Home is where the Heart is

Decided to go to Genting before going back to Singapore. Went there with my sister. Depart from Gombak at 12pm reach there almost 1pm. We collected the concert ticket then had lunch at Marybrown.

Help with the volunteer work during the concert and then walk around before coming home. Haha..lazy to type already..upload pictures better:P

We took bus then take the Skyway (cable car)

Pictures taken at the cable car station :P

Bigger view

Statue of liberty

Erm..can't remember what is this place called but it's something like underwater world

Hehe..another shot :D

Christmas is not over yet!

Very misty..can't do much outdoor

Eiffel Tower :P

Annie's still as cute as ever..haha..too bad can't get into the theme park

Yup that's about all the photos I took..roughly 20photos..hehe..I forgotten to insert the memory card into the camera..so limited photos. There's more on facebook.

This is the card he drew..awww..so touched

From Lee Quin..

From Luke..

From June..

From Juo Nan..

From Sandhya..

From Fui Peng's friend

From one of mummy's friend From Mrs Ong and Family

From Ah Yee..
And lots of angpaus from the neighbours and my mummy's friends..Thank you everyone..Hope to see you all again real soon.

Goodbye 2008! Welcome 2009!

2008 had been an exciting year, full of ups and downs. What have I been doing? I learnt a lot during this one year. Seen many things I have not seen before, understand many things which I have not known before and appreciate things I didn't think of before.

Started the year with Teaching Internship programme organised by the Ministry of Education Singapore. I'm really thankful for the chance to learn and share. It had really been an enriching experience. I did the first month of internship at Ngee Ann Secondary School. Taught many things and learn equally many if not more. Mr Lee Chin Teck had been a great mentor. Guiding us throughout the whole internship. Not forgetting Ms Ow, Mr Chris Lai, Ms Kum, Mr Joseph and all teachers for their support. I really enjoyed myself there. The friends I made, Khadijah and Yi Qing my staff lounge buddy, Kelvin, Zheng Hong and Emmanuel - though we only talk to you all on our last day, it's nice knowing you all and still keeping in touch till now.

Went on to continue my internship at Tampines Junior College, my alma mater. Ms Khoo had been very supportive of me being able to go back to TPJC and teach. I'm so glad to be able to do that. Mrs Ting is also very helpful in every way, ensuring that we are having a great time there. I got to know more about my teachers and other teachers which I have yet to meet during my studies there. All of them are really helpful. Ms Joanna Loh had really taught me a lot. I've learnt to be more patience when dealing with students and to treat them as our friends. I've realise many things in life, the problems the students might face, how to handle them. I have not known all this before I started teaching. I've certainly grown to be more understanding and supportive of my students. I really miss all of you. Made many new friends too, the other intern - Shawn, Petrina and Benjamin as well as the relief teachers - Amanda, Cheryl, Joyce, Shawn (haha..there's 2 of them), Fatimah and all the other teachers which I can now call them my friends:P

A-Level results was released soon after. When I was still teaching in TPJC, so there's a lot of my students asking me how I did. Luckily it was not that bad. Manage to encourage and prove that TPJCians can do well too. Some were convinced and determined to work hard. So touched to hear them saying 'I will do well', I hope they will.

Sports day! We ran for as the teachers team for Heron (I was from Hawk =S).We participated in both the staff relay as well as the games. We manage to clinch 3rd position for both! Yay! So cool. But it was quite unlucky that Petrina fell and hurt herself.

My student pass expires on the 30th April 2008 so I had to go and apply for Work Permit. Was quite a hassle and a lot of things to settle. Thankfully the Ms Khoo, Ms Joanna and Mrs Ting were very helpful, helping me to take over some of my lessons when I have to go and settle my application.

Attended the College Day 2008. I was really happy, really thankful to everyone and indeed I had a great time. Don't really bother much of the awards given but rather the chance to meet up with all my friends. Everyone shared their working experience, what we were doing for the past few months.

I then continued teaching as a relief teacher after the mid-year hols. Some of my students did well and some scored below expectation. Work Harder yea! You can do it! Being a relief teacher was as exciting as being an intern. Though I don't have Ms Loh to guide me, Ms Khoo's still by my side helping me in every way possible. And the students were much nicer too. I really miss all of you!!!

Then came our Pulau Ubin trip. Ha-ha..fun and fulfilling trip. Went cycling (not me cycling..Ha-ha I really can't do it), karaoke, and relax at the chalet. Great experience..that's my first time there also. Oh and you really can't imagine the teachers actually playing at the playground. Ha-ha..super funny the way we try to design new games for us. Looking forward for another trip soon.

