timely travel

While back home i may be a little bit of a magnet for (minor) incidents, i've realised that i had been unwittingly dodging a couple of far more serious incidents during my most recent trip. It was only after i had safely left the city of Cordoba that i learnt (through picking up on whatever i could from the Spanish-language Argentinian TV report that i happened to catch a brief glimpse of) that there was a police strike there, and in fact only nearing the end of the trip, close to two weeks after having left Cordoba, that i realised that it had turned rather violent, not only in Cordoba itself but in many other parts of the country as well, while i remained blissfully unaware of what was going on. In fact, the strike and riots had begun on the afternoon/evening of Dec 3, while i caught a bus out of the city that same night.

I suppose that you could consider this a benefit of travelling in a country where the lingua franca is by and large alien to you. And of course having to do stuff like arranging transport and accommodation during the precious time that i was able to get online rather than browsing news websites played a role too.

The second incident i just missed were the power cuts in Buenos Aires that have since escalated into protests. The reports state that the power cuts had started affecting residents two weeks ago, which is precisely when i flew out of Buenos Aires. In fact, there was a minor power outage that lasted less than a minute while i was at the airport awaiting to board my plane, though judging by the lack of any hit of surprise on the faces of the airport staff, perhaps that was merely routine. Whatever the case, my timing for both has been spot on, though of course i still feel sad to see such incidents happening in Argentina, which to me really is a country that potentially has so much going for it. NE lesson in the making, this is..

world class

I've been back in S'pore for about ten days now, and in this time i've already encountered two cases of door malfunctions on public transport:

1) an SBS bus door that refused to close, resulting in the bus driver having to get everyone on board to alight and get on the next bus - this took place at the stop at which i had boarded the bus; in other words the bus didn't move an inch (just like the door) once i was on it.

2) the safety door (i.e. not the train door, but the one that prevents passengers from straying onto the track) at City Hall MRT Station refused to close, resulting in the train i was on being stuck at the station for about a couple of minutes, before one of the station staff had to rush down and close the door manually - at first i thought that it was all the safety doors that would not close, but then i realised that it was only the door right where i was standing at.

This all took place after me having a trip in South America that was relatively free of transport woes, apart from one Subte train breaking down at the station in Buenos Aires (or at least that's what i assume happened - i just followed everyone else's cues because the announcements were made solely in Spanish).

Well, if there's a moral to this brief story, it's that yes, Singapore does have a world class public transport system, in the sense that just like everywhere else in the world, breakdowns and malfunctions do occur. (I don't mean this as a criticism by the way - and also by the way i hate the phrase 'world class', but that's another story) And if there's another one, it's that at least in Singapore, my public transport jinx is still very much alive and kicking.

hasta mañana

Just got back from South America (Argentina and Uruguay) a couple of days ago; never having much opportunity to post anything here during that time. Not that there was no internet access - free wifi is rather easily accessible in many places there,  contrary to what many may think, though bearing in mind that Argentina and Uruguay are some of the more developed countries in the continent - but whatever time and opportunity i had online was spent on making trip arrangements, of which there were many. In a perfect world, this blog, which is just about as random and unfocused as a blog can get, would morph into a travel blog, at least whenever i'm on holiday. Instead, i've to make do with writing rather dull and formulaic recounts of my day on my (hardcopy) notebook whenever i've had the opportunity to, just so as not to forget whatever happened, while telling myself that what i've written will soon morph into some credible travel writing on this site. Well, that 'soon' will certainly not be today (i've only just finished uploading pictures from two trips ago), but we can always hope for tomorrow..

too slow to beat age

I'm turning 30 in a few days from now. No point trying to avoid the fact, given that there have been several reminders of that fact coming my way. Firstly i received the never-welcome MINDEF sms reminding me that my new IPPT window would open two weeks from the receipt of the sms (and as expected, they left out the only part of that news that was actually something to cheer about, which is that upon turning 30 i enter CAT Y1 territory, which means it becomes easier to clear the darn thing). Then there was the notification for re-registration of NRIC which came in the mail. I'm proud of the fact that i've never once lost my NRIC, but that of course meant that re-registration upon turning 30 is a non-negotiable.

