soldier soldier

life, as it is, has been relatively good for me.

i can safely say i am happy with my job. kids are the best possible beings to work with, i truly believe so. sure they make your blood boil occasionally, make you lose your voice for an hour or so, but at the end of the day you know that they really don't bear any malice. they're honest, playful little things who are simply wants to have fun. they don't like to do things they don't like to do, they like to do things they like to do. life's that simple for them. and being around such simplicities is really refreshing, if you ask me. i'm alright as a teacher i suppose. i work best with playful kids who are active, hyper, yet nice, obedient. my favourite is a 5 year old boy, Richie, who spots a Beckham Mohawk which he sets by himself. sweetest. darling. ever.

i see Dennis less these days. but that's alright. in a way, i really hope i can get used to not having him around every other day. but on the other hand, i really wish to see him as often as i can these last few weeks. anyway, things are great. great great great...:)

ive been shadowing in RPM for the past 3 weeks and i start team teaching next week! team teaching in RPM means i teach some of the tracks in the class. probably start with one track, then 2, and slowly 4. if i'm quick to learn, i should be able to teach a full fledge class by the last week of June. they say i have to make a video of myself within 3 months of my first full class. once i've done this video, i'll send it to LesMills Asia and they'll determine whether i get my certification or not. it's that long a process. seeing that i will be in Auckland in July, i'll have to see if i can teach there for a while, then get my certification there. Not gonna be easy i guess.

family's taking a trip to Melaka, Muar and Port Dickson over the weekend. I've taken an unpaid leave on Monday. I foresee a lot of binging in the horizons. :)

yup, life's great..:)

Where I Stood

I don't know what I've done
Or if I like what I've begun
But something told me to run
And honey you know me it's all or none

There were sounds in my head
Little voices whispering
That I should go and this should end
Oh and I found myself listening

'Cos I dont know who I am, who I am without you
All I know is that I should
And I don't know if I could stand another hand upon you
All I know is that I should
'Cos she will love you more than I could
She who dares to stand where I stood

See I thought love was black and white
That it was wrong or it was right
But you ain't leaving without a fight
And I think I am just as torn inside

'Cos I dont know who I am, who I am without you
All I know is that I should
And I don't know if I could stand another hand upon you
All I know is that I should
'Cos she will love you more than I could
She who dares to stand where I stood

And I won't be far from where you are if ever you should call
You meant more to me than anyone I ever loved at all
But you taught me how to trust myself and so I say to you
This is what I have to do

'Cos I dont know who I am, who I am without you
All I know is that I should
And I don't know if I could stand another hand upon you
All I know is that I should
'Cos she will love you more than I could
She who dares to stand where I stood
Oh, she who dares to stand where I stood

Missy Higgins - Where I Stood

Hair for Hope

How many of you would pay to shave your heads bald?

...5 out of 10? perhaps the guys? no big huh for you to run a razor through your locks once in a while, create the whole Michael Scoffield look? No?

alright...how many of you would pay to watch a friend shave bald?

...think about it, it could be a bet over a footie match. call the right predictions and your buddy might just have to make a trip to the barber compliments of you, but with self satisfaction to boot. still no?

ok...how many of you would pay to watch a friend shave bald, and have that money be donated to charity?

...yea, your friend walks out looking like a goofy shaolin master, you get the kicks out of it, one kid is saved from cancer, and you get the credit. what could be better?

well, yours truly is not gonna be shaving my head bald, so hold your horses. don't go calling my house phone just yet. although i do believe if it were me i'd be getting obscene amounts of pledge monies. =)

Kelvin Lim. How do u think he'd look bald?

Friend of mine would be doing it at this event called Hair for Hope in Singapore. You may know him, you may not, either way it'd be for a good course. So if one of the things listed in your new year resolution for 2008 was "Do something charitable" or "Help the needy", this is a good place to start. Go pledge. =)

the young ones

I've started working in Cosmotots. For the ignorant, Cosmotots is a child IQ development center. In layman term, its an English class for kids aged 4-12 years old. Kids are taught to speak, read, write and listen.

I can honestly say, I have never had so much fun at a job before. Not even when i marshalled at Camp 5, not even when I was a gymnastics coach. Kids who come to Cosmotots are the most adorable things in the world! I love my job!

I basically teach kids 8 years and below. Some are extremely bright, some take some time to grasp things, others simply grasp..literally. haha...everyday it's a different experience. When people say kids say the darn'st things, they mean it. It's true! I have not had one dull moment when i'm with the kids in the classroom.
even when i'm in the staffroom, marking their books, i chuckle to myself at the silliest things they write. it's just tickling when you see how kids interpret certain instructions from you different from each other. I've only been there a few days but already I'm trying to change the way I speak to children.

