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SEEING DOUBLE!
Over last weekend, I got the chance to try out the new inflatable slide at Wild Wild Wet! I know, you probably think that Wild Wild Wet is probably extinct but guess what? They've just completed their expansion and the whole area is now almost DOUBLE the original size! (YES IT IS TRU!)
To celebrate this expansion, Downtown East is currently having a new promotion - Seeing Double! You'll find yourself rewarded with one-for-one or 50% off discounts at D'Resorts, Wild Wild Wet, Orchid Bowl and eXplorerkid when you're dressed in double. Read on to find out more!
Wild Wild Wet is introducing a new slide for the month of June and July - The Woosh! It is Singapore's longest inflatable FREESTYLE slide. Meaning, you can go down the slide in any way that you want - seated down, on a float, lie down or even jump down! The slide is an entire 50m long!
And of course, since it is a Seeing Double event, I've gotta be twinning with someone and I dressed the same as none other than my mum! So this is how we looked! Heheh..
It was extremely fun day at Wild Wild Wet. In case you're wondering, no the rides are NOT lame! The new rides are to die for, it was insanely fun! But the one thing that killed me - climbing up the stairs to the slide again and again. It's so tiring to climb up nearly 4 story to get to the ride, but that thrill and adrenaline rush made everything SO WORTH IT! While climbing up, I got tired and stopped for awhile.. why not strike a pose and take a picture? HAHAHA! #vain
Super got feel right? LOL! Anyway, 2 of their newest attraction are the Royal Flush and Free Fall. Royal Flush is Asia’s first hybrid ride combining the Behemoth BOWL40 and TornadoWAVE – effectively combining two rides into one!
They also have a new Kids' Zone just for the little ones. Slides wide enough for parents and child to slide down together and different new water play equipments just for the kids!
For the young adults and youths, this is gonna be exciting. Wild Wild Wet now introduces float rentals where you can rent a giant inflatable float for as low as $6/hour! A perfect photo opportunity for that instagram post about your summer fun! Designs includes Unicorn, Flamingo and even a giant Pizza!
With the Wild Wild Wet's new expansion, it is now located right beside D'Resorts and you can easily access your chalet rooms within 3 mins! I mean, the last time I was at D'Resorts (end of last year) the place was still under renovation and we had to walk a huge round just to get to Wild Wild Wet, this expansion made everything SUPER CONVENIENT! The entry price to Wild Wild Wet are as followed:
And if you're reading till now to find out what the entire Seeing Double promotion is about, this is what you don't want to miss! From now till 31 July 2017, Downtown East will be having ongoing promotions for the various entertainment outlet when you're dressed in DOUBLE!
- One-For-One admission to Wild Wild Wet!
- 50% Off at D'Resorts (yes you have to dress identical and go down to the counter to book your chalet rooms to be entitled to this discount!)
- One-For-One bowling games at Orchid Bowl
- One-For-One Playtime at eXplorerkid
Yes, I know it sounds crazy right? I'm totally going for that 50% off for D'Resorts! Besides all these, Downtown East will also be having a Twin And Win Instagram contest. Here's how it works:
1. Simply be dressed up as twin with your friend or family member 2. Snap a wefie! 3. Upload it to Instagram with the hashtag #SeeingdoubleSG The 3 most creative wefie will win a 3D2N Staycation Package at D'Resorts! The last day for this contest is 9 July, so act quick!
Thank you Sample Store for the invitation to such a fun-filled Sunday, breaking Singapore's record for the most number of people dressed identical and the amazing chance to try out the new slides at Wild Wild Wet too! So what are you waiting for? Come join in the fun, don't say bojio!
I was walking home today and reflecting on my experience as a teacher got me feeling a little.. bummed up. And here's why.. (Warning: Whatever I post is my OWN experience and my own perspective, if you think or feel otherwise please feel free to share your experience. I may offend some people somewhere along this post, and if I do.. I am actually not very apologetic about it.) Let's title this whole topic as... New Generation Teachers (Expectations of an Early Childhood Educator, or not?)
I've been a form teacher for 3 years and an assistant for 1. I've worked/am working in the more high-end private childcare in landed property and the ones found just under your HDB block. I still consider myself a pretty new teacher and my experience are not as much as compared to those I've met. So I'm going to share based on my experience till now and who knows? Maybe 5 or 10 years down the road I might look back at this post and cringe at how naive and stupid I am.