Actually, the reminder that hits me the most is this: i'm getting slower, and there's not much i can do about it. I run quite a bit. As far as i can get myself to do so, i try for at least once a week, most likely on Saturday, simply because we all should exercise regularly, and for me running hits my two criteria of being (relatively) hassle-free and being something that you don't require anyone else's presence to do [not that i don't want to run with others, but i never can find people to run with me (because i never look for them)]. I've never been particularly fast, but at least i can get a decent 2.4km timing, which is all i could ever ask for.

Since maybe a couple of months ago though, i've found that i've not been able to get the same timings that i used to get over a certain distance. I feel tired more easily, and find i've to channel all my resilience to last even 10km, which has never really been a problem in recent memory. Today's run was but the latest example of that happening. Normally i'd chalk it all up to busyness (my blanket excuse for way too many things), but i don't really have that excuse to fall back on now since lessons have ended, and life at work now is (slightly) easier. So i guess the only reason i can think of now is age. I definitely could get around this by simply running more than just once a week, but that's imply not possible even now, let alone once work gets back to full gear. So i guess my only option left is to (try to) grin and bear it, and embrace the third decade.

Hitting Closer to Home

I've long since given up in trying to understand why even with fatal mass shootings occurring with shocking regularity, the American government is no step closer to passing increased gun control regulations. I guess i just don't have it in me to see the second amendment as something that must be followed to the letter when lives are at stake. It's particularly unsettling when so many of these shootings have taken place in schools, including one this past week. Certainly at the most basic level, the whole concept of a 'safe learning environment' cannot be observed in its entirety in the American classroom.

In any case, i'd always thought that over here, the possibility of a school shooting taking place is so low (one of many things to be thankful for about being in Singapore), so that would at least be one non-issue. More power to some American teachers if they think that arming themselves and getting weapons-handling training is the answer; over here i think we'll stick to the tried-and-tested method of eschewing firearms altogether, thank you very much (After all, there are so many other things that we need to train for; no need to add weapons-handling to the mix).

Then, while still reeling from the news of this most recent shooting, America was hit by another case of fatal school violence, but this time not involving guns. This time, a student has been arrested as the chief suspect in the murder of one of his teachers. As far as i'm concerned, the details of the case ring alarm bells all over, if simply because they could easily apply to any school here as well. The weapon of choice was not a gun, but a readily-available box-cutter. The teacher was ambushed and murdered one afternoon after the bell had rung, in the girls' bathroom in the school. She was described as hardworking and dedicated, and also caring and compassionate (i.e. hardly someone whom you can imagine any student wanting to harm in so brutal a manner). The accused student was described as the "nicest kid on the (soccer) team."

The case is, of course, less than a week old, so it's definitely premature to draw any conclusions as of yet. Furthermore, the last thing we would need would be to overreact, as is so often the case whenever there's any news with potentially wide-ranging implications breaking over here. Nevertheless,  this case provides some much-needed food for thought. The least that should be done would be to be continually vigilant, doing whatever needs to be done to ensure that such an incident would never occur here. We owe it not only to our teachers, but to our students as well, to do so.

back and running

This is the first weekend in a very long while when i've felt rather free, and by extension, somewhat aimless. Reason being that there's no marking to do, since the exams are starting on Monday and everything that i could return to the students has already been returned.