Uni started in August. I went for the orientation as well and met many friends there. I'm glad I actually went for it. I enjoyed all our hang-out sessions after school whether it's just chit chatting or having meals together. It was indeed an enjoyable moment. I enjoyed both my main CCAs too - VPC and IGC. Happy!

Time really flies when we are enjoying, by then it's the end of the year and our finals are around the corner. Everyone is busy preparing for the exams hoping to score well.

Sum up the year with Sunburst Youth Camp which lasted for one week. Nothing can compare to how I enjoyed the camp.Though we only spent a week together, the friendship fostered is unmeasurable. Enjoying every moment, sleepless nights, joking in the room, dancing, stress to meet the deadlines. Ha-ha..it's all worth seeing how successful it was. Thanks everyone!

Lots of outing and gathering in between the year. I enjoyed all of them and look forward for more this year. Thank you everyone for adding colours to my life, teaching me many valuable lessons, lending a helping hand when I need one and of course being with me throughout the year. Hope that we will all have a better 2009!! See ya all.

**I know there are things happened and we wish that they did not. Many things are beyond our control so we just have to stay strong and overcome all the challenges that come by.
Stay strong my friend. We're here to support you.

30th December 2008, Tuesday
Went to meet Sanva, Linh, Joyce, Sing Wei and Sing Wei's friends at KLCC. Haven't met Sing Wei for almost a year! So fun so fun! The last time I met San and the rest was Anglican House Farewell. But it still seems long long ago. So it's a great chance to meet them when they visit KL.

After they finished their movie, we went to the park to walk around and take photos. We actually wanted to walk to Ampang Park but we ended up walking one round and back to KLCC :S Ha-ha..it proves once again that I'm bad in directions..But i'm not the only leading hor..haha..so not entirely my fault:P

So we ended up back in KLCC. Went to the food court to have dinner, sit around and chat chat all the way till 5+pm. Took the train to Ampang Park instead. It's just one stop away but it's better than us getting lost again. Hehe..I used to visit Ampang Park a lot when I was small. I still remember clearly the McDonalds there. It used to have a lot of food there but now mostly the shops sell clothes.

Walk over to City Square after that. Sing Wei wanted to get a SuperHero costume. So we went to the shop and he was trying a few of the costumes. Too bad they don't allow us to take photographs. Haha..it will be fun if we can =P He finally settled for Robin. That one suit him best. The Flash which he wanted is too big for him.

Before we took the train back, we explored the place a little bit and found what he called 'My playground'. There were at least 15pianos outside the shops! Of course he played a song for us! How can he miss it :P Left the place at 8pm.

31st December 2008, Wednesday
Went out to Asia Jaya to fetch Jade and her sister. All of them had decided to come over to my place today. Yippee! We waited for Sanva at the station since he was coming from KLCC and there's no way for us to contact him. He arrive around 2.45pm.

Walked back to my place. Haa..one thing I find really difficult in Malaysia since I come back is crossing the road. Waa..really challenging to cross the roads. Haha..Sanva said it's even worse than in China. But not bad, we manage to make our way till Wisma Thrifty. San treated us to ice-creams! Yay!! And we manage to meet Sing Wei, Linh and Joyce on our way back. Haha such a coincidence that they met us. So all the 7 of us walk back to my place.

My mum made jellies for them :P so we had some deserts and daddy bought pizzas back for us too! Yeahoo! Ate, Watch tv, chat, and take photos. Haha..it's such a great time catching up with each other. Left around 5+pm. Took a bus to Mid Valley where they take train back to Kajang while Jade, Carmen and I go shop!

Carmen had a haircut and we had sushi for dinner. Haha..we eat super fast but took almost 30mins to decide what to eat. Walking up and down. Checking the food court and back to the shops. Hehe..so next time must decide for me what to eat. I'm bad in making decisions. Went home around 7.15pm. Happy Happy. :D

Met up with my buddies from Assunta today..so happy. We went to Seoul Garden at One Utama. Only 5 of us manage to meet up this time. June, Cheryl, Michelle, Choy Koon and Me. Hai Bee's in Singapore while Kim's in Australia.

It's so nice getting update on how's everyone doing and what they are planning. Cheryl might be looking for job in Singapore too. Yay..means she will be able to join Bee and I there. =P Michelle will still be going back to Australia, most probably doing masters. Choy Koon's doing Economics at LSE so she will be going back on the 10th of January 2009. And June! haha..continuing her medicine course and aim towards building our empire.

