a kindergarten teacher

A walk in Pasir Ris Mangrove

2009-09-27T20:43:00.002+08:00

took a short walk in pasir ris park's mangrove trail this evening with mom and dad.
am reminded that my parents grew up in the kampong and know much about nature.

dad says the young leaves of this plant can be grounded and applied to wounds to stop bleeding, yet to find out the name of this plant, if anyone knows, pls tell me!

berries, a favourite food of hill pigeons

the holes in the ground you see here are homes of the Episesarma crabs

lots of Episesarma crabs are found in the Pasir Ris mangrove, dad says they used to put these crabs into salt water and eat them as snacks

we ended the day having dinner at Loyang Point, chicken rice at Mom and Dad's favourite stall!

the beauty of a dancer - he is strong, yet soft

2009-09-24T22:30:00.002+08:00

attended pilates class today by jacek, he's a good teacher especially cos he understands exactly what male dancers need to develop and work on in order to strengthen himself.

class at nanyang kindergarten is a little chaotic today, because we are preparing the kids for a performance for their trinity certificates. but it'll be worth it cos we can see them learning how to work together.

morning class was by janek. last exercise was a faili assemble, which ended with a double tour. i was following behind as usual, but i could feel myself getting more stable in jumps. did only single tours, but they were well finished. in the end, janek gave me a praise for that - good for a time of pushing through the plateau!

anaheim ballet videos are back!

2009-08-24T22:00:00.002+08:00

am so happy! guys check the latest clips by anaheim ballet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8IkDoD7nAI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df7LTuUbwak

anaheim is back! anaheim is back! ring the bells! sound the announcement!!

woohoo!

heh

departures

2009-07-01T14:26:00.003+08:00

watched "departures" in the morning and found it a rather beautiful film. the story is about a cellist who lost his job after his orchestra was dissolved, and he decides to go back to his hometown with his wife to start afresh. he responded to a job in the classifieds titled "departures", thinking it is a travel agency, only to discover it has misprinted "departed" and the ad is looking for professionals to prepare the bodies of deceased for burial.

though death is not a welcoming topic for most of us, this film made it thought provoking for the viewer to ponder about life and death. we all have to face death at a certain point of time, but people who have gone through near death experiences would tell you that life is particularly meaningful when you have loved ones to cherish.

the movie demonstrated the professionalism of the encoffiners, the unsung heroes who are also known as the gentle gatekeepers between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed.

being an artist, the fact that the movie involved a musician ties close to me. some experiences in life may not seem related directly to what we wish to do, but because art is a reflection of life, every experience in this journey allows us to mature in our thoughts and thus our creations. the lead actor found more meaning in playing his cello after going through the pain and feeling of loss with the family of the departed. in this case, he had found meaning to play to his boss and collegue at work, who have turned to become his close friends. with every experience comes an opportunity to grow and change. will seize every opportunity to learn as much as life can give.

2 more days

2009-06-30T22:03:00.004+08:00

almost done with this confinement.

i've already made a mental list on what to work on once back to class. reading ballet texts doesn't really help to alleviate the wanting to dance. but at least it helps me to tell myself i'm still doing my homework. finally managed to clean up my room after a few months of late nights. will try to keep it that way as much as possible.

reina msged sometime in the afternoon after hearing i'm sick. kind of her, thanks reina. and v brought me some lunch at 3. sweet of her. the day went by with typing maniac and vids of mj. found a couple of good ones today, here they are:

he puts lots of soul into every performance, which is admirable from the points of both audiences and his fellow performers. take a look at the seond vid, there's a part where his backup singer walked over to him to help him up. i jus wonder just how much his knees could take with him crashing them to the floor like that constantly. but then again, every performer has their injury to tell, especially dancers.

here's a couple of dance pics, miss class!

stuck at home

2009-06-28T15:15:00.003+08:00

stuck at home the whole day cos of my fever, can't go for class, my body is itching from head to toe already. thanks jesper for sharing the vids to keep me occupied and the music as well; max i think you wanted to talk to me but when i msg you back you're busy already, drop me a msg yea; v thanks for your msgs i hope you are having a good class.

reservist during the last week was a good catch up time with buddies from sispec and hqncc. it's amazing how people recognize each other's faces even though we may have been from different platoons previously. and most of those whom i've never met before are very friendly people, which turns out we all made lots of new friends during this in-camp training. sorry but no photos to share cos military camps don't allow camera phones in. anyways we only had one day of out field training. which is lucky so we didn't hav too many dirty laundry to wash when we got back home.

