Can't go out for lunch now, cos I have another meeting at 1.30pm.

The only items that are worth eating in my school canteen are the nasi lemak (only on Thursdays), mee rebus, mee siam and chicken briyani.

This Friendster site is really something. Angie invited me to join, I invited Sehsuan to join, and Sehsuan, who's forever alert, pointed me to Tammie* who happens to be in both our Personal Networks (you can only see and message those people who are in your personal network; a network is made up of links which are formed when your friend knows this friend who knows this friend who knows this friend... you get what I mean).
Also found out that Aresha is in my Network too; I really need to know more people who are into drum 'n bass.

I'm able to type this now because I have no more lessons for the day. However, the downer is that there's a Staff Meeting at 2.30pm. Will go out of school for lunch with Shaun and Ken before the meeting then (have I mentioned that the food in my canteen sucks?).


* Blog entry on 17/03/2003

Only to find out that school has just put me down as 'O' Level Invigilator from 3 November to 2 December, grrrrrr.... so Mt Ophir is out. Good news is that the exam centre is St Hilda's Secondary School, a stone's throw away from home.

Just volunteered to accompany East District NCC cadets for the Mt Ophir Expedition on 12 to 15 November. It will be a good warm-up for the trek to Everest Base Camp.

Typing this in school now, during an NCC camp which will end tomorrow morning. Cycled to Tampines Central to buy the Katong nasi lemak and otak for breakfast, got one set for Johari too.
The IMAX theatre at GreatWorld City is screening Everest and we are bringing the cadets to watch it this afternoon. Looking forward to the movie, since I'll be going to Everest Base Camp during the year-end hols (provided SARS doesn't rear its ugly head).

What's on my wrist: Panerai on weave-pattern rubber strap.

Am thinking of watching Nowhere In Africa again so that I can get a pair of free passes to Twilight Samurai (screened during the Japanese Film Fest).

Watched Nowhere In Africa yesterday. It won the Best Foreign Film Oscar, and after seeing it, I know why. Extremely heart-warming and poignant, it tells the story of a well-to-do Jewish family who had to move to Africa to run a farm, so as to escape the Nazi oppression and WW2. Pity it's R(A), and only GV Marina is showing it. For buying a pair of tickets to this film, I also received a free pair of tickets to watch Dirty Pretty Things (starring the actress from Amelie) in October-- cool!

Finally, the perfect place to paste my Logo sticker. I should have thought of this sooner.


Here's 2 of my big watches:

Enquired about the Luminor Base at Sincere Watch (Ngee Ann City).

Had dinner at Dan Ryan's Chicago Grill. I decided that I prefer the taste of lambchops over steak.

I need to get a lock 'n chain for my Kona; it's necessary after all.

Went to Borders to take advantage of the 20% discount for teachers. Today was the last day out of 2 days. Saw Uncle Herman and the kids there. Found out from him that Cosmos by Carl Sagan was Britanny's required reading for her gifted programme, can you imagine that (she's in Sec. 1 by the way).
Used my discount to purchase 2 books for Uncle Herman-- one by Richard Dawkins and one by Stephen Jay Gould; hmmm, it would be great to discuss evolution and Science with him!
Me, I only bought a CD-- Verve Remixed 2. Used my discount to purchase a book by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's son about his father's life for Grace too.

Just finished this great book from the Science section of Orchard Library: 'Strangers in the Night' A Brief History of Life on Other Worlds - David E Fisher & Marshall Jon Fisher.
It charts the progress of humankind's search for life other than on Earth-- the voyages to Mars, study of the oceans of Europa (a moon of Jupiter), radio astronomy to detect messages from the far reaches of the universe, the studies of the formation of planets around stars... the whole account of how Man has tried to prove that life exists out there (not just intelligent beings but microbes) and the Science behind all these is simply mind-boggling.
Having watched the movie Contact and read the novel, this book is an even more meaningful read for me. I can imagine that writing Contact must have been a sort of catharsis for Carl Sagan, since radio astronomy has YET to receive any signal or broadcast from all those alien civilizations out there that are thought to exist.

The book ends with this poem which it says is known by almost everyone involved in the search for life 'out there':

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

- T.S. Eliot

Saturday, 6 September:

Went for Matthew's wedding at The Beaufort, Sentosa. Nice classy place. The menu agreed with me for once this time, meaning no mushrooms & broccoli, and the dessert was something I could take as well, meaning it wasn't inundated with mango slices or almond milk. Matt had his facial hair on during the photo-shoot, but was clean-shaven during the dinner.

Sunday, 7 September:

Left my home at 6.45am and did 2 laps of Coastal myself. On the lap home, caught up with a roadie who was slacking, and followed him all the way to Tampines.

Monday, 8 September:

Went to VJC for Intermediate Life Science Workshop, which would run from 9am - 1pm for 2 days. Our trainer, Dr Rosemary Tan, CEO of Genecet, seemed determined to cram us with as much info and hands-on as possible.
The hands-on that we did: bacterial cloning, selection plating for recombinant clones, restriction enzyme cutting, PCR. Quite good value for an 8-hr workshop.
Teacher that caught my eye: Ms Tey Li Shan from VJC, who looked babelicious and intelligent.
Watch that caught my eye: Jaeger Lecoultre World-Time (with 40-hr power reserve indicator) on the wrist of a gentleman who was probably from Genecet. He told me the next watch he is interested in is the Girard Perregaux Sea Hawk.

Wednesday, 10 September:



Went to Ubin for some off-road with Archer, Shaoxiang, Free-Agent (he's cute!), Mavic, Muttons (Jeremy). We kinda explored the trails all over the island (majority of the trails in the west led to dead-ends). Then it was back to the mainland where we took Coastal to ECP Mcdonalds for lunch. Will always remember the sight of Archer drafting a lorry in the middle of the road; he was fast, dammit, haha.
Got an sms from Krulenwar, so I met him and Nizz at Seng Chu Hin at 8.30pm for a ride along Coastal (again!). At the shop, I marvelled over a Norco Shore with Shiver fork and 3.0 inch tires. A guy there wore a t-shirt with these words behind:

--BOMB SQUAD--
IF YOU SEE ME RUNNING... YOU BETTER CATCH UP!

Later, Nizz told us he sold t-shirts with biking one-liners behind for Mass Swap. A particular one that I liked:

MY NUTS ARE TITANIUM

Haha.

Last friday was the shortest FENR in history. Route: Tiong Hin --> S-11 coffeeshop behind --> Home. Number of riders: 4.

Also went to Hotel Intercontinental to settle the booking for school's Annual Staff Dinner. The hotel's coffee lounge features a live harpist, can you beat that. Female harpist, instrument and music were all beautiful. Found out that the rate for hiring her is 700 dollars per 90 minutes. She plays there everyday after 3pm, go and check her out!

Sunday, 31 August:

Grace and Brenda got baptized today in BFEC. Grace's baptism verse is Matthew 6:33.

Luckily, August has 31 days instead of 30, or else 1 September (Teachers' Day) would have fallen on a Sunday and there would be no school holiday which would be like having National Day fall on a stupid Saturday this year (hence no real public holiday)... you know I what I mean.

Watched SWAT at Tampines Mall. EVSS students spotted this evening: Rahmad (302), Moon Ngoh (207), Zuhaila (206). Hearing the familiar theme song of SWAT brought back memories of my childhood, when I watched the TV series and kept singing the tune over and over again. Of course, back then, (I must have been younger than Primary 1) I didn't know SWAT stood for Special Weapons and Tactics; I was only fascinated with the SWAT vehicle and played SWAT with Augustine-- bang bang here bang bang there.