RED EYE

uhh...

2005-11-03T18:16:00.000+08:00

YES WE ARE.

uhh...

2005-10-28T00:15:00.000+08:00

Are we there yet?

remember this...

2005-10-27T23:17:00.001+08:00

the blog has been pretty quiet lately aside from the sudden spamming of our tagboard, unwanted attention we could probably do without. but we know our fame spreads far and wide. and anyway, i think someone's trying to make a point about square tables on our tagboard. "the table is square." hmm... let's ponder about the value of that statement for a moment shall we? the advantages of square tables. square tables are great tables because it brings people closer together, well as compared to rectangular tables. and then there's circular tables which are just confusing. half the time you're inching your chair and making one round around the table before realising you can't get any closer to the person opposite you. circular tables are deceiving. deception is evil. therefore, using our amazing facet of logic, we can conclude that circular tables are evil. well, here's why square tables are good. they take up less space, you can form rectangular tables with them, you can... oh yeah you can join them together without turning them around. got you there didn't i? bet you didn't know that. i think i shall sell tables when i grow up.

so oh yes. see the picture up there? the picture's going to remain in my head or memory bank for a while. remind me to send this in when they're casting "scary movie 5." i'm sure this talented young actress will go far with this face of her, not to mention her high-pitched scream which will scare the daylights out of you. heh. i do miss the kids at HIS connection. please don't tell me i'm the only one willing to relive the nightmare of screamy, grumpy, hyperactive kids all over again. but, it was fun right??? and we did bond over the many challenges and difficulties that arose.

i thought about 10 random things i would never have learnt/experienced if it wasn't for this whole LTB thing and the group, of course. and since randomness is good, here they are:
1) i would never have learnt that water expires
2) "i don't like milk that is fresh" - that milk tastes best when it isn't fresh
3) the most exciting hobby one can ever have, flight kying
4) the art of lightstick accessories and bombs (our SWAT game is the bomb!!)
5) marbles are actually plants, scatter them around and they disappear into the ground
6) a rekindling of childhood memories of marbles, GLC "Gor li" club
7) starlight cinema and geylang tau huay - and the best TA who sends us home to our doorsteps
8) i have never heard someone go, "Oh man." (Madagascar zebra style) that many times in one sentence or hear "are we there yet?" so many times in a day
9) i have never seen such clowns who would be excited over red nose that doesn't stay on. i have to say though, our 2 clowns were brilliant. i loved the matrix effect.
10) the gem of them all. who could forget, my life's greatest lesson. i have never known, that the table is square.

MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!

2005-10-12T21:42:00.000+08:00

September holiday programme - OVER!
Children's Day camp - OVER!
Educational Outing with the kids - to be planned......

guys, the most jialat of the most jialat is finally OVER! hahaha... muahahahaha... MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

now, it's just the final presentation and the portfolio left... OLÉ!!!!

2005-09-27T18:18:00.000+08:00

HAHA!!!! Found this online.... Hehehehe.... So fun.... So appropriate... WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!!!!

star light, star bright, first star i see tonight.............

2005-09-23T23:21:00.000+08:00

sorry all ya star-gazers, but i ain't talkin' 'bout no stars... i'm talkin' 'bout.................................................

STARLIGHT CINEMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hahahaha... ok... some of you think i'm losing my mind... which, to some extent, i truely true! hehehe... ok... that's not the point...

guys, thanks for the concern on Monday when i wasn't feeling well... thanx for being so understanding when i asked for a nap... U GUYS ROCK!!! i couldn't ask for a better bunch of peeps to work with... *sob, sob, sob - shirt gets all wet*...

ANYWAYS...

watching "magadascar" with you guys at starlight cinema was realli fun... haha... too bad we didn't win the double passes to "skeleton key"... it would have been realli cool if we could all get to watch it...

BY THE WAY...

today after meeting with DD i know we were all getting tired and unfocused... but as fish said... it's just a little bit left to go... soon we'll be consolidating our materials etc etc etc etc... hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thought.provoking.

2005-09-22T21:48:00.000+08:00

I came across this a while ago..and I found it very meaningful.

Here it goes,

"I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing."

