Smitten

Tell you a funny thing: one of my growing up male offspring said that two pretty Korean girls waved to him not once, but twice at their international school when he was there for a basketball match. What do you make of it? I was cruel, I said that they probably had the sun in their eyes and waved to him against their better judgements. Or maybe they were just elated to meet another one of their single-eyelid kind. Hahaaaaa! The things teenagers get so easily smitten with . . .

The Human Factor

My Mum's hospitalised again. So counting the almost back-to-back 2 other medical episodes in the family, I've been spending most of the past 3 weeks in 3 different hospitals in Singapore. As usual, I continue to be amazed by the behaviour of people at hospitals. This time, I observed that some people are just cut out to be doctors and others nurses, physiotherapists etc. They just have that sunshine personality and patience that lift the spirits of even the most pessimistic and difficult of patients. There are of course the glum doctors who are real turn-offs. Bad hair-days only, I hope! My top praises are saved for the nurses, who God bless them, ever so cheerfully fetch and empty bed-pans, change dirty adult diapers, tend to very sick patients and yet find it within them to wear smiles on their faces. So listen up, you nurses of Integrity 2008: your noble vocation is hereby acknowledged and given credit for!! Then I also noticed the dynamics of kith and kin in action at hospital bedsides. You have no idea how touching it is to see 50 to 60 year-old children tending to their sick parents ---- feeding them, massaging them, caressing and hugging them even when their loved ones are clearly in semi-comatose, heavily sedated or very advanced in their ailments. Some children were clearly not on speaking terms with one another, but thankfully these few days, the ones I saw in Mum's wards are still very loving to their sick parents. Finally, of course I have to mention the good-looking medical personnel who feature in my hospital episodes. Today, a hunkidory of a very young and handsome physiotherapist tended to Mum, explaining to her all the light exercises that she ought to embark on upon discharge from the hospital. SIGHHHHH . . . . so many handsome young men. . . . so little of the youth left in me!!!!

Touch wood. Looking forward to Mum's speedy recovery! Will see to the young one's textbooks next week and then it's Merry Christmas! The 2 holiday-working ones have been chosen to foot a buffet treat for all in the family! I am looking forward to pay-back time. Hahahaaaaaaa!

Skin

No, no, not anything related to Roald Dahl's "Skin". Haha! Finally got round to getting our IntegrityUnited blog a new skin! Why the pier? Well . . . firstly, the pic's nice and secondly, the life buoys kinda symbolise what I want each and everyone of you to be --- life-savers in your own special ways! Neat huh?

Now, how about some updates, everyone?

I'll start. Academic year 2009 has been a whole new learning experience for me. Tiring but kept me on my toes mentally (digits and brains?! Get it??) And I've decided to renew my contract for another year at the same school. At the family front, changes are unfolding at rapid pace. I guess I should be thankful that generally life has been relatively kind to me. There was one prom night that had to be seen to on a grand scale, and then a couple of my 6 took vacation jobs this hols while one did well enough to pay her way through school for 2010. There were 2 who had hospital (again!) experiences within 3 weeks of each other. In between all the medical emergencies, chauffering and waiting up past 2 a.m for the part-time holiday workers, and minding the remaining wild and restless younger ones, I managed to catch up on watching movies and reading books. Most amazing of all, I found time to re-visit the gym. I have lost 900 grammes so far. I know, pathetic amount, but hey it's a start!! The old foggies there are still plodding conscientiously at their routines and of course everyone remembers me as the delinquent and absent one! I also found time to take the 6 to the beach to fly kites, jog, work our cameras, and just have fun. School books and academic work can wait!

What about you all? Blog!

