i told you i would drive away

There’s work waiting for me to do. There are certificates waiting to be collected and sent for photocopying. There are exercise books waiting to be marked, experiments waiting to be carried out.

And the list goes on.

I still haven’t really recovered from the fact that we will not be sent for the basketball competition.

“There’s always next year”, some said.

OK FINE. WHATEVER.

*
We had our getaway over the weekend.
And I think playing in the rain was the best part. :)

*
i'm halfway thru South of Broad. I think the story matches my jimo-ness.



sometimes, it's really a bit too late and you found yourself at the point of no return.
and you began to live in the world of 'what-if'.. The what-ifs filled up your mind every time you locked yourself in those moments.

Those Moments that stayed.

when you're confused,

the only certainty is uncertainty.

and the only thing predictable is unpredictability.


:)

jingle bells

fake trees that attract attention.

i am waiting for 29th to come. going back there will be like a kick-start of series of events. people always say the best is yet to come. and i really want to believe it. 2011'd better be more awesome than 2010.

Well we went through the scariest thing a person can go through and we survived.

the decision has been made.

yet, doubts heightens the sense of insecurity and uncertainty. and the sense of insecurity and uncertainty makes me feel more doubtful at times.

there's no right or wrong decision, just good and not-so-good decision.

spare me your judgment, spare me your dreams.



it's time to make a comeback.

can't fight biology.

*gee, it's the title for Grey's season 7, episode 4*

and so, as i have predicted -- bio results is a hell of disaster.

paper 1 - majority of them gets 20 something over 50.

paper 2 - i am halfway through marking their papers. maybe there will be a few of them (can count with fingers using EITHER my left, or right hand) get 50-ish over 100.

paper 3 - hoho, majority gets 20-ish over 50.

i have discussed the above questions 3-4 times ever since we covered the chapter on Enzymes, right until before the bio papers.

basically, the question asks the students to explain why the *smart* housewife marinates cutlets of meat with strips of papaya and put it in a basin containing warm water.
use your brain to apply some knowledge of biology - cutlets and strips is to increase surface area. papaya contains enzyme papain that can tenderize the meat.
warm water is to provide optimum temperature for enzymatic reaction.

easy, right?
gosh, there are still students who couldn't answer it correctly,
giving me ALL SORTS of crap.
like the example given above -- she answered in a way as if she is preparing some cooking recipe.

the question above asks for ways to prevent development of cancer cells.
what can i say?
i can't deny the existence of divine power, can i?

this student - i don't know how much he has learned or remembered over the past 10 months studying biology.

his papers are one of the easiest to mark, together with a few more of them.
cross. cross. cross. and cross.

but i know he remembered one important thing i told them during one of the lessons,
and i am sure it will stick with him for the rest of his life.

the meaning of bowel movement and pass motion.
oh crap.

the marks for the whole bio paper? i think they can barely get a pass for it.

my weekend in KK

I was there for an inter-school program, involving 5 residential schools in sabah, sarawak and labuan.

Mt K at the background. with the form 5 girls.

The peak. All covered by clouds.

i know i have to take picture of this because it reminds me of Bruno Mars. and therefore reminds me of songs like ...
"and you're amazing, just the way you are......"

My housemate was in KK the same weekend for something else. She got me out from that THM school in the second evening. Oh by the way, THM officially stands for Terrible, Horrible, Miserable.

KK. Waterfront.

On the way to Tanjung Aru. Special effect because the car was moving.

Sunset at Tanjung Aru. It was really nice to stand at the shore, watching the sun went down, trying to keep calm and be at peace amidst the whirlwind of thoughts.

oh, the teachers slept in the sickbay. of all places. another THM room with cockroaches and THM bathroom.

The program ended on Sunday noon. And off we went to Centre Point.

Sat in Starbucks with my book. and decided i can't be sitting here for 6 hours and therefore i went to watch the Wall Street movie.

The jalan-jalan continued at One Borneo after sending the students from Miri to the airport.

And these are the books i bought.

and something you must know.. so it took us 9 hours to travel from LD to KK. i have never been on such a long journey BY BUS, going up and down hill. but it was kind of fun, though. :P

can i just forget about work?

