Still struggling to mark, but failing terribly. Shall continue tomorrow. I still have a stack to accomplish over the next two days. How I wish I didn’t have to go visiting, could stay at home to sleep and battle with the impending flu (that never seemed to have really left despite the medication).

In the meantime, Happy Chinese New Year to everyone reading!

xoxo,

A very bloated, red and slightly tipsy me.

1. Galaxy Nexus (omgwtfwhywaitsolong)

Image from Androidguys.com

It’s been too long baby – you were originally supposed to come in Jan, but now Samsung says you will only arrive in Feb. I will continue to anticipate your arrival (while my dratted colleague has already rooted his phone to ICS)!

2. Sony Nex 7 / Canon G1X (it’s time for a replacement!)

Image from sonyalphanex.blogspot.com

Image from blessthisstuff.com

It’s a toss up. I was eyeing the Nex 7 because the boy had his eyes on it first, then he went with the Sony A77. It would have been a shoo-in for the Nex 7, until Canon recently released its G1X, the successor to the Canon G12. My sister’s G12 is pretty good, and for a cheaper price and a very large/good sensor, I wouldn’t mind getting the G1x instead! Choices choices.

3. Ultrabook / Jh Customs

It’s honestly tough to choose between these two. The JH customs had never quite left my mind before – it’s tucked somewhere, far away in the depths of my mind, but it’s still there. The ultrabooks were THE thing to watch at CES 2012 this year, and my laptop is coming to 4 years old (it just turned 3 at the start of this year). It’s still functioning perfectly fine now, but whenever I read reports on the ultrabooks featured at CES, I can’t help but drool. I mean, look at this stuff!

Samsung Series 9 - Image from umpcportal.com

ASUS UX21 - image from appleinsider.com

Acer Aspire S - image from news.cnet.com

All these gorgeous beauties – portable, lightweight and powerful. My Portege feels too shy to appear amongst all these ultra slim portable laptops.

And of course, the JH customs – the pair of customs that never fail to leave my mind. I actually called Jaben up last evening to ask about the prices from the JH11/JH13/JH16. It’s now or never – before I/We start paying for that heck of a flat we bought.

JH16 custom earphones - image from clutch.mtv.com

Oh sigh. The heart skips a beat just looking at you.

The weekend didn’t go too well – some disappointments, with a whole lot of waiting involved. Wish I was at the Foster The People concert – I was bloody excited when I saw it on Sistic, until I realised I had a wedding dinner on that very night.

Nonetheless, something to tide me by!

Work life is slowly becoming more steady, with me having a little more time to myself. Slow and steady is good – I can’t breathe when the pace goes too fast. I can barely hang in there. Missing some colleagues badly, one on reservist the other on maternity. Come back soon you people!

There’s a half day this Wednesday (thanks to our not-bad results in January) and the JL is headed down to Aquamarine, Marina Mandarin to feast. I think it might be our first (and hopefully not ever) JL outing (+ 1 wife + 1 baby)! The baby is going to be tortured badly – 5 predicts that his face will be sorely red by the end of the feasting session.

This week is nice, because there are no classes on Friday (not that it matters much to me, with that one single period), plus I get to meet Shuz on Thursday for her boy-woes. Gosh, talking about boy-woes brings back memories, both good and bad. Those were the teenage years – we’ve all grown older, and hopefully a little wiser.

Congrats to a good friend for his successful switch in job/career (no more mundane irrelevant work – cheers to (a hopeful) flying!) and shoutouts to the loved ones that I miss and have no time to meet. Need to make time to meet people!

19thjan with Shuz, 29thjan with Peanut+Lamsy, 4thfeb with Peanut + Eileen + partners, 12thfeb with theroo/tok.

My social circle really shrinks as I grow older. Anyone out there would like to meet me?  Can’t wait for Ling to get back from US before we can organise a girls outing with the rest.

In the meantime, leaving you with my current favourite – a cover of Pumped Up Kicks, one that I’ve featured on my blog before:

I actually think the cover is better than the original, and I already think the original is pretty awesome. Both chase the grey skies away when I’ve had a bad day. Beams.

Out of the 3 working days so far, today was the only day I felt relatively sane. If I have to keep up with the speed of working in the first two days, I will positively die by the second week.

I have to survive January, I have to. February may seem slightly better, but we’ll never know what curve balls the year/school/people may throw at us. I shudder at the thought of those curve balls.

Today was the only day I got some rest (by stoning in front of the computer) and got quality work done after the bout of stoning. I basically crashed after the first two days of school. It felt like the holidays were never here. The rush was madness and almost unbearable.

