GARGANTUAN steps
Monday, August 27, 2007
lost
I'm taking a week's break from working in the metastasis laboratory in NUS and I'm now trying to recover some funds used during this holiday by working as a relief teacher in Dunman High School, thanks to Fon~ It'll just be for four days as I replace a Geography teacher who is currently down in health. Geography wasn't really my best subject (Mathematics was and still is) but I did perform well back in my secondary school days thanks to my dear teacher, Mrs Martina Chan! I just started my work today and I invigilated a Secondary 4 Mathematics paper for one and a half hours, and I was close to falling asleep on the desk. I wonder whether the standard of education is dropping in Singapore because the students (towards the end of their paper) were asking me really silly questions pertaining to questions in the paper and it betrays a lack of fundamental reading and understanding. It was quite odd to see my secondary school chinese teacher there and we did some catching up, albeit in half bucketful of chinese (mine) and english (hers). It's going to be Teacher's Day this Friday, so I will now have to go hunting to get something for her!
I have just about a month left in Singapore before I head back to London. Kind of feel rather lost in life at this point in time, and it's been going on for quite a long while now! I believe that it's due to a lot of things that are bogging me, and none more than the issue of money. Hearing my brother having to struggle to settle his accommodation (he's getting married) makes me feel bad that perhaps money spent on my education could have been spread out more evenly between the two of us. And here I am, back in Singapore and spending money like nobody's business and planning for holidays in Europe. I know I'm really lucky. My dad and mom could also retire earlier if I was studying in Singapore. And also hearing my brother gripe about how miserably doctors in Singapore are paid, and the picture painted seemed really bleak. Being a doctor isn't suppose to be about the money, but it seems really such a struggle to settle down after graduating having to pay so many bills if you want to get married. It really does seem quite ridiculous to have tuition teachers paid more by the hour as compared to quite a handful of doctors.
Meanwhile, there are other things also bugging me, but I'm not incline to talk about it for now. Doesn't seem like there's anyone really listening to me either.
I have just about a month left in Singapore before I head back to London. Kind of feel rather lost in life at this point in time, and it's been going on for quite a long while now! I believe that it's due to a lot of things that are bogging me, and none more than the issue of money. Hearing my brother having to struggle to settle his accommodation (he's getting married) makes me feel bad that perhaps money spent on my education could have been spread out more evenly between the two of us. And here I am, back in Singapore and spending money like nobody's business and planning for holidays in Europe. I know I'm really lucky. My dad and mom could also retire earlier if I was studying in Singapore. And also hearing my brother gripe about how miserably doctors in Singapore are paid, and the picture painted seemed really bleak. Being a doctor isn't suppose to be about the money, but it seems really such a struggle to settle down after graduating having to pay so many bills if you want to get married. It really does seem quite ridiculous to have tuition teachers paid more by the hour as compared to quite a handful of doctors.
Meanwhile, there are other things also bugging me, but I'm not incline to talk about it for now. Doesn't seem like there's anyone really listening to me either.
Labels: Singapore
Monday, August 13, 2007
the good, the bad and the ugly
The weekend passed pretty smoothly until a pretty serious discussion was held last night, which sort of put me down again. I shall try not to read too much into it, but I always dislike it when things have to find some way to be ruined when all seems fine.
I'm currently planning a trip to Greece/Turkey in December 2007 (which means that I won't be back in Singapore for Christmas for the second year running, sadly). I will be going with Fontane and we will be meeting up with my bro and his girlfriend in Athens before we do some holiday travelling! Quite looking forward to it, although the logistics are prooving to be really quite a chore. Having to balance between taking the safe but expensive option or the cheap but risky option. I know currently, my risk management is in the negative side of the scale. The main reason is that my bro and his girlfriend are travelling along, and there is an overnight train from Thessaloniki to be taken into Istanbul, but the risk is that I can't pre-book the ticket online. Furthermore, the journey is extremely long and involves crossing the border. I pray that I'll be able to sort all these out in time. I still have to plan the accommodation, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The highlight of my Saturday was the inevitable start of the English Premier League season. Sopcast has proven to be a convenient and cheap option watching football, but nothing beats watching it with friends on cable tv. It was back to the good old times, heading to Andy's place at Tanjong Rhu on a Saturday night and getting ourselves all hoarse and excited and upset and thrilled again. Football is pretty emotional, and it is highly probably that I will die from a myocardial infarction one day just watching Liverpool. But the good news is, we won 2-1, which is always a good way to end the week and also, start the next week.
The next day was my grandma's 86th birthday, which was celebrated at my Aunty Lucy's place. Nothing spectacular happened, but like every family, lots of politics and cans of worms hidden all over the place, threatening to spill over. I find this terribly disturbing, and I hope I won't ever have to face such problems when I grow old.
The other highlight of the weekend was me finally playing some serious floorball in our match against Road Warriors, who actually should be renamed Rogue Warriors. I totally dislike the amount of physical aggression that floorball is played with in Singapore, but I know it comes with passion and desire to win. I can play that way too, scrapping for every 50-50 chance, but I do not play dirty. At the end of the match, I was quite bruised and I also had a slap which sent my spectacles flying a few metres away. That really got me quite worked up. Thankfully, we won 9-0, if not, the feeling will be even much worse. I had one assist, which is pretty bad by my standards, but playing in Singapore is a whole different style. The players here are extremely extremely fast and fit, but are not as skilled as those in London. You hardly get time on the ball before you are tackled and you really have to think doubly fast. Still, I enjoyed myself and I look forward to the next game with much anticipation. I'll be much more prepared this time. At least I don't think I was too out of place in this team, which I'm quite happy about.
