There has been alot of emotional debate about who is the better party and who should be voted in and this is definitely a wake up call for the men in white. Personally I felt aggrieved for George Yeo and his team as they are capable people, and they can truly contribute to Singapore, but apparently, that is not what many others think.

I felt that many people has became irrational. Having been to the WP rally, I must acknowledge that they are really good speakers who can tug the heartstrings of people on the ground, and that is what PAP may be lacking. It must have been all the KPIs, structured approach, training in making rational decisions that have moulded them in this can I say robotic fashion. Some times I felt that they do not speak with enough conviction, and aggressiveness unlike the WP.

Looking at how things turn out and the comments I get from different people, it seems to me that PAP appeals to the upper middle class people and above, while the WP works the heart of the lower middle class people and below. Graduates friends of mine who are doing well and seemingly more rational tends to go towards the PAP as they feel that PAP would be  able to lead Singapore better as a whole. That is how i feel too. I have reservation about having 2 strong parties in the government as I do not want Singapore to end up like Taiwan (Blue Vs Green), Thailand (Red Vs White), US (Rep Vs Demo). I seriously think that Singapore as a small country could not afford to have this situation. We need to remain nimble and let the best man lead the country. Political bickering, and indecisiveness over important bills and issue is surely detrimental.

However on the other hand, I have friends who are staunch supporters of oppositions whoever they may be.. that is worrying.. As long as they oppose, I support… Some says that they have no say in issues, no voice etc, but at times I wonder, what voice they want? Do they really have no opportunity to speak up or is it merely that they do not want to speak up? Or they want someone else to speak up for them, so in case if something bad happens, the person who speaks up die not they die. That is a cowardly behaviour.

Many of them are also people who may not be doing well currently, or they think that they are not doing well when actually they are just ignorance and they just want to vent their anger at the government. But Singapore is a meritocratic society, one should do some soul searching on itself on why you are not doing well in the first place, before blaming the government who has created opportunities for the public in general. The world does not slows down for you, and it is a very selfish thought to want the whole society to slows down for some individuals at the expense of the country. When they think that the government has not done enough, did they think about the possibility that it could have been worse? Countries like Greece and Spain has fared much worse in the global recovery, Singapore could have been one of them, but I doubt that these people would understand.

There are also other problems that are global in nature e.g. inflation and rising cost of living. Singapore as a small nation can only ride with the tide, the government has already done well in preventing a capsize of the boat, and trying its best to steer the boat to safe water, but there are people who wants to snatch the oar and think that they can steer better. How can a boat be steered properly when there are 2 different people trying to row it at different speed and in an unsynchronized manner?

That said, I must also disclaim that not all oppositions are bad. I agree that the quality of oppositions have improved this time round, and they will definitely going to be even stronger have tasted victory, more people will be willing to step up and pose an even stronger challenge to the incumbents. Will that be a slippery slope? I think it is and I dread it.

Now the lightning party has got to better wake up their idea and engage the people at the lower pyramid of Singapore’s society. Giving out grow and share bonuses is obviously not enough or appreciated. People also want to see you fighting with them and for them. Time to get down from the pedestal and work with the people before it is too late…

Perhaps a couple of  event highlights include our CAC gathering at the “too-big-for-us” Aloha Changi chalet, Francis’s wedding, a few malaysia visits, fixing some of the car’s problems, our first Spa session together, Universal Studio, weekly soccer, settling my insurance policies and just spending time with her.

After listing all these and thinking back, i feel more comforted and seems like i didnt waste my last few weeks of holidays after all!

haha, i guess once in a while everyone gotta do this.. close your shop, do a stock check of what has happened over the last period of time, and you realise that hey you are not living life day by day and just going through whatever that comes along…

I thought my laziness has rendered this blog useless, but guess i just found some meaning in it again.. Guess it helps me retain some memories so that one day when i grow old, i can look back and reflect lol…

School is starting again soon and my favourite holiday is coming too! The chinese new year has always been my most looked forward holiday of the year, and I enjoy listening to the familiar tunes of new year songs especially when I go market lol… Think the songs are good cos it always gives people hope.. No matter what has happened in the past year it is over and it is a time to start anew and fresh for the next year!