Haha..since all of us are studying different courses, she's planning to build an empire where all of us will gather and work there. Not bad idea hor. Then can meet each other everyday. Haa..but better have back up job just in case. Like always..it's our dream...haha..joke around a lot about what we should name it, how to name it and where to put each department.

And of course not forgetting our 10 years reunion in 2015. We are so looking forward to it. Haha..Michelle was telling us the amount of things we had to do so must start sending reminders (not invitation since everyone knows about it) 2 years before the reunion. Haha..and we said we'll put her in-charge of it. Good practice for her own wedding:P

Oh ya..May actually fetched us to One Utama. June didn't dare to drive. She said there's just too many cars on the road. So she's scared. We reached there around 12.30pm. Started to eat around 1pm after Cheryl and Michelle reached. And we sat there to eat and chat, eat and chat, eat and chat all the way until 6pm.

It's so great meeting up with them and I do look forward for another meet up before going back to Singapore on the 6th. See ya all.

Results are going to be released tomorrow..so nervous so scary..hope everything will turn out alright.

Oh my new pooh..got one more but I left it in Singapore. Didnt manage to take any photo yet. This one is my Christmas present that I opened before Christmas:P

The Indian Delegates

They wanted to go to Sentosa by cable car and it cost S$23 per person. So expensive!!! So we drop them off at the cable car station and the four of us (Sam, Ben, Monil and I) took the monorail instead. Gen was bringing another two Indian delegates who didn’t want to take cable car. Unfortunately, we stop at the wrong station so we have to take the monorail again back to the previous station. And the cable car station is quite a distance from the monorail stop too. So we had to run all the way back to the cable car stop and that’s super tiring.

Finally manage to find them and then made our way to Underwater World. That’s where they wanted to go and because it’s also quite expensive to go in, we decided to wait for them outside as they plan to go for 30mins only. The queue for tickets was very long too and there’s discount for Singapore students and citizens. So we use our cards to buy for them. Ha-ha...Since I have not been there before, maybe I should go too while the offer is still valid :P

Peacock we saw outside Underwater World

After they exited from Underwater World, they wanted to go to Dolphin Lagoon but the queue for the shuttle bus was just too long so we decided to give it a miss and go to the beach instead. Played at the beach till about 6+pm when we decided to make our way back to Vivo City. One of them didn’t have either monorail or cable car ticket so I pass mine to them and took the bus together with Sam.

We had Pizza Hut at Vivo City but their teacher wanted Indian cuisine. Gen took her to walk around but she didn’t like any of them and settled for Subway instead. After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and all of us check in to our rooms.

My roommate’s from Brunei. She’s Evelyn and we are quite lucky to have two Queen Size bed. One for each of us. :P Very lucky coz most of them will have 3 people in the room and only 2 single bed. 10pm. Went down for briefing by John. Nothing much happened after that except for rehearsal by the Singapore participants and we have to stay with them. Tired.

My Bed!

Day 2

On our way to Pulau Ubin

Outward Bound Singapore. It’s raining the whole morning and they told us to bring along our sweater cum raincoat before we depart to Pulau Ubin. It was freezing cold. It was still raining when we arrive so they decided to come up with indoor activities instead. There are obstacles like rock climbing and ropes. Quite fun but I didn’t join them coz I don’t like indoors. I was looking forward to play the things outside. Sad sad.

We had our lunch after trying all the different obstacles. Lunch was not bad. After lunch we had a few games for us to accumulate points to purchase enough equipment for the building of raft. Started to build our raft around 4pm and we only have 20mins to complete it. Super rush. We didn’t manage to finish within the time limit. Actually we didn’t have enough points so we had to combine with another team, Group 4. Oh yea, my group is Group 8. We set off the raft at 5pm, though it was still drizzling, we go on with the plans.

Xin Ying and I

Barbeque for dinner followed by campfire. I really enjoyed the campfire. Super fun dancing and singing. This reminds me of the time we had in secondary school. Return to main island at about 9pm. Since we are group 8, we are like one of the last to leave the place. Ha-ha...and all of our group members were in the previous boat while we had to take a later one as they can’t accommodate all of us. So Zhang Quan and I took a different boat with the Aces and instructors.

Reached RELC at about 10pm. Showered and went down for rehearsal. Slept quite late again.

Day 3
Assembled in the auditorium at about 7.30am. We will be visiting NIE-NTU. Khairi asked John if we can be excused from the talks to work on the videos and he allowed us to do so. We walked over to NTU to use the internet connections there to search for pictures that we can use for the video.

