Reunion.
Friday, July 31, 2009, 06:25 p.m. #1619.
Met up with the CO peeps at Xin Wang Taiwan Cafe (Citilink) on Wednesday. Haven't seen most of them for a very long while, so it was nice to take a break and hear about everyone's very different lives, as we talked about "unscrupulous" tutors, hotel room rates, circle of fifths and Block Heads.
The food was reasonably nice. Well, it'd better be - we queued up for an hour - which didn't feel very long anyway as we spent the time catching up with each other.
And the experience would have been better if the people there weren't so fervently selling their membership. See, the waiter who took this picture still didn't forget to continue promoting their membership through even the subtlest ways. Hmm.
The Dumbbell Fallacy.
Friday, July 31, 2009, 07:27 a.m. #1618.
I do not know what my form class has done to deserve this. While it is a fact that they are academically the weakest Express class, they are very pleasant people, and many teachers have come to tell me how they enjoyed teaching my class - always so bubbly and responsive. They know they are weak, but they are positive and humble, and they are willing to learn.
There is a paper cut-out of a boy wearing a party hat in my class, as part of our classroom decoration. One teacher apparently found that amusing, and she said, "You know, that's exactly how people without much grey matter in their head are dressed. Are you telling me that you are all dumbbells?"
If the teacher meant that as a joke, I think her sense of humor is really warped. As it is, they are already not the most outstanding in terms of studies, did the teacher have to be so insensitive? And the teacher did that during a combined class - when my class was combined with another class (let's call this class, E). To add salt to the wound, students from Class E actually laughed at the "joke" and the teacher laughed along with them - I for one did not understand the connection between "dumbells" and a boy with a party hat - I didn't find the comment remotely funny at all! I am glad that my students did not react to the teacher then and they just kept quiet. As they told me about the incident, I was actually feeling quite angry, but I kept my calm and told them that there's no need to be defensive and respond to negative remarks if your conscience is clear - just ignore. Also tried to convince them that the "joke" could have been misintepreted out of context - maybe the teacher did not mean it that way - we don't have to take it to heart.
As a matter of fact, another teacher (the form teacher of Class E) has also been telling her class not to compare themselves with our class as we are the weakest. That is admittedly true to some extent but I didn't think it is necessary to make comparisons and put down a class like that? The "propaganda" apparently has been so successful that there was one instance when my students were moping over their bad test marks during an informal lunch, one student from Class E actually said, "What do you expect? You are from Class XXX!"
This is also the same teacher who made the comment "I am so ashamed to be Malay!" in my class when she was talking about how many Malay boys have been misbehaving. (Personally I do suspect that this has been misinterpreted out of context, but to make such a strong comment is probably rather unnecessary.)
In some mornings, this teacher would also purposely walk by my classroom and drop a "casual" remark like, "So few people in your class? Luckily my class is more punctual." The irony of this is, the latecoming record of my class is 0% (the students always manage to report to school on the dot) while her class always have a couple of latecomers.
Why? What have we done to deserve this? This is not the first time! And we have always been nice to teachers!... These are the questions that the students ask me - and I knew they were not making up the stories as the students who told me these were in fact the student leaders, who felt really hurt by those remarks. I would answer them in the most diplomatic and professional manner, but it hurts me to think of the rest of the silent majority, whose confidence level would subconsciously be worsely hit when it is already not that high to start with.
And those two teachers are the senior teachers, who teach students (and teachers) about discipline and prejudice... Aren't teachers supposed to inspire?
Note: The characters and incidents mentioned in this post are not meant to be representative of teachers in general. This post is not to be duplicated, quoted or linked in any manner, nor mentioned in any form of online discussions.
Saturday.
Sunday, July 26, 2009, 02:26 p.m. #1617.
Yesterday had been a long day. Attended guitar lessons at Yamaha (Barrio's Le Catedral and Vals No. 3 are silent killers - they look and sound deceptively innocent and simple but both of them murder left hands), watched the new Harry Potter movie with sis in the afternoon (which turned out to be not bad at all, when people around me have been telling me how boring it is), went to my friend's baby shower in the evening (cute little Xavier), then rushed home, collected my violin and attended the orchestral rehearsal at night (played horribly as I didn't practise the new pieces at all, and I was placed at the front desk - how embarrassing).
