Re-Prioritising

Less than 10 entries for the whole of 2013 so far and nothing without so little of a mention of work in (nearly) every single one of them. I used to scoff at people who had problems with their work-life balance but look at who's the one being laughed at now.

It's the continual assessment week right now and that could be the reason why I seem to be having slightly more time on hand for now.

It's been nothing less than awfully quiet in this little online space for the past few months. Thank god my 'offline life' has been much more exciting. Phew.

Saw some of the most amazing underwater sights and creatures up close while blowing bubbles in Moalboal back during the June holidays; definitely significant enough to have hit some kind of milestone in my personal scuba journey.

Breath-stopping to see such a large school/ball of sardines swarming towards me.

The sheer enormity and their wonderful synchrony truly blew me away.

Thanks to Bun's awesome recommendation, ST and I made our ways down to look at this little large fella and his group of friends. I guess I'll remember the experience of being flicked absent-mindedly by his/her tail for a long time to come; it was one of alarm, followed by relief, and finally amusement.

And this pair of mating Mandarins!

Didn't have a clue what I was looking at until I snapped a shot and saw the beautiful colours appear on my camera screen. They are probably smaller than half my palm and were darting into safety of the staghorn corals so quickly whenever the flash came up. Very comical and funny experience.

Apart from the awesome dive trip with ST, I also managed to squeeze in a 2D1N trip to Malacca over the long National Day weekend with the girls. In retrospect, I simply find it hard to believe we'd spent such crazy durations queueing for nearly everything; from entry into JB, to chendol and laksa, and a satay steamboat. 3 hours (or was it 3.5?) just to get a table at the famous satay celup place. Woah. You know they say there's always a first for everything... I believe that's also the last time I'm going to be heading to Malacca during their national holidays. All of us learnt that it's truly a terrible time to visit Malaysia (via land transport) during the Raya holidays. Mad queues aside, I had a good time catching up with our little 'support group'. And to be honest, most of the food that we queued up for were really well worth the ringgit. The only exception was the Peranankan cafe just beside the Peranakan museum around Jonker; I'm not that fussy when it comes to food but that's honestly a place I don't think I'd ever want to go back to; for dining at least.

And voila! That's just a glimpse of my 'offline life'.

I'm feeling slightly accomplished that I'm able to touch a little on my social life instead of solely work (again) this time round. clapforself.jpg.

Until the next entry (who knows when will that be), tata and good day.

Part-time administrative worker

Looking at the number of forms (blah-blah-blah acknowledgement form, so-and-so acknowledgement slip, etc) I give out to and collect from my kids these days, I somehow feel like I am a part-time administrative worker. That could well have been included in the job scope when I signed the papers, though it's pretty obvious by now that I haven't taken a close-enough look at the fine-print back then.

Can't imagine what the parents must be going through for having to sign some form every other day if the teachers are already experiencing so much frustration with them; much of it stemming from the fact that they are used mainly to shield our backsides. Grr... 10-15 minutes per day totals up to nearly over an hour for the entire week. Can you imagine how much more can be achieved with this time?

The productivity we're missing out on! I can't even...

pet peeves in the staffroom

#1 Who moved the giant hole punch?

Put it back after use la!

#2 Unwashed utensils in the sink

It's a shame that as we advocate our students to be more responsible for themselves, some teachers are not walking the talk. Unwashed utensils can remain in the pantry's sinks for up to a couple of days before someone (who should not be responsible for them) cleans them up. Can you imagine how gross the used bowls look? Do the culprits really expect the janitors to clean up after them every single time? I don't think cleaning up teachers' used utensils is part of their job scope. It disgusts me, how some fellow colleagues do not have the basic courtesy to clean up after themselves.

#3 Colleagues who have no idea how loud they are

Yup. You get unbearably loud. Sometimes.

Achievement unlocked

It took me a little longer than I expected, but for the first time evar,
I made a student cry in class some 2 days back.
You cannot even imagine how furious I was after learning that
one of my kids forgot to bring the work (again) that
he was supposed to have handed in 2 days ago and
blatantly lied that he's already submitted it. 

I felt slightly guilty when I saw him tear but honestly,
he deserved it more than less for trying to lie his way through
and thinking he'd be able to get away with it.

Personally, this would be classified as an achievement unlocked. 

I'm making good progress in becoming The Terrifying Teacher.
Way to go, AJ.

No entry too short

It's been a good 2 months since the last update.

There's been a couple of changes in my life since, both good and bad.

Let's start with the good.

When I titled the last entry as "The month of Two",

I sort of meant it in a literal way.

By welcoming the month of Feb as part of a duo.

I haven't thought it'd be anytime soon that I got hitched so quickly

but things happen, and yeah, I did.

My prior incessant worrying 

(e.g. what if I can't get used to having a boyfriend again?

or what if I can't get used to holding someone's hands once more?) 

had been uncalled for (phew...), 

because I've been having quite a wonderful time so far.

Many thanks to le bf, of course,

who's nothing but accommodating 

and encouraging towards me, 

as work has been piling up sneakily behind me

like an unwelcome ninja.

Which brings me to the bad.

Work got hectic.

Or maybe of course,

I could just have serious time management issues.

Things become alright for awhile after roughing some days out, 

but I find myself struggling to stay afloat not too long after.

I hope I'm not just hopping onto the "busy bandwagon" 

for the sake of appearing like I have important things to do

like what many others are doing.

This has got to get better.

I mean, I don't want to go on getting just a few hours' worth of sleep nightly on weekdays.

Before it gets better though, work's made me 

appreciate the weekends so much more these days.

I can't wait to meet up with le friends and bf
over the weekends for a nice catching up mostly,

And also, not forgetting, 

my daily lunches packed lovingly by Mumsy.

Alright. No more whinging.

I look forward to sharing interesting things that's been happening

at work more regularly!

The month of Two

:)

#29 The person that you want tell everything to, but am too afraid to

The last such person in my life was probably J.

I was fearful that saying what was on my mind would bring about abrupt endings.

But things were getting too much to bear so I decided what the heck
and went ahead with it anyway.

Ultimately, it did make things end in some way.

But contrary to what you might be thinking, I have no regrets for speaking
my mind because the relief from it was immense. 

Life goes on and people will soon forget about these petty and insignificant things that happen
to them once in a blue moon.

I mean, at least I would.