Finally settled at my Seat

I have been working in my new workplace for close to a month. I have chosen a seat where I will be doing my work. But the OA point at this seat is faulty and thus I am unable to check emails using this point. As a result, I have to shift to another temporary location.

This temporary working desk is spacious but it is a shared working location. I have occupied it for close to a month. This has added some inconvenience to other colleagues.

Today, the faulty OA point has been repaired and I shifted to my chosen seat. It is not as good as the temporary as I am facing the walls. There are many colleagues working around me which means I can hear what they chit-chat among themselves and even over the phones. How am I going to concentrate to do my work?

Well, again, this is another challenge which I have to face it head-on!

Table Tennis: Singapore women's team upset China to become world champs

Singapore team members gesture after the women's final match against China at the table tennis world team championships in Moscow.

MOSCOW: Singapore's trio Feng Tianwei, Wang Yuegu and Sun Bei Bei rocked the sports world in Moscow when they beat reigning champions and world No 1 China 3-1 in the World Team Table Tennis Championships.

It was sweet revenge for the Singapore women's team, ranked No 2 in the world, after they lost in the 2008 final and the Olympic final to the Chinese.

China, powerhouses in the men's and women's game for so long, were left stunned by a confident display from the Singapore women.

Feng, Singapore's world No 2, was the star of the team, after she beat China's world No 4, Ding Ning, in the first singles, before coming back to the table to clinch the winning point 3-2 against women's No 1, 19-year-old Liu Shiwen.

Earlier, Wang stunned Liu in the second singles, while Sun fell to Guo Yan, setting up Feng's epic finale as the Singapore women became the 2010 world table tennis champions.

Results:

Singapore bt China 3-1

Feng Tianwei (SIN) bt Ding Ning (CHN) 3-2 (8-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9)

Wang Yuegu (SIN) bt Liu Shiwen (CHN) 3-1 (11-7, 11-8, 2-11, 12-10)

Guo Yan (CHN) bt Sun Bei Bei (SIN) 3-1 (6-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6)

Feng Tianwei (SIN) bt Liu Shiwen (CHN) 3-2 (11-7, 14-16, 11-7, 9-11, 11-7)

source: www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1059954/1/.html

Voices of Rulangnites

Today is Voices of Rulangnites. It is the moment parents invited to the school and students showcased their talents besides studying.

At 8am, parents started entering the school. J could not take leave and so I attended myself.

I wandered around the school before I found Isa's room where her class would be having their performance. She has mentioned the class number G03-02 which means Block G 3rd floor 2nd room. But this number does not make any sense to me as I am hopeless in directions.

Just when I did not know what to do, I saw a staff (all dressed in bright yellow t-shirt). He brought me to the correct classroom.

The chairs have been nicely arranged for the parents. Some kids were dressed in their home clothes while others in their usual PE attire.

2 groups of students sang; one of them was Isa's group which sang Innocence. 2 groups of students put up a magic show.

A group recited and act a long poem called The Dentist's Revenge which was quite interesting.

Another group put up a puppet show. 2 solo; a boy each played a harmonica and a guitar.

The last group acted a scene on Battle at Bukit Chandu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pasir_Panjang

This is a scene in Singapore's history. The large group of boys "played" with their toy machine guns.

All the parents and the students have a fun time.

In the late morning, the pupils and their parents went to the school hall to attend a short motivational talk. The speaker spoke on the contributions made by the late Dr Goh Keng Swee and Ms Olivia Lum. The message to put across was : one is to have dreams and work hard toward these dreams.

A skipfest was held for all the pupils. The skipping rope has a timer and the students will skip for about 3 minutes. The number of skips made was recorded at the end of the 3 minutes. I hope a record can be achieved.

Finally it was the nail-biting moment. The form teacher distributed the record book and exam papers to the pupils. The queue to see the form teacher and Mother-Tongue teacher was simply too long. We left the school without seeing them since Isa did not look well at all.

She has a slight fever, sore throat and cough. I think this is going to take some days before she can fully recover. What a good timing to fall sick!

Term 2 ends

Tomorrow will be the last day of the school term 2.

It is the day to collect the report book and mid year exam papers. It is also the day when students put up performances for Voices of Rulangites.

Isa's class was split into different groups of fours or fives. In her case, she was with a group of three girls. They will be singing the song Innocence.

I have just heard this song. I start to imagine these young girls singing Innocence tomorrow.

I will be seeing her form teacher and MT teacher too. Again, there will be a long queue to see the teachers to get feedback on the kids.

I am prepared to remain in the school for the whole day.

June School Holidays (confirmed)

After a few days of searching info on internet and discussion, we finally settled on a decision to go to KL for a few days during the June holidays.

We decided to stay at Radius International Hotel, conveniently located near Bukit Bintang where food and shopping is more than enough for us to enjoy.

We also decided to take a good coach - aeroline! Each adult ticket costs S$49 and a return trip costs $98 not inclusive of a 3% adminstrative charge.

J's idea was to have a few days away from the hectic life back home. What is the purpose of gaining the whole world but do not have the time or mind to enjoy?

After this trip, I will start looking out for any airfare promotion - be ready for my year-end holiday!

