Dear Dreams – Page 119

Good Teacher, Yes Very the "Good"

Good Teacher, Yes Very the “Good”

“Is your ex teacher good?”

“Yes, very good.”

“Why is it so?”

“Because he plays games with us.”

It is indeed good if the teacher can interact well with the class and please them since this is one of the best ways to make them work hard; however, when the method used has totally no acdemic value with the wastage of curriculum time, it is a total setback to the education system.

This simply shows that the students are naïve that they rather spend all their lesson time playing games instead of learning.

Can We Change Lives for the Better?

Things have been going quite smoothly. By end of this month, I need not to go to Bukit Batok anymore; I just prefer a place which is more organised, though is still way off from my satisfactory level.

There are things which should be done but are not done. I cannot accept the fact but things are not within my ability to change or even improve; this is one of the reasons that I want to leave.

Of course, every man has his own worth, and I’m going to try to make sure I do something meaningful before I set off for a more peaceful life.

Domain Name Hosting Service

I had a domain transfer for the incomplete quit smoking website from Yahoo to GoDaddy.

The Yahoo Small Business’s service was recommended by Gan and the yearly price was $15, which was around the same as GoDaddy’s service; and thus I took it up nearly a year ago with excitement. However, as the expiring date approached, I realised the price had increased 100 percent, which was ridiculous.

A few days ago, I did the transfer and it took a few days, until an hour ago, for the transfer to succeed.

Is it stupid to raise the price and lose all your customers, such that you are not going to earn any at all?

Bukit Batok Phobia

Walking in heavy feet, dragging on my tired body, it was not an easy morning. I did try to sleep at three AM but it took me more than an hour to doze off; I had to blame myself for falling asleep in the late evening and too many things were running in my mind.

It was a new experience in partnering at the old place which I had not been there for more than a semester. It was supposed to be a relaxing place with no work commitment but somehow, seriousness overwhelmed.

I was pretty lost at words for the lack of knowledge and poor command of language. Partly, I had lost my drive since drained out in the previous semester. In contrast, Kevin was just too outstanding, releasing the long suppressed inferior feeling from my most inner heart.

I made a silly decision to gobble up my food to rush for the lesson which I was supposed to be late for, and with that, I might need to continue with the commitment twice per week.

It was the first time I did not get to check my email at all with the usual interruption of minor issue, and later on, the tea session with Dust. Oliver arrived with the kids later and we started crapping together.

I hated big group meeting especially when I was extremely lack of sleep. I almost dozed off so often and had to put up a bit of drama to cover up for my nodding of head.

Weitat and I packed up and went to the hall straight away. The volleyball game was tempting but I did not bring my gears along. Weitat announced about the session the day before but I was as usual, did not catch the full story and also, forgot to ask him about it when I was free.

I simply sat by the side of the hall to watch them play. They had some training before getting into match. All the while, luckily for Oliver was besides me with his full-of-shit craps.

Phobia for School

Resuming work was quite exciting yet nervous.

It was a short and quick start for the day and the main objective was just a briefing.

As usual, my hairstyle was the centre of attention whenever I tried to keep them standing. Some teased that I looked like I just got up from bed, but some were impressed. I probably looked trendier than when I was in my usual untidy hair, which I did not bother to spend time on.

Mrs Ng tried to pour in more guilt inside me by reminding me of her disfigured nose, which was caused by me a week ago. She could see through me so well that she knew I had been bothered by it since that day. It served a good lesson to me so that I would use my brain more than strength in future.

The same Chinese mixed vegetable stall that I used to frequent somehow did not satisfy my tongue.

Delivering free movie tickets was the best job on earth. It was just too bad that only the best could receive them, since I felt that many people’s effort should also be awarded, despite of the end results. The moment of togetherness poured great memories into my heart, soaking me with the reluctance to part with them.

There was a small search for laptop in the afternoon and I was glad that I was able to offer sufficient help. Madam Seet was definitely one of those whom I was going to worry about after my departure even though she was one of the most senior around.

Weitat, Jingkun and I had some discussion about our next steps. For me, I feared too much that I would not be able to cope with my own studies next year and I despised the fact that I was been persuaded to change my mind so many times and now that the table had turned over.

Even though I had tried to blackout at as early as around two AM, I felt sleepy throughout the day. Having to handle new assignments which I had to spend time to explore was totally off my initial plan.

Last Weekend of Holidays

The weekends were spent mainly on doing my website. I woke up early on Saturday morning since I slept early at around midnight, but it was not long before I started to feel sleepy again. I had a sleeping marathon before getting into real work.

My body was exhausted and that was probably the reason why I felt so tired throughout the day. The aching all over my body refused to subside after the long rest.

I spent the last comfort night continuing with my work and disrupted my plan of sleeping early again.

I went to sleep when daylight broke out and only got up in the early afternoon. Without sufficient rest and together with the warm weather, work progress was slow.

Nevertheless, the little result I had for the two days was good enough for the progress.

I probably had over-exerted my left hand badly during the previous golf session. The condition was really bad.

Golf for the Second Time

I’m trembling so much on my left hand that holding a bottle of drink gives problems. It was since Friday, during the golf session with Irwin, my body entire was whacked.

