4 weeks of break

Finally, schools except for 2 Secondary Schools and 1 Poly reopen  today after 4 weeks of June vocation.  YEAH!!! In the eye of most school going students, they would feel like stranggling me when they saw my introduction. This is so as guilty conscience students do not wish to hear rants from their teachers when they knew that they could not complete those hefty piles of HOLIDAY ASSIGNMENTS. 🙂  That explains why there are lobbying an extension of 1 additional week before the start of the new term in hopeful to clear their ‘debts’. This could be exemplified from the fact that there are various groups created by various people in facebook that garner the support of students or parents to shut down the schools for 1 more week due to the infectious spread of H1 N1. Worst of all, I have even heard that an online petition is created for a similar purpose  in Channel New Asia website. (WOW!) This is in light of the EXPONENTIAL  (Well, you don’t see in A Maths only. You do see it in reality) increase in the number of people infected in H1 N1.  In the first place, are they willing to trade for 1 more week of June vocation from a deduction of September holidays? Hmm, they seem to forget the fate of 2003 SARS in deducting their June school holidays by 2 weeks in view of 2 weeks shutdown of schools in March. Thus, the current ‘incentive’ is considered the best deal (Give it a thought, please).  Despite their lobby efforts, the Education Minister holds a persistent view in disapproving the granting of massive shutdown across schools for additional 1 week. That is, this H1 N1 bug is mild and seems to thrive for a longer period than SARS. Since that is the case, we would have to end up shutting down for schools for months. This approach should be the last resort and should not be taken lightly.  Is it practical especially when graduating students are battling not only H1 N1 disease but also the PSLE, ‘N’, ‘O’, ‘A’ levels in the months ahead? Sadly to say, some people have been raising up the points that we should tap on the advancement of technology (i.e. e-learning) as a defence to shut down schools for 1 more week. They fail to understand that elearning could not be a perfect substitute to traditional classroom teaching at least for the current era. That is, the teachers in the affected schools have to give make up lessons upon the students’ return even though these students are given elearning assignments for this week. In addition, there is a area of concern on how the lower primary schools could access e-learning platform since they may not have the physical computer or the knowledge to use these platform. As a result, these schools have to mail the assignments to these students’ house to keep them occupy for the additional 1 week break. Although I feel that these measures are necessary in the battle of such epedemic disease, I still hold the view that e-learning is not a perfect substitute to classroom teaching and it behaves more like a complement rather than the former.

In any case, I feel that I have put on more weight during this 4 weeks of break. That is, I feel tight along my waist when I was putting on my working attire (trousers) today. ARGH… What is this? In fact, I was feeling jubilant while I was working. That is, I am delighted that I am back to my sweating days in climbling various steps to the various venues. In this way, I begin to feel less compression along my waist. Oops…

2nd driving experience

After finishing our photo selection at Kevin’s house, Kevin initiated to drive Janet and I back home since it was already 2330 hrs then. When I first heard it, I was stunned as Kevin has never drove me back home except for today. He has even plucked his courage to seek permission from his dad to drive his dad’s car. Thus, I shall sincerely applaud Kevin’s effort (Finally, the word of disappointment is eliminated out from my dictionary. I guess it is only for a transient moment. Hehe…) At the moment, I seize this opportunity to request from Kevin to allow me to drive along Tampines Road to Janet’s house followed by my house (since I am confident of the route). On a personal note, I can’t believe that I have requested to drive (most importantly the courage to drive) since I have never driven a physical car on the road after my attainment of the class 3 licence.

To be frank, I was quite nervous when Kevin was driving on the road and expressways. It is not that I do not trust Kevin’s driving. It is the thought of driving a longer route than my actual test route that began to chill down my spine. Yet,  I tried to remain calm which is evident from the fact that Janet and Kevin were oblivious to the fact that I was actually possessing the fear of driving later on the road. On a flipside, I have constantly reminded myself that I need to overcome this hurdle. If not, this fear will continue to haunt me if I started to drive on my personal car (if I have one). In view of this, I take it as a stride as a learning experience and hope that I have regained the confidence of driving in some ways.

When Kevin reached Tampines Road, we swopped position. Thus, I have become the driver or chauffeur for Janet (hopefully a good one). Janet, please pardon me on my novice driving after reading this post. At that juncture, both of my legs were shivering. Yet, I told myself not to give up in this golden opportunity. Even though Kevin briefed me about how to operate his dad’s car (thanks for his kind intention), his comprehensive information seems to be siphoned out from my brain though I was attentively listening to him as different cars have different operations in some ways. Perhaps, I shall give ‘kudos’ to my shivering legs who is filtering the information from my brain. ARGH!!! Inevitably, my moving off was terrible (in my perspective). However, I just remind myself to go forward.  Thus, I have decided to insert the areas of improvement of my driving in this entry for my future use.

