The pantry world of our own

A recent photograph tagged in facebook invited one inquisitve question of why new T-chirs have their tables in the pantry. To this, the 三脚猫 replied that contrary to what she thinks, the pantry in my schoooooo is actually the place to be if you want your working life to be imbued with laughter and good-natured jokes.

At least this has been the case for the past 4 weeks for me since being posted to do my T-ching. Today, my colleagues (all N*E, relief, practic^m and contract) decided to go for our nights out despite having done so the day before. Mr Y who had left his relief on Monday to do his reservist in the police force managed to find time to join us to catch up the happenings of the week. It transpired that just two days ago, some students have spotted him in his "Mr Policeman" uniform, and Mr Y had wished a hole would open to swallow him up.

Mr O and I had been irritating Miss M with our mock Malaysian accent. We managed to perfect some simple sentences, particularly putting the accent on the word "到". Seizing every opportunities, sentences that begin with "累到.......", "气到......", "饿到.....", 坏到....." dotted our conversations. Miss M was clearly unimpressed. So was her partner in crime, Miss C. (Incidentally Miss C teaches Chinese).

I am not the only 猫 family around. Once Mr O remarked to Miss M in their usual banter session, "老虎不发威, 当我是病猫啊". Aiyah.. but with his perpetual 唏唏哈哈 demeanour, we have always treated Mr O as a 病猫, and a really 病猫 at that........ until.... wah...

One day, in the canteen, we were having our lunch together, we heard an explosion with some reverberations that ripped through the air. Patently, it was not the sound of an inflated drink packet that was stomped on. Curiosity killed Mr O (the 病猫), the 三脚猫, and all the other lunch kakis. Miss M was quite concerned that the boys over at the corner was endangering others' life and urged us to go over and check things out. We were on two minds when...

a rabbit came.. or rather, this lanky boy walked past. Mr O called him out and made a motion for him to come over. With that simple smile plastered on his face, he advanced. Who would have known that the next few seconds the 三脚猫, Miss M, Mr Y and Miss N were to miss a heartbeat when Mr O transformed into a 老虎 and with an enveloping voice that has a surround system effect, he roared "Eh! You tell me what's happening over there". If the air had just been a little more moist, an electrical discharge would have jumped.

The roar brought the hapless boy swiftly to his knees, to which he stammered "I.... I..'m from sec 3A, and these boys over there.... they sec four one... take some dry ice and put in bottle then explode..." Clearly dissociating himself from those gangs of sec 4, the rabbit appeared just so small, so dimunitive.

"Ok, you can go", commandered Mr O, the ex-army officer.

Stunned.

"Wah... Mr O, never see you turn into a 老虎 leh".... and those past few weeks of boisterous kids who had been stretching you and you still believed never in raising voice.. First time leh.... Around the table, the disconcerted ones acquiesced almost immediately.

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We must be getting extra high today when we decided to go to the city for dinner. Mr O (the-saintly病猫-who-refused-an-MC), and I, shared two $1 durians before leaving, and our blood was charged with glucose. Of course, Miss M grabbed this opportunity to say our mouths stank with methane. Mr O bore the greater brunt of the impact since he had been rubbing the wrong way up with Miss M most of the time, while the 三脚猫 has been completely snowed under work most of the time.

Anyway, we settled for a simple meal after a plea by Mr O to watch the budget and the body. Truth is he's more concerned about the former. Nicely ensconced in our seats, we began our confession sessions about our impressions of one another, peppered with banters and recounting of wonderful incidents. Turned out I am the most judgemental! Hahaha.... But they got their way when they had been relating me to Kim Jong Il, an MP aide, a "celebrity", and many others. To them, the three-legged cat has a common face just like items on a pasar malam!