--Neil Gaiman, "The Sandman" (ehh..it's in one of the 11 books.will cite a proper quotation when i find it again.)

Quite true, ain't it?

There are a lot of things we don't learn in school.

Dealing with emotional attachment, for example.

We never had a "catch-all" solution for that,did we?

hmm.

and building on...red eye rocks my purple socks with the yellow boombox.

fishie

*bloop!*

halfway mark.

2005-09-22T19:46:00.000+08:00

for your enjoyment...

our t-shirts have been made, we've been to cheapo starlight cinema and tau huay and skeleton key just might be on its way. (mental note to self: check results of contest when i'm back on earth). its as fishie says, we're at or have just passed the halfway mark. perhaps what we really need now is to... just keep swimming.

well, i guess there's been a little unhappiness, a little discontent, a litte gripping, whining and silent resignation over certain things. a little may just be an understatement for some people. i know Sammy's favourite ah dong should have been "favourite". i sat at kfc today listening to disgruntled complaints about her but sorry guys, i really don't know what can be or should be done. i guess its like what we concluded, its a conflict of working styles and perhaps expectations. i don't know, maybe those compliant ones aren't really affected but those with high leadership scores (dominance) really don't like being ordered around. i believe in everything, not one party is fully at fault. perhaps we too have been too passive in not speaking up. its not too late, even though everything has been done and settled. on a lighter note, the disagreements, conflicts is one more thing we can include in our learning journals. when will we ever start doing them anyway?

i guess i'm just glad the unhappiness is external and not internal. the team has indeed been honest and encouraging, so trust is really improving!!! we've just got to keep supporting each other and keeping the team's spirits up.
"A project(record) is nothing if not shared. I'm proud of the project(record) but I'm even more proud to be working with the best team in the world." as edited from ellen macarthur. let's press on, we're almost there. hakuna matata ok.

in other news, our t-shirts rock. right, joanne? you guys are in for a nice, bright pleasant shock. think hot pink with purple prints. see you guys tomorrow... and red eye rocks my purple socks.

esther.
i'm loving viva la mama more and more.

funny s**t

2005-09-21T21:21:00.000+08:00

Hahaha...just something i'd like to share..

big thank you.

2005-09-13T00:41:00.000+08:00

Dear all,
What can i say, except a big thank you for sharing in my 19th, well technically the last day of my 18th. it was greatly appreciated and i'm immensely touched. -takes out tissue paper and wipes tears- thanks for taking the trouble to get permission from prof., for the cake, for dinner, for time out at starbucks, for standing in the middle of city hall station to discuss dates to meet ah dong, for abracadabra, ting!... for bringing so much fun and joy in my life. -ok speech over, cue for wiping of tears- its been great working with a bunch of people-orientated and yet task-orientated people. remember the crappy briefing, TEAM - Together Each Achieves More. yes yes, we are a fabulous happening team. want to type somemore lah, but tired already. promise to get you guys dunkin' donuts when i go to JB on thurs, can have it while having discussion at my place on Saturday.

Thanks once again.
Esther

Musings:101

2005-09-11T00:08:00.000+08:00

Ahhh...yes. The conclusion of week 3.And boy,what a week it had been.

It all started on Tuesday, 6 Sept 2005 when...

Esther and I tagged along on the kids' swimming trip on Tuesday. It was going to be my first time interacting with the kids from HIS Connection, and so with a little trepidation, I woke up real early on Tuesday morning and made my way to Hougang Swimming Pool.

Arrived early, no sign of Esther and the kids. Had a drink and waited for them. They arrived shortly after 9.30am...swimming commenced!

I was tasked to oversee 6 boys, who were in Primary 2 and I must say we hit it off pretty well. I didn't expect to get into the water(was thinking that I can...well,kinda assume the role of a supervisor). In any case, within 15 minutes of getting the boys in water and trying to take pictures, I was drenched to the skin when the boys started splashing water and shooting their water guns at me.

Like this...

Thanks Eddy. =)

My observation: The boys are really rowdy. We're in for a rough time.Hahaha.. That being said, they can listen to instructions when they want to, so i suppose the challenge lies in getting them over to our side and making them listen to us. It's difficult, but I reckon that's how things are. Just gotta be patient and do our best~

The swimming trip went pretty well..and as Esther had mentioned earlier, no kids drowned etc. *heh*

Anyway, that's it for the swimming trip.

