I've just realised that my last posting was almost 3 weeks ago! How time flies when you're busy.
Since my return from Melbourne, things have been happening with the speed of an airplane. I expected myself to be busy making the final preparations for the big move but I never expected my training assignments to pick up speed too. Suddenly, from no jobs for the last 3 months, I'm training 3 times a week in the month of June. I couldn't back out as I had previously agreed and they had no other trainer available.
So here I am, making use of whatever available off days to give or pack away the million and one household stuff that I've accumulated over the past years. By now, most of the major items like furniture, electrical appliances and toys have already been settled. I'm really amazed that it's the little little things that are more stressful to decide what to do with them. I wish I could bring them along but I'm near my maximum luggage allowance already. Throwing them away would be a waste as they're still usable. The best option is to give away but then there's the question of who? Who needs more plates, bowls and cutlery? Not to mention water bottles, teacups, post-it pads, photo frames and plastic containers?
The most agonizing decisions are my clothes. I've given away 1 big carton and filled up 2 big vinyl bags (they used to come in blue/red stripes, but have now modernised to have cuter designs like Winnie The Pooh). But because of the limit, I've to leave 1 bag behind.
Thank God, slowly but surely, we're making progress. In between working and gatherings with family/friends saying farewell, transferring ownerships, we've managed to clear most of the items in our storeroom, cupboards and wardrobe. The next week is gonna be even crazier. As we countdown one week to our departure, we'll be moving out of the house, sending the maid home and giving up our car. For our relatives and friends that we've not been able to catch up before we leave, we are so sorry. We'll buy you tea the next time we meet again...
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Get A Break
Last Sunday, there was a report in The Sunday Times about how jam-packed the June holidays are for some kids.
Yesterday, I brought KK and XX downstairs to cycle and play. It was about 12 noon and although it was the school holidays, the playpool and playground were deserted. I was wondering, hey, it's the hols and the midday sky that day is cloudy, so where are all the kids? Off to some school holiday remedial programmes, enrichment camps or overseas holiday? Well, there was ONE other kid, a girl with swollen eyelids riding on her skate scooter. (Maybe it's the swollen eyelids, that's why she's so free.) A friend who stays just nearby a school had commented that even though it's the school hols, every morning there are just as many parents dropping off their kids at school as per usual.
Yes, kiasu parents signing up enrichment classes for their kids is one thing, but schools too are not giving their students (nor teachers) a real break during the hols. I remember even during my time, the hols are precious times for poor performing students doing remedial lessons and to catch up with their work. Not to mention the ECA groups organising camps/activities etc.
On the adjacent page of The Sunday Times is a related report about how schools set overly difficult mid-year exams supposedly to spur their students to study harder for the finals. However, some parents have complained that the poor results only demoralised the students.
This revived my memory of how my 'elite' secondary school also used the same tactics. The Sec 4 Prelim exams was so difficult that I scored miserably, attaining 22 points, resulting in me not qualifying for any JCs during the first 3 months. When the 'O' Levels results came out, I scored 12 points, enabling me to get into any of the top JCs. Not only was my self-esteem hurt by the Prelim results, I wasted 3 months, doing nothing. When I entered Temasek JC, I was 3 months behind the syllabus and I struggled through the rest of the first year trying to catch up. Does this make sense? I agree that the exams should be set to an equivalent standard or a little more difficult to give students a sense of the real thing. But to make it overly difficult, where results can be 10 points different, that's too extreme. 10 points is a heaven and earth difference in terms of academic achievements.
I am glad to hear that from Jan next year, the Education Ministry will scrap the provisional admissions exercise under which students used their prelim exam results to enter a JC. That's 18 years late, if you ask me, but still better than never.
Yesterday, I brought KK and XX downstairs to cycle and play. It was about 12 noon and although it was the school holidays, the playpool and playground were deserted. I was wondering, hey, it's the hols and the midday sky that day is cloudy, so where are all the kids? Off to some school holiday remedial programmes, enrichment camps or overseas holiday? Well, there was ONE other kid, a girl with swollen eyelids riding on her skate scooter. (Maybe it's the swollen eyelids, that's why she's so free.) A friend who stays just nearby a school had commented that even though it's the school hols, every morning there are just as many parents dropping off their kids at school as per usual.
Yes, kiasu parents signing up enrichment classes for their kids is one thing, but schools too are not giving their students (nor teachers) a real break during the hols. I remember even during my time, the hols are precious times for poor performing students doing remedial lessons and to catch up with their work. Not to mention the ECA groups organising camps/activities etc.
On the adjacent page of The Sunday Times is a related report about how schools set overly difficult mid-year exams supposedly to spur their students to study harder for the finals. However, some parents have complained that the poor results only demoralised the students.
This revived my memory of how my 'elite' secondary school also used the same tactics. The Sec 4 Prelim exams was so difficult that I scored miserably, attaining 22 points, resulting in me not qualifying for any JCs during the first 3 months. When the 'O' Levels results came out, I scored 12 points, enabling me to get into any of the top JCs. Not only was my self-esteem hurt by the Prelim results, I wasted 3 months, doing nothing. When I entered Temasek JC, I was 3 months behind the syllabus and I struggled through the rest of the first year trying to catch up. Does this make sense? I agree that the exams should be set to an equivalent standard or a little more difficult to give students a sense of the real thing. But to make it overly difficult, where results can be 10 points different, that's too extreme. 10 points is a heaven and earth difference in terms of academic achievements.
I am glad to hear that from Jan next year, the Education Ministry will scrap the provisional admissions exercise under which students used their prelim exam results to enter a JC. That's 18 years late, if you ask me, but still better than never.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
XX The Cute
I've crowned XX with this title - 'XX The Cute', as I (biasedly) think that he's so so so adorable.
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XX The Cute
Well, 2 days ago, XX The Cute became 'XX The Constipated'. Yes, he couldn't move his bowels for one day and he really had this constipated look on his face. He tried three times on the toilet bowl but each time, nothing comes out. I can see the poop in his anus but it was too hard for him to push it out. The poor boy will cry and look so miserable, we felt pretty stressed as well.
XX The Constipated
Hubby immediately went out to get him some prune juice but returned with a mixture from the pharmacy that will relieve constipation instead. Just as I was about to feed him the first mouth of the medicine, XX suddenly wriggled out from my lap. As he stood, a lump of poop fell out onto the floor. Normally we would have exclaimed "OMG, XX, yucks!" But on that day, we cheered and clapped on seeing this lump of 'gold'!
From then on, XX was released of the new title and became XX The Cute again.
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