Nite wif students, but not in PPE

It was a fun nite wif my ex students from TP 7 at Pasir Ris Park last nite. Reali appreciate the students effort to organise the event and also inviting me along into their fun. Thks alot to the organizers and the 16 students who were present (i actually counted the number...haha). The nite was filled wif laughter, jokes (thks to Chung Hang for regularly visiting jokes forum), card games like 大老二， bridge which they were seriously being deprived of during their 6 week training wif us becos card games is strictly prohibited. Not forgetting common chiong ster and clubbing games which we played wif forfeit like beer and terribly mixed soft drinks. Lastly, the food prepared dat kept our stomachs unempty for the whole nite.

Check out this short video i took for the students:

Before i took the video i played the similar game wif Weiming (guy in video wearing orange shirt). and it was a 'brutal game' as both our hands became reali RED in less than 1 minute of the 'battle'

I was also being pleasantly surprised by their meaningful class gift (below). Thks alot again!


Before everyone go their separate ways to head for our respective homes after working yesterday's 'night shift' without sleep at all, Suhua bidded goodbye to me with the words:

Suhua: "Bye, see you dunno when again"

Me: "Bye"

Deep down inside i was tinking,"yar...i dun tink i'm being pessimistic, but i seriously tink that opportunites for similar gatherings in the future would highly likely to be 遥遥无期."

Boiler

Our motivation at office again!! (on both thursday and friday!)

The highlight of this week muz be my night at "Boiler" yesterday. Well, this boiler is not wat is commonly seen on Jurong Island. But it's a pub, and is a much better place to chill out with friends as compared to its neighbor "Dragonfly". At least cover charge was not paid to watch 七月歌台...somemore the walls of the "boiler" is reali 'equipped' with fake pipings, valves and of course a fake boiler that reali has some resemblence of a 'boiler unit'.

Seems that my tolerance for alcohol had gone down over the years. Well, all of us got high last nite at least, but not to the extent of getting dead drunk like wat happened 2 mths ago where my friend could fill up a jug completely with his 'puke', and pple need to be 扛回家. I was not much better too.....

i've checked the details of this pic, it was taken on 24 mar 07 at 0345 am! btw juz in case u might be wondering who was in a clear state of mind to take dat shot, the credit had to go to the RESCUE party dat nite!

TP7

Once again, another 6 weeks passed in a twinkle of an eye, and my 3rd full batch of students have all successfully graduated from their attachment. My class is none other than Temasek Poly Group 7.

Honestly speaking, this class has been the most challenging so far, cos this was the 1st batch of students who have drained alot of my energy because i had to go after people for watever kind of disciplinary reasons which was never the case for any of my previous batches of students. Nonetheless, i would haf to say that they are still a group of adorable students whom i'll hardly forget. It was also through this batch that i felt a greater sense of purpose and accomplishment because i hope i had did my part to pull someone who was from a state of despair from his studies back from a point of no return. I never expected him to come to speak to me on his own initiative becos i tot he would have been so traumatized by me after all my counselling, scolding and nagging. But he did it today, after the graduation ceremony, i was touched, and it was when i decided to leave him some last words to do my last part i could as a teacher and that was what i've said:

"You have proven to me and yourself that if you wanna achieve something and willing to put in the effort, you can achieve success as i could see that from your performance in your training"

"Make sure you'll take care of yourself, continue to work hard and get your diploma"

"Lastly, do not let your troubles in life become an excuse for all your setbacks, instead you should turn them into a strength for you to want to subdue and conquer them to achieve the successes you want in life" --- doesn't sound like something that will come out from my mouth rite???? lol

Another student whom i felt i wanted to highlight was the student whom i had awarded the EXCELLENCE AWARD to. He was another one who had 领教 my FULL FORCE scolding b4, for some kind of tactless, insensitive actions (imagine the voice of my scolding could penetrate through the walls to reach the ears of my colleagues in office and also through the counselling room doors and nearly 5 metres to reach the ears of his friends) . Every of his coursemates, even himself, was surprised to hear his name being called up to go on stage to receive the award and he was even apologizing in his message to me written on the thank you card that i received from the class. All my colleagues noticed 1 x shocked look. I remembered during the tea reception, some of his friends, including himself asked me how come he could get the award despite his 'past records' and my reply was something like this:

"in my opinion, i believe this award is well deserved. No doubt you did not top in any of the 3 assessment criteria for the award among the nominees (in fact he was placed no. 2 for all catogeries), but eventually u did turn out to achieve the best overall performance among all. As for your past records, i believed you have displayed the courage to admit and learn from your mistake, and more importantly, you have displayed to me that u were truly repentent as seen from your attitude towards your work. Dun u tink it's something more valuable???"--Does it sound like something dat'll come out from my mouth too???

Of course, i dun mean that all my future students should intentionally commit offences for me to go after and shout at them in an attempt to get the award....

Though my journey with them is short, but, like all my other form classes, fond memories of this group will remain though.

Thank you , TP7 for the memories you all have given me, and also the card.

Also, thanks to Tp1 for their card too.

Here are some of the class group shots.

Last day of practical training
Last day of shift training: when we INTENTIONALLY grabbed all tools we could find at the workshop. Can you find the 3 types of pipe wrench with different sizes?
A long day of troubleshooting

Tired faces after a hard day's work

Hopefully i will be able to get from my students the fotos we have taken on their graduation day and post them soon though.

For once, after 12 weeks of 'torturing' by the students, we could get some peace at office and have a sumptuous and 'take our own sweet time' lunch session among all fellow trainers. and below was wat we had for dessert!! We have great adaptability don't we????

