schools!

My kiddos and me

The theme of the SYF Opening ceremony, Torch of Friendship.

And this was my full-time job for the first week of Term 3...part time teacher, full time SYF 2010 Helper.

CHS 75th Anniversary Homecoming

So, after the madness of preparing for SYF the whole of 1st week, 2nd week was spent fretting and doing last minute preparations for the 2 stalls that my kids were putting up at our annual funfair-cum-Homecoming.  This year, I had a food stall and a games stall.  I was literally stuck at the Laser Tag games stall the entire day, trying to smoothen the flow of registration and lining up and all.  MY GOSH, it was really one biiiiiiiiggggg mess at the beginning due to the inexperience of the kids at dealing with situation that arises!  Goodness.

As can be seen, though I had my camera with me, I practically had no time to take pictures, and for the first time in my life, I didn't even walk around during Homecoming itself.  So this was me, at the end of the day.

Was a most horrendously tiring day, but at least the profits reaped were worth it. ;)

The Inaugural Singapore Youth Olympic Games

I must admit I was among those who weren't the most enthusiastic about the games coming to Singapore at the beginning for a whole variety of reasons..terrible me..  I must say, my enthusiasm for many things have dwindled to an all time low this year.  Hearing J mention how excited he was about the games, and how he'd like to have volunteered in this once in a lifetime event, made me reflect on my own low level of enthusiasm :S  BUT, I'm glad that through the 1.5 weeks of this historic event, I managed to catch some of the action 'live' (thanks to having to bring my boys and to Z who bought me the tix :P) and I'm really glad I did! :)

My kids and I at the Singapore vs Egypt Handball match at Suntec City..

Somehow, seeing the Singapore flag being hung there among the rest of the countries draws out this sense of pride from me :)

As can be seen, the Egyptian players are really big-sized compared to our Singapore players..

So we lost that match to Egypt, but I think it was still a good game, given that the Singapore team was a pretty new team.  Must say it would have been wiser to have checked up on the rules of the game before coming to watch it to prevent unnecessary angst :P  Apparently, it is actually legal for players of the opposing team to clamp their opponents' arms!  Something that the supporters (like my boys and I ) viewed as violence as usually, manhandling is not allowed in most games :P

Intermission performance by a dance troupe mad up of cute little boys.  Really cute and good! :)

The next game that I caught 'live' was the preliminary of Rythmic Gymnastics.

Was really excited about watching gymnastics 'live' because I've always loved watching gymnastics on television! :)  Thanks to Z who bought the tickets for me. :)

And this is the Singapore team warming up..

Singapore team performing with Hoops..

Singapore team performing with ribbons.. :)  Love the costume!

Canadian team, I think :P

Japan team

Z also managed to get the tickets to the Handball Finals, so I caught both the women's and men's handball finals, which were both very exciting!!  At the same time that the Handball finals was being played, Singapore was playing the 3rd-4th placing soccer match as well.  Would have definitely gone for the soccer match if I hadn't already agreed to go for the Handball match since Singapore was playing..  Nevertheless, handball was pretty interesting too :)

The women's finals was a match between Russia and Denmark.

Russia's goalie.

Russian player taking a shot at the goal.

Final score!

It's victory for the Denmark people!! :)

The men's finals had a pair of TWIN judges from France!! How cool is that?? :)

Egypt vs Korea.  Egyptians had height, but Koreans had speed!

Just look at how high the Korean player jumped to attack!

I was rooting for Korea, hoping that they'd win the finals on behalf of Asians, but the Egyptians won the game.  Didn't really like how the Egyptians started rejoicing and just wasted the last 15 seconds of the game away instead of playing till the end...though I do know that that can be a game tactic...I still thought that was quite rude of them :S

This is not a picture of a person experiencing a cramp during the match, it's a picture of one of the Egyptians getting a cramp from jumping around too much because they had won the game.   Hahahhahah...

Women's prize presentation.  Gold goes to Denmark :)

Proud supporter of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games :)

Goodbye big baby Pooh

After a good 2.5 years, I've finally decided to transfer the ownership of my humongous baby pooh bear over to LC's nephew, so that it can receive the treatment that it should have gotten right from the beginning, hugs and kisses from its owner everyday.  Took many photos of it together with my miniature pooh so that I can have them both in pictures at my office table :)  This is one of the cutest :P

Housewarming at J's place

Had a really good meet-up with my secondary school friends last Saturday at J's place at Holland V.  Think I've been so busy this year, I haven't been able to meet up with the gang as often as before.  So the night had a Spanish theme, so our food was basically spanish like tortillas and lotsa cheese and stuff :)

Chheeeeessssseeeeeeeeeeee :P

Some dip my friend whipped up at home, yummmmyyyyy :)

Can't remember what this drink is called...err...moschito? :)  yummmyyy :)

 

TSG all smiles :)

Yup, so that pretty much sums up my Term 3. *phew*  Amazed that I can do so many thousand major things in such short periods of time.  Will update more about Teachers' Day...maybe next week when I'm on my one week break ;)

June Happenings through the 'eyes' of my E63 camera..

