My many thanks

Dearest friends,

I have finally found a few moments to myself and I would like to use this time to thank everyone for coming on Friday (you all played a part in a special night that I will definitely remember in years to come), for their extra effort and thoughts put into the many gifts (I sincerely hope it was not too stressful!)and just for being there in my life for the how ever many past years.

In particular I would like to give special thank yous for the special ladies in my life who wrote speeches for me (or in one case, just improvised on the spot, which btw you did a pretty good job for an impromptu speech !!)
The ladies (Michelle Li, Winifred Yiu, Pamela Lam, Susie Tang, Emily Chuon and Barbara Chung): First of all: Thank you for the speeches. I have to admit I was dreading it a little bit as you girlies have a lot of dirt on me (I sat down beforehand brainstorming possibilities and surprisingly there were some stuff I'm glad you did not bring up) Of course I was a little bit not sober at the time of speeches so maybe that has a little bit of influence over my perception of your speech. But nonetheless, I still loved it anyway. It was a well thought out speech and it's such a shame not everyone would have been able to hear it.
I would also like to thank Pam and Mish for staying up to work on the photo frame (I'm sorry to hear some nails were sacrificed in the making of it) and to the rest of the ladies for organising the present! Loved every part! Also thank you to Pam for getting the cake (was stressed!) and Winie and Barbie for staying with me hours before the event and their multiple attempts to maintain my 'cool'.
Jennifer Ho: Co-organiser, Compadre and my partner in crime (if I were a criminal haha) Thank you for all your help with the organising (you totally deserve your admin position for the event!) Tis a shame no one would have been able to completely appreciate your balloons... the colours were gorgeous (though they probably would've appeared black or some other colour within the venue) Next event, we'll be more prepared.. we'll go that extra mile with proper invites and all! Much platonic love to you!
Just quickly before I move on, you ladies have been there for me in the past 7 (wow...) years and I can't imagine what my life would be without you. So really, thank you for not just friday but the past 7 years. There are many more to come!
Minh: Dearest Minh. I know I don't have to words to express how much gratitude i feel towards you, not just for the lovely speech you gave on Friday but also for your friendship in the past three years. There were so many moments when I needed a shoulder to lean on that you would offer yours without question or hesitation. I hope you know that I am only too happy to return the favour if ever, and WHENEVER you need it (yes, even 3 am in the morning!)

Alrighties, i think i have said enough thank yous to last me for the next week or so! I will end my post here. ok not yet cos i feel like i need to get one last mega, whopper thank you out to everyone who came! =)

one less thing to stress about...

after a few months of wondering which direction my near future was heading, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. I told my dad this morning as he was preparing his coffee and as the words left my mouth, I saw a smile starting to form on his face and his eyes crinkle up as though he was about to cry... it was only at this point that it slowly dawned on me how much he was anticipating this moment... I am truly grateful that this opportunity arose, not just for myself but for my parents... they have done so much for me in my last 21 years of life to date and I hope this little bit makes it a little more worthwhile for them... oh and after coming home super late last night without calling, the news allowed my avoiding of a dose of verbal abuse from my mum...

animals are not my friends apparently

dear readers (ie. future me) i am both peeved and in a state of slight disbelief as I am writing this... what were the odds of incurring an animal related incident two days in a row?

I was on my way out of Coles with my brother when I realised I forgot the milk... its always the milk isnt it? So my brother decided to walk off to the car first and I stayed back to grab the milk... when a racooon jumped out of the freezer.. no I'm only kidding... nothing happened... yet...

walking out of Coles towards my car, I reached out for the door handle when all of a sudden I felt a large splat on my fingers AND a bit on my toes... hmmm I thought to myself... i believe it's starting to rain...

wrong... there on my fingers and toe was not a big rain droplet but a pile of bird doo doo... >=/ thinking back I recall saying to friends on two separate occasions when they got bird shatted on that 'it is good luck!' goood luck my hinney! i take it back.. but oddly enough none of the bird poo landed on my head or the maxi dress I am wearing...

ps. mum killed two mosquitoes in the car today, both fat with blood... good riddance.
sure they didn't incur the implosion I wished upon them but I am satisfied nonetheless!

what's worse than being bitten by a mosquito?

A. being bitten by a mosquito a multiple number of times (say 19 times)
B. whilst driving... on the freeway amidst other speeding cars
C. whilst driving on the freeway, with lightning and pouring rain

and the answer is D. all of the above.

let's not also forget to mention that this was at 9pm at night so I couldnt see the little son of a bitch that was causing my minor lapses in focus whilst driving... actually son of a bitch would be technically incorrect as only female mosquitoes suck blood... so whilst trying to absently fend off an invisible enemy whilst driving and at the same time scratch and maintain the speed of 100 km/h AND stay within the lane, I must say i failed miserably... the 19 massive lumps on my two legs... (oh and one on my wrist) are proof of that...

i hope you implode from all the blood you sucked. bitch.

being a grade 3 tutor: fail

i am currently marking the exams from my grade 3 and 4 classes... and all i can think of is : FAIL. fail to you kids for making absolutely ridiculous mistakes that make absolutely no sense to me and fail to me for not drilling in the concepts hard enough. well i tried, but your attention spans dont last long enough...

1. draw a bar graph for the following data...
the sample sizes go from 1 to 8 and they give you a table with 9 rows... one student decides to put a scale of one square = 5 and to top that off, her scale reads 5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40, 40

2. same question
another student colored in groups of boxes to represent each sample... to paint a picture, little clusters of squares all over the graph....

3. find the perimeter and area
area = count the squares.. apparently that's too difficult for half the class...

4. worded problems
i really really dont see why over half the class couldnt subtract 26 from 60?!
one student's working out showed 60-26=26 and another 60-26=72....

most of them drew pictures on the last page... maybe i'll have to give them marks for their drawings instead...

that's only the grade 3's so far so hopefully i'll still have hair on my head by the end of marking the grade 4s...

antimicrobials

two of my grade 4 students carry dettol antimicrobial gels with them. How hip i thought to myself. For some reason, I didn't think they would appreciate to the full extent which bacterial species the gel is ineffective against, so i kept my mouth shut...

one shot , half ko.

i now remember the reason why i don't do shots. someone please remind me for next time!