On a good note, I have an extremely adorable form class. Very very very very adorable. I’m looking forward to spending more time with this bunch of students. (:

This then returns me to the question that has been bugging me since the December holidays. I teach because I want to teach, and I love to teach. I may seem adept (or efficient) at the administrative bits but it does not mean I want to do it, and would like to do it. I have said this time and time again, I do not wish to climb and I will never want to climb up the leadership track. I’m happy being a teacher, teaching the things I love and am interested in. I have no interest paving my career upwards at the expense of my students. If I truly wanted to climb, I wouldn’t have left the private sector.

I should be spending more time on teaching, reflecting on my materials selection and teaching methods. I should not be spending more time on other things that distract me from my original intention. Sadly, that has not been the case so far for 2012, despite it being 3 days into 2012.

I am unhappy with the current job arrangement, but I’ve taken steps to mitigate the situation. The situation should turn itself around in 1 – 2 years time. In the meantime, I will ride those damned challenging waves and enjoy the time spent with the students and fellow colleagues.

2012, please be a little nicer to me?

3 – 4 years: would you call that long or short?

I strongly believe in 長痛不如短痛. Since my future is not meant to be there, I should not be idling there for long. I’ve never believed in climbing to the top, I mean to smell the roses in my life. If I don’t smell it now, when would I?

Pull the plaster off, let it bleed. Soon it will dry, and new skin forms over.

People move on. Everybody has places to go, things to see, experiences to try.

I once wrote to my graduating students indirectly, “The world is your oyster.  Go forth and seek your passion.” Shouldn’t I practise what I preach? I wonder.

I’ve given myself a deadline and I will not remain comfortable.

I took one mighty small step today.
Small, but mighty step.

What beckons come end 2013 – que sera sera.

1. The Avengers

I can’t remember when I’ve started waiting impatiently for this. Perhaps since we watched Thor, and caught a very very brief preview of the Avengers. The idea of putting all those swoon-worthy (I know, not the point) superheroes all together just sounds crazily marvellous. The action-packed scenes, the idea of the good triumphing the evil with somewhat of a (hopefully) decent plot line will make that movie a entertaining evening.

2. The Hunger Games

The book was incredible. I couldn’t put it down. I went through all three books in one shot, at one go and probably slept very little in between those three books. I will probably read it again before the movie, but I can’t wait to watch the cast live in those characters, especially Katniss and Peta (of course, how typical). They may have been young adult books, but the material is dark. I started paying really close attention to the movie when they slowly revealed the casting. Everybody had their own interpretation and ideas of how the characters should be casted, but so far the cast looks very promising. Absolutely can’t wait.

Of notable mention, I am also fairly interested in the following. Of course, not with as much wide-eyed anticipation as the earlier two, but with sufficient excitement and interest:

3. Snow White and the Huntsman

4. The Hobbit

5. The Dark Knight rises

I realised all my highly anticipated movies are generally not very female oriented movies. However, romantic comedies just don’t seem to generate as much fan fare as highly budgeted action packed blockbusters with big names in them. We can only wait and see how these movies turn out, and if they live up to expectations.

Can’t wait for 2012 to come in on the entertainment front!

On a darker note: 6 more days to the impending start of school. Falls back into gloom.

Almost just did that, after I finished my last issue of Entertainment Weekly.

Entertainment Weekly #1186/1187, obtained from EW Facebook Page.

I’m not sure if you guys realised by now, but I’m pretty obsessed with lists. It could be a simple to-do list, or a must read/listen list, or a Top Ten/Best/Worst list – I pretty much loved them all.

This explains the pure unadulterated love I had for this issue. I was reading it with sheer delight. I excitedly took out my pen and marked out the movies I had watched this year, off their list of movies rated from A+ to D. I found myself checking against the list – which were the movies/tv shows/books/music/downloads I got, and which ones I missed, so that I can go back and take note of them.

Lists like this help me to be aware of things that I may not usually engage in, and remind myself that there is so much out there to see and enjoy, aside from the things I’m interested in. So much to see and engage – ranging from mainstream to the artsy, the folksy, the indie and the likes.

It saddens me that this double issue will be the last for 2011, which reminds me again how close 2012 is approaching, at the speed of the bullet train. This reminds me to treasure every single minute and not spend it wastefully. I actually got quite frustrated with myself when I had one such day – where I literally got nothing done – I didn’t game, read or do work. I didn’t even spend the time sleeping (which is a good thing for educators –  more sleep that is)! I can’t remember what I did – and that’s not good.

May I spend the last few days of 2011 with much joy, laughter with close ones, and doing things, even if it means taking a walk along the canal near my place on a nice quiet evening, or playing games the night away, or reading up on music and books.

4 more days to Christmas, 10 days to 2012 and 12 more days to the start of school.

xoxo

Technically, since I returned from Melbourne, the impending arrival of the much dreaded 2012 has never left my mind once. I think about it at least once every day, and I think about work at least once every day. I don’t feel guilty about work because I’ve been working slowly (and hopefully steadily) since last week. Though the last time I did work was Thursday. I had too much fun today shopping with Roo (and spending our bonuses).

