Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Chapter 239 - Of Shamrocks & Guinness II
It's now 2.5 weeks since I've gotten to Ireland and started on my Geology mapping project now and have pretty much settled into some sort of a daily routine.

I get up in the morning at 8.36am, after exactly 5 snoozes on my phone alarm (which starts ringing at 8am), have breakfast, which consists of a cup of coffee, cornflakes with sugar, and two slices of peanut butter-jelly toast. Then it's off to the fields at 9.30am, where we stay out till about 5pm (or supposed to, although as it has been, we've only stayed out till about 3-4pm, cos we've finished all we wanted to cover, which is about 0.5km^2 a day.) It's not the toughest job on earth, when the weather is good, although we quite often have to battle the elements - and not just the weather, it could be the horrible midges, knee-deep bogs, or shoulder-height grass (of course, subjective to whose shoulder you use... ;p)

In any case, it's all been fairly "smooth-sailing" thus far, since we got here. No mishaps yet, although I did lose my geological hammer in the field, sadly.

Have taken lots of pictures so far and also managed to crack my small digicam's LCD screen, while in the field. Some of the pictures taken to date:

One of the places we've been parking at, where we then head off to the fields.

It's quite lovely when the sun is out, although it's quite often cloudy and drizzling/raining (which explains the puddles)

The rocks that I see in the field. This must have been a phyllite outcrop. ;p

"Kenny's Den" - found when we went into someone's garden to look for rocks (you get some amazing outcrops in people's gardens sometimes...)

But sighz, it's another 3.5 weeks to go!

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Sunday, August 26, 2007
Chapter 238 - Of Shamrocks & Guinness I
Hurray, we've managed to get on this wireless network which the College of Saint Scholastica set up in this area, cos they apparently come here to stay for 18 weeks a year, and hence set up this wireless network. Good for us that it's on all year round, although on the down side, I have to carry my laptop and sit out in the cold in order to get proper reception from the wireless router.

It's been 2 weeks since I've gotten here, and I haven't actually written a proper post yet, so I thought I'd write about my travel from Cambridge to Ireland, which was yet another adventure in itself.

PS: Although I'm currently working on a "Extended, Never-Before-Read Version" while being offline, on my laptop. ;p

12 Aug 07 - ~16 hours after I've left Singapore

After a 12.5-hour plane ride, and 2.5-hour bus ride, I got back to the familiar sights of Churchill College. I suppose after spending some two years in this college, you can consider it my second home, in some sense. I drew the keys out for my trunk room, where all my barang-barang was stored, packed what I needed for the trip, which included my hard hat, hammer, compass, waterproofs (very important), boots, rice-cooker, printer (and more) and then set off to pick up Lydia & Vicky from the train station.

The car which I was driving... and will be owning... ;p

From the train station, we were supposed to make an epic 4.5-hour drive to Holyhead where we were supposed to catch the 1715 ferry to Dublin, pick up Rachel from the ferry terminal at Dublin and do another 4.5-hour drive to Louisburgh. Unfortunately, things aren’t always what we want it to be - there was a jam on the M6, which made us take an hour longer than we’d expected. This meant that we got to Holyhead around 5.25pm (driving at about 100mph, which is about 160kmh), 10 minutes after our supposed departure time.

The situation was a little less grim than we’d expected though, cos we managed to get put on the next ferry, which was at 2.40am, which meant that we didn’t have to find accommodation for the night. There was a little moment of panic though, when we realised none of us had Rachel’s number, so we couldn’t inform her that we were gonna be rather late. Thus went this flurry of phone calls, where we tried to obtain Rachel’s number, which we managed to get off Lydia’s friend’s friend, whom none of us knew.

Taking a break/breather after getting Rachel's number.

We then proceeded for a drive around Holyhead, which wasn’t all that exciting, considering it was a Sunday and most of the shops were closed. Dinner was takeaway from some fish & chips shop in Holyhead, which was eaten at some pier. After dinner, we headed back to the terminal, where I took a much-needed nap in the car (being horribly jet-lagged and tired from the plane and car journey), while Lydia & Vicky sat chatting in the café.