Before we leave NIE, we manage to get Suhaimi and Ben to do the Singapore Town song for us to record. Quite funny.

Set off to Science Centre Singapore and watched the IMAX movie as soon as we reached there. They were screening The Alps. It was really amazing but I fell asleep for a few minutes. Not that the movie is boring but rather I need lots of sleep. Ha-ha...make up for my lost sleep.

After the movie, we were ushered to another Auditorium for a welcome note. We then made our way to the i-Space exhibition. Oh yea, they also assigned buddy for us when we were in the bus so that we can take note of each other and not get lost. My buddy’s Adren Sim. He’s a fun guy. Yup so we were going around the exhibits before they asked us to watch another show on electric current and how the electric can be transmitted to burst the Hydrogen filled balloons. After that show, we move to the auditorium again to watch a magic show, mostly related to science. Lastly, we went to view the Magic exhibits. Fun to know some of the magician secrets and many of them actually related to science. So cool.

Bus buddy and me

Had our dinner at Science Centre and then make our way back to RELC. There’s going to be rehearsal for 6 countries at night and we have to get prepared. Rehearsal ended after Singapore participants performed at midnight. We stayed up till 2.30pm to do our video. Just manage to do a bit.

Day 4
We visited the NEWater plant at Bedok. We were separated in two groups and one of us will walk around the gallery while the other will listen to the talk first. The participant were given a chance to give their opinion regarding the water recycling in their country or the NEWater method. After sharing their views, we had our lunch before departing to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). We were given a chance to walk around the gallery before assembling to set off for the Urban Challenge.

Urban Challenge started at 2pm. We had to plan our route to complete the most station in the shortest time. The places we went are Food Centre opposite URA, Sri Mariammam temple, Kuan Yin temple, Sultan Mosque, Liang Seah Street, St. Andrew Cathedral, Raffles Statue, Merlion, Esplanade, Fountain of Wealth, Food Republic@Vivocity and Tekka Market. There are some challenges at the stations which include passing the message at Sultan Mosque, finding a certain shop at the food centre, singing at Esplanade, taking photographs with tourist, solving mathematics questions at Fountain of Wealth and many many more. So we actually visited all 12 stations to unlock the mystery clue which is City Link but we didn’t have enough time to visit that place. Made our way back to RELC and reached 7pm sharp. We were then asked to complete a quiz regarding all the places that we had visited.

They took some time to tally the score before John came over to announce the winner which is GROUP 8!!! My Group!! Super happy super excited. We then had our dinner (Canadian Pizza) and continue with rehearsal plus video editing till 4.30am.

Day 5
I woke up late today. Was up at about 8.30am and breakfast was almost over. I actually woke up at 6am and realize that today’s breakfast is served at 7am instead so I went back to sleep and overslept. When I went out of my room, I met Sunny and Bernice, they were late too. Ha-ha...so when we reach the auditorium, the talk on leadership had already started.

9 Am. We set off to Telok Blangah road, Henderson Wave. We walked across the bridge, taking photos and chatting. Reached our picnic spot at around 11am. Laid the mat and started with games. It was really fun playing but they wanted us to go and eat first before continuing with the games. The food was tasty. Adren and Damien even made a sandwich for me. Ha-ha...they put a lot of filing inside and the sandwich was super thick. Anyway I finished it since I was super hungry. Wei Jie also gave me muffins and lychee juice. I was sitting down at the mat there eating with Zhang Quan and the foreign delegates when suddenly a grasshopper appeared. Ha-ha…and guess what!! Zhang Quan actually ran away super fast. He’s scared of grasshopper. Ibrahim took the grasshopper away in the end and they can’t help laughing after that.

Made our way back to RELC and that was our last bus ride. Each bus ride, there will be people entertaining us either singing or dancing. Reached back RELC and it was time for each country to prepare their exhibits to showcase their own culture. The exhibition was great. It’s like visiting all the ASEAN countries, China, India and Kazakhstan in just one day. I manage to get quite a lot of souvenirs too. We continued with rehearsal at night. Very tiring. We didn’t sleep the whole night hoping to finish the first draft of the video before the rehearsal in the morning.

Day 6
We had rehearsal the whole morning. At 4pm, it’s time for them to showcase their exhibitions again to the guest. The concert started at 5pm sharp but the new DVD was not done yet. So we had to use our backup plan instead. Really very stressful at first but everything went on smoothly. In the end Zhi Zhan and I was dancing in the control room instead. But of course we didn’t abandon our job, obediently on the lights and play the music. And there was a surprise for the scholars where they had presentation of certificate. So we actually went on the stage to collect them. Overall everyone was happy and satisfied with the evening although it did not turn out as we hope it will be.

