So long?

I never knew that one could be unwell for such an extended period of time. Was just casually chatting with L a few days ago, when he suddenly exclaimed that I've been sick for a whole month.
A WHOLE MONTH?!?
Sure or not..... That was my own reaction. But after thinking for a few minutes, I realised to my slight horror that he was right.
I've actually taken ill for almost 4 entire weeks, having taken 2 courses of antibiotics in just this 4 weeks alone. Wooooaaaahhhh...my goodness me. What in the world is happening.
And guess what, i ACTUALLY TOOK MC on Monday. For me to take MC, says something. I really very rarely go on medical leave. Just shows how bad this bout of illness has become.
Common test was this week and I had totally no energy to give remedials... :(
For the past few years, i rarely even touched the microphone when teaching. And now, I've been using it for about 3 weeks plus. argh.
Just can't get my voice to recover!! I'm getting irritated with myself.

But I suppose, not getting enough rest is the main culprit to this prolonged period of being unwell.
Just too much to dooooooo.
Which is why, I took almost this entire weekend to sleep lots.
My condition is worrying me. If I don't get well soon, I think my voice is going to become permanently damaged *noooooooooooooooo*
(okok, I'm becoming paranoid)

Eeks, so much more to do this coming week.
Eeks.....
eeeeks...
EEEEEEKKKS!!!

*hello hello, you can finally hear me"

My boys would know, I suffered from a total loss of voice last week for 2 days of school. And now, 1.5 weeks after that, my voice still has not fully recovered. But at least I can speak now...though I sound as if I've got this layer covering my throat..finished all the medication, but still having a slight cough..bleah.

Been 2 weeks since resumed work...and boy has it been a hectic 2 weeks.

Last weekend was CHMA, thankful that everything went well.
Special thanks to W, for all the guidance and help rendered. Hopefully it'll be just as beautiful next year.

Sweet gesture received this week. Thanks Part Ds past & present, appreciate it.

Common tests are coming up in Week 5, and we're already pass Week 3. Week 5, that's like SO early. Trying to catch up with the syllabus and the other classes, plus marking, and to squeeze in time to give my guys revision class tests. And of course, some boys still don't realise the importance of self-control, and their own responsibility in handling their work.
Can I take the test for you? NO. If you can't be bothered, how shall I help? I'm not an energiser bunny by the way, there's only that much I can remind and chase you for your work. Please don't give me excuses anymore. PLEASE, for your own sake.

On my way to watch Dim Sum Dollies today, I was travelling on the ECP. From the bridge leading to Suntec, I could see a whole sea of red at Marina Bay. It was the National Day rehearsal. Sadness gripped my heart.... Without warning, came tears...I couldn't stop them.... My dad, he loved going for NDP because of his love for photography. And I know he would have loved to be at this year's NDP, since it's the first time it's being held at Marina Bay. I know that NDP this year, is gonna be a heartwrenching day for us.

A dream?

Many may know..the past week has been a whole whirlpool. It's almost as if it was a dream...I wish it was, but the fact is...it isn't.

Everthing happened real quickly...and before we had time to let reality sink in, that was it.
No last goodbyes, no last words...just deep sleep...until the end.
I wish I could say for sure that he is in a better place, but the fact remains that, I'm not 100% sure. I guess I'll never know till the day I get there myself...

When I first heard the devastating news, there were no tears, just a feeling of being lost, and thoughts of what we should do next..... it was only when I held his warm hand in mine, and touched his forehead with my own hands, did the tears starts streaming down uncontrollably. I couldn't believe it was really happening.

All through the night we stayed with him....and relatives were sweet enough to come to us in the middle of the night to bring comfort and support. Through this whole episode, I really saw the support and love of the extended family, without which I think we might have collapsed.....I promise I'll never say that I am bored of going for extended family dinners/meet-ups anymore. It is with such love and support that things seemed a little easier. My cousin B took leave and was with us all the time...2 aunties and an uncle too...
Friends also sent me waves of smses....thank you Lord, you knew I needed it..

Who would have thought that he'd go so young? Everyone who came to pay their last respects expressed the same sigh.
Over the course of the week, we met many many of his old friends, colleagues, ex-colleagues. All were full of praises and admiration for him...I almost felt as if I was being re-introduced to him all over again. He was so well-respected, well-received, well-loved by them..almost made me wonder, what people might say about me when it's my turn to go... There were so much flowers....so much so that they were being put in 2 rows..such was the impact he had..

He was the the traditional kind who believed actions spoke louder than words.
Encouragment expressed in words, were not often heard......
"He was very proud of you and your brother..when he spoke about you two, you can see his eyes lighting up.."
"He was very proud of you as a teacher...he said you really had passion for the job and the boys..."
Thank you for telling us...