Miss N brought her Taiwanese bf to join us later, and poor boy, he was completely clueless as we launched into our own world of jokes since the jokes were all very contextual. The classic ones are: Mr O's elaborated analogy of riding a roller coaster to the apex when the teachers croned "是你!! 是你!! 梦见的就是你!" in 甜蜜蜜; Miss M's in-your-face remarks (particularly the spelling of curiosity where she left no mercy in persecuting brutally all those who had wronged her) with her accompanying drama mama histrionics; Mr Y's tales of the light and dark as a teacher of a normal acad class and subsequently as a ma2 da2 who had to jargar some quarelling ah sohs and emo kids; Mr C's insinuation of the vertically challenged nature of Mr Ong; Miss N's quiet but fiercely determined nature of not letting the sisterhood down when Miss C and Miss M combined powers to put down the ma2 da2, the saint-who-never-MC, and the 三脚猫.
But it was a great night. Pity that tomorrow Mr O and Miss M are going to leave the school to start their NIE course. Left only Miss N, Miss C and the 三脚猫. Sighhhhh.......

Perspectives

I'm sure you would have heard before that the same quality would elicit different responses or views, and this phenomenon is seen both spatially (i.e. different views formed by different people at the same time) and temporally (i.e. the same person would revise an earlier opinion). One of the NIE lecturers gave an example to explain this point - a girl may fancy a guy's generosity before marriage, but this very same virtue of generosity becomes a vice of profligacy after marriage.


I said this because I have known a colleague who has presented to me different perspectives, and I must say that it has affected my moral compass by a great deal. I'm not sure if you have this experience in your life when you talk to some people and realise that they are immensely principled. You walk away after the talk feeling extremely ruffled, and somewhat disconcerted. Well, that was what happened to me when I got to know Mr O, my colleague.

Mr O teaches Biology and Physics, and as a pre-NIE trainee teacher, we got posted to the same school together with other fun-loving temporary and contemporary teachers, a motley of contract, relief, ESE and practicum teachers. As part of the lunch kakis, we usually lounge in the canteen and chat about mundane stuffs as and when the bell and classes would limit us. One day, Mr O shared with us how he forgot about a test that constituted 20% of the module marks in NUS. Frantic, he emailed the professor, and the professor requested Mr O to call him.

Over the phone, the professor urged Mr O to get an MC. Mr O simply refused as he felt that he had no moral grounds to absolve himself from his foible of forgetfulness. My other colleagues and I were shocked. Trying to stretch him further, I posed him another hypothestical question - Had it been an exam, would you get an MC? His reply - No.

There was something about Mr O and his tone that you knew that he meant what he said. I felt really humbled.... as a man of weaknesses and kiasi-ness, I was brought down by this Monsieur O, who had stood by his principles and practised it. Perhaps, it was because he's a pastor's son, and so he had quite a formidable level of principles. When I asked in another incident, if he would print some school resources for his tuition kids (assuming he has some which hitherto he has none), he replied that it was unethical, and that he wouldn't do it.

It has been a long time since my moral compass has been adjusted. The last I remembered was when I met SL LLG in the army, who with his logical rationcination and religious devoutness, influenced me the way I have lived for the next few years of my life - in dealing with situations, b**chy people and scheming colleagues. Monsieur O really impressed me.

But no, I am still going to take MCs if I need to despite the emulation of the titan. As I argued, it is all a matter of perspectives. SL LLG and I believe in MCs if there are greater utilitarian values to the society, and we don't abuse the system flagrantly, but only at the most urgent state of affairs. But surely, Monsieur O has left me in awe in all sense.

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It is Mr Y's last day today as he had to report for reservist. Some of us xinjiao teachers decided that we should head to Sakae Sushi for a good buffet. With the exception of one, all of us were ready to flash that NUS/NIE student card to enjoy the discount.

Apparently, Sakae has changed its policy to discriminating the price by age. Alas, we had to pay the "adult" fare, but we gleefully tucked into our food nevertheless. After 3 hours of chatting and crapping, I left the place saying that I need to go jogging to burn off all the food dumped into that bag called stomach.