3rd December 2008, Wednesday
Was trying to pack all my stuff the whole morning. Haa..my room was super messy as I was packing that there's hardly any place to walk. But quite proud of myself, I packed and transfer everything to Qin Jin's room before 6pm. Haha..then went out for dinner at VivoCity.

Reindeer

Giant Christmas Tree

4th December 2008, Thursday
CCA day. Had a meeting with OSA to discuss about the Video Competition which they agreed to sponsor us. And then continue with our Main Committee meeting. Had lunch and back to the VPC room to do a bit of long overdue archiving. Went for the networking session at night.

5th December 2008, Friday
Today's a super tiring day for me. Woke up at 7.30am. Suppose to fetch Luke and his friends at Tanjong Pagar. Met them at around 9am and I have no idea how to come back from there in the fastest way. I know bus 10 can bring us, but don't know where is the bus stop. Haha..in the end we took very very long to reach Clementi. Had our brunch at Clementi. Then I brought them back to PGP to enquire if they have any guest rooms. But it's all fully booked till Feb. So we took a bus to Harbour Front. I've promise to meet my friends there so they decided to find a place to stay.

Met the rest of them at VivoCity. Watch Madagascar 2. After the movie I had to rush over to Orchard for Sunburst Youth Camp briefing. Ended at about 8pm. Met Ee Lin and Mun Lok for dinner as well as Luke, Zak and Angie at Orchard. Walk around the place till about 9.30pm. Went over to City Hall to meet Chang Yuan, Keng Hwee, Bryan and Zi Yang. By the time I reach back, it's almost midnight.

Guess which is mine =P

Waiting for the Movie to start
Lightings in Orchard
Luke and Angie
Zak and I

6th December 2008, Saturday
Didn't do much today. Woke up very late coz I was super tired. Went to school for CCA and collect the videocamera for the camp. Had dinner and watched StarDust at night.

Exams are finally over and I had been enjoying myself the past few days. Tomorrow will be the first day of my week long camp. So excited. Haha..This camp is a little different from what I used to attend. We'll be staying in RELC and my roommate will be someone from Brunei. Will update more about the camp once I'm back in Malaysia.

1st December 2008, Monday
Right after my exams, 11am, we went for lunch at Arts Canteen. Finally we travel a bit to have lunch. The past few days I had been eating lunch and dinner in PGP canteen or maybe self-cook food for a few days. These are some of the dishes we had. Hmm not very healthy but still okay. We did pack some vegetables from the canteen to make the meal more balance.

Lunch - Rice

Prickled Lettuce
Luncheon meat and Chicken
Not bad hor..I cooked all of these

And there's apple juice too

After lunch we decided to go back to PGP and slack awhile. Ee Lin was suppose to study since she still have another paper in the evening but we ended up sitting there discuss our holiday plans.

All of us in R5 Tv room!!

2nd December 2008, Tuesday

Had an outing to Singapore Botanic Gardens. Took BTC bus there. It's free anyway. We had our lunch at the campus before making our way to Botanic Gardens. We first went to Evolution Garden, the Ginger Garden and finally Orchid Garden. Haha.. and we took super a lot of photos there. More than 400 photos. So I can't possibly upload everything. Just ask me if you want to see them. =P

At the entrance of Evolution Garden

Christmas is Around the Corner - posing with Reindeer

Oh no! I look like part of the Signboard too=S

Me posing as the queen..haha..and they are suppose to serve me!!

All of us in the middle of Evolution Garden
So cool rite. We are behind the waterfall!
Do you think umbrella will work??

And it's us again..This time at Orchid Garden

Yup yup so we were there until almost 4pm. And we got lost!! Didn't know the way back. Haha..so we decided to just walk to any bus stop and take a bus to the nearest mrt station. I need to go to Pasir Ris for the TPJC Chess Club Chalet too. And as we were walking along the road, there was a Japanese guy who also got lost and ask us how he can get to Orchard. We manage to bring him to the mrt station before headng to our destinations. When I reached Pasir Ris, it was raining cats and d0gs that 3 of my juniors were soaking wet. Poor them. And it's also the last time Mr Loke will be with us. He's leaving to another school. Wish him all the best. Some of the photos taken during the chalet.

Farewell Mr Loke

Cake Mr Loke bought for us
Barbeque time!
And Mahjong too

Alright I think this post is getting a bit too long. Haha..will update the rest of my hols in another post.