a quiet week

Had a quiet week…

Mon was mahjong with JL and shufen, haven’t seen these two friends for awhile and we enjoyed a long session of mahjong at my place. We met for lunch before I brought them back to my place.

It’s hard to imagine, but despite the fact that my dad is a life long mahjong guru, I actually only learnt how to play a couple of years back at Boston… and JL was actually one of my mentors. Still remember one of the twins (still can’t tell which one) sitting by my side and teaching me how to form the sequences and what earns more points….Time flies and now JL has already graduated and those mahjong nights at the basement of Senior House are only fond memories…


Went back to school on Tuesday which was one of the worst days I had for awhile... luck and my own indecisiveness playing equal parts… I actually liked going back to school. Puts me in touch with reality, the two weeks marking and on course away from school has made me kinda off-centered… back at school and yelling at my kids over the phone for being irresponsible prats put me right back at home. (yea, sadistic I know). Spent the morning running around in between the cca and writing lesson plans with colleagues made me feel right back at home too… the adrenaline from juggling a few tasks at a go… but in the afternoon when everything settled down, my flu caught up with me again… was debating between going to the gym as I originally planned or meeting my graduating sec 4 kids for dinner… decided against the dinner as Lanhua didn’t want to go too (I passed my flu to her) and didn’t make it for the gym session either … went too late and the session was full… got so irritated with myself for my inability to make decisions… went for dinner and to top it off, I missed a stop on the mrt on the way home and took double the time I normally do… was so angry with myself. I can be such an idiot at times…

Wed and Thurs are better days….

My flu isn’t getting any better even though it’s been more than a week… and I haven’t got any real studying done for my looming gre. So I cancelled plans for gym, dancing and movies and stayed at home for the whole two days and did my maths practice test with an enormous box of tissue in front of me and an ever-growing pile of tissue… it rained for both days… providing a melodious background.

Actually enjoyed these two quiet days… feel my mind muscles loosening and settling back into place… Finally having time to relax… enjoy the maths practice too… its actually secondary level maths, and as I did them, I remember how I was actually very good at them back in sec sch and how I had fun solving all these problems… and being able to laugh at myself at times I get stuck at questions my sec. 1 kids would be able to solve…

Have to go back to sch tmr though… another day and yet another after…

Life isn’t all a bed of roses… but it isn’t a bed of thorns either…

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p.s. This is my 50th post and it’s a year since I created this journal…. I only updated 50 times a year…not a very good girl

Cranberry and Books

You know that Christmas is coming when you can smell the sweet scent of Body Shop's Cranberry shimmering lotion three stores down the nearest Body Shop... I remember the first time the Body Shop's Cranberry shimmering lotion was introduced, several christmases ago... P liked it because it reminded him of sweets and candies and I bought a bottle to use in Beijing... Orchard's lights are all lit up, gold this year... and one can almost hear the carols and weirdly for me, the upcoming cny songs. It’s interesting what memories scents and lights alight…

Tomorrow will hopefully be the last day of marking, and I'm half relieved and half sad... kinda like the sense of community and camaderiere we bulit up in our group of marking. Although the compre question I'm marking is one of the harder ones and therefore the slower ones, the laughter we shared and the ready help rendered by each of us makes everything somehow enjoyable. But I'm falling sick thou... so I guess it's a good thing that its finally coming to an end... just in time for the Wushu Judges course that will begin right after on thursday. Looking forward to that as well, we'll finally know how those judges give our kids their marks during the competition.

Despite the stress and backaches and headaches marking gives me... one thing its good for is that the timing is rigid and we cannot bring work home.

So, for the first time in ages.. (in this entire year?).. I find myself reading... read some of the classics which I bought and had been collecting dust on my bookshelf for ages and polished off some trash which I picked up as well..

Read Christopher Bram's Father of Frankenstein and Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day. Just started Bram Stoker's Dracula... I haven't read for so very long that I forgot what it was like to be unable to put a book down and the pure pleasure of letting good prose wash over you... the quiet you feel when you are immersed in the characters and plot and the contentment... I really should be studying for my gre but I tell myself reading these books are also preparation.

But all these books are so sad... and they reveal so many human flaws... which combined with the CSI I've been watching recently all put me in a slightly dark mood... so thank goodness for the cranberry scent in the air.... a cheering scent that reminds me of happy times...

Other happy events include meet up with friends... Met Lin for Notre Dame de Paris the sunday before, a incredible show that I'm watching for the second time. The first time was back in 2002 in Beijing with XP, and the second time round seems to be even better now that I understand the songs and story better and didn't have to switch between the subtitles and set. Glad that she liked the show as well... Also watched Seven Month Itch with Dr. Lin after a delicate dinner at Memoir...

Also caught the "All the Best" collection with my parents at the SAM last sunday... a thought provoking collection... the fairy tale series especially chilling... met my brother after for lunch to celebrate his birthday at this veggie place that he likes.

Met jx for dinner last night too... its always good to see him. Will be meeting Xiaogua tonight for her birthday... and scheduled dates with several other friends too... Another reason why I love the last months of the year... somehow we see alot more of our friends in these months...

rain and contemplation

sitting in the pacific coffee cafe, contemplating the rain outside... a plate of pink cake in front of me which is doubling up as my lunch and tea...

woke up early today to go to jazz, instead of groove/jazz because I like the choreo and it'll be the last time Sharon's doing it. Wanted to do aqua after, but the rain and thunder cancelled it. Still, managed to do a few laps around the pool and did my first pilates class in a long while before ending up at pacific coffee...

this is my favourite cafe for various reason...

1) comfy red sofas
2) books of various type that one can pick up anytime
3) free internet
4) yummy fruit smoothies they call chillinos
5) they play great music to chill to
6) its located right between the gym and the dance studio

all making it the perfect place to kill time when waiting for evening classes... and the free internet enables me to actually get to my mail on the days when I get home late consecutively and don't have time to check my mail...

just finished 5 days of marking... I actually like it... despite the fact that I suspected I killed alot of my brain cells the past weeks and I skipped 2 days of gym becoz I just wanted to go home and stone in front of the tv after it... but there's something about reading all these essays that students write... their thoughts scattered and sometimes so refreshingly candid.

haven't sat and watch rain for awhile... there's something hypnotic about it... watching streaks of rain fall in the green...

there's something about november... that makes me strangely sad and happy at the same time...

its also the month of birthdays :)

wishing all my friends whose birthdays fall on november a happy birthday! Especially to a dear friend and my darling little brother whose birthday fall on today itself :)

May you have many lovely memories on the brand new upcoming year and time to sit and watch the rain....