Saturday, January 14, 2006

Went back to beloved Hwachu yesterday(: the songs always give me goosebumps. sigh, i <3 Hwachu. pity i missed the fire display and glam fac heads cos I almost cancelled going in favour of watching Lovers in Paris :x heh, i know,iknow, it's pretty pathetic right? haha, but whatever la. it's my first korean drama!(: omg, they are SO addictive. much better than whatever ch8 spews. went to makan at adams after the campfire! and felt slightly better cos i just read a new study proclaiming that it's not how late you eat, but WHAT you eat that matters. Uhh, i'm still trying to figure how much of that was a breakthrough :x

Anyway, in other updates: my teaching job is....uh kinda fun. I mean i'm not hollering in ecstasy or anything, but yeah, it's fine. The students can get a little rowdy at times. Case in point: I was relief teaching with Mrs C during home ec and both of us were in chare of 2 normal sec 3 classes put in the same room. the guys simply were not in the least bit interested in completing a complex mindmap on Veggies (no kiddingman) so they were basically making alot of noise and playing online games when they should have been researching on the methods of cooking,storage and nutritional value of Vegetables. I sorta understand the reluctance of 15 yr old gangster-types being repulsed by such topics. ("cher!!!zhu se mo zhu?!?!dunno larrr.you so clever you help me do everything lahhh" To which i actually burst out laughing, which, on hindsight might be just slightly inappropriate given that Mrs C was fuming just behind me:x) But these guys do have a sweet side. Was travelling on the bus in the morning when i saw Leo (one of the aforementioned anti-veggie guys) swaggering up the bus. Then i saw that he was holding his little brother's (pri3?) hand on the moving bus, and sort of shoving him into the inner seat so he won't fall onto the aisle. The coarse affection really brought an all round aww feeling, which was definitely a nice respite from the usual gar-i-want-to-strangle-you-so-shut-up thoughts.

Am now online trying to look for interesting geogy pictures, and am complating whether to show them Han's geog porn collection, which is really amusing. But am worried about whether the content is too explicit. Um, actually it's nothing much la, just a couple of phallic looking landforms and provocative patches of grass. yeah, you get my drift. otherwise i guess i'll just have to settle for scenic looking farms. (We're on Arable Land now:))

ok, off to look for PG geog pics now...

New musical find: Arcade Fire:)))

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Last night's countdown at Esplanade was possibly the saddest countdown I've ever attended. But in a good way, haha. It was beyond crowded and everyone was quite literally pasted to each other. eeks. Did not even manage the traditional 54321 countdown since we were too far away from the main action to hear the countdown, so by the time we realised it was time, well, it was past time.:X oh well, but the fireworks were amazing-10 glorious minutes, albeit hampered by badly positioned trees. Arrr, could only catch glimpses of the pyrotechnics through the leaves, which might sound vaguely poetic now, but, trust me, is immensely frustrating. gar.

But met nice new ppl!I think their names were Wesley and April. Sher and Qing's collegues from Hellish Hanabi (alliteration!heh). Had fun lounging in Hagan Dazz at 12.30 am.(:

2005 has been an intense year, and I'm glad it's over. Hope 2006 turns out great(: Good luck to all of us. Show me the moneyy!!! I'm sure I'll have lots to blog about later on when my pupils (who might very well be older than I am-!!!) start giving me brain aneurysms and heart burn. gar. Plus all the begging for money from various Orgs. gar. BUT! Our True Warrior (haha, I'm never gonna hear the end of this, but gimme a break, I was 13 and into Tamara Pierce:p) will remain optimistic and doggedly persistent. Pugnacity is puggalicious. ok, ok, enough with the canine allusions.

I guess what I want to say is Happy New Year Everyone!
The club that became St. Catherine's Society took its name from its original meeting place, St Catharine's Hall, a house in Broad Street now forming part of Hertford College. However the connection with the saint is is appropriate for a college founded on an ethos of high academic standards combined with a doggedly independent streak.

Catherine was one of many women carried off from Alexandria by the Emperor Maxentius in 305. Maxentius brought fifty philosophers to convince her that her belief in Christianity was foolish but Catherine had studied in depth, and although aged only eighteen, confounded the arguments of the philosophers and ended up converting them. Maxentius had the philosophers put to death and Catherine imprisoned. However, when the Emperor's wife was also converted after visiting Catherine in prison, the Emperor decided that she had to die. A wheel set with razors was constructed and Catherine was tied to its rim, but instead of cutting her to pieces, the wheel broke and some of its splinters and razors injured the onlookers. Finally Catherine was beheaded.

The College celebrates its patron saint each year with a special Catz Night dinner, attended by junior and senior members of the College, at the end of which a giant Catherine wheel is lit in the quad.

Oh boy.