on autoteacher mode

I've been having to find my way to nie for the past three days for a course, and was unpleasantly reminded of how much i hated travelling between home and there on a daily basis. That surely explains in part why i recall often being in a bad mood when i was there (though to take liberties with the common saying, it's not all in the journey, but also in the destination). The sheer distance and the need for multiple public transport transfers is one thing, but what really made things rather trying for me over these few days were the sheer number of people who were my inadvertent travel partners.

The technical term escapes me (ok, so i've never found it in the first place), but i certainly have a case of crowdoclaustrophobia (i.e. a fear of being amongst a huge mass of people who seem to crowd all around you, forming a man-made enclosed space). Coupled with the general ungracious behaviour of many amongst the local mrt-taking populace, it always makes for a rather riled-up me.

Such was the case this morning at Raffles Place, as i attempted to board the east-west train to Boon Lay. It was at least twenty people including myself who were hindered in our attempts at boarding by several inconsiderate commuters who seemed to have a fear of being more than two metres away from the nearest train door. Which meant that there was at least four or five square metres of perfectly empty standing space slightly further away from the doors which they neglected to occupy.

Maybe i was particularly pissed off, for i found myself scolding this inconsiderate lot at a classroom-worthy volume. I'd like to think that this worked, but well, all it really did was get them to inch enough to one side for me to squeeze past them to occupy the few square metres of neglected standing space. At least i took enough grip of my senses to hold my tongue when i spotted one lady who looked like she was smirking (for what reason, i dunno) and was about to tell her to wipe that smile off her face. It was only then that it struck me and i realised that, no, i was not in class, so no, i had better not say that. Wouldn't that have been something - i'd probably have made stomp :p

Well, at least once school starts again, there''ll be no more of this problem, since by the time i reach school most of these inconsiderate folk probably would not even have left the house yet. The silver lining.

I can has march holiday?

In one simple word, no. In fact, i probably had more free time during the CNY break.

But when you put things into perspective, it's really not so bad. In fact, this March break is the first one week school holiday since i've been trained as a teacher that i've actually had the chance to enjoy any real holiday time (that's actually just one day's worth, and it's not due till Friday, but i'm cautiously optimistic)

The past two September breaks were spent at reservist training. 'Nuff said about that. (Another round coming up in a bit...)

Last year's March holiday was spent on a working trip to India. And as much as i love them (and while there's much room for improvement in that department, i do), spending time with students does not equate to a holiday, be it in S'pore or overseas. Not in my book anyways.

In any case, i fear that the recurring theme of the posts here in the past year or so in particular have tended towards the complaining type. And especially when taking things within the larger context of many of the world events of the past couple of months, my complaints really just wither in comparison. On that note, i do hope that the MediaCrap VP for MarComms does a lot of soul-searching...