the outfield training was section movement where we had to bring 6 other guys walking around the forest of lorong asrama to practice our formations, and how we move from bound to bound to attack the enemy if we encounter any during patrolling. some of us were equip with smoke grenades and some with thunder flashes (to simulate grenades, they're really loud explosives) during the training.

this one week of training built quite a good camaradie among everyone of us, though most of them were from the same unit previously apart from me, i learnt a lot from how they work together and how they manage to get tasks done efficiently. one week of training is definitely more than enough already and im glad to be back to civilisation, where my daily encounter involves tendus and plies.

here's a vid for this weekend:

tribute to micheal jackson

2009-06-27T15:41:00.004+08:00

Was in camp for ICT over the last week and got the news of micheal jackson's passing on through a platoon mate of mine. His mom called him just to tell him that mikey has died. lots of his fans must be damn sad right now. we remember mikey for his smooth moonwalks, which he seems be gliding around as if he's on butter. some of his other iconic dance moves are still well recalled by people today.

here's a vid of smooth criminal, the first mj vid ive ever watched, thanks to wei han and max, my best buds in sec sch till now. enjoy

catch the famous lean on 7:17!

RIP Mike, from Singapore.

keep on track

2009-06-09T21:02:00.002+08:00

Taught at siang kuang and kim keat today. these two schools are my darlings cos it seems easier to teach them new things. it could be the environment, and probably helps because these two places are well air conditioned, makes it easier stay focused!

something happened yesterday which made me feel down. told myself we gotta move on and make things right first. howie, stay on track, somethings may not work out now, but it doesn't mean they will never work. timing is important, and what is more important now is to stabilize the journey. need to work hard to lay a good path. need more energy!

i wanted to say

we thought it would be easy

what was about friendship

had already entangled you and i

i hope it gets better soon

we miss the interesting parts of our times

shared between you and i

some photos from today

2009-06-07T21:17:00.002+08:00

thoughts

2009-06-07T20:34:00.002+08:00

don't walk behind me,

i may not lead;

don't walk in front of me,

i may not follow;

walk beside me and be my friend

-albert camus

realised there's still so much more to learn and so little time on this earth. no i'm not asking for more time, definitely not those who would ask for more than 24hrs in a day. time waits for no one, whether you are sitting down for a drink or on the move running errands on a busy day.

do dancers need brains? yes, definitely. we are artists who make use of our body as the instrument of expression. whilst good training is important, a thinking dancer will be one who knows his or her basic principals well and able to adapt well to the demands of any teachers or choreographer who comes along. good training is important to ensure a dancer has the right information given to his or her mind, and embeded well into his or her muscle memory.

friends who are reading this post, please feel free to leave a comment if you agree or disagree to the above. no one is always right, it's a matter of whether a method being given to a dancer works for him or her or not :) so please leave a comment or tag!

ps, next time you feel like you are tired and don't want to take class or if you feel dicourage cos of an injury, pls take a look at this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLVRQCjh8c

and ask, if they can do it, why can't i?

this method of motivation works for me, i hope it works for you too! :)

mom's bday celebration

2009-06-06T21:39:00.004+08:00

mom explains lots of things to bro everytime we eat, haha

hip hip horray for mom as this coming monday will be her bday :) celebrated it at fish and co. this evening with mom, dad, bro, sis n would be bro-in-law. dad craves for the mussles but cos of his operation he can't have it, promised to come back the next time round once he recovers!!!

sis and bro-in-law arrived slightly later than us but we've placed the order before their arrival. then we realised that there's a 10% discount for the birthday person but we have to show them her ic. mom didn't bring it, so bro in law and sis went to get it so nice of them. mom got a free ice cream too, haha. bought a cake at bengawan solo, a cheese cake with fresh strawberries on top (see pic).

it's cool to celebrate bdays at fish and co. cos they always have a birthday rap. mom got a colorful spiky cap and sparkler to go with her cake. cool! we ordered sambal fish, bro had smoked salmon and dad had fish and chips. sis and bro in law had a seafood platter for two!

