At the airport

Many ask me what is my purpose of going overseas at this point of time? I said I needed to take time off the heavy work load and to do a recce for my friend who is leading a team over to Cambodia. I may be joining this team in December when they are going over to Cambodia for another Youth Expedition Project. Well, when I checked in 15 minutes ago, I saw yet another bunch of young teens from an institution in Singapore going over for another YEP. How do I know? Cos it is written all over their shirt!

After embarking on my 4th trip, I am seriously a little tired in leading yet another team over. It is always so mentally and physically straining, especially when you are in the teaching profession. So yar, I went for a KTV session before I came to the airport, and my friends from PA X were commenting on how my bag pack looked the same as what I brought for 22 days, and I just laughed it off. Who would have known that it contained some of my most valuable stuffs? Computer manuals for my Cambodian counterpart, loads of assignments/ compositions from my dearest students (seems like I am going to enjoy soo much there, haha) I promised myself not to return with any of the assignments unmarked!).. , my laptop and the DVDs that I promised to burn for my friends.. There seems to be so much to accomplish within these 5 days of trip, would I be able to complete all?

I would be revisiting one of the villages that I have gone to, and I will also be dropping by a more rural area where I will be looking out for the suitable accomodations, transport, food for a next project in one of the more untouched places in Cambodia. When I say "untouched", it means that the children there have not been exposed much to foreign culture, or have not seen strangers other than their own villagers. These are the places that probably need help, but I do believe this Team from NIE, Project Builders of Hope, will be able to achieve so much more other than just any other projects. I do hope that they will be able to apply what they have learnt in the schools that they will be posted to in future. There are so many things that we can learn from our Cambodian counterparts, and every visit there, I would be looking forward to learning something from them. Hopefully, I manage to visit some orphanages and try to come up with a rough proposal for my future projects. I do hope to bring my students over one of these days, probably from next year onwards to do a project there. But of course all these would need support from the school. Probably I will start from NPCC..So stay Tuned.

Anyway, I would try to post at least an entry every day to keep you guys updated of what is happening in Cambodia. If there is chance, I will take fotos too.. Good Morning Singapore, Time to wake up, it is 5.20am on a Sunday Morning!

Time Flies

Time waits for no man. Everyone knows this, yet few knows how to make full use of it. I have a little joke which has left a deep impression on me.

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

This is the story about 4 people named: Everybody, Somebody,
Anybody, and Nobody.

- There was an important job to be done and Everybody was
sure Somebody would do it.

- Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

- Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job.

- Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized
that Everybody wouldn't do it.

- It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody
did what Anybody could have done.

So, my question, did anybody do his job? haha..

Ok, back to the topic. "Teaching saps your mind, but fills your soul." One of my friend put this phrase on his MSN nick, and I found it appropriate.. When you are teaching, you will not realize how time passes so much faster.. How I wish I could have 48 hours instead of 24. Well, in the end, it is still a numbers game. Even if I had 48 hours, I would have wished for more. Men is greedy. So in the end, I can only blame our ancestors for regulating the number of hours in a day. Why do we even have days, hours, minutes, seconds? Indeed this is a tough question. As I am lying down thinking of this question, I ask myself what have I achieved in this 26 years of life? Some say that blogs are a waste of time, so am I wasting my time writing all these? Time is a commodity that we cannot stop it from flowing away, and as I type out these words, watching these words appear word by word on my screen, time flows past me. Tick tock, Tick tock... there it goes, even for you, my dear readers, you have spent at least 5 minutes of your precious time reading my post. And for that, I thank you.. Thanks to all the supporters coming to tag my blog every now and then.

If you intend to race with time, you can never win it. So the next question will be how do you make full use of it? If I have a choice, I would have hoped that time can reverse and I can make better use of it. Men is lazy. That is why we need deadlines..If we are not given deadlines, god knows when we will be able to finish the job! However, having said so, you either choose to cherish time or see it flow by.

Happy Birthday? Random thoughts

Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Jenny, Happy Birthday to you! Happy 24th Birthday, dear sis..

All right, I shall start by wishing my dear sister a happy birthday. Another year older.. Come to think of it, 24 years since birth, everything seemed to have passed by in a flash. She is a big girl now, matured enough to make decisions on her own. How time flies. Dear sister, you have a totally different character from me, and you are someone who wants to earn big bucks, and is really "stingy". But it is a good thing cos you always make plans for the things you buy and for your future.. I hope you do. Anyway, you are someone who can't step out of the house without putting on makeup, so haha, I guess, it is a girl's right and privilege to make men wait.. Oops, no longer a girl, a lady.. Yar, in terms of size, I am almost double your size, and 10 shades tanner than you are. Just look at our family photo and you will know.. The guy beside her is her bf..



Strange that I can only remember the times which I bullied her and made her cry, and when she asked me if it was a right choice to just have one boyfriend in her life, since she thought that she should be given a chance to go out and know more guys before making a decision. It was a tough one, I thought, and so, I told her that whether you want to trial and error or stick to your choice, it is your personal decision. The most important thing is to ask yourself if you are happy with this person, and if it is, then why change?

These days, when I see my Sec 1s, almost every class, my dear students will come and tell me their "secrets", like this person "stead" with who, and who likes who etc... Though I know that they may not be matured to really know what is "LOVE", but it is difficult to drive through this idea. The media has portrayed such images that break-ups are very common in life, and you must really go and trial and error before finding the right one. But, how do you know he is the right one? Maybe the one after is a better one, or the previous one was already the best, but you chose to regret after breaking up? When you try to tell these students that they are still too young to experience what is love, they will then ask you back, " How do you know we do not know what is love?" Arh, indeed I do not know, cos even I am looking for an answer.

