Seven-day Domestic Goddess
It only occured to me today- in a matter of TWO days, the September hols will BEGIN! I have been so busy that it somehow slipped my mind. It was only until a friend alerted me today during assembly about his plans for the hols that it hit me- and it hit me goooood….
This would be the first holiday that won’t make me feel so sore about losing my passport. Fasting month whaaaat…. even with a passport, ‘yall are not going anywhere right? Stay at home right? MUAHAHAHAHHA.
Nonetheless, I do have plans for the holidays. First of all, on the first few days I’d have to go to school *groan* as my Sec 4 students are taking their N-level papers. That’s tuesday. Hope nothing else pops up.
Noble aspirations: hopefully my husband will get to taste MY cooking this whole holiday week (after that we’ll leave it all to the resident chef i.e his mom who is mighty good at cooking).
His mom will be still be cooking of course, the more heavy stuff- I’d stick to my simple idiot-proof-yuppie-wife dishes, thank you. (Fasting month whaaaat… one dish where got enough???)
And of course, unlike experienced cooks like our moms are (who can just whip up something fantastic in a blink of an eye and without prior planning or deliberation), I would have to PLAN.
And so far these are what I have under my (big) sleeve for week 1 or Ramadhan:
- roasted black pepper chicken with buttered vegetables (think broccoli, corn, asparagus…)
- mee bandung
- aglio olio
- beef stew with fusili
- BIG GIANT steamed garoupa, thai style (I crave for this one)
- cereal prawns
- lasagne or some baked rice/ pasta with bechamel sauce
And for dessert, I hope to be able to make these:
- ondeh-ondeh
- epok-epok sayur (ramli’s ultimate fave)
- jemput-jemput
- awol-awol sagu/ ubi
Omigod. I am so craving for all those foods right now. Salivating.
Let’s hope the plan falls through and I achieve cooking most of it. Heheh.
Maybe I’ll put this book to good use, the one I got at borders recently (and NOT during the sale, SAD SAD SADLY)
One day, hopefully, I will be a domestic goddess like her. 
Don’t get me started now…
Please.
Don’t try to fool impress us with stories of being the ‘hero’ teacher, ala Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds.
You sure make yourself sound like you rose from the rubble of students gone berserk ashes doncha ?
Bleaurgghhh.
It is not as AMAAAAAAZING and as you make it out to be. Stop waxing lyrical about it.
Perhaps it is the lack of experience that causes one to be deluded about the whole teaching thing.
Perhaps I was like that too once upon a time. Perhaps.
This would be my sixth year in service, that’s very little I know, yet it took me less than half that time to know that it just like any other job, strife with OFFICE POLITICS, backstabbing, dogs-eating-dogs (as in dog-eat-dog 
) yadaa yadaa yadaa.
Yeah, it is a “work of (he)art”; it sure as hell isn’t a moneymaking profession. Sure it has its heartwarming moments, like ex-students from ANOTHER school who stalked tracked you down bringing loads of goodies and lunch.
And students who write teachers’ day cards for you in their broken Malay and English, basically telling you that YOU, yes YOU, are the BEST TEACHER IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, and you shed a tear believing it (then you realize that they write the same thing to all their subject teachers).
Oh and not to forget how you remain friends with some of these students, get invited to their engagement ceremonies/ weddings/ baby cukur rambut etc. etc. (yes, I am that old).
Loving the job is one thing, but to brag about it, to basically OOZE with finger-lickin’ goodness and sugar and spice and everything nice, to imply how DARN GOOD you are that you turn their lives around, that YOU, yes YOU, made an impact in their lives and SAVED them from prostitution/ crime/ vagrancy/ immorality etc. etc. is just…
…too much.
Please. Spare me the drama.
Don’t tell me stories about how you turned their whole lives around, that their mundane and delinquent lives have suddenly become PURPOSEFUL. Because of your insightful and mind-blowing lessons. You, are the light at the end of their otherwise pitch black tunnel. Wow. *will somebody PLEASE pass her an award?*
Don’t tell me stories of how they have lost all interest in anything concerning school, but thanks to you, they look forward to school and most importantly, your lessons.