How long will I take to recover? I don't know..what I do know is, reality is just beginning to sink in right now...and more responsibilities will be coming my way...

Thank you, to all those who came down to pay your respects and show support and encouragement. To my friends, colleagues, boys...thank you...be it coming down or sms'g.

Goodbye dad...

And the countdown begins...

.... do you know...................that we are exactly 2 weeks to the eve of the greatest music event of our school year? ;)









Over the past month.....much time has been spent on CHMA...I must say, it has been a real eye-opener being directly involved with the event. Thanks to the guidance and much needed support & help of W, the preparations for CHMA has gone on without too many hiccups..





The first major work done during the 2nd week of the June holidays was the photoshoot for our programme this year. Majority of the pictures that are seen in the collage above are taken from Zhongwei's blog.


Zhongwei is one of our old boys...and a fantastic photographer ;)









In that same week, we also did a recording session in the studio with the solo vocal finalists, as well as review sessions of their performances at the end of that week & on the Wed that just passed. All these, to ensure that we have a smashing time on 07.07.07 ;)





So, after all these background information......

HAVE YOU BOUGHT YOUR TICKETS YET??!!??

Wedding #2

Yup, so I attended wedding #2 last weekend.
CHS people would probably recognise every single person in this collage (ok maybe those who didn't go for the wedding wouldn't know the groom :P)

Decided to put up a collage this time round instead of putting up the pics individually. I love the collage by the way, love the tinted glass in the church... =)

Congrats again B & M :)

Sec 3 Camp (III)

YEsssss!!
I just finished checking a stack of files :P Seriously, I haaaaaate checking files. But..what to do. Must make sure the kids have all their materials nicely filed up, if not when they want to revise next time, it'll be a total mess.

So, to reward myself, I shall blog about that last day of sec 3 camp. hiak hiak.

So, 3rd day was trekking. The teachers were all braced for the attack of the killer leeeeches..by spraying 10 000 layers of insect repellant on our track shoes! Haha, apparently that helps to at least repel them away from your feet. And I was armed with my mosquito coil and holder hanging on my bag as I am a mega mosquito attractor. AND, that was how I suddenly "adopted" 2 godsons...coz they simply couldn't stop following behind me during the WHOLE trek coz they wanted to be super near to the mosquito coil..hahha.....

So after breakfast, we took a boat across the river to where we were suppose to trek.


And after I lit my mosquito coil, we started our trekking. Must say, that the NCC Ophir trips have really been useful in building my confidence and toughening me up.. felt quite at ease and comfortable during our trekking...all those familiar sites of tree roots on the floor...climbing up and down...pulling onto ropes to get up certain steeper areas...helping each other along the way. Think our group did enjoy ourselves even amongst the groans and moans of having to climb up and down and up and down :) I for one, didn't find the trek boring at all due to the immense amount of "live entertainment" that I had behind me from this group of boys...haha.. ;) Oh oh oh, and not to mention, we didn't see a SINGLE leech during our trek, as opposed to the group that trekked the day before...seems many of them got bitten, including the teachers. So, yay =)

I think this was our first rest point....

At this rest point, one of my ex-students JC passed me an almost "empty" mineral water bottle and said something like "ms chow, want to drink or not?" to which I replied "Huh, it's ok I have my own..and anyway, there's barely water inside?" And he said, "nm nm, just hold the bottle and see...". So ok..I held the bottle...and he was like..."can you see what's inside?" And there I was looking looking....saw nothing. And he pointed here pointed there.. "See see? See that white white thing??" And then I FINALLY spotted this little white furry insect which had a reddish underneath...and I just mused "AYE so cuuute!"
And this was his face --------> 0.o Hahahah...followed by ---------> -.-
JC: "Huh??? CUTE???? (turns to his friend) She's not scared at all la!!"
Ms Chow: "Huh? Hahhahahah scary meh?? So cuuute!" :P

Hahah...but seriously, I found that little creature cute. Please la, I've seen scarier insects. :P
Anyway, I think the boys ended up torturing the poor little thing by SHAKING the bottle profusely even though I told them to let it go.....eviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil boys.......tsk tsk.

The view looks great doesn't it? :)

We were supposed to actually go for our tree-top walk before we trek to the highest point, but there were too many other tourists there, so we carried on trekking first.
And here we are, at the highest point of our trail ;)

The teachers, all smiles :)

OK, there is a story behind this POLE inside our pic. I had wanted all of use from CHS to be in a nice pic, so I asked one of our guides to help take the picture. And this is the pic he took -.-"
Couldn't he see that the ENTIRE POLE was inside the pic!?!? Already kinda suspected that he was in the total wrong position when he stood so near to the pole...haiz....

So in the end, still had to ask one of our own students to take the pic. Thanks KK :)

Aah, isn't this so much better without the pole! =)

The nice scenery from our highest point..

