Pot Luck Gathering (06/09/08)

Classmates and I had a potluck dinner at Siew Yen and Geoff's place last night. There was so much good food that by the end of the evening, most were already eaten. Here are some pictures taken of the kids and friends.

Botanic Gardens September 2008

Seems like I always visit the Botanic Garden (not the 'Botanical Garden') everytime I have a new camera. Went there this morning and took some pictures with the D300. The camera is really really sharp. I decided to leave the WB (White Balance) at automatic to see how it fared. I'm very happy to say that it is rather accurate. Here are some pictures taken using the camera. The lens I brought along is the 18-200 and the 60 Macro.








Leave your comments please!

To my Sec 4A2 students... may you do well in your N-Levels next week.
Don't panic, and waste as many pieces of paper as you needed (after all...you've already paid for them :-) )

To all the other students...thank you for your presents and food. I certainly enjoy them very much!

Pictures of 2E3

Here are the pictures as promised... Enjoy downloading them!

Term 3 holidays are here!

Can't believe it! Term 3 holidays are here already... So so fast. Promised my class that I will post some of there pictures here for them. So kid, wait ha! I'll edit edit a bit first before posting them up.

You should live in a big city...

Just took this short test... Maybe I should really live in a big city...

You Should Live in a Big City

You don't want anything in particular out of life... you want it all. You crave new and exciting experiences. And you get bored fairly easily. Only very big cities can keep you entertained and stimulated.

Where Should You Live?

The '888' Car

Happened to walk past this car some time back. Finally got the time to post it up. I think the owner is desperate for cash or something... Wondering whether if he/she or the family actually won something (4D/Toto/BigSweep/etc)...especially when the back of the car spells 'I Will "888"!' :-)

Taiwan pictures from a phone

Took some pictures using my phone when I was holidaying in Taiwan.

This was taken on the SQ flight to Taipei. Food was not too bad la!

Squid ink bread toast. The green thingy on top is the minced parsley and garlic. It was actually quite nice. Too bad I can't buy them back to Singapore.

The bakchang sold at Seven Eleven. You'll never find them in Singapore's 7-11. The 7-11 stores there sold almost anything and everything from mini shampoo, single-use toothbrushes to lunchbox meals and espresso coffee. Nice and really convenient when you compare to what you can only get in the Singapore version.

Fried stuff store at a night market. Not really keen on what they were selling though.

Day market to where I stayed. Pretty much the same as what Singapore used to have. You can also find lots of these markets in Malaysia and Indonesia. The hawkers sold cooked and uncook food there.

Posting of pictures at Clubsnap and flickr

Hello friends and kids...
Have posted some pictures on both clubsnap and flickr.
Here are the links:

Clubsnap: http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=387057

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31686577@N00/

Taiwan Trip June 2008

Went on holiday to Taiwan last week. I can say that it's one of the most relaxing trip I've been to for a long long time. There were lots of new and interesting location to go to. Traveled to places like the Taroko Gorge, Hualien, Taitung, Taipei, YangMingShan, JiuFen, JinShan, JinGuaShi. There were lots to see and lots to eat. I bet that almost 40-50% of the pictures I took are of food. I'm putting up just some pictures I took during the trip. Some were HDRed.








Do comment on the pictures... :-)

HDR

How many of you have heard of the term 'HDR'? HDR stands for High Dynamic Range imaging. It is were multiple exposures of the same scene but shot with different speeds to create under / Correct / over exposed pictures and combining them together in a picture. You can check out HDR from here. (http://hdrcreme.com/)
I'm currently playing a lot with HDR. Very interesting shots where you can get both the brightest and darkest tones from multiple pictures of the same scene and rendering a new photo.
Here are some of my examples. Pls commend on them. Thanks!!!

Downtown East Revamp

Downtown East is within walking distance to where I live. Recently they finally opened after the revamp. Some shops and entertainment available there:

- Coffee Bean
- Gelare
- Mr Chicken Rice (former chef from Mandarin Hotel)
- Pasta Mania
- Kodak Shop
- NTUC
- Cathay Cinema
- Bowling Alleys
- Kids Playground
- Ferris Wheel

It rather crowded during the weekends so I try to avoid that place if I can.

Shopping Spree...

Update - It's not so painful now... slowly cutting down the painkillers to once a day. Drinking lots of water. Have been eating solid foods this past week. Appetite going back to normal (which is what I dread!). Have slim down a bit because of this operation and I don't wish to put back or worst case, put back more weight than I want to. Wish to lose some more so that I can wear the clothes sizes I wanted.

Went to a sale at Lipo building on Wednesday evening. They are having a sale on Levi's, Calvin Klein underwear, Timberland and Chaps shirts. Prices are pretty good. Bought a pair of Levi's for $40, some Timberland shirts for $29.90 each. Was told that the Timberland shirts were $159. Might go back there again to see if there's anything else to buy.