Navy Open House

What a great contrast; yesterday's weather was cloudy and wet, today was hot and sunny.

Today is the last day of Navy Open House. The Open House started on 20 May and the last 2 days (22 & 23 May) were open to public. Free shuttle bus will operate from Singapore Expo. The journey from Singapore Expo to Changi Naval Base was quite a distance.

J has a special car-park label and thus we were spared from taking the public transport.

We reached Changi Naval Base slightly around 9.30am. It was already very crowded. Lots of people queued for the Duck Tour. We saw the waiting time was close to 120 minutes! OMG, I was glad that Isa was willing to give it up.

We boarded some ships including RSS Intrepid and RSS Resolution. It was an enriching experience climbing up and down the narrow stairs in the ships.

There were some air-con tentages showcasing the Navy's Capabilities. These tentages were a good hiding place from the hot sun.

Around 1pm, the heat from the sun became too unbearable and D has already prepared our lunch. I was relieved to leave this place though Isa wanted to stay a bit longer.

Budget Terminal

We decided to make a trip to Changi Airport Terminal 3 Kopitam to eat xiao wan mian!

A bowl of xiao wan mian or xiao wan fan costs $5 but with a Kopitiam card, you get a discount.

We usually order 2 bowls of xiao wan mian and a bowl of white rice. This is sufficient for 2 adults and 1 child.

The portion of xiao wan mian is quite generous. The soup is quite tasty but salty.

Since we are already at the Airport, we took the Free Shuttle Bus to Budget Terminal for a tour.

The Budget Terminal is quite simple and small-scale as compared the Terminals 2 & 3. Only 3 airlines are using this terminal. They are Firefly, Cebu Pacific and Tiger Airways. There were plenty of people in the Terminal. There are some retail shops and yes, one of them is the famous fast-food MacDonald.

Before taking the Free Shuttle Bus to leave this Terminal, we grabbed a soft-bite at MacDonald. The Shuttle Bus brought us back to Terminal 2 before we took MRT home.

June School Holidays (draft)

With just 2 more weeks to go before the start of the 4 weeks' break, I have finally settled down on my choice of holidays.

Bijun and Zhujun have arrived in HK from Basel. It is so tempting to fly to HK to meet them but I hardened my heart not to do so.

There is NO airfare promotions at all. The economy has picked up and prices for almost everything have gone up except my salary.

I decided to make a short trip to KL. As to what to do in KL, nothing in mind but just relax and laze around the hotel and its vicinity. It may seems a silly way to spend my time & money in this manner but this is supposed to be a break from everything; studies and work.

D will be heading to Beijing and suggested going to States for year-end. Yes, maybe going somewhere far for this year-end. But year-end is still very, very far away from now. Who knows, I may plan another memorable trip to Japan provided the conditions are right.

In this new workplace, besides involved in planning a training programme for the new officers, I have to conduct some lectures for external parties. P has just informed me the schedule for these lectures - right after my vacation leave! This means I have to prepare the lecture notes, tutorials and even the exam papers before I go on leave. In addition, I am involved in some case studies which involved of gathering raw data, sorting them according to the listed criteria, analysing the info before writing the report.

I hope after my holidays, I will feel charged and ready for more challenges.

Cake for Mothers' Day Celebration

Another Stay at Marriott Hotel

This stay at Marriott Hotel has been very rewarding and better than the previous one.

The weather was dry and we could walk along Orchard Road.

Our stay in the hotel was a very relaxing one; just indulge in tv programmes and food. We went to the same Japanese restaurant and ordered the same dishes for dinner as we have done during our last stay.

We managed to have a dip in the small pool located at the 5th floor of the hotel.

We are still undecided where to go for our June holidays. Maybe a simple F&E trip to Malaysia is just what we want.

Adjusting to New Workplace

I have been working in the new workplace for some days. Besides doing the routine work, I have to take up some additional ad-hoc tasks too.

YOG is the next major event after National Day Parade. The support for the latter has been drafted and now is time to draft the requirement needed for YOG.

In additional, my office wanted to standardize the training programme for new officers. I have to look into the suitable training materials needed before a paper can be written to submit to the management for approval.

All these tasks are new to me and definitely poise some level of difficulties and challenges.

I can only take things one at a time, slowly but steadily.

June School Holidays

In less than a month's time, the June school holidays arrive.

Suddenly I feel like going overseas for holidays in June. The problem is the destination. I can't make up my mind at all. Unlike in Dec 2009 when I bought my return airfare to Tokyo at SGD398, there is no airfares promotion now. The same flight to Tokyo now costs close to SGD900. How am I going to swallow this bitter pill?

My choices include Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Maybe I will let nature takes its course. If I can find an airfare promotion on any of the above destination, most likely I will head there for my June holidays. Otherwise, I will just save my money for a good holiday in Dec.

Continue with Dinner Delivery Service

A week has passed and my trial order with K* has come to an end.

I have enjoyed cooked dinner during the weekdays. The dishes are reasonably tasty. To ease my burden, I decided to continue with this service. It is charged at $170+ GST which works out to be $181.90 for a 20 days' order.

Ok, the dinner on weekdays for the next 20 days till the end of May has been taken care of.