Took the chance yesterday to do a mini spring cleaning of my room and even though it is a chore, I had a few pleasant surprises as I opened my drawers, cupboard and took out all the accumulated items that was locked out in convenience since a long time ago…

I realised that I still have my sec 4 textbooks all intact and looking good as it was since 10 years ago! The inks were fresh and vivid like I was just studying them yesterday… I found my primary school recorder with its tattered blue cover… Dare not blow it, but still it looks good with the faint yamaha logo emblossed…

My happiest discovery was 2 empty boxes… empty boxes of my car models with the price tags intact.. Friends who have been to my room would notice the Ferrari and Mercedes sports car on display… It originally came with 2 display boxes and stand for the cars, and it has been kept away in my upper cupboard that I dont even remember until yesterday…

the discovery is special not only because the box is nice and in great condition, but rather, because it evoked memories of how I got the car models… It was a day in takashima with my mum in year 2000.. and there was a sale going on in the atrium, and i pleaded with my mum to get the car models for me… 10 years back, I had the vision to become a car model collector… to accumulate as many display models as possible… but the dream was never fulfilled cos my stingyness got the better of me… I decided that each model that cost 40+ is too ex and nt worthwhile… I was also surprised that my mum agreed to buy the 2 models at about $70+. As far as I can remember till today, it was the first present or toys that she has bought for me… I must have put my academic results as a mortgage to get it and my mum must have been very unwilling to part with her $100 then… Since young, I do not have the luxury of nintendos, super genius, sega, or saturn… I also do not have remote control cars etc…

My bros and I always play with lego, police and thief and some card games as far as I can remember… We always have to improvise from the limited toys that we have… Flying kite from our HDB room using strings and plastic bag is one creative but failure invention of ours…. Even the lego that we got was given to us by ppl…

But i realised the less we have the more we treasure… Now I have returned the cars into their original display box and they really look like new again… and of course, I have decided to put the receipt that is still as crisp as ever back to the original place… In my upper cupboard for as long as I can keep… It will be a time deposit for another pleasant surprise 10 years later…

Taking the most basic data plan from Singtel:

iphone 4 – $480

iphone 3GS – $350

Prices has dropped alot but i’m still trapped with my mobile plan.. Okay gotta see how…

Well i also donnoe why i only get reminded to blog when i got things that i am not happy about.. ha  but i decide its not good la to be always complaining.. Things wouldnt improve if i only blog about it but not do anything about it right… So less talk more action.. but it gets frustrating when you know that no amount of action can change some things.. Things are the way it is and i can only accept the situation or walk out of the situation…

Sounds easy but thats the most difficult part..

Needs enlightenment…

Okay many ppl would be envying my life for the past 2 weeks.. Well i guess this is the benefit of being a teacher ba.. but actually maybe more of benefits of being a beginning teachers… With less responsibilities we have less work and more free time! hahaha of course we have less pay too la… So the world is fair in some sense.. anyway after this period of honeymooning, i guess things will be fast and furious soon once school reopens…

We are the unlucky YOG batch of teachers who will only start our course in Sept.. and our course will only end at the X mas period… One week of break and it starts again.. we will miss out on one month plus of dec holidays!!! K la no one will pity us since we are being paid to work anyway…

But on the other hand we don have our annual leave, off-in-lieu etc also la… k la maybe its not so fair after all… hahaha… But thats what i chose and i will stick to it ba…

Well i guess this holiday has been quite fulfiling… Not too bored with nothing to do and not too hectic either… Managed to go to some places that we want to go, watch some movies, eat some nice food, take convocation photo, give some tuition, play some mj, meet some friends, have some supper and do some exercises!!!

I actually think that it is due to what they are exposed to since young… Things in the modern world is too fascinating… We have the internet, video games, movies, smart phones etc etc… Having been exposed to all these interesting stuff all along, anything less fascinating is boring… Unable to capture their attention and it takes even more effort to interest them…

Why can our parents or our generation study the way we did last time? I think maybe cos we were exposed to less of these “interesting” stuff, but on the other hand we also had our form of entertainments e.g. block catching ( I dont really see children running run the neighbourhood nowadays, have they all disappeareD?)… I’m sure school then wasnt as interesting as school nowadays.. we have so much activities for them, interactive programmes etc etc… but in relation to what they are exposed to in their daily lives, school is still boring…

Coming to my next topic on the govt’s intention to tweak the weightage of MT scores in PSLE, I seriously thing that it would be a suicide move.. Just because some students find that scoring for their MT is hard, so we have to lower the weightage so that they can do better in their PSLE? that is as good as making our goal posts bigger to make scoring easier in a soccer match… But can we win the world cup in this manner? I am no opposition to the government, but this is the first time that i think something is wrong with their thinking up there…