So much so that instead of my recently started tradition of spending Saturday morning parking myself in some cafe before it gets crowded to do some marking, this time i went for a longrun. I've cycled along the road running parallel to the Changi Airport runway several times, but this time i decided to try running its length instead. After doing my research to make sure that it wasn't too long for me to handle, went ahead with my plan, and ended up getting some good exercise. Definitely something to do again (when there's enough time, of course - i only got back home at around 11 - better make good use of this relative lull while it lasts)

Authentic Learning, S'pore Style

This actually took place a couple of weeks ago - i was on the train (somehow many noteworthy anecdotes of mind have something to do with public transport) when a lady, her child in a stroller and her domestic helper boarded the train. Kudos to the employer, for she was teaching her helper English. The example she used was rather intriguing, yet undeniably authentic. She pointed to the digital display in the train which read "This train terminates at Dhoby Ghaut Station", and asked her helper if she understood the meaning of the word "terminate". When the helper responded in the negative, the employer said mentioned something to the effect of it being a synonym of the word "stop". She then went on, "just like if i terminate your contract, it means that i fire you."

I bet the helper will never forget this word.

s'porean sandwich

While it is true that the inverted commas in 'holidays' are there for a reason, the absence of any formal lessons and fixed hours this whole week is most certainly a welcome development, as at the least it does allow for more flexibility than usual, though it certainly doesn't necessarily mean that there's any less work to do.

Thanks to this elusive flexibility, i took the opportunity to have a rare mid-week run (as opposed to usually when i can only muster up the time, energy and resolve to do any meaningful exercise during the weekend). Duty still calls though, so this was a run to school, where i was due to have a consultation with some students. I was supposed to meet some of them at 9am so i left the house before 8am. Given the day of the week and the timing, i was not expecting there to be too many other people about. And true enough, that was the case. Of the fair amount of people who were around exercising though, i couldn't help but notice that at least 60% of them were angmohs. To see angmohs in itself is far from noteworthy, but the fact that there was such a large proportion of them (the majority of which were male) was a surprise to me. "Don't they have to work?" i thought to myself.

Now i trust that the answer to my question is that they just have very enlightened employers who pay far more importance to work-life balance than your typical Singaporean (or for that matter, Asian) boss (or that they are the bosses themselves, of course). It could also very well just be that they prioritise such a balance far more than most Singaporeans (myself included) do or feel obliged to do. But you can't help but wonder what exactly it is that they do. I still don't understand why i can see so many people (expats or otherwise) hanging around the pool or in the balconies of the condo right opposite my school at all hours of the day (i've better things to do than to observe their every move of course - seeing them is merely incidental to when i conduct lessons (and trust me, i am in school at all hours of the day so this is by no means an unqualified statement).

Let me just make clear that this is far from another of those anti-foreigner diatribes that many so-called 'netizens' seem to cough up, but is merely an observation on my part. I've nothing against foreigners (so many a time in Singapore i feel like one myself). It still is intriguing stuff (at least to me) though, that so many of them seem to have it so well over here. On the other end of the spectrum, many others in the non-Singaporean camp seem to have it so badly here too. That's another pressing story for another time though.

'holidays'

Yes, i am more free than i would otherwise be, hence the opportunity to type this ceremonial post. But the degree to which i am more free is token at best, and minuscule at worst, although the lack of any actual classes does have the tendency to put one in quite the mood for slacking, and hence i do feel more free than i probably am. On the plus side though, i actually have done at least some sort of meaningful work for every day since the last day of school of last term. Or is that on the minus side? Bah.

only just

Two days ago, after two self-imposed postponements, token amounts of preparation and a heck of a lot of anxiety, i finally got down to taking my ippt. I only had a week left in which i had at least to attempt it once, and if i had failed, it would, for all  intents and purposes, have meant that i would have to be down for way too many (thought one is already one too many) mandatory training sessions. You can understand why i would therefore be on tenterhooks, dreading in particular the sit-up station, which currently assumes the rotating position of my ippt Achilles' heel, a position that it has held for the last few years (At first it was the 2.4 km run, but since the chin-ups and standing broad jump have also taken their place - so typical for me that once one improves, another will get worse and leave me perennially struggling to clear the ippt every year, just due to a different station.)