At midnight, Lydia & Vicky came back to the car, and tried to wake me up, although I was terribly confused and disorientated, and it took me a while to realize who it was who had come back. We then set off to check in and board the ferry, which was quite exciting as this was my first time driving a car up a vehicle ferry. The rest of the ferry trip wasn’t quite as exciting as we all crashed out on the sofa in the lounge area and slept through the journey only to be awakened when we arrived in Dublin.

Inside the vehicle ferry... which was huge... it's almost a cruise ship really...

At Dublin, we went to pick Rachel up, who had spent the night at Vicky’s aunt Kathy’s place, where we also had a quick breakfast, before setting off again for Louisburgh, which was another 4.5 hour drive – This has got to be the longest trip for me yet, again, beating my previous record of 30 hours.

12.5 hour flight,
2.5 hour bus journey,
6 hour drive to Holyhead, (inclusive of 1 hour jam)
8 hour wait,
3 hour ferry ride to Dublin,
5 hour drive to Louisburgh
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= 37 hours in total. Gosh. That’s almost 1.5 days worth of travelling
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When we finally find our way to Louisburgh, we found Christina, who had been waiting at the cottage. We unpacked the car, which was fully loaded with our gear, and then had lunch, and went grocery shopping in town. It was nice to be nice and settled for a little while. :)

My bed for the next 6 weeks (or 4 weeks from today!)

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Sunday, August 19, 2007
Chapter 237 - Ireland
After SOME delay, I'm finally on Ireland and have started on my mapping project. It's been terribly depressing thus far - the weather and everything else, but Kenny will be really happy to receive post! Post to Kenny can be mailed to:

Kenny Low
Cottage 8
Louisburgh Holiday Cottages
Bunowen
Louisburgh
County Mayo
Ireland (Republic of)

This address only works till 22 Sep, so give or take 10 days for mail to get me, I imagine anyone trying to send mail to this address should STOP using it after 10 Sep. After 10 Sep, mail should go to:

Kenny Low
Churchill College
Cambridge, CB3 0DS
United Kingdom

Also, my Irish SIM card number is (+353)857270650 - if anyone's interested to call that is.. hehe...

Till the next time I get internet access then....

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Sunday, August 12, 2007
Chapter 236 - Potato-land
I've made it back to Potato-land safe and soundly already.. The trip back this time was rather smooth (other than the guy sitting beside me who had smelly feet and decided to air it in the enclosed vicinity of the aircraft... although, after a while, i stopped noticing the smell, possibly because I got used to it, or because it stopped smelling so bad... but disgusting nonetheless..) and without delays, thankfully. So now, having loaded up the car with what I need for my project and checking that the car still runs smoothly, I'm taking a break in the computer room in college while waiting for my 2 accomplices to arrive...

In any case, it's kinda demoralising to know that I'm gonna be cut off from the rest of the world for the next 6 weeks or so - my morale is somewhat like the recent crashes in stock market... the only difference being that there's noone to pump $1.5 billion worth of money into me. :(

Many thanks to my friends who came to send me off...
Louis seemed to have much to say...

While Weining & Brigitte couldn't wait to get started on the cake...

Mixed feelings from my family?

And final shots before I left for the departure gates...
Friends...

And family (mostly... ;p)

In the meantime, in case anyone needs to contact me, I can be reached on my UK mobile (+44 7738416835). i wonder when will be the next time I'll get internet access.... Missing home/Singapore/everything already....

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Friday, August 10, 2007
Chapter 235 - 6 weeks
After 6 weeks of being back in Singapore, which consisted of 3.5 weeks of teaching @ Dunman, 1.3 camps (ITE College East + Chongfu Pri), 2 days of relief teaching, 5 days of seminar (DPPS), 6 movies (Transformers, Die Hard 4.0, Nancy Drew, Rush Hour 3, Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix), 2 plays (Dim Sum Dollies, Asian Boys: Happy Endings), National Day "preview" + NDP fireworks, countless dinners, suppers, meetings and catching up with friends, being all over Singapore (from Changi Airport to Sungei Buloh & Jalan Bahtera), it's time for me to say Good Bye to this beautiful island we call Home! (for this year at least). I'm not even ready to go, at all... so much more I want to do.

