Saturday, July 12, 2008

Saturday



It is another fifty minutes to midnight and Sunday.

Today was a somewhat busy day. In order to "last minute hug buddha's leg", we brought Jay Jay to the park where he has lessons in order to practise the commands that he has learnt. O yeah... he can "down" in the park already. regardless of the amount of dirt on the ground! hahaha. Tomorrow he will be having his lesson from 1030-1130am.

After that, we had lunch at the big food court and, the creatures of habit we are, we ordered the same food as we had previously - Ipoh horfun (with shrimp dumplings and succulent) and also some dimsum. Today, we tried the Rm1.50 pohpiah but left it unfinished because it wasn't 'nice'.

We went home to rest and watched Freedomland on cable. Juliane Moore was very convincing as a dopey mum and Samuel L Jackson was riveting in his role as a black cop. hahaha.

After that, and many questions on the plot from Alan, we showered then left for The Gardens and MVMM. We surprisingly bumped into Vi-vian with her mum in the Gardens. vi-vian is one of our students who is housed in Ti-ratana Welfare Society. We have realised that perhaps, we can't call their home an orphanage per se because around 60% of the children living there have one parent at least, I think. We need to find out more. It was interesting to note that Vi-Vian's mum looked like she could afford to keep her daughter at home.. so why put her in a home???

Alan went to La mode to cut his hair next whilst I shopped in MPH. I bought two books on SPM materials to adapt for the children in the home. And then went to meet my husband who had suddenly shaved off 15 years of his age with his new hair style... errr he looked kinda gay as well.. but that's a different story...

We went to have a good dinner at Tony Roma's next and Alan had his steak. My rosemary and garlic chicken did not taste appetising AT ALL. Thankfully, the mushroom soup was delicious although very cold.

Lastly, we entered Jusco to shop for groceries for the next week and then headed home to feed the starving Jay Jay.

Friday, July 11, 2008

What's a Handcock???

Today, I played with my new avatar and then edited ten more pages of the thesis until my eyes were crosssed. After that I took a shower and then prepared for tuition.

After tuition, Alan picked me up in time to grab dinner (we tried something new tonight) at the restuarant Little Vietnam at the top level as Mid valley Mega mall.. ahh good food!! Very authentic I must say!

Hancock followed and Will smith looked weird in those tights. ahhaha. He looked like Aqua Man! (err when I was growing up, this was a super hero who lived in the water. Serious). Anyway, it wasn't such a bad show (even though Nicky gave it not so fantastic reviews). Good action and cheo bu. Good mix. Heart-warming as well.. awwwww.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Can You Believe it's Thursday?

Time truly flies and it's past mid-week. How lovely! Husband and I are already planning our weekend rendezvous. haha. It will definitely comprise him going to get a much-needed haircut! To quote my mum, his head is a like a 'peacock'. hahaa.

Anyway, today is yet another day of leisure. There's no tuition today but I have JUST accepted a proof-reading job for this PHD NUS student. ahhhhh.. He is doing Chemistry and there's sooooo much jargon (he emailed me one page as a sample last night) but I guess grammar is just grammar -in any context it still is governed by the same rules.

I have all of 62pages to edit to earn a miserable SGD200+ ( working to be SGD4/page). Money's actually not bad, considering that I am making SGD( my standards are v low nowadays) and also that Mr Ravi had offered me a miserable SGD65c to mark 1 composition and 1 functional writing during the last mid year exams. hahahaa. I should be engaged in more proof-reading jobs!

I remember a few months back, a Malaysian university student approached me online to engage me for "proof-reading". However, he also mentioned that I would have to put bits and pieces of his writing together and write the whole thesis for him! I was really taken aback. Wouldn't that mean that he SHOULD NOT be getting the grade and then I could qualify for the PHD already?? :P I turned him down flatly. So sickening;p

Anyway, today I shall don my chef's hat and experiment in the kitchen. I am going to make some shrimp dumplings! yum yum.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Wednesday With Sharon

Hello all,

It's the end of a busy Wednesday. Ahhh nice to be able to kick back and relax. Wednesday is technically the busiest day of my week - err I don't work very much throughout the week lah, I admit. :P

Today was spent preparing for Su Li's class. I had to PC three poems on Conflict. And then after her class, Dania and I polished up her 1000+word essay on three war poems. If Dania doesn't get an A for that essay, I will personally pay a visit to her teacher and ask WHY. :P

After that, at 8pm, Alan and I went to Robson's for dinner. We had a very hard fish, beef horfun and vege soup. Burp.

Post-lesson review.

Last night was pretty tiring but still quite fun.

Alan taught the kids how to play the piano and when the lesson started at 8pm, most of the students were in the classroom. We started by laying the ground rules of the class and I will type out and laminate the rules and regulations and hopefully the kids will follow them.

Then, I gave out their "compositions" which they had attempted last week and got them to do their corrections in their notebooks - courtesy of the orphanage. After which we played a game of rearranging words to form meaningful sentences. Next on the lesson plan was the going through of a model composition "A Day in the Life of a Child in Ti-ratana". After I painstakingly went through word by word and line by line, the kids settled down to learn the spelling of the more difficult words and then they were tested.

We got a few of them to stay back after class for a feedback session to find out more ways in which we could help the whole class. Vanasa suggested that I teach poetry as well because Literature is taught under English in their schools. I will prepare a short and simple poem for our next lesson. We also started a Class Diary and each student will pen a few thoughts into the diary if it is their turn to bring it home.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Escape from Alcatraz

Hello... just hopping by for a quick update and then it's off to the shower I go to prepare for tuition!