we thought we would enjoy lots of cake today but as mom passed the cakes around on the plates, she suddenly noticed there were pieces of broken glass on the plates. then we realised it was on almost all the plates which have the cake slice on it. DANGEROUS! initially the manager just apologised and took the plates away, but we got really concerned with the level of service they showed in handling this situation. she hardly asked if anyone was injured or if anything needs to be replaced. so we had to call her back to our table. i just told her it was really a dangerous situation and if we didnt spot the broken glass pieces on time, someone could have been injured. my words must have made her feel bad cos immediately she asked what she can do to make us feel better. at first we jus said we didn't require anything, just want them to know how serious the whole thing is. at least she understood wat we said, and she really looked apologetic. she came back to our table with a bday discount and n gave a further discount as an apology.

f&b people really go through lots of stress because they have to make sure the food gets served on time and up to standard. if anything goes wrong it's really tough for them, at least me and mom knows cos we've been in that position! haha

well, we still had half of the cake left, and the cheesecake was real delicious! hope dad enjoys it too, cos his op seems to have affected a little of his appetite these few days. he said it tasted good, whew! and mom commented the strawberry is v fresh. yay!

cudos to bro and sis for organizing today's dinner. sis is getting married real soon, they're settling the restaurant things now, we heard from them. bro in law really knows how to keng in army, haha, he gotta teach me a few tricks someday! haha. hey im hardworking one ok. bro left slightly before the rest of us cos he's going to a chalet tonight w his classmates.

hope mom n dad enjoyed today's celebration as did the rest of us. love my family!

sparklers for the bday rap!

happy bday mom

mom and dad looks good here agree? :)

mayo street

2009-06-05T21:22:00.004+08:00

gotta clear my nose tonight or i'll die of a blocked nose while sleeping. gosh, everyone's getting runny nose at the centre we were teaching at today. ezzam has been ill for the last 3 days, me and jc covered for him today. ezzam's way of discipline for the kids really works effectively.

we used two different types of jack in the box for teaching this week, one is the original jack, and the other is this cow in the box which is really cute. love the look of anticipation in the kids when we played the music on the box. they jus huddle together to brace for jack or cow to jump out. kids are cute :)

asked william abt hkapa today, he said they do support dancers to go there and have lots of sponsors to support the school. definitely better than what singapore has to offer at this point of time. the only way now is to work hard to earn a right for a scholarship next year. nobody would know what may come but in dance you'll never know until you've tried it out. it's a two year diploma course, 5 years for degree, but i doubt i'll take the degree, still want a danceable bod after graduation! oh well, that's still a while to come. cannot wait for things to happen, gotta set goals to achieve what we wanna achieve :)

hung out with vivien, reina, bryan, yee hui and amelia after their classes yesterday. i like the restaurant we went to, eighteen chefs, a restaurant run but ex convicts. makes it really meaningful to hav a meal there. vien got herself a companion for her hamster. they're fighting for now, but that's their nature, hamsters are solitary animals. but in time to come they should be able to live together, it'll take a bit of effort on the owner, go vivien!

pet food delivery!

small animals! the vivien and yeehui hamsters

good class

2009-05-31T21:16:00.002+08:00

cookies baked by jesper and sweetie (she's the little girl from a cambodian family who rented the room at jesper's place). jesper made it for me n some of his friends, saying he wanted to share some happy time with the little 3 year old.

good class today. morning class was conducted by ms koh, she's an advanced student under ms ong and studying physiotherapy now. good class though she's just reliefing ms wee. cai and i hav slightly different ways of working in terms of turns, i realise he doesn't like to do it with syllabus music while i felt that i like it cos it's quite easy to follow the rythm n get a suspended 2 or 3 rounds. haha, i still hav to use music to help me turn. but this will most prob change as we get more experienced in dance. for now, kindly be patient with us new students :)

had lunch at ps foodcourt before heading down to mos to accompany cai to revise. hope i wasn't too distracting to him cos we have the tendency to talk abt dance everytime we sit down for a drink. he had to study for his 'o's chinese which is tomorrow, as would my friends who are sec four or five this year would be taking too - jiayou you guys!

headed back to ms ong's class at 415. lots of grand jete and jumps today. jus what we needed. tried some jumps on our own after class. tours, sau de basque, cabrioles and some others we yet to know the name. jus experimenting on our part, that's how we found the way to do steps which were difficult to us even when we were real fresh to ballet.

a video to share: here's don quixote by daniil simkin and miki hamanaka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojll9w1rGW8

no time for panic

2009-05-30T22:11:00.004+08:00

this week was a quick week,

two days of work, solo teaching at 4 centres, and driving mom to the stalls the rest of the days.

just because dad's not around doesn't mean u panic in bad times.