Don’t tell me how everyone else hates them because they are condemned for life, but HELL, not for you, no no no. You are the only one caring enough who can see how beautiful and intelligent and artistic and precious they are.
Again, I plead with you. Spare us the drama or wayang kulit. Who are you trying to kid or impress? Stop blowing your own horn and singing your own praises because you are awfully out of tune.
And I’m not jaded. Or cynical. Or worn-out. I’m telling you the truth, woman. Get it in your head. It is no “Tuesdays with Morrie” I tell ya. It is no soppy shit. I’m not shitting you. Ask any REAL teacher this and they’ll agree with me.
To me, the true heroes are the ones who are STILL teaching after decades.
I asked an experienced teacher in my school if she’d like to pursue her masters degree and perhaps lecture, she said:
Lecture? No, the ones down here are the ones who seriously need help and education. Not those up there.
Hmmph. Ponder awhile, why don’t you.
If you ask them why they are still teaching, they WON’T, I can betcha my a** on it, give you these MODEL ANSWERS:
“I want to be a beacon of hope and the guiding light to lost boats in the turbulent seas.”
OR
“I love seeing the children go wide-eyed when I teach them something new”
OR
“I hope to bring change to our society, ensuring that I play my part in moulding our future generation and the generations to come *tears stream down face*”
Somebody pass me the barf bag because I’m going to be sick. NOW.
If you ask me why I am still teaching, I will tell you the hard truth. I’m not gonna tell you an explanation so soppy sentimental philosophical motivational inspirational that you can almost hear Enya’s music playing in the background *let me sail, let me sail, let the orinoco flow…*
And if you ask me if I am still going to be teaching ten years from now, I would say yes. And why?
As the great Bav would say,
“Simply.”
Yes, that is a good answer, isn’t it? I never quite understood the true essence of that simple answer until recently. Thanks, Bav.
Teachers who have taught long enough (or at least not teachers who are not that naive and deluded!) would know each other’s reasons for coming to school everyday. It’s an unspoken unanimous understanding. (I see a few teachers reading this nodding their heads violently here). You know it, and I know it. It’s pretty much the same thing. No need to be so soppy about it. It really sounds like a cry for help, more than anything else, as if you NEED to convince yourself how AMAAAAAAAZING and fulfilling the job is, that you learn about “LIFE” *yawn*.
Please. Get a LIFE.
And please do us a favour. Remove your rose-tinted glasses. You are extremely myopic and colour-blind lor.
Remove your glasses NOW NOW NOW because your naivete will just cripple and burn and devastate you say… in two years’ time.
Don’t be another statistic.
Don’t be ‘another teacher in IMH’.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Parenting à la Paranoia
What a sucky sucky morning.
As a form teacher of the best(IAL) class in my school, calling up the parents of absentees can take up as much as an hour, sometimes even more, DAILY. These calls are important because half of the time, the parents THINK their kids went to school, but they are wrong. And these calls are important because parents are sonic-speed quick about turning the tables on you and claim that they ‘were not informed’ of their child’s absence.
So let’s just say, in everything that we do, we’d have to protect our precious rear ends and that is why I make calls to parents religiously. And write letters to them if they can’t be contacted.
Yesterday, I called a parent asking her why her son is absent. She says that he is asthmatic and has an mc. With that, I said to her NICELY like the sane human being that I am:
“oh, anak puan sakit rupanya. Kalau begitu, beritahu dia, banyakkan rehat sebab minggu depan common test dah mula. Kalau belum sembuh betul-betul, takut pulak masa test tu dia sakit semula. “ (basically, somewhere along the line of ‘tell him to rest well, next week is common test, if he doesn’t recover well this time, he might fall sick again during the test week.”)
Simple?
But today, that very parent called me, speaking to me sternly. Apparently she couldn’t sleep the whole night after my call. Why? She claims that what I said was somehow SARCASTIC (perli), and somehow I sounded like I was insinuating something about her son’s behaviour. She insists that I am keeping some secret, sensational info about her son from her.
HUH???
I told her, I meant what I said, and that I was NOT being sarcastic. I was, in all honesty, hoping that he will get well soon. (FYI her son is pretty decent and gives no problems).
And what does she say?
