Little-Wonder.Net

31 August, 2003

Singapore, a place where everything changes rapidly

00:13:43 | Daily Life | writebacks (8)

Despite living in Singapore for my whole lifetime, I only realised that the sun rises rapidly here in Singapore. Upon getting up this morning and heading to the bathroom, the sky outside was still pitch dark. It still remained that way when I emerged from the bathroom after 15 minutes and headed back to my room. However, when I re-emerged 5 minutes later, it was completely bright outside. I stood there for a split second, stunned at the whole scenario before sitting down to read the morning newspaper. As soon as I sat down, it began to rain heavily.

I was completely astounded at how the sky can change from pitch darkness to brightness and from clear to rainy weather within just 20 minutes. Before heading for college for the Chinese Faculty Test later on, my mother and struggled through the heavy rain towards the car with a huge umbrella. As soon as we we were safely inside the car, the rain just stopped, aruptly. My mouth fell open for the second time as I glanced out of the window at the suddenly-clear sky. Sigh… if we had known earlier, we would have waited at the lobby for another 5 more minutes before heading towards the car. This also means that I had gotten myself drenched for nothing…

Paul really made me furious today, during the Chinese Faculty Test. We were all seated together in the auditorium during the test, working busily on the paper and nearing the end of the faculty test, Paul (who did not know the answers to many of the questions) just grabbed Erika’s paper away from her table and started copying all her answers. Erika panicked and tried to snatch her paper back, but Paul held the paper out of her reach. Later on, Erika and I spotted Mr Henry Low coming and tried in a desperate attempt to get her paper back. But Paul held it away again, telling her that he just needed to copy one more question. I was so frustrated with him that I just yelled at him to return Erika’s test paper to her, despite all the stares received by the rest of the students around. What angered me most was that he wasn’t caught. He has absolutely no right to just snatch Erika’s paper away from her without her permission and neither should he be copying all of Erika’s answers. People who are like that really have no self-respect…

The make-up Chemistry lecture followed soon after, with all the Chemistry students stuck in the freezing cold auditorium for a whole 3 hours. However, I was pretty surprised at myself as I managed to remain attentive during the whole lecture, scribbling notes furiously as the lecture progressed. At the end of the three hours, I found my mind swimming with Chemistry-related facts, which simply meant that I had understood everything that Miss Khoo had talked about during the Chemistry Lecture. This certainly gives me one less item to worry about as I can now fully focus on the remaining topics which I hadn’t quite managed to understand…

29 August, 2003

Disastrous Teachers’ Day Celebration

22:07:42 | Events, School Life | writebacks (8)

Not one of the best Teacher’s Day celebration I had ever experienced, but today’s celebration definitely takes the cake for being the most disasterous I had ever come across…

Firstly, the decorations were poorly done. As the concert progressed, the banners which were hung above the stage started to peel off one by one, landing on the performers on the stage. During one point, the student councillors were standing on the platform when a part of the banner fell off. Upon realising what had happened, I saw them inch towards the area where the banner had landed in an attempt to cover up what had just taken place. However, the entire hall had erupted into giggles by then…

Secondly, the situation in the hall was pretty much chaotic as students whispered amongst themselves during the whole duration of the concert. Many people even laughed loudly when the choir teacher went onstage to sing, which seemed really impolite. I can’t imagine how the teacher would be feeling when she is mocked at openly while onstage, and it is supposed to be her day as well. The least thing the students should do is to appreciate what she is doing as, after all, she had gone through many long hours of practice for her performance today.

I came up with the idea of getting my Chinese teacher a card. Erika and I came togather to decorate the card before scouting the entire college grounds for members of my Chinese group. I only managed to locate Edmund, Grace and Jaime whilst the rest had mysteriously disappeared. Turned out that the remaining people had decided to cut school halfway and illegally sneaked out of the college when nobody was looking. Thus, we had no other choice but to pass Mr Wong an incomplete card. However, Erika and I were hysterical when the card was finished, namely because we had addressed Mr Wong as “Mr Sebastian”, an English nickname which we had given him. I wonder how his reaction would be when he sees the card…

As for my subject tutors, my entire class (03S09) chipped in to purchase a rather big stuffed puppy for each one of them. Hui Hua and I was hugging one of the stuffed puppy and cooing over it when Miss Loh walked into the room. Immediately, both Hui Hua and I scrambled around, attempting to stuff the stuffed puppy into the paper bags, out of sight. Miss Loh was delighted with the little stuffed bear the class bought for her, but that didn’t stop her from conducting the Chemistry Test which she had set for us. Thankfully, the test was rather easy and I am now looking forward to achieving a good grade for it.

Last but not least, I have revamped my Portfolio. Took me a whole afternoon’s work and now I have suddenly realised that I have yet to study for my Chinese Faculty Test, which is to be held tomorrow. Wish me luck! :)

Before ending this post, I wish to extend my best wishes to all teachers in Singapore. Continue with all the hard work you are putting into educating young people like us. We definitely appreciate all that you are doing.

28 August, 2003

The Mars Phenomenon

22:23:01 | Little Things | writebacks (10)

Did anyone see Mars in the night sky last night?

For the benefit of those who are clueless as to what this Mars Phenomenon is about, Mars was predicted to be very close to Earth last night (27th August 2003), resulting in it appearing bigger and redder in the night sky. I was euphoric upon learning about it and was looking forward to yesterday night so that I can bask in the glory of this celestial body. However, I was greeted by overcast skies last night when I peered out of the window. I gave up, thinking that Mars would still be visible this morning at 6:30am when I head for college since the skies would still be fairly dark.

Sadly though, it was raining heavily when I awoke. Sigh… why am I so unlucky??

ChannelNewsAsia featured the whole scenario on TV Mobile today and I was watching it in the bus. I was completely fascinated by what those people saw. According to one man who resided in Australia, Mars had appeared one and a half times bigger than the moon! On the other hand, some of my friends who were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Mars last night only reported it being a fairly small reddish star. When my father heard about the claims of that Australian man, he accused him of exaggerating. According to him, such a size would never be possible since Mars is definitely so much further away from the Earth as compared to the moon.

The Science Centre will be holding a “Mars Star Party” this weekend (Saturday) from 7:30 to 12 midnight. I am thinking of going since I had always wanted to see how this planet looked like through a telescope.. Anyone going?

Anyway, I’d have to embark on my revision for the Chemistry test on Organic Compounds which would be held tomorrow, first period. It puzzles me as to why teachers are so willing to hold a test on Teacher’s Day Eve. Wouldn’t it mean more scripts for them to mark during their long weekend? (raises eyebrow) Despite all the protests from my fellow classmates, my Chemistry teacher still kept a firm stand about the test being held tomorrow. Is she that eager to mark our exam scripts?

One thing for sure, she definitely wouldn’t look forward to marking my exam script, mainly because I know I am going to fail that entire test…

(runs off to study)