And all these were just the tangibles... I've had so much fun in these 6 weeks that I've been back for, many thanks to my family and friends, who have made my holiday more memorable. I've taken lots of photos and memories, that I imagine will be my "Chicken Soup for Kenny's Soul" for this coming year, especially in the next 6 weeks when I'll be trapped in this little village called Louisburgh in County Mayo, Ireland, where I'll be cut off from the rest of the world (i bet noone will notice for weeks, if we were to get abducted by aliens... boohooo...)

In any case, quite a lot more things to write about since my last post!

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Mummy's Birthday Celebrations - 4 Aug 07
Last Sat, we also went to celebrate my mum's birthday, albeit more than a week early (her birthday is on 14 Aug), otherwise I will be in Ulu-land Ireland already... We had yummy seafood @ Jumbo..... *drools*

The yummy seafood...

Family photo... No need to introduce lah.. I only have one sister who's attached, so you figure out yourself... ;p

Happy Birthday Mummy! wah... 7 candles leh.... ;p It was a Durian Chocolate Cake from Chocabloc
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And then, I apparently had dinner with some students... delicious laksa from Aloysius' dad's stall @ Kovan (beside Heartland Mall), which in itself is another ulu-land, or as my sister will say, a "bird-don't-lay-egg place" (translate to chinese yourself). This was followed by pool @ Selegie and Rochor Tau Huay...

i'd like to think that I camouflage quite well....

Winnie the Pool! Pooh!
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And then it was a mini house-warming potluck @ Juansa's house with the peeps teaching @ Dunman. Will miss all the nonsense we talk about in the staff room man... haha... ;p


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National Day Parade 2007 - 9 Aug 07
The flag happened to be flying through when I was walking along the Padang.

Throngs of people all over the place, even on the steps of City Hall....

Most of the people were there for the fireworks though, with numerous families having a nice picnic. I was at some grass patch, on the opposite side of the bay from where the parade was held....



Unfortunately, the shots aren't that great, cos my compact camera is not powderful enough... But I'm collecting my D100 later.. muahaha... so next time I should be able to get fairly decent shots... woohoo!

Also, while I was squeezing my way to Marina Square after the fireworks to catch Rush Hour 3, going against the flow of humans, some guy made a real stupid comment when he was going into the MRT station - he said, "aiyo, dunno which side got air-con", while stopping in the middle of nowhere with hordes of sticky sweaty bodies jostling by...

Ok, meanwhile, I'm supposed to start packing my bag soon, so maybe I shall get started on that now..... :(

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Monday, August 06, 2007
Chapter 234 - Bedtime Post
A quick bedtime post! Just played two hours worth of tennis - my first session in about 2 years... so shiok, although abit rusty liaoz... and I'm quite sure I'm gonna wake up to aching arms and legs tomorrow morning... :( Was playing with Hejia, Chaik, Jack & Angela (the latter 2 whom i've just met).

After tennis, (and downing about 2 litres of water, cos for some reason tennis causes extreme dehydration), we went for dinner together with Hejia's sister and Jack&Angela's two kids (daughters, age 1.5 & 4). Dinner was so amusing just watching the kids, either just amusing themselves with the chopsticks or just their blabbering - they were simply adorable, especially when the elder one (sorry but i forgot to ask their names.. haha) wanted to eat the "colourful" agar agar.

Side note: This is what is known as "Experiential Learning" to the Ministries. It's interesting cos today at our seminar, we were just discussing how we can boost fertility rates in Singapore, when to be honest, I don't see a big problem. Most people I know want to have 2 or more kids anyway, so long as they get married that is... ;p And of course, amusing to know some people's awakening comes rather late, as Klement remarked earlier, "Wah, one day I woke up and it hit me - why don't I have a girlfriend?!?!" At least he's come to realise that.