My aim was, of course, just to clear the whole thing, which would mean doing at least 30 sit-ups in a minute, 5 pull-ups and jump 212 cm (i have no issue with the other two stations at the moment, but who knows what may happen next time?). And that was precisely what i was able to do - nothing more, nothing less (well, ok, one more sit-up, but that was only because the machine counted 31 after i got up after finishing the 30). After finishing those three stations, the rest was a breeze. I was even possibly eligible to get $100 if i had completed my run within 11:20, which i thought i had a shot of doing. It was not to be though, as owing to the fact that the route was six rounds of a running track, the slower runners were hogging the inner lane, which meant that i had to cover extra distance just to overtake them - and so i must have probably covered quite a few extra metres, and in the end missed out by 2s, which i'm sure i wouldn't have been the case had there been no need to overtake.. But oh well, i am thankful for what i got in the end - and am looking forward to slightly laxer standards next time round, owing to turning thirty - for now the best thing i can think of by far about reaching that milestone.

Pacing, Racing

Time's Paces

Henry Twells
amended by Guy Pentreath

When I was a babe and wept and slept,
Time crept;
When I was a boy and laughed and talked,
Time walked,
Then when the years saw me a man,
Time ran.
But as I older grew, Time flew.
Soon, as I journey on,
I'll find time gone.
May Christ have saved my soul, by then,
Amen.

So, can I still keep up?

facepalm (oil)

It has been a hazy past couple of weeks or so in Singapore. Or at least so i heard. Thankfully (for me, at least), the haziest period this year (so far) coincided with the June holidays, so there was practically no chance that i would still be in Singapore by the time the smokiest and most suffocating days came by. I was very shocked when, while on holiday i came to hear of PSI readings of more than 300 - i distinctly recall the 200-ish readings back in 1997 when i was still in school and thinking that it couldn't get much worse than that, so it must have been really bad.

Long before this haze outbreak i had been critical of the increased usage of biofuels in general, and specifically in the Southeast Asian context, with palm oil. The trend towards their increased use for fuel has undoubtedly further fueled the problem, regardless of which countries the firms are from. As a result, i have, half-heartedly, been trying to avoid consuming products with palm oil for quite some time already. It's not easy though, given the ubiquity of the darn thing nowadays in all sorts of food and other products. Earlier today when i was just reading a post encouraging people to boycott palm oil products i felt a sudden burst of inspiration to do so, but then i realised that at that moment, i was munching on a cadbury bar that of course had to contain palm oil. Oh the irony.

I will continue to try to avoid palm oil products in any case, though not religiously. However, i've often wondered about the effectiveness of boycotts, especially if the company you're boycotting is not aware that you're boycotting them - how would that have any effect on what they do then? Then there also is the matter of ethically-sourced palm oil versus the other stuff, though here in Singapore i've yet to encounter the former labelled explicitly, so i assume only the latter is around.

aimless

Or at least that is how i feel sometimes when things wind down somewhat (they never, ever wind down completely) as far as work is concerned. And that's the case now that the school holidays have officially started. But of course there's still stuff to do, just not so much that falls into the urgent and important quadrant, which is why i'm able to take some time to note that i've started three consecutive sentences with conjunctions (which is something that i tell students never to do). Heh...

A price worth paying

Of late, i've been pretty efficient at marking (in terms of number of assignments/tests marked over total number of submissions, within say two weeks of their being submitted). Now that's really not saying much at all, given that i think i've set the bar pretty low over the past few years. And just like in any good history structured essay question topic, there are various factors that have played a role in this being the case - less classes, less students, less random last-minute duties being those that come to mind.

Something else that has factored in is that, after so many years, i've come to the realisation that home is far from the best place for me to do any marking, and so when i'm not in school but still have marking to do over the weekend (i.e. every day of every weekend), i sometimes find myself marking while parked in some cafe, having ordered one or two overpriced drinks (and perhaps an overpriced slice of cake/ pastry too) in order to buy me at least a couple of hours of solid marking time. And thus far suffice to say that this strategy has paid off.