I guess it's about time for an update...since I see Term 3 looming and impending stress waiting to pounce on me...

*Scape

For the uninformed (like ME..haha), *Scape is "Singapore's first building designed for young people, in the heart of town!" :)  I've always known that there was some sort of a Scape Youth Park near to Somerset MRT, but I didn't realise that they had built an entire building right next to Orchard Cineleisure complete with restuarants, lil' shopping places & dance studios + open spaces for youngsters to gather together to dance and all...quite a nice place I feel. 

This is where Z & I had our yummy dinner...at this nice lil' cafe-like place called Raindrops Cafe.

The whole place follows the theme of "Raindrops" as you can see...traces of raindrops are everywhere!  On the menu, on the ceiling, the shape of their water glasses, and even their napkins! :)

Raindrops is at one corner of scape, hardly noticeable if you have not first checked out where it is.  But it's a really nice little cosy place with great ambience.  The staff are all very warm and personable, it's truely service with a smile :D  Raindrops serves western food...pastas, pizzas and all...here's our menu for our lovely evening there :)

Appetiser: Tuna Tataki

Looks like beef doesn't it?  It's got small little mushrooms in cream sauce underneath it....very yummmyyy...

Mains: Vongole pasta

One of my favourite choices of pasta...

Mains: Thin-crusted BBQ Chicken Pizza

The cheese was so flow-y I actually had trouble trying to get a piece of pizza onto my plate without the cheese leaving a trail all the way from the pizza to my plate! :P

Dessert: Creme Brulee

Yuuummmmmyyyyy....

Dessert: Poached Pear with Ice-cream

Interesting dessert, my first time trying it.  Z says it's very nice, which I totally believe.  I'm not such a great fan of it though, because I'm not so into liqour..but nevertheless, very nicely done and presented :)

Before we left, we were given a feedback form, where our level of enjoyment/satisfaction is indicated by the number of.....RAINDROPS that we circle :)  It's a complete package of raindrops in all aspects of the cafe as you can see....  Very cute.. :)

We actually wondered into Scape itself after dinner to check out the shops inside.

This is Once Upon A Milkshake, the whole counter is purple!! Haha..and just look at those tiny little table and chairs...super cute...

We didn't have enough stomache space for anymore food, so I guess we'll have to try it next time.  But seems this little place has pretty good reviews.

Another interesting looking place is White Dog Cafe...

...little explanation is needed for the name of the shop yah? :)  I shall try the food one day too...the place looks so interesting..

Lush Spa

My brother sent me a spa voucher from Melbourne this year for my birthday, and sent my mum an exact same one for hers :)  So the 2 of us went for a 90min full body massage together at this place called Lush Spa, which is located within the Singapore Polo Club.

Ambience is nice and soothing...

And this is what the room that we had our spa in looks like...looks all nice and comfy doesn't it? :)

I thought there was a bit too much oils used for the massage...maybe it's normal to use oils, but with eczema, sometimes, the oils become a source of irritation.  But nevertheless, a pretty good experience :)

Baby Galore

Was at a friend's housewarming gathering recently, and lo and behold, the place was practically a nursery!!!  Hahaha....almost every friend who was there brought along their kids.  There were a total of...SEVEN babies/toddlers in the house..haha...

Of the 7 kiddos, these 2 are my favourite.  Aren't they adorable?? :)  Everyone say aaawwwwwwww... :P

Just thought that this is too cute for me to not put it on my blog :P  Part of my bday card from Z :)

Day out at Johore

It's become an annual outing for some of my friends and I to take a day-trip out to Johor Bahru during my June break, and this year it's no different :)  This time round, 6 of us went on our annual road trip :P  Didn't take many pictures at the trip, but of the few I took, think this is one of the funniest.  Can you see how GARGANTUAN the bottle of drink in front of me is??? It practically is the height of my entire upper torso! Haha....it's a passion fruit drink by the way, and just look at the height of the humongous straw that comes with the humongous drink :P

Despicable Me

Not sure what this upcoming movie is actually about, but I must say I'm most intrigued and tickled by the whole army of these little creatures that I see around movie ticket box offices every time I walk by :)  Super cute and funny looking..haha...

Witnessed a Phenomenon without knowing!

Was over at East Coast Park today, determined to have a relaxing weekend before the horrendous Term 3 dawns upon me.  And while having dinner, I noticed that there was half a moon in the sky, very interesting sight indeed, coz it looked as if the moon was cut in half vertically...

.....and even stranger still, was that the moon slowly slowly throughout the evening, became bigger and bigger until it became a FULL MOON.

Was kinda puzzled about the change in the moon over a short period of 2 hrs but didn't read too much into it, instead I just enjoyed the rest of my evening.  THEN, when I came home, I stumbled upon this Channel NewsAsia report which said that, what I witnessed today was a partial luncar eclipse! Wooooaaaaah, how cool is that??  And what's more, I was at one of the best places to view it according to the report! :D  I've cut and pasted the report below... woohooooooo.... :)

Channel NewsAsia report (25/06/2010)

Partial lunar eclipse on Saturday

SINGAPORE : It is a full—moon day this Saturday, but for about three hours in the early evening, half of it will be obscured. The partial lunar eclipse will begin at 6.16pm.