At 6+ and with quite a bit of a wind, I convinced myself that a short pre-run nap would be sublime. And a "short" one it was. When I woke up, groggy and lethargic, it was 9.15. At this time, I'm supposed to be meeting ZM MMG for the "Red Cliff" movie. Shooting out of bed, I dashed all the way down with that unkempt look, and certainly an apologetic demeanour. We decided to switch to Hellboy 2 as it was scheduled later. Thank goodness I made it on time. The punishing morning schedules of a teacher have begun to crept up onto me these three weeks.

That's Mr P for me.

"Chak-ba-lang" (Miscellaneous)

Some snippets about me in past one week including today:

(1) Coughing quite badly. Mum has been quite concerned and reminded me to take cough syrup. That's the best part about Mum!

(2) Watched Hancock with ZH HHG on Friday night. Jon is overseas and my friends all have appointment. Damn xian... Hancock only so so. I wanna watch Kungfu Panda!!!

(3) Met my supervisor who asked me to revise my first draft. Got lotsa things to settle now liao..

(4) Did not go vegetarian despite being the "chu yi" (first on the lunar calendar). Cos in school and I forgot. Ordered Nasi Lemak and commented how good (and cheap) it was, then realised. Diaozzz...

(5) Attended wedding dinner at Laguna Country Club of a secondary cum JC friend. It was kind of special cos my friend and his wife registered their wedding a year ago, and they even have a daughter!! So today we see the couple AND her baby daughter. Interesting hor. And that ML LLG had to call me to say he forgot about the dinner, and said he's not coming.

(6) Returned some books to National Library only to realise I owe them about 2 dollar fine. Then borrowed some Japan travel guide book. Cant wait to go Japan with SL LLG and he said that his colleagues told him Agnes B briefcase very cheap there.

(7) Arthur the Medan boy returned to Singapore for a short while, so we met up other friends at Borders bistro. Order high tea set, and it's about $10 for any cake selection and coffee/tea. Very oishii desu ne, and reasonable price too cos the coffee is free flowing. I tried to exploit this by asking if I can change coffee to Earl Grey for second round and they agreed. WOW.

(8) Went for massage at People's Park. This masseuse start to do head massage for me = hair trauma. I felt I had just came out of a radioactive centre when some of my hair strands came off!! OMG. But the untying of stiff knots on my stiff shoulders was just too shiok.

(9) Another hair-raising (but not hair dropping) experience. Watched Incredible Tales last Sunay about how this demon actually eats unborn fetus in the Philippines. Got a twist in the story when it turned out that the pregnant woman did not get attacked, but rather it was her slim friend who just conceived. Scary siah.... It's on very Sunday 10 pm channel 5.

"Homed"work

Can't believe that this weekend I am homed - The scheme of work has just intensified, so I had to spend my Saturday doing powerpoint slides and lesson plan. Thankfully, most of us had shared some resources so I don't have to create notes from scratch. And now I am taking a respite and blogging after working on my dissertation. Tuesday need to submit first draft and I am nowhere close to a quarter. But my supervisor has been more than generous and allowed me to give a shorter version since it is a first draft. I had to resort to cancelling ALL my tuitions for the weekends, something which I had not done for some time.

I must say I am considered one of the lucky ones who got pretty decent classes. A bit chatty, but that's fine with me. In fact, I would rather have that than a graveyard of a class. Mentors were excellent and they were kind of vested in making sure I learnt the ropes from them. From tomorrow onwards, I'll be doing classes.

There was this colleague who came up to me and said, "Ey, I saw your name and realised your surname is Mr ***. And I am finding it incredibly familiar. Have I met you somewhere?" To which I offered a few suggestions... Erm maybe NUS?? -no. NIE??? -no. Or were you from #JC?
To which her eyes lit up and she squealed, "Oh yes, your are that Mr *** who gave relief teaching for Chem. But sorry to disappoint you.. after you left, I dropped Chem cos that teacher who came in cannot teach and I cannot tahan oredi".