As is always the case, success comes at a price. In this case, rather literally. Having always been one to tut-tut at seat hogs who somehow can make a single drink go a hell of a long way, i tend to feel guilty about having my cup/plate empty while i'm still taking up space in the cafe, and so, particularly if i've a lot to clear, i may spend close to $15  (which by my standards is high - enough to buy one 473ml tub of Haagen-Dazs and still have enough change for a small cup) in one marking session. It doesn't help that i'm rather a slow marker, as i generally cannot help but write quite a few comments for each script - score one for formative assessment. The result: when i was clearing old receipts from my wallet , i did an impromptu summing up of all the marking-related receipts over just the past few weeks and the result was a three-figure sum. Gasp.

However, if the alternative is going back to being heavily behind in my marking (as opposed to the current status of not-too-heavily behind), give me the current state of affairs any day. Just hope that the formative assessments are actually forming something of worth in the students' minds...

127 Years

11 Founder's Days have passed since i've left the school but rather unexpectedly i'm quite excited about this year's one, to a level far surpassing any other Founder's Days in recent memory. I think that somehow it being a Friday and also a no lessons day at school due to our cross country has put me in the mood, especially since the students sang the school song so loudly and proudly today. Granted, it's not the same song (nor the same school), but the warm and fuzzy i-love-this-school-so-much vibes were resonating so strongly in me, reminding me of how i felt when in JC we were bused over to the old Police Academy to support our rugby team - we lost to RJ when i was in year one but trashed them the next - but both times i was cheering my lungs out in a way i had never done before, and never did again (i did cheer for the Tar Heels while on exchange, but i was probably more caught up in the moment of everyone else's cheering than anything else).

Another thing was that while i'd never really paid much attention to all the AC-love on fb on previous Founder's Days, this year i've seen the postings everywhere (never realised how many AC friends i have - no wonder for the longest time i thought that everyone in Singapore spoke English and had the financial resources to take an overseas holiday at least once a year). Truly there must be something special about the school to evoke such strong feelings of school patriotism (the actual word for this, if it exists, escapes me). Of course the amount of AC haters around (even among the alumni) shows that things are not so straightforward (i myself have my fair share of things i don't like about the school) but well the school definitely has been a blessing in the lives of many, and i dare say that the good has outweighed the bad.

So happy 127th, ACS, and here's to many years of being blessed to be a blessing ahead :)

Monumental Importance?

It was with a mixture of much satisfaction and some surprise that i responded to reading yesterday that the Civilian War Memorial is to be gazetted as a national monument this year. Satisfaction because it is due recognition of the importance of this monument in Singapore's historical narrative. Surprise because i had thought that such an act was unnecessary since it would be understood that such a significant structure (particularly one with the words "war" and memorial" in its name) was something that was to be preserved.

Perhaps regarding my latter sentiment, in response one could argue that the gazetting of the Memorial as a national monument was a necessary formal acknowledgement of its importance, in order to give it official due recognition. After all, as far as i am aware, this is the only one of two post-war structures in Singapore that have been gazetted as a national monument. In fact, it and the Singapore Conference Hall post-date the next youngest national monuments by a good 25 years at least. Not that relative (or for that matter, absolute) age should be the most pressing criterion in deciding to gazette any building as a national monument, though in a place like Singapore where structures dating even from the first half of last century are becoming an increasing rarity, it is understandable why it is one of the most significant criteria.

What i am afraid of is that this official recognition will be just that - a nod to its significance from the higher-ups which has little implication on the consideration given to how the Memorial is to be treated. I say this with the precedent of the recent story of the joggers using the steps of the Cenotaph (another national monument) as a piece of warm-up equipment still fresh in my mind. Regrettably, there was little follow-up to the publishing of that initial story (and if there was, i plead busyness with work as the excuse for my ignorance) in the public square. How can that be, given the fact that the Cenotaph honours those who fought and died in both world wars? (I refuse to elaborate on that statement for the statement alone ought to be enough justification for it to be left alone).