For now, it's bedtime. I think I'm allergic to people and air conditioning. Cos everytime I put those two together, i tend to fall ill, as the impending flu/cold bug seems to be acting up now... Vitamin C overdose!
Posted by yellowlemonie at 4:36 PM | 0 comments
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Chapter 233 - Singapore is....
Q: Singapore has a ______________ system of government.

a. Parliamentary
b. Presidential
c. Autocratic


This was one of the questions posted to us during one of the sessions during the seminar I'm attending. Try guessing is answer... haha...

Q: Who is the Head of State of Singapore?

a. Prime Minister
b. President
c. Deputy Prime Minister


The answer for this is "none of the above"... haha...

Anyway, the seminar has been incredulously boring. It seems like the people coming down to give the lectures/talks also know we're all not at the seminar voluntarily, and also cannot be too bothered, which makes me wonder why the hell it supposedly costs $2500 per person for the whole 5 days - that's $500 a day! Granted that the buffet spread during the 2 tea breaks and lunch are pretty good, but that still doesn't quite account for the $500 each day some how..... Maybe it's just a clever way of transferring money around the Ministries... Can't they just give me the money and i'll promise to read all the reading materials? :)

In any case, there are still 3 more days of the seminar left. So sad... and it ends at 6pm on the eve of National Day! i'll miss all the National Day celebrations in school!!! ;p
Posted by yellowlemonie at 4:51 PM | 2 comments
Chapter 233 - Teaching @ Dunman Sec
My very short attachment @ Dunman has ended in a flash, including an additional 2 days of relief teaching afterwards. And apparently, I need to exercise discretion writing this blog, ie. cannot bitch too much about the students especially, cos some of them/you are reading this. *evil grinz* so I guess you'll just have to read between the lines... ;p

[edit] Just for the record, we weren't technically paid to do our attachment... but of course, we were still receiving our allowance lah, so cannot complain... ;p [/edit]

Racial Harmony Day Celebrations - 23 Jul 07
As part of the Racial Harmony Day Celebrations, all the teachers and students were encouraged to dress up in ethnic attire (although the teachers were forced to more strongly encouraged to dress up than the students...)
Fitting 8 faces into the picture while holding the camera at arm's length proved to be a challenge indeed....

In case you were wondering what Wei Bin and I were doing at the side - No, we weren't trying to re-create a Bollywood scene, much as it may seem like it.. ;p We were trying to run away from the picture, BECAUSE..... (the rest you figure out yourself... it was something to do with someone who was trying to get a picture with SOMEONE else...). And in case you're very bored, and stare closely at the picture, you realise that there's actually an extra leg in the picture! (*gasp* - belonging to none other than Kim Yong...)

And then finally, because Miss Luar Phey Phey wasn't there when we took the pictures, so we had to photoshop her into the photo... Almost died laughing the first time I saw it...

The "BEFORE" shot
The finger shot once more! (referenced to this post)

The "MAGIC" shot
Shot in the staff room

The "AFTER" shot
hahaha... so funny... somemore Phey Phey's expression so bemused....

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Sec 5C, 2007
Over the course of my attachment, I went to quite a few classes - of which the regular ones I followed were 4B, 4E/F, 5B and 5C, which I now realise none (hopefully) will still be around when I return next year... The MOSTLY wonderful bunch of students...

Before I left, I made sure to take a class photo, which somehow I only managed to do for one class... Interestingly, I found the 2 Sec 5 classes more enjoyable to teach and more fun to interact with...
The Class of 5C, 2007...

And sadly, I wasn't around the day they took their school class photos too... otherwise, i'd also have caught the HOT "girls"....
so much fun!

Sighz. Once again I'm counting down the number of days till I leave... Did 5 weeks just go by just like that? I'm left with 7 days now, and there's still so much I wanna do here... It's like being sentenced to death, and knowing you only have 7 days left... Of course you're gonna tell me that I'll be back in a year, but a year just seems so far away right now... :(

PS: my flight is SQ322, 2320hrs, 11 Aug... although i think i'll be at the airport from 7pm onwards for dinner....

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Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Chapter 232 - Campers Oi!
Wah, Channel U actually has some decent shows. A couple of weeks back, I wrote about this Internship Challenge and this time it's U-turn - a programme about once delinquents who have changed for the better. As an educator, it's an issue close to my heart, and also because I know of people who have gone through similar experiences.