And this is the starting of our tree-top walk. Only a group of 5 of us can go up at a single time, so as to not overload the bridges on top.
The path is kinda skinny isn't it? But I think that adds to the fun..hee.
A view from the tree-top walk...
This is the reason why we can only go up to the tree-top walk at intervals and in small groups..coz they actually limit how many people can be at certain points, to ensure that the weight doesn't become too much for the bridges and stop points.
Haha...just wanted to take a pic of myself on the along the way..
Remember I mentioned 2 individuals who were perpetually behind me coz of my mosquito coil? :P
A picture of our troop of people before I got off the bridge..

After our tree-top walk...we went back to the floating restuarant by boat to have our lunch before we went for rapid shooting.



No pics for rapid shooting thought I did bring my camera along in a ziplock...coz I was SO drenched....thanks to my beloved students in my boat who kept on pouring water onto me. So I didn't take the camera out.

Got a sunburn from sitting at the river for close to an hour =.=" Cannot really believe it....haiz.
And of course, with so many students around, and the teachers sitting around on the rocks in the middle, we became the target of water splashing. Haha..


After we got all cleaned up, we were off to a resort for our final yummy dinner together as CHS again.

More on that tomorrow ;)
Now I have to get ready to attend a wedding dinner!!

Busy busy busy!!

Woah, has been a hectic one week since we came back from Sec3 camp. Have been in school everyday (with the exception of the weekend) since last Fri...Maths Hols. Prog..CHMA performers' reviews + photoshoots + recording session. *Phew* Sure doesn't feel like the hols are here.
So last weekend I attended another friends' wedding (first of 3 consecutive weddings that I'll be attending)....

At the wedding reception, I got to play with my friends' baby...isn't she super cute???? Just look at her arm...such a michellin baby...heh... :P
And here's the newly wed couple...I was one of the emcees for this church wedding....and, believe it or not, I was translating into CANTONESE. Haha...thankfully all I did was stutter once...didn't make any gross mispronounciations ;)
Then on Sunday, met up with good ol' group of sec sch friends...was my friend S's birthday..so we decided to meet up and just have a mini-celebration. She's the gal with the balloon ;)
And this is T, whom I promised will upload this photo onto my blog =)

So above were some of the more exciting things that I did over last weekend. Hee.

Sleepy...*yawn* ..the rest of the week's update will just have to wait. To those who are waiting to read "Sec 3 Camp (III)"....paiseh laah..... :P Gimme some time ;)

Sec 3 Camp (II)

So I had a pretty comfortable 1st night..great that our tent wasn't leaking one bit...and those sponge camping mattresses were really comfortable ;)
Thanks to some of the very gentlemenly 3-3 boys in my group who offered to help with dismantling our tent, we quickly dismantled it after we threw our bags out of it :P Thanks for taking the initiative you guys ;)
Was a little surprised to come back from the toilet to find everyone singing the national anthem followed by the school anthem....don't think we did that last year...but nevertheless, I suppose it's good practice.

Raring to go? :)

Personally, I was pretty excited about the 52km of cycling..it was a personal goal to finish it as well, as we didn't manage to complete the cycling last year due to a heavy downpour on our way to the last checkpoint..so was quite determined to finish it this year.
Sunblock...deepheat....gloves....helmet....bike........and WE'RE OFF!

As I was cycling....a lot of the sights and sounds became increasingly familiar....the houses...the greenery...the turns and bends..the cowdung even...haha....it is indeed nice to be away from Singapore after a tiring 2 terms.
This year, there seemed to be more casualties than last year. Had 2 people fly off their bikes.....and numerous with cramps along the way. Thankfully I was armed with my deepheat, so just kept giving blobs of it to those with cramps....but I think I'll bring the spray one next year (IF I'm cycling again), seems to give more immediate relief than the rubdown one. But actually, cramps can easily be prevented, you just gotta apply the deepheat BEFORE you start cycling, and at each pit stop. It really serves to prevent your muscles from cramping. Really. For both cycling trips, I've not had a single cramp ;)

Strangely, I actually find the exact same biking route more physically demanding this year. Could be because I was a little unwell...and also the slight lack of breakfast coz it was too painful to swallow the food due to my throat. A few times I actually wondered if I was going to make it...coz I was getting increasingly tired at each pit stop (& of course the butt aches don't help)...and seemed to be cycling with decreasing speed..

But YAY, proud to say that I made it :)
Even though at the time when I reached Taman Negara campsite...I was like.....err...don't know how to describe also. Just so tired out that I was stoning for a while when I reached there....no sense of jubilation or success...just.....total EXHAUSTION. Haha..it was actually quite funny when I thought back about it.....

We made it!! :)

In fact I was so tired out that I told Sharon "Can I just set up my tent here...don't want to walk already.." Hahha.