On top of that it is not just about whether the students can go to a good sec school after their PSLE, it is about whether they have a good enough knowledge about their MT next time when they are out in their society and also passing on the knowlede for generations… Education is not only about the first 20 years of the child’s life.. and we got to admit the standard now is already miserably low…

If we can shift the weightage now, i cant imagine what they can do in future.. Allowing students to take Language B syllabus is already a step in the slippery slope… Students cant judge for themselves, they will only try to choose what makes life easier for them…How can the policy makers be as myopic as some people who lobby for a lower weightage just to make life easier for their children? 

Marginalising our MT is as good as giving up our identity, our race, our background, our culture… I hope the people up there are visiting their optician regularly…

Bottle caps as baseball. Bottles as their bat. After a while they realized that baseball is not an easy game. So here comes Dodge ball…

They like to bicker with one another… Calling each others fanciful names and later greetings to their parents are exchanged till one of the party cannot take it and provoke a fight. Here comes the teacher to defuse the situation. The next day they become good friends again and the cycle repeats…

(In the midst of the exams) Encountered a hard question. With his pens on each hand, starts to play his imaginery drum set hitting the air.. and after awhile of headshaking and hand hitting… TA DA!  He will be able to do the question…

(In the com lab) Students set their monitors to the dimmest possible. Thinking that we will not be able to see them on miniclip.com.  I guess they have not heard about 此地无银三百两…

Friday was family day as we brought our parents to watch their first movie since Money no enough (1998)… it has been 12 years since… Well kudos to my younger bro to take the initiatives, for i am always one who only think but no action… its just something in the family that is hard to change..

The show was Ip Man 2, haha cos its mandarin and cos there is good fighting (for my dad). Well the show is quite good, but if you have watched Ip Man 1 before, you would find that part of the novelty is lost, as it revolves around similar things… This time round, Ip Man migrated from Fo Shan China to British controlled Hong Kong and the struggle of the chinese under their western masters sets the storyline… At the end of the show, i actually feel proud to be a chinese and feel that there are alot of traditions, culture and most importanly values that should be passed on for generations… But it is definitely not an easy task in this new world that is quite heavily influenced by the west… Somehow after the show, I feel that the rise of china is not that scary after all, and is actually justifiable and overdued… Could this be a propaganda film? hahaha

Exams are coming! Time of stress for the students.. for me i hope it will be a period of slack, hopefully there wouldnt be much marking for me… and there will be post exam activities for the kids before the holiday! Well seems like a great life huh, I guess its cos i’m still not a full fledge teacher yet… Can see many teachers busy all the way organising this and that, and fulfilling umpteen requirements… But well since now i can enjoy just enjoy the lack of responsibilties and honeymoon period ba!

Just want to blog abt this: Last week i got a treat from a stranger… it’s a 20cents treat ha… I was at the coffeeshop and he came to ask to share a table with me.. Later the uncle came to take our orders for the drinks… I ordered Kopi-bing $1.20(1st time trying) and he added another one… The uncle thought we are together… later he came with the drinks and asked for $2.40, the person took out a $2 note and pass to the uncle while i was still fumbling for money… the uncle look at him with the sort of this is not enough look… and the man passed uncle another 40cents before uncle walked away… The awkwardness came when i only got $1 coin and a $2 note, so i decided to pass him $2 but he has no change, and he says nevermind no need to pay… in the end i only passed him $1 and ate my noodles quietly… He too quickly finished his meal and walked away… well i guess funny things happen around us everyday… should i have initiated to chat with him? if yes what should i talk about? will it be even more awkward? haha… i think we are still a very conservative society after all.. ppl mind our own business….

Funny things in school:

Student1 was playing with his depleted correction tape.. dismantling it like a roll of cassette tape and disturbing his friends. I said “Give it to me…” He handed over and parroted “give it to me…ah… (seductively)”

Student 2 was disruptive and sent out of the classroom. The Classroom door was closed. He wrote RIP on the glass plane of the door using his finger and keep using his breathe to blow on the door…

There are many funny moments that i cant recall now.. but its not things that you will encounter in an express class… the T students are creative in their own ways, its just hard to unleash the potential in them when they cant seat still… and its draining on the teachers too… but the satisfaction will be great too… provided you live till then to enjoy the satisfaction when you see them succeed one day… haha