No particular incident 'inspired' me to write this post, it is just a hanging topic I struggle with myself. I feel like me being a young teacher (in age and in experiences) I tend to do things a little bit more different than the older generation teachers, like those that have been working in this industry for 10 years plus. There are a few pointers here that I shall show you:
1. Music / Songs
This to me definitely is important, that's why it is the first thing that comes to mind. In a classroom setting, would it be appropriate to play pop music? Disney music? Movie soundtracks? I try to keep my working style more casual (probably it is an age thing) and I do enjoy working when there's music in the background. I do realize that children love them too. But would it be appropriate to play these songs? Example, How Far I'll Go from the movie Moana, or Beauty And The Beast from Beauty And The Beast, or Try Everything from Zootopia, or Can't Help Falling In Love from Lilo And Stitch?
As much as I understand that it is an educational institution, I still feel these are okay. To me, even pop songs are okay as long as there are no vulgarities; example Shake It Off, Thinking Out Loud, Fight Song.. This got me thinking, is it an age thing? What if I am teacher the children about ROCK music, is it okay for me to play a Green Day song, or Coldplay song? (Without vulgarities, of course)
Some parents might be open to it, some might not be. If you can't imagine, just picture walking past a classroom of 4 year olds and hearing the song Shake It Off while children are dancing or playing toys.
What do you think?
2. Videos
Ah, here's another hot topic among so many people. Is it okay for school to show videos to the children? To me, again, I will say YES. But I think it boils down to the purpose of the video. I feel that if the video is educational, or it is showing a certain dance move or somewhere along that line, it is fine. I even feel that occassional as a treat to the children on days like Children's Day, even a movie night for them is pretty cool too.
I'm not quite sure about the older generation teachers and what they might think of it. Or even so, PARENTS, what they might think of it. Again, this rule about video depends on the institution; Some might agree and some not.
What do you think?
3. Dyed hair
I admit, I have had my hair in pretty.. odd colours before. Like right now, my hair is slightly pink at the bottom. Here another one for you - should there be rules to dictate what colour a teacher's hair should be. I am a pretty young person and hence I really love outrageous hair colour.. dark blue, rose gold, lavander, pastel. But most, if not all, institutions forbid teachers to have these coloured hair. My only question is why?
If I want to teach my children to accept people that are different, has tattoo or coloured hair and they should not judge them, then why are the teachers being judged for it anyway?
As much as professionalism goes, hair colour does not affect the quality of my work. So guess who's the one judging here? ADULTS. I feel that this is one of the rules that I hope can be altered after there's a change in mindset among the adults. This topic, however, applies less to the older generation teacher as they probably aren't that much interested in dying their hair these colours.
I think sometimes people are too anal about it.. I mean look at these pictures, I feel that they are actually perfectly fine for teachers. They are coloured unnaturally but they look very decent.
Ash?
Turquoise?
These hair are very decent to me and I totally won't judge a professional for having it. Then again boils down to the question of how open are the parents?
What do you think?
This part is pretty personal as I really enjoy coloured hair and I used the phrase "if only I'm not a teacher" too many times. This also leads me to the next point..
4. Outfit / presentation
this is probably less argumentative but hear me out.
From the institution I'm working under, teachers are SUPPOSED to be in blouse, no jeans and no skirt above knee... etc. So, in that point of view, teachers are suppose to look like THIS:
But OBVIOUSLY, who would really obey that rule, right? Especially in Singapore and in my current work place, it is extremely warm and we do not have any form of air coolers. All we have is a FAN in this extremely warm 32 degree celsius sunny Singapore. I mean if all you want is teachers to look PRESENTABLE AND PROFESSIONAL, I do feel that these few outfit breaks the rule and are still professional-looking.
WOW THIS SPAGHETTI TOP TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE
OUCH SO MUCH SKIN MY EYES HURT SPAGHETTI TOP
NOOOO
HALTER NECK TOP TOTALLY NOT PROFESSIONAL AT ALL
I mean, you do get my point here. If I were to open a daycare, I would totally allow my teachers to be in berms or shorts (not short shorts). TELL ME SKORTS ARE NOT PROFESSIONAL AGAIN??