I was supposed to meet him up early at seven AM in the morning but both of us felt lazy and we pushed the nine AM appointment further into the evening. He was sending his girlfriend off at the airport and we managed to meet up at around six PM, and he was actually late for half an hour.

We strolled over to the driving range from Queenstown MRT station, which was in fact quite near. It was my second trip there and my second try on golfing as well.

The glove to be worn on the left hand cost eighteen bucks, whereas the rental of each club was two bucks. 150 balls were at the price of ten bucks. The glove could probably last a few trips and therefore, it was not an extremely expensive sport like what everyone would have thought like me before I first stepped into the driving range.

This time, we went to the second level. I started off telling myself not to act like a bull, and instead, to analyse by trial and error on my posture. It began all well and there was great improvements that I managed to hit the ball over the 65 metres signboard. Nevertheless, my greediness slowly took over control of my brain and I started using strength to hit the ball further, and I was close to the 95 metres signboard.

The few eager tries soon brought my ego down, with the miscue of the club. I was drained further from the previous days of sports and my back injury sang the same tune of my exhaustion.

When Irwin started correcting me over my posture and ineffective use of strength, it was too late. My left hand was too tired to grab the club firmly. I persisted on with another 50 balls and out of luck, I managed to do the correct swinging a few times and the impact of the golf club on the ball gave off beautiful sound.

After dehydrating ourselves, we ended the game and sat inside a café next to the billiard centre to replenish our body. Then, we had a tough time waiting for bus 51.

Irwin had bought some titbits from his previous Korea trip with his girlfriend, my so-called “da sao”, and thus I followed him home to get my share of goodies. My main purpose was just to visit his house and experience what he called as climbing the hill. Indeed, we had a tough time climbing up the estimated half kilometre of slope.

Right after getting my free goodies, he took his brother’s car and we set off for the nasi lemak stall near the NUS campus. After the dinner, he sent me home.

After bathing, I sat in front of my computer to realise that even my right hand was weak and that it took me too much effort to simply click on the left mouse. Thus, I went into the room to enjoy the massage chair and right after that, I dozed off on the bed and it was only around midnight.

Lunch at NTU, Dinner at TG Pagar

On Thursday, our lunch was at NTU. Dessy was not free to join us this time. We met up with Jingkun’s girlfriend at the same food court near NIE. I tried the Indonesian stall besides the western food, getting a plate of fried chicken with fillet, which cost $4.80. The curry sauce was good and the chicken was good, but the fillet tasted almost same like the chicken; overall, it was good.

Jingkun sent his girlfriend home and then he demonstrated filling up his car’s oil tank before we went back to office.

Jingkun and Weitat went to find Mingli for dinner but I decided to continue with my work. I went to the hall for volleyball at around six PM. Mingfa was already doing his coaching there and my gang were around as well. I got changed into my sport attire with the new FBT shorts Mingfa help to buy. Next was a comfortable sleep by the side of the hall with no disturbance from the mosquitoes.

With my right hand in pain due to the badminton session the day before, I began my volleyball game with very lousy performance. Towards the end, I eventually got used to the pain and stiffness but the fun began too late.

I joined them for dinner after volleyball. Mingfa went home earlier to fetch his sister’s car before coming back for Weitat, Mingli and I. In the end, we realised Wilson and Mingen were joining us. The three of us took a car each and we approached the prate shop near my house. I was in Wilson’s car for a recap of fondable memories of the past which big group of us went for meal after volleyball.

Wilson and I avoided making a big turn but the rest of them did not seem to know the road well enough. The prata was off standard for the night.

Badminton with Guilt

I got a little stressed on Wednesday on the Gallery2 project. I hated simple talks when actions were far beyond imagination. The frustration was caused by some guilt as well since the holiday mood had dragged the process down a lot. At least, I was spending the hours in the office well by learning PHP on my own.

We were supposed to pick Mingfa up at the nearby bus-stop for lunch together but Weitat missed the stop as we were crapping inside the car. We had lunch at Holland Village’s hawker centre near the carpark. The fish and chips I ordered from the China lady’s stall was not of satisfactory standard.

I did a little work before going down to join the rest for badminton. Mrs Ng came back specially to join us. I paired up with her and while saving a shuttle cock near the far back line, she turned behind suddenly and my racket hit hers, which ended up hitting her nose. Guilt filled my afternoon.

It was the second time I played badminton after ten years of missing-in-action in the sport and the swinging of the racket was a total new challenge to me. Without doubt, we had good games filled with fun and laughers. The spraying of insecticide halted our game and we left early, which made me feel bad since Mrs Ng had come all the way down and we could have played longer together. It seemed that other colleagues came down to join us after we left.

Where is the Friendship Heading to?

When we get closer and treat each other nicer, will there be endless jokes?

When expectation raises, will there be as much tolerance as before?

Things will eventually improve for the better, and for the worse as well.

As you are treating all your friends with extreme kindness that your good intention has overwhelmed your entire brain, will you ever think over what you have missed out?

Where is the friendship heading to when you are getting oversensitive to conversations, treating jokes and causal remarks as harsh words?