I've learned that:
1. Kids are afraid of being kissed. "I kiss you ar!" is actually a penalty. =D
2. Kids are smart. After analyzing your behaviour for 15 minutes, they can pretty much figure out how to deal with you to get what they want.
3. No matter how tough they act, they ALL have a soft spot. Knowing this can be your greatest weapon.
4. My daughter shall never wear pink and fall amongst the gazillion other little girls who wear the same colour. My son shall be taught not to swear and curse because nothing ruins the adorablity factor more than a curse word.

catching up

recent events have been all abut catching on old times, really. and i love catching up, reminiscing. it kinda reminds me how different i was 5, 6, 7 years ago. how i was silly and naive in the past, and still had the best times of my life. and it is always fun to reflect and see how far i've come from the Karen then. I usually tell people i don't think i've changed much. appearance maybe, because i've spotted like 2,756 different hairstyles in the past. but character wise i used to tell people that i'm still the same person i was when i was in my extremely uncomfortable blue pinafore which i wore from form 1 to form 5. but the truth is i have changed a lot. there is a difference of the earth and the sky from 15 year old me to 22 year old me.

anyway, on saturday i had lunch with Mrs Khaw and some of the RSGs. And if you saw us individually walking along the malls or on the streets, u might not notice but if i should say so myself, when we take on something, somewhere by the storm, you'd notice a similarity in us all. something about the poise, the grace, the outgoing energy and the very very hearty laughter that entails a story told by any one of us. i think we look pretty damn good in this picture, quite honestly. all of us. L-R: yuh huey, shiow fern, roshida, Mrs Khaw, me, katrina

yesterday night was dinner with some secondary school friends. there were more on the invitation list, but i guess with today being Wesak day and all, Sunday became a family night too. anyway, i was happy with whoever who came. some of which i've not seen for months and months and months! it was good fun. it really was. money well spent. =)L-R: soon seng , jackie, han yang, li hua, me, dennis

Fishing My Way To Made Of Honor

Play the game here and maybe win yourself some stuffs.

I just wanna watch Made of Honor in style...:)

One Tree Hill

so has any of you been watching the latest season of One Tree Hill? yup, season 5, 4 years into the future. that's the one. It is by far the most dramatic TV series i've ever watched and for some reason i am 100% hooked to it. there's something about the characters and their very unique personalities and the amazing background array of music that plays behind the scenes very aptly. i have always loved the show since it came out 2003. the reason i watched it was because there was a Karen and a Keith in it. whom, in season 3 and 4 ended up being together and Keith ended up dying. haha...not the point.

But it's a great show, i feel, because of its literary and art content. the words, the phrases, the music. oh the music...how they have accompanied me through my loneliest of nights, lulling me to sleep whenever i longed to be held and kissed goodnight. just sitting in my room at 2,3,4 in the morning listening to the soundtrack of one tree hill with a broken heart was enough to turn me into pathetic mush. how i drowned myself in those melancholic chords like i was standing from the inside, looking out at people being happy.

and now, when i've got Dennis, and i'm as chirpy as they come, i still tune in to the music of One Tree Hill and because of all the love that he has showered me with, i am still able to relate to the songs but from a different perspective. from the view point of the person from the outside of the window whose hand in hand with someone and smiling from ear to ear.

anyway, this is a meaningless post as a result of my lack of things to blog about. but for what it's worth, i meant to promote One Tree Hill and recruit more viewers of the show so i can exchange emotional i-*heart*-lucas-scott&peyton stories with. :)

A Famosa International Triathlon

Sprint Distance

Considering i haven't swam in ages, i guess i roughly knew how bad my swimming was gonna be. But the moment i got into the stinky waters of A Famosa lake *suddenly i can smell it again...shudders*, i knew swimming was gonna be a killer this day and the next. Owell...i took it easy for the sprint. swam slowly, biked slowly, ran slowly. It was more of a refresher course since the last tri was so long ago. My legs were a lot stronger on the bike, i realised. But i had to be careful not to push it coz i really wanted to conserve my energy for the next day. I managed the whole thing in 1 hour 18 minutes. Came in 6th place out of 11. haha alright laa...Olympic Distance

Swim - I told myself that my strategy was to take it reaaaal easy on the swim. i didn't care how long it took, i just wanted to go slow, finish it, jump on my bike, then tear it up on the roads. turned out, i didn't have to try to take it easy. I was swimming so slowly, i couldn't have gone any faster if i wanted to. I finished in 47 minutes! haha talk about slow. Running out of the water Rahimi said "C'mon birthday girl!" haha...first birthday wish of the day.Bike - i took a gel, smiled at the gorgeous and light Colnago Dream, and sped off. It's my birthday and i'll kill if i want to! I did ride pretty quickly. But people still zoom past me. Some even on mountain bikes. haha...but it was a great ride. Memories of the last A Famosa bike leg i had, where my bike tube burst at about 10 km haunted me but lucky for me nothing like that happened. I had a smooth ride all 40 km of the leg. 1 hour 32 minutes. :)Run - now i say this with as much sincerity and astonishment as i can muster. I honestly think i was born to run. for some reason, the moment im on my feet, i'd be able to find my rhythm and run as if it was the first thing i did that morning. and i barely trained. i was able to pummel through and overtake lots of people on my run. it was the best feeling in the world. :) i completed the 9km race in 49 minutes plus. Overall, i took 3 hours 14 minutes to complete an Olympic Distance on my birthday with very minimal training and a sprint distance the day before. I am happy. :)Dennis was with me and i couldn't be any happier, but i hope he enjoyed the whole tri scene. My friends who followed me the last time found it to be quite an eye opener. :)

Thanks guys for the gazillion birthday wishes! I switched my phone off coz i really needed sleep the night before, so for those who tried to call, sorry!