'secrets'

i wonder what people will think of me if i really ..... yes, i am driven by what people think of me, to a certain extend, even though nowadays i always say that i don't really care. whatever.

i am not in my right mind. maybe because i am right-handed and therefore left brain dominant.
what the crap. i am talking nonsense.

i am being too rational and i think too much. and because of this gift, i am always afraid to take risks. and therefore cutting off my spontaneity.

i hate food poisoning.

i don't want to give up so soon but i don't know how to carry on.

we are all drama queens.

and i miss you. you were in my dreams.

back in Ipoh!

After 12 hours of traveling with a good one hour break in Coffee Bean with ajw, finally i reached home at about 6.30pm yesterday. And the Ipoh air smells really good! *screams and jumps like a mad fellar*

It's so good to see tall buildings, wide highways, normal cars, etc etc etc. Like what i told some of them -- the feeling of reconnecting with 'civilisation' is beyond description. No offense when i mentioned the word civilisation. haha. until now i am still trying to explain to my self what exactly i am feeling at this point of time. When i was in the bus going back from the airport -- it's like my heart was shouting

'
this is where i belonged to ....

i am supposed to live a few years of my life in a place like this..

and not spending them in a faraway land without this, without that .....'

*ok, i think i was possessed and taken over by the insane jiaaaa when those lines came out from the brain cells* please try to understand how pissed i can get at times.

anyway, i am glad that another quarter of the year is gone. thank God. a few more months to go and i will be done with my year one in that freaky place. i took pictures of the toilet in my flat and i shall show you all some time later.

half a year -- i realised some things.....

1. how big the gap between this side of the world and that side of the world is.
2. i am not altruistic and i cannot be like that.
3. at times, i couldn't care less.
4. i chose to go for posting and that's why i ended up there.
5. i think too highly of my self. i don't think i can be what i wanted to be or do what i wanted to do.
6. i am slowly giving up.
7. i want to do something else. seriously.

Ok, probably the above are reasons why teachers get to have a long mid year break and a long year end break. hahaha :P

i need to calm down a bit

Be very careful, then, how you live -
not as unwise but as wise,
making the most of every opportunity,
because the days are evil.

Eph 5:15-16

*

Jia is going for the interview by SPP. it's tomorrow morning.
I have been reading about NKRA, NEM, and some other issues here and there. Sigh. I don't like the idea of reading all this stuff just to pass the interview. Whateverlar. sigh.

Tuesday nights is my math 'tuition' night. I am trying all that i can to help that few students who are performing way below par. It's not easy because sometimes i just can't understand what is it that they don't understand. I am trying. Real hard.

Lately I have been kind of losing my patience, especially when it comes to explaining the steps to solve the math problem. sigh. same for Science and Bio. It's been quite tiring, seriously.

Seriously, one day i might erupt like a volcano. I hate the word 'blank'. Gosh. The students always say,

"Teacher, blank..."
*which means they DON'T UNDERSTAND A THING and they have learnt NOTHING*

In my heart, I was like... 'hey, kid, i tell you what, another 'blank' from you i will make sure you feel sorry for every 'blank' you uttered and whenever you fill in any blanks you will so be reminded of the sins you committed in Math. :p

I need to learn how to punish the students, how to rotan them.. etc. I can't believe how 'nice' i have been all this while.

Two more weeks to mid year exam. I need to start preparing the exam papers. I will be setting the Form 2 Math paper 1 and 2, and Form 3 Science paper 1. busy busy.

I should learn to make the most out of all the opportunities i can get throughout my days here. I am entering my 5th month in LD. It's been interesting I must say, although some of the days were pretty terrible, horrible and miserable.. *aha* but in many occasions, God has been speaking 'sense' into my heart and head, and this is encouraging.

and....

Cooking saves me *from the hell of school work*

;)

something nice.

i should think of something nice to blog about. gah. that really squeezes my brain to the max.

school has been quite a disaster. some same old grandma stories about the kids.

probably i have been toooo nice to the students and they think i am easy to be bullied, or some easy piece of meat to take down. *roar*

i need to cook.

gah.

same o' whateverlar.

maybe i can be a chef

"maybe teaching isn't for me..
maybe I should go back and help my father in the restaurant..."