At the end of the day, it still boils down to the question, are parents okay with it? Will teachers wearing shorts affect their child or their trust on their kids? I need a good reason why
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.
As much as all these goes, and as much as I hate some of the rules, these are things I feel like there's a gap between the generations and the perspective of people. People can be just generally SO NARROW MINDED about these kind of things that really... what's the point? But with all these being said, I am constantly trying to bend the rules (like my pink hair now) and test the waters because I believe that I should be free to wear comfortable clothes and feel comfortable at work, I should also be able to express myself freely and children should be exposed to so much more different type of music and art forms.
I would really like to hear your comments about this topic, especially you - parents! What is professional, and what is not? Where do you draw the line? Would you judge your child's teacher based on their hair colour or ink?
My Lasik ExperienceSo as you can tell from the title, I'm going to share my experience doing lasik. Basically I made an online enquiry on 6 January (Friday) and to my surprise, their reply was really prompt and they suggested for me to go for the surgery on the 11th of January. I was pretty sick then (suspected HFMD.. ikr..) and after a few more email exchanges, we fixed an appointment on the 18th of January with Dr Eugene Tay. I'm really thankful as the emails that they replied are very comprehensive and it includes all the details I needed. There's 2 major part to the whole procedure: 1. the consultation (to check if your eye is suitable for the surgery) and 2. the surgery. You may choose to have the consultation and the surgery to be on different day, but the best is to do it asap after the consultation. The Consultation 3 days prior to the surgery and consultation day, I've got to lay off my contact lense. (It's 14 days for people using hard lense) My mum accompanied me for the day and that felt a little more comforting. Upon registration, I was lead to a waiting area to wait for my name to be called. Then I'm lead to a room with a lot of machines, similar to the ones they have at a spectacle shops, except the functions of the different machine. There's the classic one where you look into the hole and you see the little red house to check your eye degree, then the second one was the one which they check for the eye pressure, checked the cornea thickness and a few others. Of course my main concern was "is my eye suitable for the surgery?" To my relieve the optometrist said it was! After which, I was brought to another room to do the manual check for the eye degree. The usual reading letters off the screen at a distance while wearing the heavy spectacle which they slot in the different lense. So by this time, I already have a card with my details on it and a few print out of the various result from the tests. Once again, I'm told to wait (for a short while) to see the doctor. When we went into the doctor's room, the doctor looked at my eye once again using some device with light and we discuss about my eye and how I'm only able to do Lasik (or any of the sort) once in my lifetime because of my cornea thickness. Then I agreed to do it on the same day. I also decided on doing the ReLEx Smile instead of the classic lasik because I can only do it once and ReLEx Smile doesn't create a flap.. so I guess less complications during the recovery. :) You can go and google more about ReLEx Smile. So I was lead out again and was told to go to one of the computer station where they show 2 video - one on the things to look out for pre and post surgery, and one more on the types of surgery available. Before watching the video, the optometrist placed some eyedrop in my eye and he warned me that it was to dilate the pupils and I will not be able to see near. Honestly i was pretty excited to see if the eyedrop really works and how it feels like to not be able to see near. Hehehe. So after that we were given a 1 hour break to eat or do anything we liked... my mum and I went shopping! The clinic is located at Paragon Medical Center which means Paragon Shopping Mall was located just below it. :) A good way to spend 1 hour. Hahah! The Surgery So after the lunch break, it was time for me to go back for the surgery. I was excited and nervous honestly, but more of excited. More eye drops and back into the doctor's room again. This time when the doctor shone the light to check my eye, I COULD ACTUALLY SEE THE LITTLE VEINS REFLECTING. It was honestly scary as heck. So after a few checks, I'm off and ready for the surgery. They lead me to a pre-surgery room and had me read through this paper which explain the can-do and the cannot-do of everything. They also had an optometrist to explain all the post surgery stuff and what to expect in the surgery room. Basically I was given a set of take-home care kit. It includes quite a lot of stuff such as.. 1. Eye Care Wipes (to wipe your eye area) 2. Eye Drops - medicated (duh.....) 3. Eye Drops - Lubricating (duh too..) 4. Eye shield + tape (to be