The Short and Long of It.
Just a week before today, I was drawing up an actual plan of how I’m gonna spend the four-day weekend so as ‘not to feel bored’.
I hoarded lots of snacks (for FEAR that no shop will be open and that we will be having a dvd-marathon days on end), brought back piles of marking, materials to set exam papers, and EVEN re-installed my sims2. I had this vision of the CNY long-weekend being a sleepy, stay-at-home retreat, where the streets are empty (save the lion dance music in that fleeting lorry once in a while), all shopping centres closed, and Singapore practically being a ghost town. Well at least for 2 days lah… quite a nice, peaceful thought, huh?
What was I thinking?
The weekend was anything but that. Bustling, as always. Before I knew it, the four days were suddenly over and there I was, on tuesday night, staring at the piles of karangans, pemahamans, bina ayats etc etc. Well only ONE stack was marked. That’s not something one can be proud of.
The snacks were left unopened, adding on to our secret stash of tidbits (secret to Ooyah who’d want ALL the snacks to be opened at once). The books and newspapers brought back left untouched. The dvds left unwatched. The sims left unplayed.
In the end, we went out on all days but half (CNY eve)- we went shopping, ikea-ing, korean bbq-ing, potluck-ing, shopping….. lots of fun alright, so much fun that it felt like a normal 2-day weekend.
And now I’m TIRED and in sooooo need another long weekend.
Please? I’ll make it last this time, promise.
Well Done, My Friend!
SEMANGAT KELAS PERTAMA
Oleh Linilidia Abdul HamidBELIAU mengambil peperiksaan GCE peringkat ‘O’ sebanyak dua kali. Malahan dua percubaannya di peringkat GCE ‘A’ gagal mendapatkan sijil penuh. Tetapi kini, Cik Fauzia Jailani, 25 tahun, dapat tersenyum bangga kerana beliau merupakan satu-satunya pelajar kohortnya mendapat kelulusan Sarjana Muda Sastera (Pendidikan) dengan kepujian kelas pertama. Beliau menerima ijazahnya dalam majlis penyampaian ijazah di Auditorium Nanyang, Universiti Teknologi Nanyang, semalam, yang turut dihadiri Menteri Pendidikan, Dr Ng Eng Hen. Cik Fauzia merupakan salah seorang daripada 313 graduan baru NIE. Kejayaannya yang membanggakan itu didorong minatnya untuk mengajar yang dipupuk sejak kecil lagi. ‘Semasa kecil, bila bermain, saya selalu berangan jadi seorang guru yang sedang mengajar murid-murid,’ cerita Cik Fauzia. Disebabkan minatnya yang mendalam, beliau telah memohon memasuki NIE. Malangnya, tujuh percubaan pertamanya gagal. Namun ini tidak mematahkan semangatnya. Sebaliknya, semasa bertugas di sebuah pusat jagaan sebelum dan selepas sekolah, beliau mengirimkan permohonan buat kali kelapan untuk memasuki program diploma pendidikan NIE. Sejak diterima, Cik Fauzia, yang kini mengajar bahasa Melayu di Sekolah Rendah Balestier Hill, tidak lagi memandang ke belakang. Setelah tamat kursus diplomanya, beliau melanjutkan pelajaran ke peringkat sarjana muda. Cik Fauzia, yang mengambil pengkhususan dalam Bahasa Melayu dan Sastera Melayu untuk ijazahnya, berkata: ‘Sebenarnya, saya rasa untuk berjaya bukan usaha seorang individu saja. Sebaliknya, sokongan yang diterima daripada keluarga, teman-teman kuliah dan pensyarah juga memainkan peranan penting. Saya tidak mungkin dapat melakukannya sendiri.’ Cik Fauzia, yang baru berumah tangga, ketika bercakap tentang aspirasinya sebagai seorang guru berkata: ‘Saya ingin menjadi contoh kepada murid-murid saya. Jika saya yang pernah gagal boleh berjaya hari ini, saya mahu mereka berfikir bahawa mereka juga boleh melakukannya. ‘Sebagai guru, apa yang lebih penting bagi saya ialah murid-murid saya dapat menyumbang secara bermakna kepada masyarakat suatu hari nanti.’ Semasa berucap di majlis tersebut, Dr Ng menekankan, walaupun Kementerian Pendidikan (MOE) sedang giat menjalankan proses pengambilan guru baru dalam masa sukar ini, mereka masih mengekalkan proses pemilihan yang ketat untuk memastikan hanya calon-calon yang mempunyai sikap yang betul, minat mendalam dan kebolehan akan dipilih.