That line comes from a movie i watched some time ago. I can't remember what show was that but i kind of remember repeating that to rc, and some other people, i think. I actually jotted down that line in my MooLoo Cow notebook after the show.

argh.

Hmmm, there are two things i like being in LD. I love the foggy mornings. It can be really foggy and all, and that gives me some thrill to get up early. Second thing -- being a chef. I picked up cooking ever since i landed here. I get to experiment some new dishes, re-create the dishes served in my family restaurant and that really helps bringing my HOME to LD. I enjoyed preparing meals -- the cutting, the planning, and all that comes with cooking. That gives me some adrenaline rush and helps to reduce stress. haha. What a good way to cut off the stress after a day of dealing with *ahem* kids!

now we have gotten ourselves an induction cooker. there's going to be more fun coming. ;)
Next round, probably will get hold of some other stuff and start making some cool drinks. It's quite difficult to get them in LD. Well, and probably can try baking too! Meanwhile, i shall start keeping a record of the dishes i cooked - chinese and western. Isn't that awesome?

Oh well, I guess AFC and T&L have become my favourite Astro channels.

Life can be good in this place and wherever you are. As you want it to be.

Happy Easter!

Pirates!

and the policemen! I can finally have some pirates-police stuff after 3 months in LD.

jiaaaaaa went to this place called Borneo Paradise Eco Farm in Lahad Datu this afternoon. It's a school Biology field trip for the Form 5 students. They are supposed to go there, look at some mangrove trees, the whatever pneumatophore and viviparity thingy, and then do a report on this whole trip as one of their PEKA projects.

Tomorrow i will be going there again, bringing the second group of students.

One of the policemen with higher ranking gave us some briefing on safety and emergency stuff. He kept talking about "kalau ada apa-apa ancaman...." (if there's any threat.....)

ancaman...

ancaman......

ancaman......!!

In my heart, I was like thinking, "what kind of threat? Tigers? Snakes? Crocs? Poisonous frogs?"

And so, I asked the teacher standing beside me.

"The ancaman he's talking about.... he's refering to ancaman from animals, right.......?"

He looked at me with his eyes wide open, and he said to me...

"Nooooooooo.. it's ....."
and he made the word lanun with his lips.

Wah... i was like... weeeee.. got pirates stuff finally :p

i'm so crappy, right? hahahaha.
anyway, the pirates better not show themselves up tomorrow coz' i will be there. :p

this 2 weeks i am going to be dead busy.

a few weeks ago

these were some of the pictures i took during my CNY break back at the other side of my world. gah, i was hit by the worst nightmare when the dvd which i used to save the pictures turned out to be 'empty' when i checked it the other day!! *pengsan, but good thing is i haven't deleted them from my camera* so, at the mean time i have to retrieve some of them from facebook coz' i am lazy to get them from my baby canon. :p

my cousin

this is a CNY jump!

oh yeah.. i bought the celcom broadband thingy. at least now i got something to do after school which is to lepak online. haha. astro is still not here yet. gah. did i tell how terrible miserable horrible it can be when there's only TV1 and TV2, and can't even get TV3? i have never known how suffering it could be until i landed here in this place. :P

think positive, jiaaaa!! Happy thoughts!!!!!

and so yesterday was the first day of school break and i actually woke up early to catch the sunrise and walked along the trail to school to take some pictures. hmm, at least it is something constructive and therapeutic to do. :p

you'll be fine.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

I am waiting to go home.

This week the students had their Feb test.
I don't know how to describe what i am feeling right now. What will you do if most of them failed the test? I set the form 2 maths and form 3 science paper. Science paper was ok, although most of the students in my classes got below A, and a few of them failed the paper. Maths is a totally different story. Only a few of them passed, and the rest failed. How? :(
This Feb test is really a mood spoiler larrr!

But one good thing is, the Bio results of my budak form 4 is quite encouraging. Not like they get A+ or things like that, but comparing to the objectives questions i let them do the other day, they did better in the Feb test. ;)

Basketball training went well. Taking a break during the holidays. The MSSD will take place during the first week after holidays. Then we will head to Kuching for basketball competition. The first two teams will represent the zone to Kelantan.