Ms Q

Class Chalet

Hello, Class chalet details are comfirmed.
Date is 6 - 9 october.
More details coming up.
-view

Stoicalness

If you ever visit the Bedok Hawker centre at Block 57, Upper Changi Road, you must patronise the Siglap Road Fried Carrot Cake stall for the very scruptious 'chye tao guay'. While there, you might want to appreciate the very stoic Mrs of the stall, a plump elderly lady who stands before her huge frying pan uncomplainingly, dishing out countless orders of white / dark carrot, 'ai hiam, 'mai hiam', 'mai chang', 'mai neng' and so on as the husband yells out to her the individualised orders. Theirs, I've observed, is a very peculiar relationship; no doubt years of familiarity must have bred some contempt between them, for the Mrs does not talk to the husband at all. As she fries the carrot cake, she just listens to the orders he shouts out to her, never once asking that he repeats them, nor showing any kinds of reactions. She stands unflinchingly, a picture of calm composure, with her neatly-dorn apron and solid Crocs. And you know what, in all the years that I've watched her at work, she has never once got an order wrong. So much for 'Going the Extra Mile with a smile' efficiency that we crave to inculcate in our service sector. Her stoic attitude may not win her poster woman status, but hey, the stall is run super-efficient with just a silent-couple team!

The husband is a different plate altogether. He is prone to being riled by impatient customers, the heat in the hawker centre and fussy orders. But with the Mrs, I've seen him
exercising a great deal of courtesy and patience. He repeats long lists of orders to her and does not ask for her acknowledgement. Every now and then he would shout out reminders to her. Still, she would stand at her frying pan doing her stuff, with nary a word, grunt nor mutter. Thus their small business have gone on and on in this manner . . .

I've learnt a thing or two from the 'chye tao guay' Mrs. Being stoic may not be a bad thing; reponses are not called-for always. Silent is the new loud.

Ramadan

It's Ramadan and the streets of Geylang Serai are brightly lit and festooned all over with Hari Raya lights and decorations. I am thinking of Lenson, Minghui, Ivan, Stephen, Koon Tat --- that they should all be out with their cameras busy snapping away. Am wondering if JC and Poly life have changed your interest in photography? One of the daughters has been at me again to get her a high-end camera when she does well for her major exam. Maybe I would, considering the fun I detect in you photo buffs when you go about your love.

Meantime, though the Hari Raya pasar malam stalls and 7th month getais are beckoning as needed breaks from school work, I am still struggling with tonnes of marking. The GCE 'O' level Oral Exams are still not over yet, so it's a very relentless part of Term 3 that I am in the midst of! Just to bring back memories of "Bar-bar-ra" that confounded some of you in the 2008 Orals, this year it was "Simon". Hahaaaaaa . . . I leave it to your imagination, the awful mispronunciation!

Boys Over Flowers and Long Live Singapore!

I'm at a silly phase . . . giving myself deserved breaks from marking by indulging in K-dramas and oo-ing and aa-ing over cute Korean guys! Talk about mid-life crisis! Okay, you people can laugh yourself silly! On the other hand, the TV episodes do provide nice bonding sessions for the children (the girls, mainly)and I. It's quite something to swoon together with your almost-half-a-century Mum over your favourite handsome Korean actors, and act petulant together when your idol gets cosy with the female star! We laugh at how it would perhaps make better sense for some actor to best remember to dye his eyebrows as well when he colours his hair; and oh,I nearly got shoved off the sofa when I commented how one of the daughter's eye candy resemble the neighhourhood Beng durian seller, complete with his bean-pole physique and long tress cum fringe. Haha! Generation-gap, my foot! I was just being irritating. I fully empathasise with teenage crushes and muses.

Tomorrow's (oops! It's actually today considering it's now past 1 am) Singapore's
44th birthday! Happy Birthday, my country ! I remain one of your greatest admirer and supporter. Yep, with all your little imperfections, precociousness,uptightness, and some say heavily made-over efficient facade, I love you!! Even the 42.9% non-Singaporeans in our household salute you!

Monday's a school holiday! Hip hip hurray for the long weekend! I wish you an enjoyable break!