That's what I like about the profession - so many degrees of separation but which eventually draw people together. Nice.

Anywya, I'm going for some voice recording this weekend with ACRES. Playing the role of an elephant and a slow loris. Wonder how slowly I should speak as a slow loris, or how elephantine I should be in my voice quality. After all, SL LLG has anointed me as the person with the most elephantine memory - has full capacities for remembering all details to their finest exaction. Of course, I just recently chilled his bone when I recounted ad verbatim, the connection between his Mum, him and the Oxford single girl (let's call her M) I was trying to introduce. To reproduce the famous text I mouthed here which SL LLG had forgotten, this was what I said,

"Well SL LLG, so you still can't remember what you said to me that connects your Mum, you and M?"

With that inscrutable look, he only had to confessed that age has caught up with him and he had no recollections.

"Well, let me tell you SL LLG...
Previously you said before, 'My Mum would be easily contented with my brother and I just growing up to be decent boys graduating from a local university. She would never had thought that one would go to Cambridge, and now she would never even have expected that her future daughter-in-law has a degree no less than BCL Oxford' --- so there you go, SL LLG, the connection I promised to draw up between you, your Mum and M!", giving that smug look.

Stopping in his track, he heaved, "you really remember everything hor"

Of course.

Schooling

'So, those long-sleeved shirts have to be worn eventually eh?', I mused as I ironed my "teacher's uniform".

And yes, school started today at one rather traditional school. Taking the bus and eyeballing those uniformed boys and girls, I realised in pure relish, that these kids have not known me as a teacher yet, and so would not be watched by some unknown students discreetly somewhere.

You never know if some of them would later gossip on even the smallest frivolous details as that this teacher listens to ipod on bus, and worst still, "I saw him board the bus in interchange, so he must have lived nearby". Of course, I always knew this school is quite near to my house, so I can always walk there, but since this is the first day, I shall take a bus.

I discovered there were more newbie colleagues than expected. I thought there would only be two of us in practicum, but mercifully, there are quite a number of others who are attached to the school either for relief or for ESE (enhanced school experience which one does before entering NIE). With cheerful dispositions, I knew right from the start that they would be my kakis in the next few weeks, though my practicum term is longer and I would outstay them.

Nothing much about today really, so we left the school at about 2. Thankfully, all classes end by 2 for me, so that's really nice...

Wait, hang on -- Am I really a teacher already? Can't believe time flies.

That quaint and lovely place

As a secondary student and whenever my bus passed by Jack's Place in Ang Mo Kio, a longing thought would come to my mind that one day when grow up, I would have save enough money and procure a simple meal for myself at Jack's Place.... for by all standards of a HDB boy, a Jack's Place is a Jack's Place is a fine restaurant.

That thought mysteriously vanquished, only to be replaced by the more affordable Marina Bay alfresco BBQ @ $10 per head. Never mind the dripping oil and MSG laden stock, it's a commoner gathering ground for students.

And yet today, SL LLG and I in our quests to find a nice comfy place to chat about his trip to Bangkok (he called it "Bangcan't" though can't isn't supposed to be spelt this way...see post-script please). Before long, our feet took us to the doorstep of the hallow grounds of Jack's Place.

That sweet little place. Of course. To SL LLG, this outlet was also his first Jack's Place visit. What make this a wonderful chatting ground was the right amount of white noise in the background. Not too many dining guests to interfere with our confabulations, nor too little guests for our conversations to be overheard. Another thing is the prices of the food. If inflation has reared its ugly head, the cost of Jack's Place food has certainly walloped it down. Service is just nice, with a homely auntie who would causually top up our water from time to time.