“I am not a child, I know the way you said it- there is something that you are keeping from me. You sounded too nice, as if you are making fun of me (that perli word was used again).
WTF????
Again, I tried to convince her that SHE GOT ME WRONG. Then I told her that I don’t know how else I should sound when I want to tell someone to REST WELL and TAKE GOOD CARE of himself. So, if I shouldn’t sound ‘nice’ and concerned, should I then sound ‘angry and fierce’?
She asked me again if I am keeping something from her. Whatttt? What does she want me to say? “Oh yes I am keeping a DARRRRKKK secret about your son WOOOOOOOOOO. I didn’t want to tell you earlier that his mom is a weeeeeeeeeeee bit PARANOID….”
I told her, it does not make any sense WHY I need to keep any info about her son from her. It does not benefit me in any way. It just…DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. Full stop.
I figured that she wanted an apology from me, but I KNOW I did no wrong, so- NO WAY. In the end, she said that if she has misinterpreted what I said, she’s sorry BUT THAT is just how she feels.
Well TOO BLOODY BAD, I say! Deal with your oversensitivity and paranoia YOURSELF.
When I came to the staff room, my co-form teacher who also calls half of the absentees (there are at least TEN everyday) had a fair share of heart-pain herself. She called a parent to ask why the boy is not in school again today. Now this boy has been absent for MANY MANY WEEKS but she never fails to call him EVERY DAY. What does the mother say?
Well she didn’t say it. She shouted at the poor teacher, “WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS GIVING PROBLEMS AND CHASING AFTER MY SON??!!!”
To that, she slammed down the phone.
And let me tell you, this teacher is the most gentle and soft-spoken person I know here. She doesn’t even TEACH the boy, so, no chance of ‘giving problems’. She just calls to ASK and INFORM every day (i repeat, for rear-end protection).
I just felt so angry, how our good intentions are miscontrued BEYOND RECOGNITION. Some parents are quick to blame teachers for whatever problems their children pose to THEM, it is convenient I’m sure- let the TEACHER answer for it.
What if I wasn’t concerned about him being ill, what if I was SIMPLY doing my job and be devoid of all emotion, robotically telling her- OH HE IS SICK. DOES HE HAVE AN MC? YES? BRING MC TOMORROW.
What then? Will I then be accused of being UNFEELING? COLD? UNCARING?
WHAT?!
I spoke to the boy after that, and told him, I don’t know how or why your mom misunderstood my good intentions, but if she does mention it again, please help me tell her that SHE MISUNDERSTOOD ME.
Boy I was pissed. He was apologetic, and he said he knows I didn’t mean it that way and that she’s always suspicious like that.
Oh wow, REALLY? I swear I couldn’t tell.
(Big) Singapore Girl
It’s only Tuesday.
The national day weekend seems so close, yet oh-so-far away.
But honestly, I am already in the celebratory mood- this will be one of the last few holidays in the school term that I can truly ENJOY before the exams start doing it’s thang. Yeah, the revisions, the marking, the marks, the keying, the report book thang. Groan.
I cannot wait for Friday (it’s a HALF DAY, PEOPLE!!! REJOICE!!!!), and then Saturday (partayyy). And then Sunday (laze about doing mindless things, wedding banquet at night). We’re gonna spend the long weekend in 2 different hotels, watching the parade and fireworks from our balcony. Of course if I had a passport, it would be a different story altogether. But since I don’t, please, let me splurge a bit on this (for some semblance of a HOLIDAY.)
But of course, Monday will be quite depressing. 
Anyhoo, let’s not think about the day after the holidays shall we?
On Friday, students and teachers are encouraged to wear any of these:
A) any cultural/ traditional outfit
B) clothes depicting different occupations
C) any uniform
D) anything red and/ or white
Several considerations concerning option B:
1) what if I were to come in a larger-than-life Singapore Girl kebaya outfit, complete with luggage? (ROTFL)
2) what if I were to come in my graduation gown WITH the mortar board and scroll?
3) and what if I were to come dressed as a…. wait for it…. TEACHER? *gasp*
That’s it. I’m going for NUMBER 3. Please- control your disappointment that no. 1 isn’t chosen. It will be quite a sight, that much I can tell you.