day 1 of helping, i had a minor accident with my dad's vehicle. i bumped into the side of someone's car as i was turning out of the carpark. at first we didn't know what to do, mom and i thought we were honest and apologised to the car driver. at first he said it was ok, then called to ask for about 1000 dollars to repair his car. which didn't make sense cos wat we witness was only a minor dent on his car frame above the right car wheel, and he was claiming for his wheel damages, and also damage to his car door. it's a good thing dad was done w his operation and told us not to pay anything and leave it to the insurance to investigate the damages.

bukit batok area, where i drove my mom to on wed morning

Lesson learnt: always familiarise urself with accident procedures when driving. an accident is two parties at fault, do not admit liability and promise anything on the scene. take photos if necessary and leave to investigations. this is to prevent the other party from taking advantage of the situation.

watched dance subaru with reina, bryan, yeehui, and vien on friday. good show, though it's quite obvious where they cut and had a body double for subaru. but some of the things they said made sense. i love the part when young subaru and her brother kazuma were holding hands and dancing to the pas de quatre portion of swan lake. ballet can be enjoyed by anyone, young or old :)

thanks to vien for organizing this trip and making the outing possible, we can balance well! OO. thanks to r&b for bringing the laughter at pastamania, and yh for being the bubbly one in the group :)

topman

2009-05-23T23:17:00.005+08:00

went to cheng ballet in the morning to ask about class, watched the class which was going on, taught by ya ling. hsien fa came into the studio a little after, with their little one, leo. leo's really cute, can imagine he'll be real princey when he grows up.

had class at sba thereafter. me and cai learnt the guys enchainment for grand jete today. it's real fun. intermediate is turning out to be so much fun after all. the music is quite good too, currently 2nd fav after the tour en l'air music, in this syllabus. me and cai agreed that the enchainment might be a little tiring but fun.

met v and weiting after that n went to bugis street for a while. got some badges for my bag. got a shirt from top man that looks real like snoopy's friend charlie in peanuts. here's the pic.

k i tried to look as natural as possible, the pose was jus to make the picture more life-like as opposed to jus standing flat. overall a good day.

two persons, two trips,

different destinations,

same arrival time

happy birthdays to birthday people

2009-05-22T23:24:00.004+08:00

happy birthday to cai and yee hui.

it's such a coincidence that their bdays fall on the same day.

taught at amk w jay today. taught the kids abt movement and gave them an idea of the basic positions of the feet in ballet. i realise they responded well when i began it with "turn in! turn out! turn in! turn out!" they had lots of fun opening and closing their feet and laughed as they followed the instructions. it also helped to introduce the most fundamental to kids who never knew what ballet was before attending speech and drama. gosh, why didn't we have this when we were 4? hahahah.

was at jc's with kamal and jay before class. we heard a screech of tyres downstairs and a crash. when we looked down, it was a taxi who has veered off the road and hit a lamppost. kamal and i (jay had left earlier) agreed that the driver mus hav either be drunk or something was wrong with his brakes.

there were at least 2 passengers in the car, one caucasian another asian. no one seem hurt, but when we walked past on our way to the school, the side of the taxi was badly damaged.

joined vien, reina, bryan, and yeehui at harbour front after class. they had so much fun at sentosa as seen from their photos, see vien's blog for more on this :) had a meal at the foodcourt and then suprised yeehui thereafter with brownies from secret recipe. gave her her present, which is an award for "bullsh*t artist" haha, selected by the four of us. heard some music jus behind us on the stage. "white horse" by taylor swift. felt like dancing.

happy bday yh!

close friends give meaning to ur life when u think that u are at ur lowest

long day

2009-04-24T20:45:00.003+08:00

this morning's class was conducted by mohd noor. find myself getting more stable in my balances, especially when i'm warming up before class. starting to understand why books on ballet always say developing a calm centre is essential to improve ur overall technique. it has definitely helped in my turns and some jumps in petit allegro.

am increasing the speed at which i can catch the petit allegro freework steps, since it needs to be execute quickly, at the same time, with precision. each time it gets easier cos i learnt to let go where i need to. i was amazed at how chenning and vien were able to steps like mazurka so naturally, they've learnt since young, which proves the amount of work i still require to put my effort into if i wanna catch up with them. solid fuel ready, burn!

