Best birthday gift

My old boy S called me to say he's been awarded the scholarship that he was applying for...
"Thanks Ms Chow for writing the testimonial, I got it :)"

It's called AGE

My friend A got me this little Mr Bean ice-cream stall...isn't it cute?  It had to be put together like Lego..and no, I didn't put it together, my 2 old boys ZY and G did it for me...thanks ;)

Many of the old boys came back for the Leaders Camp BBQ, was really nice seeing the old familiar faces again..somehow, I really miss this particular batch..

As I said, I'm a sentimental person, and I think as a person gets older, they tend to get more and more sentimental.  I find that I have been spending more time than ever thinking back about my years in the service, thinking back to my batches of boys who have graduated, thinking back to the years I was in university, in JC, in secondary school.  Perhaps it's because I currently have boys in all those stages of life that I had been at, some entering Uni, some just entered JC..hearing them talk about their life now, makes me think back to the days when I was a student too...and the choices I made then...and whether they were good ones...and what bad decisions did I make..  I must say, sometimes it gets overwhelming recalling the past, but I guess it's part of growing up too..

With age, I realised, also comes the weakening of one's body.  I used to be able to endure late nights all week, crash during the weekends, and be raring to go when Monday came.  But just 2 weekends ago, I was down the whole weekend due to a terrible cough and throat, and the week that came after that, was all a blur because of the cough and cold medicine, and eventually, antibiotics.

And these 2 days, I had migraine, for TWO days.  Even with panadol, it didn't seem to get better.

Made me recall a statement a colleague said to me a couple of weeks back.  I was remarking to him that I felt so tired everyday, I just kept falling asleep on my desk due to a camp that was held over a weekend during the term.  And my colleague just told me as a matter of factly, "bick, it's called AGE."

Haha...ageing sure takes some getting used to....

Photo competition entry

Nope I have not sent these photos for some big photography contest ;)  I however did send these in for my Learning Journey's photo competition though.. Hope one of them gets picked by the judges :p

Frenzy marking period!

Yes, it is the time of the term where chers have to be in a marking frenzy... have been marking frenzily to prepare my kids for their common assessments...

So to reward myself for working so hard that I'm on the verge of falling tremendously sick...I just placed my order online for....................................



..................this!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D

For the not-so-informed, it's a Fujifilm Instax Mini 25 polaroid camera ;) Can't wait for it to arrive!! :)

Quick quick quick...come to mama... :p

Hello 2011:)

Yes, I know 2011 has already started 1.5 months ago.  But busyness keeps me from posting, though there's much to post about.

In fact, I gotta get back to marking NOW!  So, here's just a short post to ascertain that I'm still alive, and I'll be back (probably in 2 weeks) to post more about CNY and Learning Journey :p

But to sum it up, new year..new class..my ex-students are now my colleagues.. :)

My new form class ;)

Tata for now...

Melbourne Vol 1

They say a picture paints a thousand words...so here's 24 000 words :)  I'm glad I went to Melbourne..was a relaxing almost 2 weeks there...nice and slooowww... :)

 The cookies at Victoria Market really looks yummy!!

 and the pizzas too :P

 I bumped into Santa at Docklands :P

 Lord of the....fRies? :P

 Can you bear to eat this cupcake? :)

 Competitor to our local Pie Kia! :P

 Gargantuan burger at Grill'd :)

 Night scene at the river :)

 Muscular manequins!! :s

 Bumped into ANOTHER Santa :) This time, he's Santa Stone :)

 My cousin C who's migrated to Aust, was nice finally meeting her in Australia itself..

 At Miss Marples @ Mount Danenong for lunch....yummmmyyyyyy....

 Mummy :)

 Yummy right??? :)

 Kor & Mummy :P

 scooooonnnneeeeee :) I know it doesn't LOOK like a scone, but it is a scone :)

I didn't know that 出前一丁had a girl version..so cuuute :)

 Rose Garden...would be even lovelier in October...



That's all for Volume 1 of Melbourne :)

(As you can see, I've already abandoned Japan....for now... :P )

Japan Day 3: Day trip to Otaru

 Super cold morning of our trip to Otaru!

 Cute lil' aunties waiting to cross the road in the streets of Otaru..

 Nice lil' railway track in the middle of the road :P

 Yes I know I look like a polar bear with all the thick clothing..but it was cold alright? :P

 One of the crabs was trying to escape out of the container! :P

 Poor starfish that accidentally got fished out of the water by fishermen and left on the floor..

 Famous canal of Otaru

 Old couple who makes a living out of making accessories out of wires..quite cool :)

 It was only 5.2 degrees in the day!!  Can you imagine the temperature that night? :P

 GARGANTUAN takopachi!! Look at the comparison with the normal-sized takopachi ball beside it :D

 Yummms :)

 Dustbins are an ABSOLUTE RARITY in Japan!  I had to hold my rubbish for loooooooooooooooooooong stretches of time before being able to find 1 dustbin.. so my friends and I were always saying "Quick, it's time for spot the dustbin contest!" to mean that we needed a dustbin :P

 Cute cross-eyed glass owl that was being sold in one of the many shops that sold many different glassware in Otaru..

 We saw a few demonstrations of how glassware was made, quite interesting:)

 They even decorated the tree with little glass ornaments.. :)

 These nice little harmless looking clams SPURTED WATER at us!!

 That's what happens when you spurt water recklessly :P

 Yuuummmmms...fresh seafood, and shellfish is my favourite!!!:):)

 Yummmmyyyyyy bowl of sashimi on top of yummmy ricee...this bowl was 200 times yummier than the bowl I had the day before:P

 Part of the light-up called Sapporo White Illumination that we visited when we were back in Sapporo after our day out at Otaru..

My nice warm latte that I bought to beat the cold.  The hilarious thing is, the latte kept me up till 3 am in the morning:S Haha.