taped on your eye when you sleep so you don't accidentally rub or injure your eye when you sleep) 5. Sleeping pills (I didn't take it because I had no trouble sleeping) After all that briefing, I was ready to go for surgery. They dressed me up in my gown and all. I was so excited I asked for a photo to be taken and this was how I looked.. Pretty cui, I know. I was excited!!!! They helped me to drop the numbing eye drop and then waited for a while...... So then I was all ready to go in. When I went into the room, I was just told to lie down and stay relaxed. The bed then was positioned under the machine which would do the lasik. My eyes were opened using a prong and honestly it didn't hurt at all. The machine then lowered itself toward the right eye until it is resting on top of the eye. And when it was ready, the machine said "suction on" I was like WHAT THE HECK IS SUCTION ON???? and before I know it, the procedure started. The doctor was calm and constantly reminded me to "look at the green light" in the machine. It was painless (the numbing drops, remember?) and fast. The machine created a lenticule which the doctor have to remove. The lasering process probably only took 30 seconds and the rest was up to the doctor to remove and clean my eye. One eye took less than 3 minutes, and after that, it was the turn for the other eye. During the process, I kept telling myself to look at the green light which eventually fades away because of the lenticule created in the eye. So all I could see was foggy shadow (yes even when the doctor had all the apparatus and was taking out the lenticule from my eye). So when both the eyes were done, the doctor lead me to the station where he checked my eye again then he said "VERY GOOD". So off and out I go! The vision is totally not clear after the surgery.. in fact I felt like closing my eye because there was a little burning sensation, but not pain. :) So I took off my surgical gown and all, put on some eye drops and packed my things. I happily walked out with my take-home kit while wearing the shades they gave me to say hello to my mum who was waiting outside! The whole surgery was so quick that I did not have time to react or think much about anything. And by the time I'm done, it was about 1.30pm or 2pm. Pretty quick. I just went home to rest :) Post-Surgery So the day after the surgery, there's a post-surgery review and I was told to go and check the degree left on the eyes. I'm told that I'm left with about 25 degree on each eye, which was amazingggg!!! And right now, 4th day after the surgery, I am able to see most of the things except that sometimes the vision is still blurry as the degree in the eye will not stabilize until about 3 months later. But all in all, no pain and discomfort. In summary, if you want to cut short everything, here are the details: Clinic: The Lasik Surgery Clinic Address: Paragon Medical, 290 Orchard Road #13-01 to 06 Singapore 238859 Doctor: Dr Eugene Tay Amount paid: $5.4k inclusive of 3 post surgery review and medicine/take-home kit. (This is the most expensive because I choose to go for ReLEx Smile, if the normal Lasik, it cost about 3k..) This is the best I could recall and share about, if there are any more questions, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me a PM/email. I'll try my best to answer them! Sorry if my sentences do not really make a lot of sense or it doesn't sound smooth. Hahaha, i tried. This is NOT a sponsored post and I am just sharing my experience! :) One Love. When I first started teaching, I never thought things MIGHT end up being emotional. Typically because I am not an emotional person and not one that cries easily. Being a teacher for my 2 and 3 year olds this year is definitely a tough one. Physically, emotionally and mentally. There are days I would go home and not want to do anything but lay down on my bed. I would sleep and wake up still feeling as though that past 9 hours of sleep didn't existed at all. One Love. The only thing that kept me going were the children. They were the ones that made me extremely tired and sick of everything, they were also the ones that made me go to work. In my 3 year old class, I have a special needs boy. For most of the time this year, he was not speaking. All he did was scream, shout, and make sounds. To add on to that, he was also hyperactive and would try to do all sorts of funny stunts in class. Got a cupboard? He'll climb on top of it. Got window grills? He'll climb too. Got tables? Climb. Got shelves? Climb. As the form teacher, it was my responsibility to make sure that he doesn't fall and also that the other children in class does not learn from him. Oh, I forgot to mention, if there's a basket of toys. He'll pour. Just imagine going into NTUC and you bought all your stuff in the basket and you left it on the floor and someone comes over and flip the whole basket over and everything comes out. He does not do that to one toy, but ALL the toys. One Love. It was hard. Physically - chasing after him, carrying him down if he climbs. Ensuring that he doesn't try to get out of my class and go destroy the other class. When I'm doing my craft work, I need to make sure he does not come