Car battery went dead again! This is the fourth time in 2 years that I replaced the batteries. The original one lasted for over two years. Not sure what happened. Mechanic said that the alternator is charging properly. He suspected that it's the sound system that's draining the battery. But I had the system since I collected the car (and with the original battery) so I don't think it's the sound system. I've changed to an Amaron battery this time. Last two times were this battery named Delkor. Hopefully this time it will last longer! 

Lastly, I'm out looking for a macro lens. Can't decide whether I should get a Nikon 60mm Micro lens or the Tokina/Tamron 100/90mm Macro lens. Prices are pretty similar. Only difference is that the Nikon can let me take pictures of food and items at sitting range while for the Tokina/Tamron ones I will have to move to the next table to take the picture. The Tokina/Tamron lenses is normally used to take close-up pictures of insect and nature (from a distance). Anyway, I'm looking for a second-handed lens and I'm not in a rush so will take my time to wait for a good quality and cheap one.

Like that how?

My ramblings again! Need to get well soon. Loads of work to mark. Seeing doctor tomorrow for a quick review. I've finished all the antibiotic and pain killers but the pain still exists. I can't swallow much and my throat still hurts. I really don't know what else I can do. Can't even talk in my usual voice... so sad!

Finally! Some time to blog

I have not had time to blog for a long long time. I think my friends and students probably have given up hope that this blog will ever be updated again!

It has been a rather troublesome 6 months for me. As you know, I moved in November last year to the east of Singapore. As a result of the move, I hurt my back and ended up resting for most of the school holidays at my new home. I was on pain killers and in bed most of the time.

By the end of December, I'm well enough to be back on my feet to prepare for the new school term. Having been posted to a new school (since I moved to the east), everything is like starting from scratch. There are new teachers, new system in the school, new scheme of work, new everything. I've to prepare my worksheets and lessons for the new classes as well. (Seems like my life is all about work...)

School started in January. I had my culture shock on the first day. 1st time I'm given Sec 2 express classes to teach. I'm just not use to the way they behave themselves. They are like angels and will take the initiatives to get their things done. Even now after knowing and teaching them for the past 4 months, they are pretty responsive and will try to do their work properly (in order to get good grades). Of course not all is plain sailing. There are also the 'monster' classes. I'm given one of them (which I shall not name). They practically and simply do not behave themselves in the right manner as 15 year olds. There have been many incidents examples like, someone who just cannot sit still in class and has to walk about and disturb his classmates all the time, one student who love answering and talking to classmates and teachers at the top of her screeching voice to those who just feel that they have no interest in the subject as they were 'forced' to do it who would simply go to sleep when lesson starts. One incident that I'll remember forever was about this student who apologised to me for some misbehaving that he had done in class. He started with "Cher, I'm sorry." A moment of silence. He continued, "Actually, I didn't mean it!" and he burst out with laughter! My mind was thinking at that moment...Why is he like that? Didn't his parents teach him respect? Or does he have parents? Maybe his parents and family are all like that too? I just don't know...

Anyway, latest update about me. I went for a sleep test recently and doctors found out that I have sleep apnea. I am not getting enough oxygen when sleeping. During the test, I actually stopped breathing for about 390 times and the longest period of not breathing was about 79 sec. That's scary and urgent enough for the doctors to quickly arrange an operation to try to fix the problem. According to them, I have enlarged tonsils (probably due to me being a teacher) which is getting in the way of breathing. These will be taken out during the operation. On top of that, they will also be shaping the top of my throat a bit, ensuring that my air passage is not blocked.
Well, I just had the operation and am now resting at home. Lots of pain for the first 3-4 days. I am now still on painkillers and not able to talk properly. The pain will go away soon and I'll be my normal self. I've not been able to eat anything apart from watery oats and soup. Doctors recommended ice cream to cool down the wound. So far I had 3 servings of ice cream as I find them too sweet to swallow. Imagine not able to even eat ice cream! I do hope to slim down a bit because of this. Haven't weigh myself yet. But I think I might have lose a couple of kg! :-)

Enough of me already. Will update again soon. Ciao!

December Update

A friend has been asking me how come I've not updated my blog for so long. It was because of all the events which took place these 2 months. Moving house, packing, unpacking, my back getting hurt twice (which resulted in staying in bed and on painkillers for almost the whole month), going away for staff retreat...

It's up till now that I'm feeling better and the itch to take pictures that I finally decide to update again.

Posting below is a view from my new place. Taken today (it has been raining the entire day). The weather has been cool and nice. Don't even want to get out of the house...



I know I have not taken anything the whole of this holiday. Will try to do so soon.

Blog update October

Quick update... some news and some info.

1) Super busy with invigilation for 'O's.

2) Happy that my class improved in their subjects. (Well...at least for some of them) And that they will be given their choice of stream.

3) Pray hard that my students in Sec 4 DT class can suddenly 'see the light' in whatever they read and do well in all their subject.

4) Sleepy... going to bed...

Ciao!