Was quite tired by the time I reached home, but I was so eager to try out the new tips from Eriko that I made aglio e olio again - yep, my fourth time for the week - and I have successfully cleaned up my kitchen supply of garlic, mushrooms and linguine. I know this sounds thick-skinned, but I think I'm falling in love with my own aglio e olio...
Smile.
Friday, July 24, 2009, 10:30 a.m. #1616.
"I didn't know whether I should smile at you. Because when I smile, you either look very stern, or you will force a smile like you don't feel like smiling."
That was what my student said when I asked her why she was smiling sheepishly at me when we met at the corridor.
Just six years ago, I remember, I used to smile too much. To the extent where some of my colleagues actually got so perturbed that they asked me why I was smiling all the time (like I was going bonkers). Then as the years went by, when my ex-students came back to visit, many of them would tell me that I am quite different now - that I don't look as cheerful as I used to be.
And I wonder why. Is it just an 'age' thing? Or have I lost touch of what makes me happy in teaching?
Liu Xing and Manuel Barrueco.
Sunday, July 19, 2009, 03:21 p.m. #1615.
Attended the "When Guitar Meets Zhongruan" concert last night at the Esplanade. Liu Xing and Manuel Barrueco in one concert - that's almost too good to be true - how could I miss it?
刘星仍跟以前一样，弹中阮时背微驼、眉头因专注而深锁着。不同的是，现在的他虽然在《云南回忆》第一和第三乐章中快板的音色仍是十分清脆干净，但一些地方却显然有点吃力，甚至在一处停断了约十分之一秒；第二乐章的慢板就比以前多了几分感情、带了点淡淡的无奈、遗憾的感觉。曲末，当余音早已散去、观众的掌声如雷贯耳地响起、指挥叶聪在旁邀请他起立时，刘星怔怔地坐了好一阵，好久以后才回过神站了起来，感叹了一句：“唉，老了！”
是啊。听完了他的《云南回忆》，我心中也是这么想的。老了。二十年前的年少轻狂已被一种莫名的沧桑所取代。Encore时，刘星弹了潇洒、不羁的《酒狂》，其中的韵味比《云南回忆》更耐人寻味，那《酒狂》是在描述他自己吗？观众席间有许多年轻的中学生，在中场休息时热烈地讨论着刘星的琴和神技，我便仿佛看见了近二十年前的我。当年的我便曾迷恋这首打破了中阮框框的协奏曲，疯狂地勤练这首曲子，甚至到了倒背如流的境界，希望有一天能够在舞台上演出。转眼间，那竟已是近二十年前的事了。时间怎么过得那么快？
Then it was Manuel Barrueco, with Rodrigo's "Concerto de Aranjuez". He has probably played the piece too many times - it actually sounded rather sterile. While the notes were flawless and the tone was beautiful, everything sounded too calm and composed. The piece had been rearranged for the Chinese orchestra - the variety of instruments in the Chinese orchestra did offer some new dimensions in certain parts, but some parts sounded awkward as well.
The finale was a double concerto for zhongruan and guitar. Vivaldi's "Concerto in G major for two mandolins". It was really quite anticlimactic to have chosen a Vivaldi piece. With such strict tempo, repetitive rhythms, restrained dynamics, saccharine melody and formulaic harmonies, it's really hard for many sparks to fly.
Was expecting to meet some of my old CO friends there - those who used to love "Reminiscences of Yunnan" like I did - and true enough I met two of them. Talked about how they're still involved in the music scene and again about how time flew by.
And so, the night ended with a rather bitter feeling - of how time has cast its effects on the two maestros. What cheered me up was ironically an inconspicuous mini-performance at the Esplanade concourse, which I watched for a while just before the concert. Fusion FM (three guys playing the piano, erhu and percussion) was performing "Besame Mucho", when an old man from the audience stood up and started dancing salsa. Everyone cheered and took photos of him as he shook his bum and gyrated with the rhythm, and he didn't seem shy at all for stealing the limelight from the performers (who smiled good-naturedly throughout and played marvelously well, by the way). I looked at the old man enviously. He was enjoying life with so much passion!