to the table and simply SWIPE away all the materials. Don't get me started on my learning corner activities that I've made for the children and my theme board which I painstakingly printed, laminated and pasted everything on my own. I remember one incident where it was emotionally too straining on me that I broke down and cried at work. I really did. For a girl like me that cries less than 5 times a year, this one is pretty surprising. A boy in my class made me cry. SAY WHAT? Almost every other day, I would pat him to sleep. When I do, I would often be asking God "how? how do I love him more? how do I love my class more?" It just feels like whatever I do is wasted because it gets destroyed. And honestly, it is very discouraging and it seems like I can't be that 'ideal teacher' that I pictured myself to become. After a series of events which I shall not mention, the school had no choice but to ask the boy to leave. On my side, it is a good news! Definitely. No more chasing one extra boy, no more tearing down my theme board, no more destroying my learning corner activities. I finally am able to manage my class better. I'm more than thankful about his departure. Thinking back, this whole series of events taught me one thing - One Love. The past few months, it was pretty obvious that the boy is slightly more attached to me than the other teachers. I mean, I'm the one with him most of the time when he's in school. And somehow or rather, I feel a little sad at his departure. Just ONE day before his departure, I finally heard him spoke a complete sentence without prompting, you have no idea how happy and proud I was of him. I went around telling another 3 to 4 more teacher about his accomplishment the next 5 minutes. It was pure joy to hear him speak a sentence. Having this special needs boy in my class really taught me to love, even when things gets rough. I don't know how I made it but I really thank God for His grace throughout this whole period. This love definitely isn't easy because you see no fruits at the end of the day. So, to the boy that made me cry, made me scream, made me chase after you, made me laugh, made me furious, made me disappointed, made me tired, made me not feel like going to work, made me feel lousy, made me lose my temper, you made me. You made me become stronger, you taught me to love better and love more than ever before. You taught me to be determined, you taught me resilience. I'm going to be a better teacher in small or big ways because of you. You've made a difference to me by being special. You are special and I love you.
To the 260 (and still increasing) likes on my Facebook. Here’s probably something you want to read of. I decided to share this on my blog not because I want to show off to the world that I’ve got a boyfriend. But also because it is my blog, and I write important stuff here. And this is important.
It has been a good 4 years since I’m last attached. I’ve grown a lot, mentally, physically, emotionally. My concept changed along the way, the way I think and work changed too. I never saw this whole thing coming but it happened anyway, and I’m so glad that it did. I never thought that I’ll ever be able to love someone this much, but I did. Never thought that anyone will win my heart like this, but he did. So here’s our story, which hopefully answers all the questions you might have.
Remus.
We met in tuition class when we were secondary 3. I hated him, honestly. My first impression of him was that he is this super loud and noisy and annoying guy in class. Coming from an all-girl’s school, I don’t have any guy classmate and he is one of the first few. During tuition class, all I wanted to do was to study and get the class done with. But this person (and his friends) HAD to make stupid jokes and laugh ever so loudly when the rest of the class is quiet as a mouse. I’M TRYING TO FOCUS HERE, BRO. And after class, I would think that he ‘stalk’ me home because we would take the same MRT train home but we never really talked. I cannot remember how we eventually got each other’s number but we did.
So we began texting but nothing much really happened. I remembered our tuition teacher would always ‘ship us’ and I would just hide my face. Moreover at that time, I was also dating someone else and he was just a friend to me. So then everything was as it is until our O level ended. He decided to start texting a few of his friends again to catch up on them and I happen to be one of them. I also so happen to be the only idiotic girl to continue the conversation with him. Fast forward time.. the days turned into weeks, turned into months, turned into years. Our conversations got deeper and our friendship grew as the days past.
We eventually became good friends, really good friend. But things weren’t as smooth as it goes. Somewhere 2 years back, we had a really big quarrel and we just stopped talking for half a year. I guess at this point of time, I really broke his heart. But eventually, we began talking again. Slowly but surely, we became close again. Except that this time, we are closer than before. And so, the daily exchange of texts continues. We understood each other better, we respected each other more.