headed off to cherry hearts kids cottage at tanjong katong after class. today is the first day i'll be teaching alone. good thing is, i survived it! haha, but i OT a little bit on the second class cos we had an additional bag of materials to be taught to them today. the first class was a nursery group, which was rather quiet, but teacher roushna was helpful to keep the kids focused as she sat in the front of the classroom :) the second group was k1 and k2, very active, so certain times i had to raise my voice to capture their attention. at least jc taught me how to raise my voice for jus a single but effective sound to get them to zzzziiiiiip! uncle ezzam's bag of tricks also helped me along the way - switch on your ears! click! i modified that a little, but it worked jus as well :)

reached home at 7. had a good day though i had to use lots of physical and brain power. it's worth it :) i was looking through some of SDT's pictures and lo and behold, i manage to find some pics of me as Gallison in Cinderella! haha! here they are:

girl, hope everything's alright at ur side..

2009-04-22T20:58:00.002+08:00

if you fall get up again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luWup6OV63g&feature=related

i just found this vid on youtube. do you guys think that this vid teaches us something, professionalism isn't about perfection. nobody is perfect. it's how you get back to your feet after a setback and still convince the audience they've just watched a spectecular performance.

fellow friends, no matter what we do in life, there will be setbacks. but soft breezes never made strong trees, keep to the path you've set and stick to it! :)

two classes a day, good :)

2009-04-19T21:59:00.002+08:00

Picture taken at tampines blks 400 plus, a twilight picture, love the colors.

caught 17 again with vien today. had two classes in the morning today, need to work on grounding my standing leg, but otherwise, i find things are getting easier to execute by the day :)

check out this vid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6NH0XzrzRI&feature=PlayList&p=07F2D7A343332D32&index=0&playnext=1

he's a v cool dancer, courteously recommended by cai.

epaulment is always "a-p-o-more"

2009-04-16T22:49:00.002+08:00

haha, the title is something that ms cheah always stresses in her class. it makes sense cos like mr janek said, "how you stand already shows wat kind of dancer you are". and ms wee says dance is abt movement, not just technique.

today i learnt that focusing solely on technique in a dance class will get you nowhere because it will make you more stiff than you already are. that happens at least in my own body, im not sure abt you guys, maybe it works differently :) each step links with each other seamlessly, that's what makes a dance. thanks cai for ur tips on my turns, it helped a lot. hope ur stretches improve too :)

it's grade 8 exam for vien, chenning, and debbie today, hope you girls were confident in the exam hall!

another piece of news is that amkss has achieved their gold after these years of hard work! they have proved that nothing is impossible if we put our heart and soul into it. having a dedicated instructor in a school is so important to create great memories that we have on our CCAs isn't it?

a winner is someone who never says die! cheers to all winners!!!

easter weekend!

2009-04-11T12:09:00.003+08:00

slept in both yesterday and today. well, at least i could sleep to 9 o'clock without being woken up by the alarm clock. yesterday was quite fruitful as i managed to arrange some of my drawers in my room and keep it tidy. finally got my cytogainer cookies and creme flavour, thanks for the recommendation by jackie!

met up with vien and weiting at white sands, the sky was pouring like crazy while i was on the bus, causing a huge jam on the road from my place to tampines central. well tampines 1 jus opened, can't expect any less traffic even on a sunny day right? vien and weiting were making a gift for their long time friend, rachel, and i was impressed by how much effort they are putting in for their gift. this goes to show how much true friendship comes from the heart. i decided to make myself useful and help a little with some of the cutting and glueing, a good time to exercise my fingers too :) it was particularly sweet of them to recall all the moments that the three of them had together while making the gift. smiles for you :) simplicity is happiness.

i've turned to be a fan of the recent soyjoy adverts that are showing on tv and the busstops. the expressions of the actresses are so comic and makes me chuckle each time i see them. take a look at this one.

much effort! little effort! haha. cute huh? the aunty holding the umbrella was staring at me while i suddenly turned around and whip out my handphone to take a snapshot. aunty, i'm not taking you lah, im taking the poster :) haha, ok you can be in my picture as well.

im heading to the lib in a bit, right now, im starving for some lunch. non dance day today, but i've got my trusty wheel (courtesy of max) ready for workout and it's another 100 push ups for the day! off we go!