I wish I could run away and hide from the world.
I'm currently planning a trip to Greece/Turkey in December 2007 (which means that I won't be back in Singapore for Christmas for the second year running, sadly). I will be going with Fontane and we will be meeting up with my bro and his girlfriend in Athens before we do some holiday travelling! Quite looking forward to it, although the logistics are prooving to be really quite a chore. Having to balance between taking the safe but expensive option or the cheap but risky option. I know currently, my risk management is in the negative side of the scale. The main reason is that my bro and his girlfriend are travelling along, and there is an overnight train from Thessaloniki to be taken into Istanbul, but the risk is that I can't pre-book the ticket online. Furthermore, the journey is extremely long and involves crossing the border. I pray that I'll be able to sort all these out in time. I still have to plan the accommodation, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The highlight of my Saturday was the inevitable start of the English Premier League season. Sopcast has proven to be a convenient and cheap option watching football, but nothing beats watching it with friends on cable tv. It was back to the good old times, heading to Andy's place at Tanjong Rhu on a Saturday night and getting ourselves all hoarse and excited and upset and thrilled again. Football is pretty emotional, and it is highly probably that I will die from a myocardial infarction one day just watching Liverpool. But the good news is, we won 2-1, which is always a good way to end the week and also, start the next week.
The next day was my grandma's 86th birthday, which was celebrated at my Aunty Lucy's place. Nothing spectacular happened, but like every family, lots of politics and cans of worms hidden all over the place, threatening to spill over. I find this terribly disturbing, and I hope I won't ever have to face such problems when I grow old.
The other highlight of the weekend was me finally playing some serious floorball in our match against Road Warriors, who actually should be renamed Rogue Warriors. I totally dislike the amount of physical aggression that floorball is played with in Singapore, but I know it comes with passion and desire to win. I can play that way too, scrapping for every 50-50 chance, but I do not play dirty. At the end of the match, I was quite bruised and I also had a slap which sent my spectacles flying a few metres away. That really got me quite worked up. Thankfully, we won 9-0, if not, the feeling will be even much worse. I had one assist, which is pretty bad by my standards, but playing in Singapore is a whole different style. The players here are extremely extremely fast and fit, but are not as skilled as those in London. You hardly get time on the ball before you are tackled and you really have to think doubly fast. Still, I enjoyed myself and I look forward to the next game with much anticipation. I'll be much more prepared this time. At least I don't think I was too out of place in this team, which I'm quite happy about.
I wish I could run away and hide from the world.
Friday, August 10, 2007
a spot of bother
It hasn't really been a good week for me. It's been terrible to the point where I feel extremely isolated and feeling that there's no one's there for me. Perhaps it's my own problems compounded but I still can't take the blame squarely on my shoulders, at least till I'm convinced that I actually forgot to something that I promised. I'm a man of my word, and though at times prone to forgetfulness, I will take responsibility if problems result because of me. This incident with my accommodation for my next year in London has left a few bitter tastes in people's mouth (including mine) and I am apologetic that hard work has gone down the drain. But I also can't believe I could have agreed to what had been discussed, so perhaps I was either drowned in other thoughts, or I was ill-informed.
I want to put this incident aside, but some words said to me have really hit hard. It will take a while for me to recover from them. They really hurt.
But anyhow, enough of that. I'm currently recovering from a severe episode of migraine that came about last night, now currently kept in check by two tablets of paracetamol. There's still niggling pain beneath my skull now and any exertion might cause the dam to explode again. Time to keep my stress levels down.
Extremely looking forward to my first competitive game of floorball on Sunday evening at Tampines Sports Hall. I've joined my old hockey friends in a team called Cornvix. I have belief that I came up with this name back in JC but I'll have to confirm again with my old captain Harun. He wanted a team with the word "corn" inside cause he is a corny person, and since we were from VJC, I suggested CornVic. But I suppose seems we're a group of people, the plural form sounded better. Been given the squad number 15, and I've bought myself a new floorball stick! A nice white Unihoc Rad32 stick with bits of it in red and grey. This is the only thing cheering my up for now! And also to the listening ear that's been hearing my grumbles. Thanks for hearing my whinings. I know I can really be an earful!
I want to put this incident aside, but some words said to me have really hit hard. It will take a while for me to recover from them. They really hurt.
But anyhow, enough of that. I'm currently recovering from a severe episode of migraine that came about last night, now currently kept in check by two tablets of paracetamol. There's still niggling pain beneath my skull now and any exertion might cause the dam to explode again. Time to keep my stress levels down.
Extremely looking forward to my first competitive game of floorball on Sunday evening at Tampines Sports Hall. I've joined my old hockey friends in a team called Cornvix. I have belief that I came up with this name back in JC but I'll have to confirm again with my old captain Harun. He wanted a team with the word "corn" inside cause he is a corny person, and since we were from VJC, I suggested CornVic. But I suppose seems we're a group of people, the plural form sounded better. Been given the squad number 15, and I've bought myself a new floorball stick! A nice white Unihoc Rad32 stick with bits of it in red and grey. This is the only thing cheering my up for now! And also to the listening ear that's been hearing my grumbles. Thanks for hearing my whinings. I know I can really be an earful!
Labels: Singapore