My 22nd birthday was awesome. :)

presents from Lyn!!

I was uber happy when I got a courier mail today. I'm happy to receive all kinds of mails la actually. *hint* Mails are fun to receive, no? haha..anyway, it was from Glasgow! My best friend Lyn got me stuff for my birthday! I know my birthday isn't here yet, and i am usually quite strict with myself about opening present or using them before my actual birthday. But i was just too excited to know what she got me all the way from UK! so i ripped it open there n then and here's what she got me!
a hair straightener! it's small n light so she has asked me to bring it to NZ with me! That's a great idea since when i go there i'd be a poor poor student with no money for hair pampering no more. so i can at least have a go at lessening bad hair days with this! :)Now i know i haven't quite disclosed this on my blog. But yes, i have a naval piercing. And Lyn got me a new one! its adorable, and colourful, and it looks like a gymrama shoe apparently! :) I love it!

Thanks Lyn! =)

***

Will be at A Famosa this weekend for the tri. No swimming training, lots n lots of RPM and a bit of trail running here and there. Let's see how i fare aye? :)

Wilderness Langkawi Challenge '08

I think the biggest curse of a blogging racer is the downfall of the internet right after the race. With all that pent up excitement and thrill just waiting to be splashed across the screen, it was nerve wrecking having to wait for my call to be connected through to TM, having to answer all those questions, having to wait for them to check this and that, and having to wait for them to send someone to the port to fix things.

Anyway, now that all that are done, here's what happened in Langkawi over the weekend. :)

The race was awesome! I loved every bit of the race. The jungle, the sea, the kayaking, the sweltering heat...well, the heat could've been a little less...but owell, what's an adventure race without a nice good tan after that aye?
My race basically consists of a trail running leg and a kayaking leg. I sprained my ankle during the running, but miraculously, it was all good after walking for a bit. I think we were doing good time until we got lost for a bit, but that's all part of the challenge if you ask me. Compared to Perhentian, getting lost just once is already great! Had to go through a bit of bush whacking when we went off track.The kayaking was amazing. Beatrice had given us some good techniques earlier on and i must say they worked like a charm. We were overtaking people pretty smoothly. The roping activities on the boat was a little boring, and totally unnecessary. The dive from the boat into the open sea was quite exhilarating! I'm talking about 80 m from sea level! I swear my heart was in my throat!
We came in 4th. 3rd sounds helluva lot more fun, but i guess there's always next time. :) Great race. Wish i did Fast & Furious though. 9 hours of pure solid adventure, what more can i ask for?

more photos

Of fishball noodles, mango loh, and more food at Eastin Hotel...

I think that very very soon, i will put on again all the weight i have lost during my diarrhea stint and the intense RPM training weeks. I have been stuffing my face like crazy over the past couple of days. It's been extremely rewarding yet extremely sinful. As if 7 scoops of rich creamy ice cream was not enough to upset my metabolism at this point, my RSG girlfriends are back and we went on a food trip. Ironically, my RSG get together always revolves around food anyway.
Yuh Huey is home from UK to film Arivind's latest horror movie. Rosie, Yuh Huey and myself met up on Tuesday for lunch at the Teochew Fishball Noodles restaurant in SS15. Free noodle refill. I say "pig out!". Poor girl had to chew carefully and slowly because she had her wisdom teeth extracted. It does not pay to be wise I've learned. My wisdom teeth have yet to pop out and i pray they stay that way. But that did not stop Ms Big Time London Dancergirl to chow down two bowls of Mango Loh at KTZ 1 utama. I know, i just found out there was one there too! And Mango Loh was fantastic...:)Yesterday night, was Metropolitan College's Hollywood Night aka Metroball 2008. And though it started off disappointing because a lot of my friends couldn't make it, it turned out pretty fun in the end. So, BOO you people who decided not to come. Your loss..:). The crowd was small but comfortable. The place was cozy. But the food was FANTASTIC. I had my RM85's worth when the lamb and the smoked salmon came on my plate. Really great food. :)It was also the night i crowned the new Miss Metropolitan. And it was good that Jin Li got it. It probably doesn't sound like much but it kinda struck me that I'm pretty much out of college for good now. No more remnants of me or my name left. Sure my photos are still there but that's about it. Nothing in that college has anything to do with me now. I've had a good 3 years in Metro. It was more than i had asked for. :)