Today's a pretty hectic day. I made breakfast (ham n cheese sandwich) for Alan and myself, bathed the dog, put the clothes to wash, boiled barley water (for us and the sick Hayden) and boiled raddish and pork ribs soup (in the new Japanese earthen claypot) all in 2 hours. Of course, the sickening dog tried to "escape from Alcatraz" but with my pincer grip and my scissor-legs, I managed to keep him by my side until he was fully dried and combed.

Soon, it will be Hayden's torment at 230pm. We will be preparing him for his next writing assignment on his excursion to Lake gardens this Friday.

Then, I will hurry into the kitchen to fry rice for dinner and whip up a storm to satisfy my husband before he morphs into my Teacher Assistant for tonight's class at Ti-ratana. Today, we will focus on writing skills (or the children's lack of them). I have written a model composition on "A day in the Life of a Child in Ti-ratana" and will get them to compare it with what they have all written last week.

Ahhhhh It will be another fulfilling day!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Ahhh it's the Monday Bluessss... After reaching our apartment at nearing midnight last night from Spore, and unpacking and stuff, I am sure ANYONE would be blue.

Anyway, it's high time I updated my blog. I've been too busy frantically meeting up with people who play important roles in my life over the weekend in Singapore.

Thursday 3 July

We departed from Sri Tiara at around 4+pm and arrived in Singapore by 7+pm (with the F1 driver forcing the slower cars to the left lane) but immediately were greeted by an hour-long traffic jam along the AYE. *big sigh*

Before we headed home, we went for our usual fix at the East Coast Road MeePok stall. The auntie behind the stove however, was not the usual cook and we were sorely disappointed that the standard had dropped.

Ash went into a frenzy when we reached home and he screeched and shrieked and ran in circles around our feet in his excitement to welcome his parents home finally after a long two months. (Thank God he still remembers us!) Then, we changed and brought him to ECP for a nice walk.

Ahhhh I've forgotten how good it is to take in the cool sea breeze. In KL we have been surrounded by concrete and shopping malls (ok this is a weak complaint) and Nature is all too far away.

After Ash walked us for around an hour, we went back home to sleep off the "car-lag".


Friday 4 July

Alan went to work and I went to school. hahaha Admist the muttered curses of my "good life" and "taitaidom", my friends and ex-colleagues welcomed me back with open arms. I had lunch with around 3 million people and went back to visit 4S1 who took many a photograph with me. hahhaa. It was Youth Day as well and thankfully, I had brought them some chocolates :)

BK took me on a school tour and I was indeed wowed by the changes. Wii in the canteen? Ten sets somemore??? New digital labs? ahhh.. The girls are luckier than they realise they are! Mr Siow explored the possibility that for CIP our girls be brought to the orphanage where I volunteer and I was more than willing to tie up this connection. ;)

After my long long long lunch (I had an orange juice, a honeydew juice and fried rice with vege), Kala and I went to our usual hangout, PP for our usual fix - Anderson Icecream. I had some tea with my waffle and she had a mini fondue set with hot chocolate. My birthday treat to her! :)

Alan fetched me at around 7+pm and we headed to Robinsons at Centrepoint to pick up some electrical appliances. With my 100dollar voucher, we picked up a juice mixer/blender and also a cake dough mixer (for my future baking needs). We had to top up another SGD50 though.


Saturday 5 July

We woke up later and met Zesa to celebrate her bday belatedly. We went to Breeks and then to crumpler at Paragon to pick up her bag. Alan bought one too for himself. The wife and mother inherited the Crumpler carrier which was quite cool as well :P

Then, we met Felicia and Jonas and dot for lunch (eat again??) at the Korean restaurant in Taka. Ahhhh we shared a set lunch and it was DELICIOUS. the Ginseng chicken soup was even tastier that what we had eaten in Korea!!!! tricia arrived a while later..



After some serious chatting and mindless bitching, we bade each other farewell with promises to meetup in september again before dot leaves for Brazil and when I come back for my sister-in-law's ROM.

Alan and I then went to pick up our Simmons pillows are OG and do MORE shopping. We bought some Corelle microwaveable pots and a Japanese earthen claypot for cooking. And some cookies and biscuits and the like.

Soon, we headed for dinner at a has-been mortuary. This restaurant is near SGH and serves us a fantastic fish head beehoon soup. All ten of us (our two families) sat down to enjoy vege, beancurd, prawn paste chicken, sea cucumber and fish maw, pork ribs, cereal prawns etc and a good family get-together.


Sunday 6 July

We slept in again and then headed to Parkway parade to change some SGD into USD (yes we are going to the states soon -claps). Then, we had some yummy ban mian and mee siam at the food court before shopping around somemore. I bought Alan his (practical) birthday pressie - a pair of running shoes from Adidas. Yes, I have already collected $2 from him to prevent him from running away from me. ahahhaa.

Then we went to pick Mum, Jean ( who was still sleeping) and Ening up and headed to Katong Shopping complex to buy chicken rice for lunch. Jean, Alan and I headed to the toiletries shop to pick up some daily essentials and Alan bought two pairs of scissors from the wholesaler next door to cut JayJay's hair.

We brought all the food to Yvonne and Paul's new condo at fernwood for a small ' house-warming' party and pigged out again there. After two hours, Alan and I headed home to rest and we embarked on our long drive home at 7+pm.
p/s: Muahahha Thanks Ecky for noticing my date errors! hehehe