Congrats, Fauzia, to have done so so so so well against all odds (and I know there were many!) You totally deserve it, dear, perhaps more than anyone else, for ALL your hard work, slogging, patience, tears etc etc etc… wahhhh you totally deserve it lah babe. Your parents and husband must be so proud of you, and I pun tumpang semangkuk jugak ler ye! 
So proud of you!
I’m proud to tell you that I used and will be using this article this whole week for my lessons and tell my students, “This is my friend!”
Let’s meet up soon and I will belanja you makan ok?
(ada occasion, makan; takde occasion pun- makan TETAP makannn!!!!)
Lamenting Thirty
As Ooyah will always exclaim these days: “OH ME, OH MY!!!”/ “OH MANGODDDD!!!!” (oh my god)
….has it been FOURTEEN days already since 2009?
Looks like I’m done with resolutions- didn’t make any- and don’t plan to ever again. Let’s just go with life on an ad hoc basis, yeah?
And I have been missing in action for so long because the evil work bug has hit me again, and it has hit me hard. I have been going home at 6 or 7pm everyday only to finish admin work (form teacher duties, departmental programmes, coordinating the school’s conversational Chinese/Malay programme, overseas trips et cetera, et cetera…). Which means lesson planning and marking are diverted to=> home sweet home, and then reverted back to school the next day.
I think I should change my job title to ‘admin executive’, and not so much ‘teacher’. It is a misnomer, and may I please have a 9 to 5 job? Please?
With all the work piled up (already???), I’m not even in the mood to celebrate my own birthday. I don’t feel like spending on myself, or being spent on, or going for feasts… it doesn’t help either that I move from ‘the late twenties’ to ‘the early thirties’.
Yes, I turn three-o today. How depressing.
Forseeing that I would feel this way, my best friend Geet suggested that we should go out and celebrate the last ever night I’d be in my twenties. I was actually hyped up about celebrating last night. I ended up finishing my work at 6.00pm, energy zapped out, nursing a reccuring cold and megawatt migraine, plonked myself into bed and slept until 10pm. But- by God- that was the most satisfying sleep I’ve had in days! How dandy is that?
And I actually feel different. Like I’m behaving the way thirty year-olds behave. Pshaw- I don’t know how to explain it, it just feels different. Being in the twenties certainly means and feels differently from thirties, right? Now the word ‘youth’ is totally out of my league- it is not applicable in any context at all now (other than my vocation of course). I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing, it could be good… it’s just a different feel. I’m sure those of you who have ‘crossed the bridge’ know what I mean. Sigh. See? I’m blabbering nonsense and repeating myself already. Is that substantial proof of old age setting in or what?
I remember feeling this way last year, one degree less depressed because then, I was feeling sad about it being the last year in my twenties. Now the inevitable has happened.
A glimmer of hope appeared in the form of a letter from ICA today. Yes. The passport people. I told my husband- this would be the best gift EVER- maybe they decided to be lenient (it’s my birthday whaaaatttt….) and lift the ban. I excitedly read the letter and whaddya know?
It’s a notification for me to make a new IC since they figured- 16 certainly looks different from THIRTY, correct?
Bummer. Thanks ICA, for playing YET ANOTHER nasty prank on me. 
………………………………….
I was asked by the husband what I want for a present this year, and like the last, I REALLY don’t know. Sure, I did take a look at fab bags and dazzling diamonds, but I just didn’t know what I want. Just- give me a little bit more time, okay, and I’ll decide eventually. 
Thank you to my dear friend Kakkin for the wonderful surprise at school today- the balloon certainly did attract some attention, and the cactus: they’ll be a reminder to me, to be resilient and formidable (so NO ONE can make me do anything against my will!) Thanks to Fauzia for the jewellery box- I will strive to fill it up and reward myself with jewels regularly! And thank you to my dearest Ibu for the beautiful natural pearl necklace,bracelet and earring set which I will never permit myself to buy- I truly treasure it and it will be an heirloom to be passed down to my daughter and her daughter and her daughter……… thank you all for the wonderful gifts. My thanks also go out to friends who actually remembered my birthday and bothered to wish me a happy birthday; I am truly touched!
So maybe I will feel a lot better about being thirty tomorrow. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Oh yes. More admin work I’m sure.