What else was there to stop us? Words left the lips just as easily as thoughts arose from the germinal minds, so that the topics over dinner spanned from how to pronounce plagiarism correctly to what is a palate cleanser to how does a brassage brings about comfort. In the words of Dr Irina Spalko to the alien, "I want to know everything"... that thought dominated our evening... just that only SL LLG has the alien look!





P.S. The forbidding word of a can't (as wrongly spelt again) as used by SL LLG, is all but crude, when we consider that this word is a critical and prominent component to an important twist in the novel and film, Atonement. For Robbie wrote to Cecilia, "In my dreams, I kiss your cunt, your sweet wet cunt. In my thoughts I make love to you all day long." Bearing in mind that Atonement is considered one of the best novels of Ian McEwan, he has certainly avowed how the English Language should endow this word its utmost reverence. Of course, this does not elevate the status of any Beng, Lian and Huay who have wantonly (no pun intended) used this word in their myraid versions and dialects.

Pig-out in remote hide-outs!

True to Jon's words and much to the delight of the food-maniacs moi and ZH HHG, getting a driving licence means we are no longer restricted to venues close to the MRT lines nor to the midnight strike that even the proverbial Cinderella fears. Not that I got mine which would probably be next year, but it suffices if a good friend has one, and even more impressively, a car!

Last night's escapade to Robinson at Raffles City to grab the no-GST shopping opportunity, then to Chomp Chomp for some serious supper that really got me excited at the choice of food attests to one thing which I have always believed but never got the chance to experience that -- When you can atasly travel to far-flung places for supper in a car -
You have arrived! (or should I say Jon has arrived!)

Since I have NOT got my CYMA watch and any Car (only hybrid cars please), I can hardly claim to stake a Claim that I have those six (last time was five) Cs. But does going to China count?

And so as I was saying, going to remote places to Chill out seems to be an obsession of Singaporeans that Sunday Times (Life Jun 8, 2008) even had a page dedicated to name some of the hot chill-out (sorry for the oxymoron) places to visit. I decided to immortalise the places in my blog here:
In the North
(1) Beaulieu House
117 Beaulieu Road, tel: 6257-9234
Open: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm; 6 pm to 11 pm (Mon-Thur)
11.30 am to 2.30 pm, 6 pm to midnight (Fri & Sat)
10 am to 11 pm (Sun)
Getting there:
Drive (So excited at this word!!) to Sembawang Park and park at Carpark No. 1. Then walk about 100 m to the sea.
About the Restaurant:
This restaurant facing the Straits of Johor is housed in an 8000 sq ft pre-war building, which used to be home to the most enior British naval officer in Singapore, Vice-Admiral Geoffrey Layton, from 1940 to 1942).
The eatery serving Western and Chinese dishes, has been in existence since 1981 (Year I was born!). in 2004, owner Lim Hock Lye, 54, expanded its premises to include an alfresco area that is now a popular watering hole.

(2) Sunset Grill & Pub
140B Piccadilly Road, Seletar Airbase, tel: 6482-0244
Open: 4 pm to 11 pm daily except Tuesdays
Getting there:
From Piccadilly Road, turn into Lambeth Walk, Hampstead Gardens, Western Avenue, East Camp, then drive all the way to the Republic of Singapore Flying Club (Aiyoh, so convoluted!! but I like it this way!!)
About the Restaurant:
Set in the heart of the Seletar Airbase, it is perfect for plane spotters (though in my opinion, it is also perfect for couples, married or dating!! BL sis, please take note hor!)
Even the drive in is scenic: You pass a number of black-and-white colonial bungalows, and the whole journey is akin to travelling through a World War II move (Wah! For history buffs like moi, this is abs fantastic!). Anyway... to continue typing...
The grub is Western, or American, and the spicy buffalo wings are a must-try (my insufferable commentary again: buffalo got wings meh?!?)

Since I live in the North, I shall spare my fingers of typing out the remaining 12 places. BUT i am keeping the pages and you can also dial me to ask for the remaining places!