2009-04-08T20:51:00.002+08:00

finally managed to get my hands on the massagers at daiso. yea i know, nothing special but these are really lifesavers which helps to release tension in the muscles.

the spike ball you see here can be placed right below the leg or hamstrings, helps me release a muscle knot there. thanks chihiro, for teaching me how to use these stuff :)

the blue roller is used for relaxing the bottom of the feet, after all pointing your feet everyday means you need to spend sometime to help them relax too right?

taught at YCK kindergarten today, uncle JC finally let me do more talking on the job :) talking to the k1 and k2 was not that difficult since they are eager for attention and will reply to anything you ask them, sometimes you just need to guide their "wrong" answers to something more relevant. As for the n1 and n2, we needed to speak slower and sometimes may not get any replies cos they are not old enough to comprehend what we had asked them. but in order to keep the class going, we kept our energy and voices in constant check, using more energy when they are less participative and keeping the pace when they are more participative.

well, another day in the life of a kindergarten teacher! great and fun days ahead!

2009-04-01T22:11:00.004+08:00

took fotos today at JC's for colors of ballet to upload into his power point presentation. i also did some cooking, in the kitchen to fix some pasta to eat. sad thing is, i overcooked it a little and everyone just had only part of the pasta cos it was a little soggy. hey, last i cooked pasta was a few years ago lah.. but still it was filling enough for lunch.

jc made some choc chip cookies, which were rather good, but i had to control myself from eating too much of them in case overeat, i don't wanna fall ill the second time in two weeks! anyways it was fun, pics:

cookies! they had a little bit of coconut in them

the pasta was really colorful, no?

2009-03-30T22:04:00.003+08:00

done quite a bit of things today. woke up with a stiff neck on the left, it still hurts now, youch. but nevertheless had a good class in the morning, i need to work on my frappés though (everytime i mention this word i think of macdonald's frappé, explained later)

everyone from Acts of Life came to learn some steps for our teaching this week at the childcare. Acts is the place that i work now everyday, after classes at SDT. i teach kids at kindergarten speech and drama! haha. they all looked like they had lots of fun learning while we were having company class. I joined them thereafter, to catch up on updates and also helped to bring them around to the props room, shoe room, and costume dept - thanks aunty florence for being so hospitable, whew! :)

they taught me the actions to the colors of ballet, and almost instantaneously had to repeat them to janek, who happened to walk past -

bra bas - red

arms first position - blue

arms fifth - green

arms second - white

arms spreading out showing something like a big sun - yellow

first arabesque (a terre) - black

a turn - purple

a kick to the front - indigo

retire! - turquois

phew, good thing memory didn't fail me, haha (yx and jay helped to drop me a couple of hints too! ;) ) great! now have cool materials to teach the kids this week! i can't wait :) janek was glad i found a job too and it deals with kids, it's something i really like. SDT went for photoshoot in the second half of the day. hope they enjoyed it!

met vivien at tampines there after. hunted for her friend's present, and had lunch at foodcourt. Went to macdonalds after that, it's the one at tampines interchange which caught fire sometime last year. it didn't seem to have been renovated any differently from before though. we had our frappé and ice chocolate, yea that's where the frappe thing comes in. i recall mr janek saying "frappes, devon, seconde, derrier, with no whip cream on top!" something to that effect. haha, well now i have to bear with my saliva when i do frappes!

that was almost the day. i came home and had dinner with my family in front of the tv, mom cooked curry fish, but i can't have it cos i just recovered from my gastric flu! anyways, mom cooks the best curry in town.

that's abt it!

2009-03-29T12:14:00.002+08:00

"Looks like we've really gone too far with the snow trip this time dad. They're having a hard time defrosting our family car"

i took this pic right outside a petrol kiosk on my way to charlton lane kindergarten earlier this week. Haha, it darn looked like a snow covered vehicle, and the little kid standing right in the middle reminds me of calvin from calvin and hobbes. damn cute.

wat a cool father and son photo right? cheers!

Terrible stomach flu.

2009-03-27T14:53:00.003+08:00

Terrible stomach flu.

it's horrible to get stomach flu, it starts with a huge headache that lasts v long despite medication, then followed by having runs to the toilet, after that, you get an onset of fever that leaves you weak in bed for an entire day.

had to miss company class this morning because of this, and missed the SDT tour with Acts as well - won't risk passing anything to anyone around me. sucks. but i'm glad mom was around to help me through this. thanks mom. gonna go take a walk if i feel better later, need to get some fresh air.

SMILE!

Miracles are created

2009-03-24T00:44:00.004+08:00

i believe in miracles, but still, they are to be created.

If one does not take the first step to want something to happen, there will be less chance of it happening. I love the exilaration of being suspended in the air and still having the ability to control and mould my body into shapes. One cannot be too relaxed in order to portray the shape intended; he or she can also not grip too tightly onto the shape lest the intended motion is hindered.