Upon arriving at the actual camping site, we were greeted with numerous stories of leeches and muddy trails....which made trekking the next day sound sooo un-enticing.
While waiting for the boys to settle their CIP (to clear the rubbish at the campsite) and their tents...this little kitten suddenly approached me from behind =)
My goodness, it's so super cute! See the way it's enjoying the scratching that I was giving it...but the poor kitty was also coughing I realised. Yes, COUGHING. In fact it was coughing non-stop...poor thing...could actually hear him wheezing as it breathed....

To our relief, the guides decided after dinner that the boys should have an early night in preparation for the trek the next day, so it was off to dreamland soon after dinner... :)

(to be continued)

Sec 3 Camp

My 2nd Sec3 camp in CHS, and I must say, it was as enjoyable as the first one that I went for last year. In fact, I think it was even more enjoyable this year as I went with the batch that I have taught since they were in Secondary 1.
The past 3 years have seen me doing much more adventure related activities like trekking, climbing, rafting, caving,abseiling,kayaking, camping outdoors because of my CCA and sec3 camp....thankfully for me, I actually enjoy and look forward to such activities ;)

This year, I was again assigned the combination of Trekking-Cycling. Though I had really wanted to either be assigned to a group where a majority of my form class was going to be at, or to a different combination from last year..but I guess, school needs comes first.

So, 26th May finally came...was kinda zonked out coz of some family matters the 2 days before that... Sped to school real early, only to realise I left my whole classes PASSPORTS at home! Wah, I almost fainted. Thankfully the roads were clear because it was so early in the morning, so I just sped home to pick them up before going back to school to meet up with the rest and settle all the admin stuff in the hall. Grouped with Sharon this year, was super fun!

Waiting to board our 2nd bus after the Malaysian customs..

After a pretty long bus ride, we stopped for our final group lunch before we split to our respective campsites. Couldn't really eat properly though, coz I was suffering from an inflamed throat, which I think was getting worse by the minute, even though I was already on antibiotics for 3 days already. Swallowing was a chore, as if there was a razor blade going down my throat.

Heard many students complaining about the flies around their drinks and food at our lunch place...I think some of them probably never saw so many flies at congregate around their lunch ever. Which is why sec3 camp is good for them...toughen them up..

Many more hours to go after lunch to reach our campsite...I think our bus got a little lost on the way coz we had to stop a few times to ask for directions (i think). Saw a bit of rain enroute too...just look at the clouds outside my bus...

Nevertheless, I think the clouds are beautifiul..........so I'm biased... :P

Thankfully we finally did get there, and before we got onto a boat to get us across the river to our campsite on the beach, there was a short briefing by our guide Sulaiman.

The view of our campsite from across the shore..

First time I'm camping by the beach..quite cool I must say..

That night, there were repeated flashes of lightning...was a little scary coz it literally lit up the whole beach whenever there was lightning...signalled impending rain for us that night. What was even more worrying was that one of our groups hadn't even arrived at our campsite even after we had all finished with our dinner. Turned out that they were brought to the wrong campsite, and then had to travel all the way back. Thankfully all was well and they reached us at around 9+.
I was quite surprised that we were offered camping sponge mattresses...pleasant surprise, since I wasn't expecting anything but an empty tent to sleep in..........

(to be continued...)

*knock knock*

Guess who visited me a couple of days ago?

*Meow*

This cat is soooo cute..first saw it when I exited the lift that night, and saw it sitting on the floor. Then after that it came really close to gate, and even stuck its paws into my house, to touch my toes =)

A pity my mum would kill me if I brought the cat into the house, if not, i surely will :P

So, after borrowing bagpacks from others for the past 2 years, I have finally gone to buy my own Deuter bagpack today! =) A big thanks to C for helping me with it ;) It's a 40 litres bagpack which is expandable to 50 litres..think the size is just right... So YAY, for once I'll be using my own big bagpack...and its maiden journey, would be the sec 3 camp!

I am really looking forward to the Sec3 camp...not only because I like taking part in such activities, but also because it signals the end of the term. Can't wait for June Hols....though it won't be much of a holiday for me, due to the many commitments that I have in school, but at least, it's a breather period from term time. I had initially wanted to go for just a short trip...just to get away and relax. But looking at my schedule..haiz. Nm, I shall go and watch many many movies...hee..

Below are just some pictures that I took over the last couple of weeks, which I wanted to blog about, but just didn't due to whatever the reason.

At Toa Payoh sports hall after the CHS B div Basketball win...

Heh, we're all smiles coz CHS just became champs again ;)

Just some graphics that S sent to me via bluetooth which I find super duper cute :P

2 street buskers at Ang Kio Central yesterday...

*yawn*..sleepy..