1. Controlling of brakes (Auto cars are more sensitive than manual cars.)
2. Stopping of vehicles (Brush up on smooth stopping especially the control of brakes)
3. Wide turning (especially in right turn)
4. Concentration of the mirrors (especially the rear mirror)
5. Observe the speedometer
6. Jerky moving off

In this driving experience, I am glad that I have not forgotten about the following facts. 🙂

1. Checking of rear mirrors before performing left or right turn
2. Slow down at the pedestrian crossing, left; right ; U turn
3. Signal in every left and right turn
4. Halt the vehicle using handbrake and put in neutral gear.
5. Manage to keep at a speed of 60 km/h on the road.

In any case, I feel that I am braking too hard whenever I am terrified (e.g. encountering red lights; seeing oncoming vehicles approaching me). Thus, I was indeed disappointed when the ride was quite bumpy and jerky initially as my mind keep tempting me to use hard braking when I encounter such erratic changes (well, I am just not used to it. I am confident that this will be eliminated once I begin to drive often. )  In short, this will be an classic example to illustrate how mind can triumph the knowledge you have about driving. On a positive note, I am glad that I have improved in my driving after sending Janet back home. Most importantly, I must thank Janet for her encouraging words which boosts my confidence in driving. It may be simple sentence yet it helps. 🙂 That is, my driving is considered not bad since it is my maiden drive after my attainment of the class 3 licence in Aug 08.  Even though this could be a consolation message for me, I feel that it is important sentence to spur me on especially when I have feeble legs while driving.  On another light, detractors may argue that I was familiar about the travel route that I have taken. Yet, I was already that panic striken. Thus, it is anticipated that the impact will be worst if I am travelling on an unfamiliar route. Sadly to say, I would like to comment that I would not take such a risk if I know that I am not familiar for the route that I have driving  for trial experience. In fact, I would not even drive on the familiar route at peak hours where cars are fighting their means to inch forward. I do not wish to deterioriate the traffic conditions as I am likely to road hog.  (since I am inexperienced)

In short, this is indeed a fruitful experience for me. I would like to thank Kevin for entrusting me to drive his dad’s car and be my vehicle commander  even though I have not driven for a long time. In my perspective, I have utilised my weekdays productively to challenge the limits of me. YEAH!!!

An ironic me

At the age of 20, I am getting the feel of being feeble. That is, I was in the state of fatigue on the way back home for both occasions –  group outing on Fri night and my friend’s belated birthday party on last Sat. Worst of all, I have been catching 1 -2 hours of afternoon naps lately. Despite this, I only feel recharged when I just woke up and begun to crave for more sleep over time (maybe the law of diminishing marginial returns set in).

Ironically, I am not the sort of person who could idle all his day at home. Thus, it is not surprising for me to find things to do. That is the period when I would hunt for Statistics or Economics books to read to occupy my day. Well, such opportunity are indeed rare for me as I am always occupied with various committments especially those that are work related. Worst of all, I am not that type of person who could sit for the whole day to read a book that he likes. Thus, I begin to ponder over other things to do. Oops, I seem to have an insatiable needs. SIGH…  On a flipside, I am striving to revise as much Economics or statistics concepts before the commencement of my university life. Guess what? I have forgotten quite a handful of my statistics or Economics concepts that I have learnt in JC. Thus, I feel dumb when I was figuring out the concepts that I have learnt in JC. This has clearly convinced me that the perils of rote learning which I have constantly echoed this message to my students that I have taught that memory work without understanding could only be done when it is absolutely Hobson’s choice. If possible, they must find means to clarify concepts which I am doing now as we may not know when we need those concepts again. We must acknowledge that we do not study these concepts for the sake of exams. We may need it at any point of time after we have graduated.

In any case, I really detest the new CEPAS ezlink card. It will prohibit one to board the public transport if the balance of the ez link card is less than $2 unlike the previous Ez-link card where it could accept negative balance as long as you top it up at the Bus intercharge or MRT station later. In view of my past experience etched into my mind, I was really freak out when I realised that my ezlink card has a balance of $1.90 when I board the bus to Bedok Reservoir for my routine 4 km run. Fortunately, it managed to sustain to my destination where I could hunt for a pathetic ATM machine out of the 4 machines that could top up CEPAS ezlink card via the use of ATM card. If not, I guess I would have to flag down a taxi home or route march to Bedok or Tampines to top out this pathetic Ezlink card. I really wish that Citi bank will continue its debit credit card plan – Citibank Tap and Save account in September this year. They have recently ceased this plan as part of the transition to the CEPAS ezlink card with accordance to the words of one of the Citibank promoters. They have told me that it will likely to be back in September this year which should be a period of joy for me since Citibank has its strigent rule of opening an account at the age of 21. In this account, I could earn up to 1.2% per annum for harvesting sufficient money; enjoy 2% cash rebate with every ez-link auto top up. I really hope that such lucrative deal (if not better deal) will be reimplemented in Sep 09. If not, it will not be a worthwhile wait and the hassle of topping out my ezlink card weekly will continue to haunt me.