Overall, the week before the CNY break is a disaster. grrrrhhhh...

Ok, stop counting the bad things.

Continue with the good-things-list:

1. enjoyed the basketball training
2. enjoyed the extra classes for my form 4 budaks and taught them chinese
3. enjoyed the craziness of the form 3 and form 4 budaks i teach
4. going back to ipoh
5. got my pay
6. brought the basketball girls to menjolok jambu
   
7. better bio results
8. i can cook

i shall not think about the school stuff until i am back to LD after the break. ;)

Happy thoughts!!!!

bukankah today the end of week 2 in school?

nothing extraordinary. thank God :p

it has been raining in LD for the past few days. and i began to miss the sun and the heat in my house .. my fan-less house .. *_*

cooking is fun. well, in this no-life place, you create life.. and so, you cook! you cook to make yourself happy, you cook to feel good, you cook kill time, you plan your meals for the whole week, you plan what dishes you want to cook, you think about the dishes in your family restaurant and you re-create them in the land outside of ipoh old town. not bad eh? :p

*darn. my email is taking ages to load and it's still blank and i need to email the pelan-pelan to the ketua bidang.. *

hope the PIC can process the papers and give me my well-deserved pay as soon as possible.

stupid insects, lizards and arachnids!

sigh. and how come there's still 4 more weeks before CNY?!

there was a giant killer bee

it flew into the kitchen.

then it flew in and out of the living room. i thought it was gone.

i went in to my room and was shocked to see it lepak-ing in my room near the window.

so i started the battle against the giant killer bee with the Smack That song.....

smack that. it's on the window. smack that. give me somemore. smack that. til it get sore. smack that. ooooh oooohhhh..

it fainted on the floor. i tah-pau it in a plastic bag. then my housemate said, "eh, it won't bore a hole and escape, right?''

ok.. to make sure it's really dead and won't bore a hole to escape, she started to chop the plastic bag with a hand-held fan like she's chopping garlic.

R.I.P., giant killer bee.

as 2009 comes to an end.....

The LORD bless you and keep you;

The LORD make His face to shine upon

you and be gracious to you;

The LORD lift up His countenance upon you

and give you peace.

****

OK.. some random stuff to make me excited about going to LD...

rachel choong : lahad datu
rachel choong : woooo
wong : hahahah yeah. it's going to be awesome kan
rachel choong : yeah man
wong : i get to do the big girl thing in the land near the pirates and abu sayaf
rachel choong : nice
rachel choong : even cooler than mine I must admit
wong : haha y is it cooler than urs?
rachel choong : cos you got pirates
rachel choong : i only have like lousy chinese gangsters
wong : hahahhahahaha....

Alright... whatever it is.... bring it on! i'm all set to be Ms. Wong in LD!

O' Holy Night

my *whole* family and i went to CGMC for Christmas eve service.
notice the word *whole*
that is the best Christmas gift, from God.
oh well, besides the posting news.
;)

just only checked my mail, saw Ben's email on Simplicity written by Ken Rockwell. and i thought of the pictures i took during the service last night. my baby canon's battery died, so i was back to using my faithful SE 770i. the noise is obvious, cameraphone la, what to expect. I have other carolling pics in baby canon but i don't think i have the time to go through them and copy to my laptop.

the huge luggage with its mouth wide opened is staring at me, waiting for me to fill it up and shut its mouth.

oh jiaaaaaa, how are you?

mixed feelings which is waaaaaaaaaay beyond description. don't make me cry!
anyway, thanks for all the sayangs you all left on my FB. and the texts and the calls. they really helped to boost the excitement. do i sound excited?

i went to straighten my straight hair yesterday.
you know what, last time the tv always showed the Taiwan army shows... how the boys have to go for their national service, then they have to do the crew cut... sleep on bunk beds... wake up at the call of the siren..

and so, when the lady was trimming my hair.... i thought of those boys in the national service doing the crew cut.... cis... kanasai
i'm going for national service. thank God no need crew cut.
hope that there's no more bunk beds.
no call of siren except for the waktu Subuh, or fire drill in the middle of night.
but the sun comes out so much earlier there.