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Lame Joke: Did you know that beatboxing was invented by Qin2 Shi3 Wang2? (have to explain this in person... ;p)

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Leadership Camp - ITE College East - 27-29 Jul 07

my first camp in TWO whole years. rusty liaoz wor. haha. Somemore the last few camps I did 2 years ago was as AIC/Runner and not as instructor. But all went well in the end. Interestingly, my group chose the name "Victorians" (since it was a leadership camp) - which reminds me that I should go visit VJ sometime soon, except i really dunno when I have the time to, sadly.... :(

In any case, it was an awesome and enjoyable camp
Station Games - Zig Zag - Not very helpful when it rained on us one the first day....

At the end of Day 2, which incidentally was one of my group member, Jing Wen's birthday, so we all got to eat some yummy chocolate cake from Bengawan Solo... And also sing Happy Birthday in 4 different languages (we CMI for the tamil version, so had to "la" along instead... ;p)

Final shot before we left the campsite and make the very long journey back to the school, during which about a million lame jokes were cracked.

Then just when I taught I was done for the year (hur hur), Ridhuan called me at 8pm that very night we ended the camp and asked if I could do a camp the next morning.... Me being the nice Kenny that I am, said I would do the first day of the camp, which on hind sight was a decision not to regret, cos I forgot how enjoyable primary school camps can be (that is if we don't take into account ALL the rascals running around and misbehaving...)
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"Camp Inspired" - Chongfu Primary - 30 Jul - 1 Aug 07

The reason why I couldn't do this camp for all 3d2n was because I promised to go back to do relief teaching in Dunman for the 2nd and 3rd day of the camp - although 1 day is already really tiring, cos most of the time was spent doing crowd control. The hardest bit was when we were doing the bloody high elements. While I was belaying my group members, I had to watch out for my belay team ("OI, put on the helmet properly!" ; "Spotter put your hands up!") and making sure my group was behaving ("Stop playing with the pebbles or I'll make you count every single one of them!"; "Move away from me!") Yes, it was incredibly draining.

[edit] Also, I realised how old i was when I was doing the camp. The kids were only 11 years old, and I was TWICE their age PLUS ONE somemore..... haiz haiz haiz... depressing hor... [/edit]

Then when I said I was gonna leave at the end of the first day, they were so sweet - "Instructor, why are you going off?" ; "huh, instructor Kenny, you're not coming back?". So even though another instructor was gonna take over for Day 2, I decided to go back for the campfire. I haven't said this yet, but the campsite is at Jalan Bahtera, which for your info is right is DAMN ULU - it's at the end of Lim Chu Kang, opposite the Serimbun Scouts Camp. If I took a cab from the campsite home, it'd cost me about $25. (!!)

It was so nice to be back and see all the cheerful and happy faces of my group members... And so proud of their campfire item (which I wasn't involved in the putting together, cos i wasn't around.. muahaha). They also tried to sabo me lor... When Ridhuan asked for instructors who can dance/shake their butts/body v well, they started chanting my name, without me initiating... Lucky two other instructors already got voluteered by Ridhuan.

(from L to R, front row) Wan Xin, Jean, Shermaine, Alina, Elene, Zi Wei (back row) Derrick, Yuan Hao, Ryan, Handsome! (the one in red..) This is not my full group in case you're wondering, cos some of them went off to bed already...

I also didn't mention that my group name for this camp was "Team Flying Kenny". While trying to come up with a name, which I gave numerous suggestions, they decided that they wanted my name... so cute... Not that we got to use the name v much though.. haha. And then when we were playing Icebreakers, which I played "Ouch, orh-bee-orh-bee" with them, they also sabo me by calling the person beside me many times, so much so that I have a big blue-black on my thigh now... (yes, primary school kids can be vicious...)

Finally, my mirror/partner group - with Instructor Rui Long.... :)

Haiz, so sad. Post-camp depression!

Stay tuned for the next post on my relief teaching/school attachment @ Dunman Sec!

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