Life is much like dance, in order to handle it well, a person has to learn the equilibrium between the two extremes and handle it well

a double tour en l'air

2009-03-22T10:17:00.002+08:00

hey there, i had been busy after leaving nafa, to set things going again. My parents are back from their china trip and i can tell they are really tired. Gonna go find them later at amk :)

ballet school is getting back to syllabus now, to my greatest relief, really. I know i shouldn't worry that much about technique but it helps to clean up whatever i've picked up from watching others demonstrate. ballet is after all, only exciting when you watch a clean and neat dancer, agree no?

Best advice i got along the week "howie, don't worry about technique, it will come. Learn to feel movement".

i love the kids that i'm gonna teach at acts of life. they're such amazing bundles of energy :) i admit, sometimes they really don't listen to you, but i'll learn to handle them just fine, i have my ways. haha. Thanks guys for bugging me to update my blog, good thing only iron rusts and steel doesn't - cos IM A MAN OF STEEL pheweet! haha.

ok i'm still a learner, at baby stage of development, i'll absorb like a sponge so i'll grow humongous! so thanks for the wonder friends i have made in this wonderful journey of life, you guys know who you are! cya'll!

Bugging good Time

2009-01-27T17:58:00.006+08:00

thailand was amazing. it definitely helped me refresh my mind and ready for the great year ahead! had great fun with mom, dad, and bro, and found out a lot about how each of us have similarities and differences in the way we work. i never knew this - but my dad acutally dislikes chocolates! haha, i never knew till now cos he seems to eat almost everything that is put in front of him, never really showing any disliking to any food.

me and bro managed to gather enough courage to try out fried crickets, they tasted a little like over fried prawns, and a little too salty! they're rather heaty too, so we only shared a small packet with dad, mom was totally disgusted by the sight.

in taxi from airport

crickets! high in protein

fear factor!!

tastes good with dinner!

in Thai

2009-01-26T21:04:00.000+08:00

Am in Thailand right now, at an internet Cafe. will share when im back tomorrow! ;)

打是疼；骂是爱

2009-01-14T21:26:00.003+08:00

打是疼；骂是爱
A couple of quotes i found online:

孩子不争气,最着急的人莫过于家长,说也不听,只能打骂了,这种打骂是恨铁不成钢,孩子到了一定年龄会理解的. 孩子考试不及格,最着急上火的人是家长,别人看了恐怕不会动什么感情.所以打是疼,骂是爱,实在疼来拿脚踹.
- 厌战

其实在我的朋友圈中，会骂我的人几乎都是我很好的朋友。比如前段时间炒股亏了，某人就教导我该如何如何，激动了他会骂两句笨呀傻呀之类的话。且不论他是否正确，不过却我生不起气来，因为我知道他是我最好的朋友之一。相反，一般的朋友是不会骂我的～～～～～
- dengyangdy007

only someone who loves you will be bothered to care for you. But love only means so much with words. to put it into action is more important than anything else, and only by doing can we actually make a difference to those around us. some words may not sound pleasant to our ears but they prod us to take immediate action. Treaure those who are important around you and never let them go! Thought these are not the people who may come to party with us, but they are always the ones to our aid when we have problems! take heart.

weekend fun!

2009-01-11T23:04:00.006+08:00

Had a whole day of class today, but in between i manage to get back home to pack my stuff for tomorrow - first day of school!

Didn't manage to blog yesterday cos i was simply too tired by the time i got back. Aditap is going back to Thailand and defering his studies, so we had a gathering at makansutra to meet up with him. We were all so high jus hanging out with each other that the evening passed so quickly. Jay! we're really gonna miss you!!

with Debs, another twilight reader! haha

tom yam claypot!

Hunger drives sze and chengpin nuts! haha

singing by the bay

the amphitheatre looks like a UFO right?