Prof Lim Tit Meng, chief executive of Science Centre Singapore, said: "The eclipse process will start about 6.16pm on Saturday evening. However, we can’t see that as the moon is still quite low. And by the time we can see the moon with the eclipse, the eclipse has already happened."

At the peak of the eclipse, 54 per cent of the moon’s surface will be shadowed.

To view this celestial event, the Science Centre has set up nearly 20 telescopes for astronomy buffs and the public.


There will also be talks by experts from The Astronomical Society of Singapore and a former NASA engineer.


Prof Lim said: "Because this time the eclipse happens quite early in the evening, so the best place to see this is actually on the eastern side of Singapore. So Changi beach, Marine Parade — these are all good places to see the initial stages of the eclipse."


"About 7.45pm, we can see half of the moon being darkened because of the shadow of the Earth cast on the Moon surface. And from then on, you see the shadow moving away, and the Moon will return to its brightness."

— Channel NewsAsia/al

:):):):):):):):)

Clouds, clouds and more clouds 

Not sure how many people have actually noticed it, but of late, the cloud formations in the sky is just  beautiful, and sometimes, spectacular.  Can't help but snap shots of the clouds in the sky....enjoy :)

J told me that this last picture looks like one that signifies hope and encouragement because of the the sun's rays bursting forth from behind the dark clouds...think I'll need loads of that for Term 3.............. 

Breakfast @ Riders' Cafe

My long time friends, D & A, and I decided that we were going to meet up for breakfast at Riders Cafe, this nice little cafe tucked away at Fairways Drive, really close to Turf City.

We were slated to meet at 0930h, and I scarily awoke at 0900h!! Haha, jumped outta my bed, got ready and dashed outta my house, zoomed there on the PIE, and yipeee, I reach right on the dot, 0930h :)

So I texted D to just let her know that I was already there, & to check on where they were.  5 seconds after my sms was sent out, my handphone rang, and on the other side of the line, was a sleepy and most apologetic D "I'm so sorry we missed our alarm & overslept!! we're coming now!!"

Haha, oh well.  That gave me about 40 min of time to wonder about by myself, and it was a lovely morning for gallavanting around as all the clouds were gathered in that slightly gloomy looking morning, and there was a slight breeze.

I had previously been to Riders Cafe in the evening for dinner just about a week ago, and the ambience in the cafe was really lovely.

(courtesy of www.riderscafe.sg)

But the surrounding just looked a bit scary and eerie because it was not very brightly lit every where else other than the restuarants.

But when you see everything in the morning, the feeling's just, quiet and serene..

So this was me....walking about on my own while waiting for D and A to arrive...

Interesting structures at one of the grass lawns beside another restuarant called Mimolette..

This was a common sight in the morning...jockeys walking their horses for exercise on the tarmac roads...

Most of the trees in the surrounding are all lush and green,  but just this one particular tree up on a little hill is devoid of leaves...it looked like one of those trees that you'd see beside the witches' hut in a fairytale when you see it at night, haha...but in the morning, it just looks like a nice old grandfather tree that has lost all its leaves in autumn...

Don't know how I managed to get this effect with my laopok Nokia E63 2.0 megapix camera..but turned out quite nice..

And this is the space that you'll see if you walk up towards the grandpa tree and walk behind it....

It was nice just being at the open space among the greenery....nice light and cool breeze...the smell of impending rain.  As I stepped onto the grass, I saw grasshoppers leap out and jump away..it felt as if I was transported back to Primary school, where we'd spend time to go to grass fields just to sneak up on unsuspecting grasshoppers to capture them as pets :P

There were many patches of these spiderwebs that had caught the morning dew....really brings back memories of primary school days.. Can you spot the grasshopper that is standing just below the spiderweb? :)

So the 40 minutes of wait whizzed by me, and before I knew it, D and A had arrived, and we headed to Riders Cafe to get a table...only to be told that we had to go on the waiting list and the wait was at least 45 min!!  OMG, at that moment, I really felt like I was stupid.  Why hadn't I gone to reserve a table first??

I remember peeking at the cafe when I arrived, and it actually looked like it was only half-filled..so I didn't bother to leave my name :S  But thankfully the waitress called us only a short 15 minutes later, and we got inside at about 1030 :)

On one side of Riders Cafe, you can actually see the horses....nice huh? :)

This is what the interior looks like..there's no air-conditioning though...but I guess, if it was air-conditioned...you wouldn't be able to see the outside and get a nice feel of being around the horses so much... :)

Now, on to what we had for our breakfast :)  The pictures below are courtesy of A, suuuuuper nice pictures in my opinion :)  And once again, I feel like I'm doing an advertisement for the places that I visit for my meals.. :P

Yummmmmy pancakes :)

 

D's Eggs Florentine

My super duper yummy Norwegian Benedict

And A's Rider's Breakfast :)

I guess that breakfast kinda became brunch instead...don't remember eating my lunch yesterday afternoon... :)