"personalised (2)

Entry 5

30 September 2001

"Bah, humbug!"- Scrooge, Charles Dickens

Crusade, a Babylon 5 spinoff series, has come to Singapore via TV works. Was ecstatic when I saw the trailer on TV works just before the official launch.  The first episode, 

Quoting people verbatim is a terrible sin. Gabriel has a homepage full of quotes from irate people/people with bad grammar. Overheard in the canteen- "Arvindran wants to touch the touch rugby girls", which I am sure was supposed to be "Arvindran wants to get in touch with the touch rugby girls". Other gaffes: A Minister of Health quoted in Parliament saying women should forgo their trips to the hair salon to use the savings on medical tests for breast cancer. Talkingcock.com responded with an equally inane statement about hair salons re-evaluating minimum charges to coincide with the $100 or so to pay for mammograms.

Anyway, here's a list of what I watch every week. It would be a lot longer if my home had cable (think Frasier, ).

Mondays- Friends, Ed
Wednesdays- Popular (rarely, since it's at 1 am )
Thursdays- Friends on NTV7, Charmed, Mind your language, 'Allo 'Allo. 

24 September 2001

My last prelim paper- Chem S- just over. Was glossing over the questions on the way to RI (more about that later)  as I figured I would get about 20/100 for it. Apparently nobody could elucidate the structures Q-T (if you can, please tell me!).

Why I went back to RI: To visit teachers, say hi to people I know (Getting less and less. Currently half the students I know in RI are taking their prelims). Was pleasantly surprised to find that Mrs. Marion D'Cruz remembered who I was- I approached her about teaching vacancies in the GE unit. Apparently, Ms. Kuang is on leave (don't you dare make any noises) and Ms. Janelle Ho left- again- at the end of term 3, after coaching 2 successive batches of Sec 4s.  

Mr. Ong very glad to see me- he had received the Vortex issues I posted to him. Chatted with him mostly, then went to the office to find out about applying for RT- relief teaching. It's something that I wanted to do for a long time, just like my school-long dream since Sec 1 was to be a Peer Support Leader. Out of my 6 PSLs, I never saw 5 of them after the Peer Support Group Meetings ended, but I still thought they were great, and always wanted to have that same chance with my own group of Sec 1s. 

Found out that one almost certainly had to be a Pupil Activity Leader, and was toying with the idea of running for prefectship but I had moral qualms about vying for a student disciplinary post that was based on voting. (I later found out Ms Chiang, the choir mistress, had issues with the prefect board- and wasn't keen on her choristers being involved in it). Then I wanted to be choir chairperson. When I didn't get any assistant post in '97, I was devastated, but being in BEATS (the resident a cappella group) sorta made up for it. (Slightly embarrassed to admit I signed a petition against the nomination of the new committee- that was truly horrible of me.)

Eventually got vice-chairpersonship of Internet club with Yong Lin as chairperson (it wasn't a surprise- there were only the 2 of us in that batch). And was Chief Librarian/one of three student conductors in choir. Funny thing is, Meng Chuan (the chair') claimed he wanted my job as chief librarian. Heh heh. The 3 student conductors- thing didn't work out very well for me at least, as I was always pushed around. Did my best in my duties, as far as I can remember, despite my father putting intense pressure on me for my continued eca participation in my  O Levels year.

Then Nelson Kwei came in January '99 to boost the choir standard, and we got gold for SYF Central Judging. Ms. Chiang pulled me aside to tell me my tenor voice wasn't good enough for the next competition rounds- Choral Excellence (now scrapped)-  and I was devastated again, but made up for it by being totally extra and hanging around choir trainings all the time to help out. We got gold for choral excellence, and Nelson Kwei got me to join the performing team for the competition Finals (to this day, I don't really know why). Anyway, we got 3rd (out of 3) which sucked, but then we had a good experience leading up to it. 

I was hoping to get some kind of eca award for my contributions to Raffles Voices, but I wasn't one of the 5-6 from choir to get an award. Rather disappointed for some time, then decided to stop wallowing in self-pity.

Anyway, back to the main point, I got to be Peer Support Leader, which was great (made desperate phone calls to prefects at the end of my sec 3 year to confirm it), and found working with and mentoring Sec 1K, 1999, a wonderful time. 1K, you guys rock~! If any of you are reading this, do get in touch with me- I'd love to find out what you're up to now. 

Oh, my main point was about relief teaching. Teaching a bunch of intelligent, self-confident and bold students who answer back at every opportunity isn't the easiest job, but it's a challenge I'd like to take up to see how well I can cope. Ah well, dreams must pass, but if they do, let them pass beautifully. 

"I  think the phrase 'thinking out of the box' is the worst ever."- Andrew