I swear I will work tomorrow at Starbucks Fullerton while I await the much needed massage at 3:30pm.

I need to stop thinking about the future and start living in the now. I told myself, I was going to cook more, exercise more and explore more. The only thing I’ve not done is the exercising bit. I need to get up and start moving. I’ve been cooking more and exploring more. The past Sunday was spent gloriously wandering around Tiong Bahru Conservation Area with the boy, popping by Forty Hands (sneaking a peek), Books Actually (left said store with $32 worth of local writing), walking straight past Orange Thimble (because there was no one in there) and eventually settling down at Drips Bakery Cafe (lovely fruit tarts and good coffee)!

That makes it 3 cafes explored during the week: Jewel Coffee (with Ling), Jimmy Monkey (with self) and Drips (with BX).

Plan for this week: Coffeesmith (with self) on 13 Dec (Tues) and somewhere on Thurs before haircut with Titus (am still contemplating).

Will not be in town on Friday and over the weekend – will be going on a cruise with the boy! Can’t wait to leave SG for one final time before welcoming the dreaded 2012 (see I need to get this out of my mind!).

Am off to play some Sims 3 – I swear I will stop by midnight today, and stop sleeping at 1-2am! I’ve been sleeping late, and forcing myself to wake by 8am so that my day can be meaningful. The lengths I go to, to ensure that I don’t waste my December holidays away (and get work done in the morning!).

Leaving you with a jaw-dropping Queen acappella performance by the Dartmouth Aires.  Loved their performance so much (especially since I love Queen) – I re-watched it too many times. hurhur.

Especially this cover:

I wish I could get the single, but it’s not available on Amazon. In fact, all of his covers (albums) are not available on Amazon. Which only means one thing.

I need those damned iTunes gift cards to attempt to access the iTunes store to buy his music. Why can’t he just make it available on Amazon?

Have been spending too much on music recently – been discovering bands and groups, falling in love with acapella and listening to it on repeat.

Want to see grown men do the Can-can? Watch this.

Time and time again, I remind myself why I fall in love with acapella so easily. The cheekiness, the cheoreography and the harmonies.

Been spending the last few days exposing myself to different groups, expanding my music collection through online purchasing. Looks like I’ve been spending my December pay in advance already. Already bought all of SNC’s songs. Now I just need to lay my hands on those damned gift cards so that I can buy music by Tyler Ward + Alex Goot + Fun.

Leaving everyone with one last music video – a cover by Glee on Fun.’s “We are young.”

with the original – Fun.’s “We are young”

The slogging through the entire year felt like eternity, but that trip to Melbourne (which I utterly loved) flew by in a flash. Didn’t they always say, painful times linger but good times roll by too quickly?

I guess that happened.

Many things happened since my last entry.

1. We finally chose our unit.

Lake Vista - Courtesy of DJ Property

Things are still up in the air, despite the fact that we’ve chosen the unit, and paid up 5% (oh woe me, broke girl) of the purchase price – we’re still awaiting the final final confirmation of signing the agreement before we can proudly announce the fact that we’re heavily in debt. It’s insanely scary, especially after you hear the price of our flat. Ask for details when we meet during December – I’m pretty sure I’ll see most of you this month. I will strive to see everyone this month.

2. Melbourne 2011

Ling & I had a terrific time in Melbourne. We went in, a little wary of one another, as we didn’t know each other’s travel habits. As it turned out, we went as good friends and came back as even better friends! Apparently, we can be pretty easy travel buddies, only if the other is an easy travel buddy as well. We shared the same bed for 5 nights and we didn’t kick each other off the bed. Also, we went on our separate ways for 2 days and we had fun going around ourselves too. It was really good fun, I must say.

Pictorial highlights will come when I finally lay my hands on Ling’s pictures as well. My camera has lost its charm over this trip – the colours did not turn out as good, despite the breathtaking scenery. Time to start looking and thinking of new cameras – probably the Sony Nex 7, considering that BX is in the Sony group and (oh!) I could technically get my cousin to help me get the Nex 7. The Nex 7 now may not look as pricey as it could be.

HMMMS.

Can’t wait to see most of you this holidays, can’t wait to spend my holidays meaningfully. Time to master new (basic) skills, read more, watch more tv, listen to more music (and live music), sleep more, explore more cafes (and brunches), walk around Singapore and spend more time outdoors in the nature. Hopefully spend less money in the process (but it’s a tad hard, considering I’m eyeing a new phone – Galaxy Nexus, and a new camera – Nex 7!).

Not sure if I want 2012 to come any time soon. Time, please move slower!