then last night before i dozed off... i thought of my PoT's ~ from Jonah to Nehemiah.

i couldn't help but thinking that God indeed has a really good sense of humour and an amazing skill of giving surprises to people. i did ask 'why God, why larrrr Saaaaabaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh...?'

i am praying that the internet there is ok. and Digi Yellow Man had better not fail me. and the government had better pay me well. :p

there's so much to say. seriously. T_T

ok. i guess i had better go packing..

when the reality begins to sink in

most probably i will be celebrating the New Year 2010 in Lahad Datu and geographically, earlier than you who are 'stuck' in West Malaysia. ;)

i am feeling 'jimo-fimo-finding-nemo' now.
today was the last day of JCard day. my mum bought me a huge luggage. shoes. and a new toy (at least it can kill some boredom away).

this is probably the last batch of 2009 pictures taken in Ipoh Old Town before i start shooting places in Sabah, oh particularly Lahad Datu.

and this is my new toy.

this was taken half an hour ago.

when reality begins to sink it. sigh.

Tahniah! ~Sekolah Berasrama Penuh~

*jeng jeng jeng jeng....*

after waiting for so many months, finally the posting result is out and i got a job! :p

i am posted to a boarding school which at the moment, i still have no idea which school, don't even know which state. as you can see from the pic above, they only tell me that i am posted to Sekolah Berasrama Penuh and there are so many SBP in West Malaysia alone (you can check from Wikipedia). so i called the department dealing with SBP today before lunch hour. it finally got through after trying many many many many times. the lady (she is nice though) told me to wait for the letter because she couldn't check for me as the officer in charge is on leave. (me: ???!!!!!). therefore, the waiting continues as the letter containing the necessary information is taking ages to come.

well, i am quite excited and happy with what i get, despite the known fact that i can be sent to any SBP in any state. LOL. but then hor, i tell you what, there is still STAR right outside my housing area. haha. the chances of getting STAR is one out of sixty *my probability sucks, so i just use the simpler one*. Not too bad, right? anyway, i shall not have high hopes of getting STAR. hehe. :p

oh my mum is very happy with the posting result though. she said i don't need to think so much about what to wear to school. oh well, quite true, right?

looking at the more serious stuff...

FES prophetic call no.5 ~ to break down walls of prejudice against majority neighbour

that is really a challenge to me. if you know me well enough. i guess it will be harder for me if i am posted to a matriculation centre. just to be honest. haha. but getting into SBP is definitely a good start because there wasn't much 'breaking down of walls' during my uni days, not to mention primary and secondary school days.

i am waiting to settle this posting stuff so that i can move to my next agenda which is to get my camera. my mum has nodded her head on that and is willing to make that stretch to get one that is better than D3000. hehe. i'll be heading to Poon Photo in town to check up the stuff one of these days.

gee. i heard some noise. it's dinner time. ;)

it rained the whole day.

i have been back in ipoh for more than a week. oh i thought the posting list will come out on the 17th but who knows, i received forwarded messages from different people telling me that it is only coming out on the 21st. *crap, which is 3 days later*. i wonder where i will end up at. *_*

photoshop. i did my first triptych and i am just looking for 'chances' to print it out. and about that particular photoshop technique ~ it's something i should have done for my KO-K project instead of printing the pictures separately *not that there's anything wrong with it though*. now only i understand what the En. Abbas was trying to say during the lectures on photoshop stuff. guess what, i learned that from the Digital Camera mag which i have been following monthly since this August. :)

while waiting for the 21st of Dec to come, i'm....

1. still doing some research on what camera to buy. Nikon D3000, D5000, D40(x), or D90*in my dream*; Canon EOS 1000D, 450D.
2. continuing with my 'favaorite' pastime ~ to peel garlic and peanuts.
3. still driving like a mad fella who doesn't like people getting into her way. :p
4. not thinking where i will end up *pretty ignorant at times*
5. trying to play more with photoshop.
6. looking forward to tonight's steamboat makan *curse the heavy rain*

;)