Back at the WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITY again???

Just received the letter of acceptance from the WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITY that i have been accepted to further my studies from august this yr. Most likely i am going to accept it. But now the question lies on whether i am going to get a mode of transport once school starts. Cos i feel that it will be quite necessary as the public transport system in JI totally SUX. So the question is whether to get a bike or a 2nd hand car.....

Honestly, i only enjoy riding bikes for fun...and in the army where no one cares about how dirty and how messy u can get after bike riding. The feeling that i will be at the mercy of the weather and helmet sux...but it seems to be the affordable choice for me at this pt of time.

Of course i would wanna buy a car if i haf the money, but once i get a car, i would become a 'slave' for the car, meaning that a huge portion of my monthly pay will be pumped into the car, be it installment, insurance, road tax, parking etc. i would have little savings every month left over...I dun want to live for the car though...

Last choice is to LL stick to the public transport at JI, and cannot afford to miss the 1650 bus to rush to campus on the dates of lessons.




Anyway, time reali flies and the students training of my 3rd full batch of students is already coming to an end, leaving one more day of shift training to go. It was the 1st time in my almost one yr at my workplace that i got totally drenched for both days of their shift training so far. Perhaps i am reali unlucky to be always scheduled to be at the field when the heavy downpour decides to come, while my other 2 fellow colleagues were luckier to not to get wet at all for the past 2 days. Since the whole shift team was divided into 3 groups, and the trainers rotate to take each different group a day, the 2 groups which have followed me so far have all gotten drenched during their field work over the past 2 days....

Me (chatting wif students): Muz be becos of my bad luck that all grps following me will surely get drenched in the rain...

This group of students from my class (who have not got wet at all over the past 2 days cos i have not led them yet): Cher.... dun worri, we are lucky pple, when u lead us on sunday i am sure there wun be any rain..

Me: we shall see whether u r the luckier person or i am the more unlucky person....

Anyway, the students eventually got drenched (even with rain coat), not becos i can predict the weather on sunday, but rather becos they were specifically 'grabbed' by me to join the 落汤鸡 to shut down the plant in the heavy downpour becos they chose to laugh at the victims for their plight....but honestly, they did quite a good job at the plant though...

It has been long since i last recommended any nice songs. I tink this is a good one :)

謝謝讓我愛上你
詞：陳樂融 曲：蔡科俊
演唱：楊培安

夜已深 心很靜 看著你 甜美 努力 唯一
我耍賴 我逃避 我相信 不變是你守候背影
慚愧我曾差點放棄 無愧是你

謝謝讓我愛上你 生命再多委屈 你不離不棄
謝謝讓我牽著你手心 太美麗的熟悉 一生約定

~~**間奏**~~

我耍賴 我逃避 我相信 不變是你守候背影
慚愧我曾差點放棄 無愧是你

謝謝讓我愛上你 生命再多委屈 你不離不棄
謝謝讓我牽著你手心 太美麗的熟悉 一生約定

我偶爾沒把握 夠資格 走完這四季

謝謝讓我愛上你 生命再多委屈 你不離不棄
謝謝讓我牽著你手心 太美麗的熟悉
一生約定 走下去

Listen to this song here

Not Vanished

Some people might haf wondered whether i have vanished from the net, but in fact, i didn't. I was juz abit more bz at home playing full screen display computer games that might haf caused me to see msn messages only hours after the messages have been sent to me by the other parties. I apologize for all these.

Having to go to the Cheesecake Cafe at Siglap again since the last time i went there (about 2 years ago), the ambience there is still great. and the cakes there are still splendid though. Though cheesecakes are food that 让人 “又爱又恨” cos though they taste nice, but they are extremely fattening!

The cheesecakes in order from left to right:
1. cookies and cream
2. peach
3. chocolate and vanilla
4. blueberry
5. strawberry
6. rum and raisin
7. walnut

Something which i feel worth sharing about my experiences with my students again:

I remembered there was once i conduct a video session with the students regarding furnace operations.

In general, students usually dun dare to sleep nor misbehave during my class. becos of my strong stand of wanting to expose them to the realities of the strict discipline when working in the chemical industries in future. In fact, one accident occured recently somewhere opposite to the office which i work at, killing 2 people and injuring another 2 when an overhead heat exchanger which processes crude oil caught fire.


Back to the issue that i wanna share. Somehow i noticed something funny about the behavior of quite a number of students on dat day.

I could tell that they were already very tired from the video and were struggling to stay awake.

Some students elbow were juz swaying from left to right throughout the session, their motive was to wake up their adjacent fellow friends who happen to doze off even for a split second.

Some students, instead of focusing their attention on the video, i noticed that this group of people kept looking at me --- not becos i am catching their attention due to anything, but their motive was to 'check on me' whether i am catching them for sleeping!!! I can't help but to wonder: y dun u devote ur attention to the video to learn more stuff??

Almost all the students who were on the verge of dozing off 'bounced up' when they hear my footsteps walking towards them.....(it's just my habit to walk to the front and back of the class)

Throughout the 1 hr, i did not utter any word regarding people 'sleeping' nor raised my voice at any point of time.

Then i remembered on friday, while helping one of my student applying antiseptic lotion to treat her minor cut on her finger, she and her friends had a short chat with me:

Students: "Do you know that you really look very fierce?????"

Me: "Why??? I have never scolded any of you all before!"

Students: "The way you look at people always seemed as though you are going to kill the person, especially when you dun smile"

Me: ????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!