Today was quite fufilling as well. Cai gave me some tips on turning, something he is rather strong in, and we exchanged pointers on some other stuff as well. It so good to have someone to learn ballet with, to talk abt something that you like to do so much. Met up with vivien and weiting at chinatown after class, brought them to da wan zhou, hope they enjoyed the porridge! haha weiting's parents joined us too, her mom is so cool, i love her hair! vien says it's called "cone" like ice cream cone, nice. haha. ok here's some pics of chinatown:

where the famous da wan zhou is located

flowers, taken by vien

people mountain people sea

Urban Ballet

2009-01-09T17:34:00.004+08:00

i know i know, i tend to back date my blog posts, sometimes i really jus fall asleep before i even type much. ok, i shall try to make it a habit from now on, to share as much as i can at the end of each day. anyways, just got back from work at jurong, business was rather ok today. now gonna meet up with yeehui and vivien for dinner at TM.

i jus found this vid on youtube, it's an urban ballet clip by Anaheim Ballet, an amazing ballet company - enjoy!

Anaheim Urban Ballet

a day of making heart

2009-01-08T22:34:00.002+08:00

spent my day at SWD, completing the heart-watchamacallit for the international students' night. the result turned out better than i thought after it was completed. Hester chipped in to help me with the gluing, thanks hester! here's some pics we took with our piece of artwork and more:

Me, Felder, and Hester

Spongebob!

Wondeful completion!

Heart Done!

Signing on our prez for Denise

dance the day!

2009-01-06T23:36:00.001+08:00

Attended Mr Larry Clark's contempt masterclass in the morning. he's a really animated teacher! his steps are not really complicated, but it's the changing of directions that might confuse you if you're not paying attention. I told myself, hey i only have 2 legs, and it's always either right left right, or left right left. so after that, it's not confusing anymore. his footwork remind me of Fred Astaire, a bit tap, a bit waltz, and a bit contemporary - refer to the famous ceiling dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac6o8PXthzQ) ;) Mr Clark made the morning fun.

After class went to run errands for dance dept and student welfare with weizhong. we bought boxes for costumes at Carrefour, got UHU glue to built a heart shape "guess the number of stressball" structure for sw, and finally registered for modules for this semester.

Met up with yeehui and vivien after the errands at bugis and shot a few neoprints with them. it was fun especially when we could draw weird and random stuff around the pictures we took. though it was only a short meet up, it was memorable! hanging out with friends that make you laugh makes your day worth it, agree?

Went for Ms Cheah's class after that, and really enjoyed it. Every single one of her class makes sure you end the day with something to learn from - "allow your body to express what you wish to communicate to the audience, without words" cool words, cool teacher :) she challenged me and one of the girls, biru, to jump. i wondered where they get those strength to execute sautes so high. That's probably the result of training since young, and these are talented dancers as well. of course, Ms Cheah reminded me if i don't jump higher than her, the fate of the male species will not be secure. haha, good thing i had my trusty long legs to protect the martians reputation. it was quite amzing cos biru's energy was really good and her jumps are very rhythmic too. Ms Cheah is definitely a movtivating teacher.

i love the day!

first post

2009-01-04T00:08:00.000+08:00

Hey there, thanks big time to vivien who helped me in the entire process of setting up this new blog. this blog skin is also selected with her help, without that, i'd prolly be real lost - simple is always nice ;) applause for ms panda!

Went to NAFA in the afternoon to check on the equipment for our studios. school's gonna start real soon, on 12 jan, and placement class is jus on this coming mon, 5 jan. lots of things need to be re-tuned back into place! after that supposed to go over to jesper's to help him with some budgeting, but he was busy so we postponed it to tomorrow.

Off to century square to purchase new bw ink for my hp printer. nothing much there, except that i realise the arcade upstairs now has street fighter 4! haha, that's the game i grew up with, that's why i love it. on the way back i passed by this father and son (or so i think is their relationship) jus outside tampines mrt -

Heartwarming to see them, really. the father is blind, and the son often comes down to perform with his father. though the father cannot see, he is rather talented and has been playing quite a few instruments since we first saw him a few years back. he could play a sax, guitar, tambourine, and also a few others. the son is rather cheerful and is sincere in his singing - makes you wanna sing along when he hits a familiar song. i jus hope he's not missing school to perform alongside his dad, not that it's a bad thing, jus that he seems too young to have at least completed his 'o' levels - education is still important for basic survival, agree? :)

After that went jogging jus to get my body moving again. my knee still hurts a bit, but it's starting to condition itself to running. i managed to complete the route this time without it hurting. a good sign, cos this will sustain me for the next sem. i'll find time to jog during school time, to maintain the endurance - don't wish to make the same mistake during specialised ballet again.

Looking forward to school start! need to get back to business and work on my turns. posture has improved but there's still so much more to work on! teacher is right, there's always so much to learn from dance, and that's why i love it!

signing off now. HAPPY 2009 everyone!