I see students happily "steadying" together, one who said that there is a guy who tried to ask her to stead for 4 times, and finally they got together for 1 day, before the girl decides that it is still better to stay as friends. Then I have students of different classes "steadying" together, and students who break and reconcile, break and reconcile. Arh... indeed Secondary school life is indeed a place where it is full of drama, just like TV.. I have at least 3 pairs of friends who have been together during Sec School and have since gotten happily married, and I am really happy for them. Those whom I have not discovered, may be more..

If people a decade ago can start to fall in love with one another, and eventually gotten married, why are we stopping the youths today from falling in love? Arh, there is a catch to this question. Responsible behaviour.. To fall in love, means to love someone responsibly, thinking of all consequences before he or she acts. As teachers, we have the responsibility to let students know that getting into a relationship does not mean getting too intimate..It is good to give it a try in Secondary school, but if you find someone better in your JC or Poly, or ITE, then what would you do? Break up and move on in life? Well, life is a contradiction and change is indeed the most constant thing in life. So, I do not have advice for you, you have to make the choice.

For me, if I know that there will not be any progress, I will put a stop to it, before I move on. You must know what you want before you can move on. If I know that if this is not the kind of life we can spend together, or the woman that I can love for at least the next half of my life, then I think I should give up. And all these, you learn from experience. And how do you learn? From advice, from others' experience and of course, from your own experiences. Love is irrational, or rather it is blind to make you not think rationally. Often than not, when you fall into it, and you know that it is not the path that you want, you will still choose to be blinded by it, rather than to face the momentarily pain after a break up. Sometimes, things are easier said than done. I can only hope that people will cherish whatever happiness that they already have and appreciate it. If you do not feel happy, move on. Happiness is never too far from you... : )

Money Not enough 2 and Batman: The Dark Knight

These are the 2 movies that I watched recently, and are movies that I would recommend if anyone would want to catch movies which sets your mind thinking. 1st of all, for Money Not Enough 2, another local production directed by our Jack Neo, and I must say that he has once again produced another movie that makes you think critically about the problems of our society, the place that we live in everyday. Alongside the movie, societal problems arose, problems that many would not want to confront face to face, problems which expose the ugly side of Singaporeans or rather normal human beings.

Some of these problems, like throwing our parents in old folks home because we only have time to make money and not time to take care of them; like parents sacrificing their time, money, effort, dignity, and even life to save their children, to help them overcome their difficulties; like wives and mothers staying under one roof, like sons fighting to cast their mother away even though they know that it is wrong to do so, like sons reprimanding their mother when she is begging for money to help them tide over the financial crisis, like children nowadays treat their parents like maids, like children who do not understand dialects, and do not grow up in a Chinese Speaking family, like people can do anything illegal to make money, like rich men who would want to squander their money outside looking for women, when they have a beautiful wife waiting at home..

When did people start to think that English is a more superior language than their mother tongue? When did people start to think that making money is more important than family ties? When did people start to regard the roots of all evil - money, as the only one important thing revolving around their daily lives, and forgetting about their loved ones around them? Why is it that divorce cases are on the rise every year? Why do people take things for granted? (hospitals must have enough blood supply for the patients) Why do people not treasure what is around them (family ties, love) until it is no longer around? Why do people even allow themselves to continue to make mistakes when they know that it is wrong to do so?

Because humans are flawed when they are born? Laziness, greed, timid to assume responsibility, and many others....Whatever this movie has shown, it has not only tried to "complain" about what the government has done so far, in fact it has surpassed that level, if you are still thinking that Jack Neo is just trying to portray the Singaporean image of always complaining and complaining about Singapore's government and its system. What do you think would do good even if he has complained in the movie? Do you think the government will change because of this? Then, if not what do you think has attracted you to watch the movie? I think that anyone who is staying in this fast-paced city should take a look at this movie.

Money not enough, true. So is money not enough for use, or money not enough to buy back what is lost? As the saying goes, You do not bring anything to this world when you are born, and you do not take anything with you when you depart from it. This is something so true that you can't deny, unless you are really "born with a silver spoon" in your mouth, which may happen if your mum happened to swallow it when she was pregnant. (Scientifically impossible).. Well, people laugh when I tell them that I teared twice during the show, which I am baffled. Why can't a man cry? Is it a woman's right? haha..

There are many deep truths that are portrayed in the movie, many of which are problems we do not want to face, but at the end of the day, the hard fact that slaps in your face will still be the same: You need to solve the problems that you created, and lamenting over them is not going to help. So pls cherish whatever you have.

Batman is another movie that uncovers the dark side of human beings. Everyone needs a hero, but only when they are in need of help, and when it doesn't clash with their personal interests. In times when humans need to make a choice, it is often when selfishness will start to set in, and they will try to push the blame to others, and also not trusting others. At the end of the day, the true hero emerges as the dark knight bearing the mistakes of others, letting others put the blame on him for crimes he has not committed. What Batman has done is only to help to preserve the peace of Gotham City, but its people has turned their backs to this hero. From hero to villian, Joker has made him see the loneliness of being a hero, and the sacrifices that he has to make to save his city. Indeed, Joker does makes people see that life is nothing but a joke, but Batman chose to be the butt of these jokes, sacrificing his name in search of the goodness in human beings.

Do catch these 2 movies, if you have the time. Batman is still available in malaysia though. haha..