Somewhere in the first quarter of this year, our friendship took a little twist. Somehow or rather, we started sending flirtatious messages. (I know. Sounds weird saying this.) Eventually, things started happening. I kind of felt that I’ve already liked him prior to my trip to Sydney. But that trip confirms it. So after I came back, he confessed to me and asked to date me. My reply started like this “I would say yes if…..” and a few conditions were stated. After that day I really considered about us, and everything. I dwelled on our friendship and my feelings for him for some time before I came into a conclusion - that I’ll say yes.
I love how we can talk so openly, and not judge each other. I love how he accepts me for who I am. I love how he has always been a constant pillar to me even though I keep on saying that I don’t need anyway. I love how we are such good friends. I love how he made me feel - secure, loved, important. I love how he respects me when I say that I need my own space. I love how he supports me in everything I do. I love how he understands me.
It has been 2 weeks since we got together, and we finally announced it. Honestly, the hype was funny to watch. But I feel so blessed especially by those of you who personally congratulate me. These 2 weeks just escalated so quickly. Everything was so easy with him, we faced a little hiccup but I’m so glad we are able to just talk about it so openly. Things feels so different this time. I know I’ve never loved someone the way I do to him right now. It’s the same for him too, he never felt this way before.
Remus, I’m thankful for you. For everything this whole time. Thank you for being my best friend and not giving up on us, for listening to your heart. I promise I’ll try my best, and we will work things out together. Love you so so so much.
I have a problem.. with me. Usually, this is not something I'll talk about. I'm a perfectionist in some way or another in my life. Example, when I play a song on guitar, I need it to be perfect, I need to be able to play the basic chords perfectly. Otherwise, I will really be so angry and upset with myself it is beyond what anyone can do or say to try to convince me otherwise. But this time, it is a bigger and more important people because it does not only deal with me but the people around me. I do not know how to work in group/with people anymore. This is something I realize in the past months/weeks and it is getting more dire. I'm left alone and doing things on my own so much that it reached a point where I don't even really want to work with other people anymore or I find it difficult to do so. It hits me really hard, especially when I'm with a group of friends and the one decision that everyone has to decide is "where do we eat?" or "where are we going?" or "when are we meeting up?" or "when are you free to _____?" It's pretty much like a typical girlfriend-boyfriend thing where the girl goes like aiyah.. anything lah. then the guy suggests something and the girl says anything but that! IT GETS ON MY NERVE! Whenever a group is unable to decide and in my heart I will go if you all can't decide then I decide, you guys better not say no. This attitude sucks, I know. I fail to be able to sympathize AND empathize with people. I have zero patience with waiting for people. I try my best to understand but more often than not, I get really annoyed. I hate the way groups move so slowly. I hate that people in a group are so stuck in their own world they don't bother catching up and they just drag everyone behind. I hate when people are indecisive. I hate when things done in a group is 200x slower than things done alone. You might be thinking.. come on, it can't be THAT bad right? Maybe. It has come to an extent where I don't bother asking people out if I want to do something. I hate arranging with people. I became the queen of impromptu. I do what I like the moment I feel like it. I take a trip down to Orchard to walk around just because I feel like it. I watch a movie at 11pm just because I feel like it. I go all the way to sentosa simply just because I feel like it. Don't want to go to _____ with me? Fine, I'll go alone. I became all about me. This lifestyle of mine, I'm not sure if it hurt people around me. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I am not quite sure. Probably it pushed people away from me, probably it made me look like I have such a 'happening' and 'exciting' life, probably it made me less likable because I am annoyed in a group like 60% of the time. I dread the company of more than 3 people. I dread the need to wait. I love it when I can openly ask "anyone wants to catch a movie later at 7pm?" when it is like 2pm and I get response. I love it when people in a group makes decision quick. I love it when people are available for me. I love a great impromptu adventure. Probably, just probably, I'm not living life like normal people. Maybe I can never be 'normal' again. I guess I am back with another update about what I am going to do in the coming month. Which is definitely something I've been talking about - traveling! :) I'm going back to Sydney, Australia again but this time with a friend! I'm really excited to be doing this! My love for traveling is simple. It is a form of escape for me, from work and everything. I can be a whole new person and people will never know who I really am. Traveling opens up my eyes to many things, the good and the bad. Each time I travel, there are things I am thankful for that I have in Singapore and there are things I wish I can experience on a daily basis. Nevertheless, experiences are so vital. That's why I would pay to experience things. Good and bad experience, they are experiences after all. #noregrets |