And now..a short report on the main show,Friday 9 Sept 2005...

In retrospect, I think it didn't go as well as we would have liked, but we managed to pull it off, thanks to everyone!

Fortunately, I'm glad that the kids had fun (although some had "less" fun than others, because we were unable to complete the modified scavenger hunt, due to insufficient time).

Kids being kids, they have a never-ending source of energy and I'm sure it was a testing experience for all of us in trying to keep the children under control. Nevertheless, things got a bit out of hand sometimes, after which Mrs Dong had to assist. The kids became quiet almost immediately after Mrs Dong entered the room. Now, that's "power" for you.

Oh yeah...the understatement of the year, "I was never like that when I was a kid."

That's precisely(almost) why we were there with the kids.

I don't know much about the others, but I was a latch-key kid, so I know how it feels like to go back to an empty home every single day.But that's another story for another time.

NOW...we got to concentrate on our next activity on 30 Sept/1 Oct. Got to make sure that our plans(yeah..what plans?) are watertight.

Bring it on.

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

2005-09-10T00:00:00.000+08:00

MUAHAHAHA!!!!

Looks like no one has said anything about today's activities with the kids... Or rather, yesterday's events, since it's already 0003hrs on Saturday morning... Hahaha... Anyways I shall refer to it as today's events...

The team went down to HIS Connection today to do a full day's activities with them... It started off with the usual intros and all that... Then we went on to play Captain's Ball, followed by "The Great Scavenger Hunt"... WHOA!! The kids' energy levels are WAAAAAAAAY up there man... By the time it was lunch time we were all shag already, but the kids still had energy to run around... I feel so old... Like Liang Po Po...

We had the "Magical Surprise" workshop with the kids after lunch... Haha... It is not a good idea to put 45 kids in a small air-con room, NO MATTER how hot the bigger room is... It is NOT a good idea... The noise that 45 kids make is AMPLIFIED A THOUSAND TIMES, killing all the cells that make up your eardrum, rendering you DEAF... Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but......... Haha...

Anyways, I think ultimately the kids had fun today, and despite how crazily SHAG we are now, I think it was all worth it... Oh my poor caterpillar.........................

Genesis

2005-09-07T11:05:00.000+08:00

"Let there be light.."

(Flick)

Taa...daaa...

just keep swimming...

2005-09-06T21:55:00.000+08:00

hi everyone. just an update on the little swimming trip today. (our blog looks so empty).

firstly, there were no accidents. no kids drowned or came close to drowning. the centre actually arranged a bus to ferry the kids from the centre to the pool, a short 10 mins ride. we arrived at the pool with 39 rowdy and highly excited kids making a whole lot of noise. basically, we were put in charge of different groups of kids... about 5-6 kids in each group. i don't know about fish, but my group of girls were real great fun. between piggybacking, pulling them around and trying to prevent a "let's not friend her" scenario, i had loads of fun splashing around with the kids. their energy levels are 10 times mine though and i barely surivived today's lesson. also cause it was stats anyway.

well, a little about the kids just so the rest of you won't be taken aback on friday. i think they're quite diverse, some being very loud and outspoken while there are really quiet ones. the primary 4 girls she was talking about are really quite good, they were buddied with younger kids today. they're really sweet and helpful but can be quite competitive. they also tend to whine a bit, the usual, "teacher, not fair!" kind but overall i think there is a lot of potential. the younger kids just seem really quiet, obedient and lost, aside from a few. they also tend to be more dependent. i don't know much about the boys but they seem really playful. must ask wei xiong for his feedback.

one thing that hit me was how fast they get attached to you. at the end of one outing, they'll be calling you over and over again, clinging to you, holding your hand, asking if you'll be coming tomorrow etc. afraid they might become too attached to us or even us becoming too attached to them and really... what happens when we leave? wei xiong was saying its something they must learn, one of life's tough lessons. and them being kids they'll probably forget us in a while. hmm... i guess. well anyway, it was a blast!!! see you guys tomorrow. we've got a show to run on friday!!!