Aglio e Olio.
Saturday, July 18, 2009, 03:14 p.m. #1614.
My first attempt at making aglio e olio!
Thanks to Eriko's recipe and mum's ingenious suggestion of tossing in some mushrooms - I think this is the first time when I actually feel that my dish smells, tastes and looks professional! (Oh well, I could have added some parsley for garnish, but I guess there's no need for vanity when I am cooking for myself.) Especially thanks to Eriko, who painstakingly typed out her recipe and tips, down to the minute details of even the number of spoonfuls of chopped basil - that certainly had been extremely helpful for a kitchen dummy like me - although I eventually just gauged the amounts by feel (as I was too lazy to measure).
But yep, there is certainly much room for improvement: I could have added more pasta water to get more of that sweet, starchy sauce. And I could have added more chili padi to add flavor to the dish (had intentionally added less this time as I didn't want the dish to end up being spicy).
Am so proud of my aglio e olio (fine, it's just a simple dish) that I'll love to cook it again sometime soon! But the cleaning-up after cooking isn't fun at all. =(
The Brow-Twitching Twins.
Friday, July 10, 2009, 08:17 a.m. #1613.
Wonder if everyone has seen that Cadbury ad on TV? The one where you see a pair of bespectacled boy and girl looking innocently bored at first, and then they start to twitch their eyebrows in rhythm (with unbelievable synchronisation and tempo) while they remain expressionless. I find that ad absolutely hilarious. Very successful advertising - while it has totally nothing to do with Cadbury, it made me watch the whole ad to see the final scene where the brand name was flashed. Simple, absolutely brainless and funny - my favorite ad of the year.
Chew like an Elephant.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 05:13 p.m. #1612.
Late post of the dinner at our favorite restaurant two weeks ago. Really nice picture - but I don't know why the girls were grouping in twos. What we don't see here are YH's hubby and her three very adorable kids (they joined us later), and YH's hubby teaching the kids to chew like an elephant.
Mumm, mumm, mumm... *moving the jaws exaggeratedly to chew like an elephant*... Sweet.
Two Weddings.
Saturday, July 4, 2009, 04:08 p.m. #1611.
Attended a cousin's wedding two weeks ago. He was getting married for the second time, and it was a rather small, cosy affair. He drove the bridal car himself, and there were no best man, bridesmaid or "brothers and sisters". The dinner tables were reserved only a month ago, and he didn't even get a photographer for the event! As someone who loves taking snapshots, I naturally took up the role of the photographer. While it was a rather quiet wedding that didn't have any grand entrances and pompous displays, I was envious of how the couple looked so loving and sweet together. And seriously, that is all that matters - that they are happy together.
Attended an Indian wedding at the Central Sikh Temple last week. Didn't know that I had to cover my hair - one of the people at the temple gave me a handkerchief, and the girls enthusiastically helped me tie it around my head, bandana-style. They said I looked really handsome with that "bandana", but I think I looked like a bandit.
Anyway the temple was really beautiful. I have passed by the temple several times, but I never knew that there's a pool on the rooftop!
The wedding ceremony was also quite different from the other Indian wedding which I attended one month ago. While that one felt really happy and festive, this one felt stately, solemn and religious. The men and the ladies had to use different stairways, and we had to sit on different sides of the ceremonial hall. While the side with the ladies was a sea of colors with their vibrantly-colored saris and headscarfs, the men's side looked really dull in comparison. Nice experience.
The Week that Felt Like a Year.
Saturday, July 4, 2009, 03:04 p.m. #1610.
It's been such a long while since I last blogged. The June holidays have slipped by so quickly that I hardly felt much of it. Week 1 was packed with courses and conferences. Week 2 was filled with revision lessons with my graduating classes. Weeks 3 and 4 were spent on urgent meetings (thanks to H1N1) and setting of exam papers.
So the new term started, and each day started earlier than usual (we had to report to school by 6.45 a.m. - thanks to H1N1 again). And the days were made longer and drearier with my hospitalised mum (hence the additional housechores), the after-school lab sessions and small-group meetings (yep, no more than 10 people can gather).
Thankful that my mum is out now, and everything seems to have become more bearable by the end of the week. I am sure next week will be better.