Gong Xi Fa Cai

Last night we watched Jet Li's latest and final kungfu flick, "Fearless", which chronicles Huo Yuan Jia's life. Not too bad, fight scenes were impressive, but it isn't a show which I will go and buy its DVD. Heard that Michelle Yeoh was originally part of the production, she had voiced the commentary on Huo's life in the movie, which was about 40min long. However, her part had to be snipped off cos people had commented that it was boring and contributed to making the movie about 2 hours long. Apparently Jet Li flew to HK to apologise to her about this.

It's that time of the year again, where D and I have to give out red packets amounting to quite a princely sum. We were back in S'pore in the wee hours of Friday morning (cos our Jetstar flight was delayed a lil') and since then, I really crave for sleep. Tired siah, and worse, I am nursing the infamous sore throat. Think it is due to the cigar I smoked on fri nite at this pub in Prinsep Street. So far, visits to relatives' homes have been ok. The usual topics will come up "When are you having a kid?", "Where are you staying now?", "How is HK?", "When are you coming back?" etc. Going to D's godma's house in a bit, and later to a friend's new place where we will see her and her lovely dogs, especially the saymoed Bianco.

Got to get changed...

Preparing Our Stall "Hang Me" Before The Fun Fair

Last Saturday, the PTA (Parents-Teachers Association) of our school organised a fun fair to raise funds for the school. Most of the stalls, particularly food stalls, were solicited by the parents in the PTA, while us teachers had to plan and manage some game stalls. Our game "Hang Me" is a simple one which requires pupils/adults to throw 5 clothes hangers to hook onto any part of the contraption we had constructed. As long as the player manages 2 successful hooks, we will give the player a ticket to exchange for a prize. Here are some fotos of us doing up the stall. Me and Patric with some of his favourite toys Btw, wrong date... the owner didn't change the date on her camera. At our stall: Hanged: We had put up Patric's toy collection on our neat little contraption and pasted pictures of animals to entice innocent little boys and girls to play our game instead of others. I reckon we did have fun doing up the stall but very tired at the end of the day.

When's the hols coming?

It's been some moons since I last blogged... the usual's been happening anyway. Since D & I returned to HK from our Xmas break (which is about 3 weeks ago), I have been working hard, or maybe I should say, I have been trying to work hard.

Then I had a bout of bronchitis about 2 weeks ago, most probably got it when I was at the Outward Bound Camp in Sai Kung cos the temps dropped quite a bit to about 9 degrees and I supposed I didn't keep myself warm enough.

There are lots more activities and programmes the 2nd half of the academic year, and all these planning, preparation, execution of duties etc can really drain my energy. My only consolation is that I am not the ones who are higher up the hierachy, those in the leadership and/or middle management positions. Been there, done that, and it's simpler and easier to be the follower. Whatever people say, just do lor, as long as it doesn't go against my principles and value system.

Anyway, this coming week will be a short one, basically 2 days of teaching since Monday is the Math/PE Games Day (both my P5 classes have to put up a game each); Chinese New Year (CNY) Celebrations on Thurs till 1030 and school will close from 27th Jan to 12th Feb for the CNY Hols.

D & I will be back in S'pore on the night of the 26th Jan and stay for a few days visiting relatives and giving ang baos before flying off to Phuket for a weeklong diving trip. Originally we were supposed to go to Cebu, but the roof of the resort there has collapsed. So the trip has changed to a couple of days diving in and around Phi Phi Island, another couple of days doing a Liveaboard (i.e. staying on a dive boat) with dives in the Similan National Marine Park. Will be doing some videos underwater, using the 2nd hand underwater housing & video cam that D got for me from ebay.

Then it's back to S'pore for a few more days before returning to work and reality in HK.

The countdown starts...

Duh Notice @ Outward Bound

Outward Bound 4th Jan to 6th Jan 06

Together with 4 other colleagues, we accompanied the P5 pupils to the Outward Bound Campsite @ Sai Kung last week. Basically, the Outward Bound instructors took over those 3 days, while us teachers simply did nothing, except to take photos and look at whatever the kids were doing.

The pupils did an array of activities, namely raft-building, some ropes activities at the High Elements site rock climbing & bouldering, night hike, scavenger hunt and jetty jumps. The last one being most frigid, since temperatures dropped till around 10 degrees on last thurs night.

Saw this toy outside one of the instructors' office and found it cute... Talking about Outward Bound instructors, they (especially the guys) have this particular look and attitude: Tanned, muscular, sigh... Back to school tomorrow, and can't wait for the CNY break in another 3 more weeks. D & I will be back in S'pore again for about 4 days before going on our first overseas diving trip, tentatively in Cebu.

Xmas & New Year Break

D & I flew back to HK this afternoon, after 10 days back in S'pore. It had been quite a good time of rest, fun and family. Somehow, returning home during the Christmas/New Year period takes on a deeper meaning. Maybe it's the actual act of making the trip back home which requires a greater effort; maybe it's the entire romantic concept of Christmas/New Year season, a time to reminisce and get-together... whatever it is, I realise I had taken things for granted while I was still in S'pore, and this homecoming is somewhat more poignant.

Today also marks my first year living abroad with D. There are lots to be thankful for, and I do think that I don't deserve all these. Still, it has been a good ride this year, and I hope 2006 will be just as wonderful as the last one. Thank you, God, for everything.