Now we have the Civilian War Memorial, which serves a similar function of according due honour to our war dead, though in this case wholly innocent civilians (the remains of some of whom actually are buried there), being gazetted as our latest national monument. Again, to me the preceding statement alone contains enough weight in itself to warrant the Memorial being given its due respect. Yet to my prolonged horror, for every year since its inception the organisers of the Singapore F1 Grand Prix have deemed it fit to erect a gigantic temporary grandstand (i believe it is referred to as the Stamford Grandstand) on its grounds. Adding insult to injury, by the time they dismantle the grandstand after the race every year, the grass on the smothered ground is dead, smearing the grounds of the Memorial with an unwelcome and irreverent shade of brown. While i acknowledge that i am not a fan of the race in itself, even if i were i would be similarly disgusted. No matter how much big bucks the race can pump into our economy, it should, under no circumstances, come at the expense of desecrating the memory of our ancestors who have lost their lives during a war that we are taught in schools (rightly so) never to forget. What again is regrettable is that there has (again, to my best knowledge) been little, if any public outcry regarding this as well. Could it be because we really do not appreciate the significance of the Memorial, such that the annual emergence of a steel monstrosity that conveniently obscures a good deal of it from view does not bother us?

In the interests of the ongoing and never-ending process of nurturing our Singaporean identity, i hope that this act of gazetting the Memorial will do much more than pay lip service to the importance of treasuring our past, no matter how painful it may have been. Those who have lost their lives, and in fact, the people of Singapore (past, present and future) deserve nothing less.

reMARKable

During a conversation with some colleagues just now while doing some marking on a bus on the way back to school from a learning journey, i realised that in the past four years or so i've done marking while on the road, at sea and even in the air. Bet that will never feature in any recruitment ad...

Miserable Musings

If even based solely upon the fact that it's the first movie i've seen in a cinema in four-and-a-half years (only because my father had charity tickets), i thought that i might want to post my random musings about Les Misérables, especially since after having watched the musical once and heard the soundtrack countless times, i think i know the musical at least rather well..

• Being the lead singer of 30 Odd Foot of Grunts does not equate to being suitably equipped to play Valjean, not in a musical version at least. If it were a non-musical film adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel then i would have no objections though. In other words, Russell Crowe is a fine actor, just not one who should be doing musicals.
• If you want to be really particular, then how could Fantine manage to sing I Dreamed a Dream the way she did with a freshly-extracted tooth? (Although one could argue that she channeled the pain from the tooth into her song). Just as well they didn't remain faithful to the novel, which took out her front teeth - no way she could have sung the song then.
• Unlike most, i was not all that impressed with Anne Hathaway's performance. It was solid, but nothing impressive as far as i'm concerned.
• Who was more impressive to me were the actors who still frequently perform in musical theatre (e.g. Samantha Barks, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit).
• Speaking of Samantha Barks, while her performance in the 25th Anniversary Concert was not something i cared much for, i thought she did brilliantly in the film adaptation. I am so glad the rumoured near-casting of Taylor Swift as did not materialize. If so i might have been quietly happy when Éponine died.
• And talking about her death, i thought that it was such a pity that they cut some of the lesser-known songs, including A Little Fall of Rain, and also The Attack on Rue Plumet, even if it was in the interests of time.
• In fact, coupled with the cutting of her harmony part when Valjean is about to die, Samantha Barks got quite the raw deal. Her name didn't even appear in some of the trailers despite of the major role she plays.
• There were some nice minor touches - the re-envisioning of Enjolras' death scene while keeping the iconic image intact and Javert's pinning of the medal on Gavroche's body come to mind.

All in all, i'm glad they did a film based on the musical, in spite of my gripes. Better than not having one at all..