I hadn’t checked Sri KDU’s website for a while and didn’t realise that they’ve changed the layout. Well, I just took a look at it, and I think the new website layout is much nicer than the old one.

Then after some clicking… I FOUND MY PHOTO ON THE WEBSITE!!!

I’m like, OMFG. I’ve left the school, and my photo is still there?!?!?!?! (My photo had been on the old layout too, albeit a small one. It’s not there anymore but here’s the link to my blog post about it.) OK, I know that there are plenty of photos of former student who have left the school long ago. But WTH is my photo doing there? And it’s a terrible angle no less!!

My photo on Sri KDU's website! Gasp! Click the photo to get to the webpage.

The photo was taken during the 3-way conference 2 years ago. That’s Danil and his mother talking to me, obviously about Danil’s low results. Hahaha. Thank goodness he got an A in Physics SPM. At least, I think he did. Didn’t you, Danil?

By the way, in a strange coincidence, I know the lady in red, in the top banner of the same page. She’s Joanne Wong, principal of Joyclub Dance Academy.

Was reminded of this chant the other day, it’s from the movie The Hot Chick. It’s such a silly movie that my younger sister just LOVES to watch. It’s got its own… qualities. Haha! But this chant is kinda cute.

Boys are cheats and liars, they’re such a big disgrace. They will tell you anything to get to second base… ball, baseball he thinks he’s gonna score. If you let him go all the way then you are a hor… ticulture studies flowers, geologist studies rocks. The only thing a guy wants from you is a place to put his cock… roaches, beetles, butterflies and bugs. Nothing makes him happier than a giant pair of jug… glers and acrobats, a dancing bear named Chuck. All guys really want to do is - forget it, no such luck.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302640/quotes

I had a moment of weakness. I saw it. I wanted it so bad. And it was within my reach…

I BOUGHT MY 1 TB EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!!!

The price had fallen so I grabbed it quickly!

Oh, were you expecting something juicy and scandalous? Sorry to ruin your expectations. I’m still not going to do a striptease. And Danil, I told you, you gotta go skinny-dipping on your own.

So, some of you know the news, and some of you don’t. Well, the news can’t go around that quickly, since it’s only been confirmed today. Yes, I’m going back to school. Not to study. I’m going back to Sri KDU to teach.

Already I can hear mixed responses - cries of dismay, shouts of welcome, screams of horror. Thank you, thank you. I’ll take them all positively.

Cries of dismay probably from my students - those who feel betrayed. “You left… and now you rejoin AFTER our SPM?!?!?!?!!?!” I’m sorry… I love you all but I had to do what I had to do. I didn’t even think I was going to come back to Sri KDU.

Shouts of welcome from my former colleagues - yes, I love you all too! I look forward to having tea breaks with you again. Hahaha. Except I won’t have time, actually.

Screams of horror from well-meaning friends and colleagues - “WTH are you doing back here? Go away, you!” I love you all too.

In case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t reapply for the job. I was asked to come back. It’s nice being headhunted. Hehehe.

So why did I come back, after leaving in the first place? It’s a symbiotic relationship. They need a teacher, and I like having a fixed income. Truth be told, yes, I am worried about the state of the economy next year, and having fixed income will allow me to breathe more easily.

However, this time, I’m only working part-time though. Because of that, my schedule will be packed so I won’t have time for those tea breaks I look forward to Still, it’s kind of in my favour because I have time off for my outside work You know. Like websites, and dancing, and stuff.

I’ll miss the waking up at 10am, and the constant checking-for-updates on Facebook, but I look forward to coming back to Sri KDU nonetheless.

I know you all miss me. Well, I’m back!!!

Oh, by the way, I made an appearance during the Performance & Awards Nite last Friday. Ee Ping wanted me to be there but I couldn’t stay because I had something else to do that night.

Ee Ping and I

I took lots of random photos though I thought the event was very well done, and the booklet was really good this year.

Performance & Awards Nite 2008 - Album The First

Performance & Awards Nite 2008 - Album The Second

Congratulations to all the award winners!! You are a most deserving bunch. And to all the nominees, you are also all winners. Nomination in itself is an honour.

Finally…at long last, I managed to upload photos from my Gua Tempurung trip on Facebook!!!

On Monday which was a public holiday, I went to Gua Tempurung with my sister, her friend Nathalee, and Nathalee’s husband Stephen. Gua Tempurung is a cave in Gopeng, Perak. We wanted to try basic caving, and there were guided cave tours with 4 different levels of difficulty. We of course took the most difficult level, which was supposed to be “strenuous” and would take up to 3.5 hours to complete.

Me, my sister, Nathalee and Stephen at Gua Tempurung

The tour was… OK. It got very boring and monotonous towards the end. But there’s a lot of things wrong with the way it was conducted.

1. To start the tour, there is a required a minimum of 8 people, but that morning, what they did was they lumped all the participants who signed up for the toughest level in one big group of 40+. And the number of tour guides for this group was…. ONE. And this one guide never even did a head count before going into the cave; and throughout the caving tour, he never checked to see if everyone had arrived at the next checkpoint before moving onto the next, or before explaining something (especially how to do a particular activity). Oftentimes the four of us were a little left behind (because we were taking photos or something). Although we caught up easily enough, I couldn’t help thinking if anyone got injured, the guide wouldn’t even know, and it would be difficult to call for help.
2. They did not properly inform us what we should and shouldn’t bring/wear. My sister had looked up on the Gua Tempurung website which said we should wear hiking boots. We didn’t have boots, so my sister and I wore sports shoes. However, Nat and Stephen wore strapped sandals. When we bought the tickets, they asked at the counter if the sandals were acceptable, and the reply was, “Yes, in fact that is better.” My sis and I were quite pissed off about that. I mean, we knew the tour was going to involve some water activities, but if we had known that those sandals were preferred, we’d have worn that instead. As a result, our shoes kept filling with sand and stones. By the end of the tour, I had to walk on tiptoe because the sand and stones hurt my feet.
3. 5 minutes before we started the tour, one of the attendants said that we should not bring our wallets etc, and we should leave behind expensive cameras. Stephen had brought his DSLR camera. We had a quick discussion, and then just as the tour group started going in, we quickly requested to go to our cars to put our things down, but he said the tour was already starting, and said in BM, “I already told you not to bring those things earlier!” Yeah, 5 minutes before. Shouldn’t they have given us time to put things aside then? The four of us were silly enough to bring backpacks thinking we’d need water etc. None of the other participants brought anything else except a flashlight and some brought cameras.
4. After we finished the tour, my sister and I filled up the guestbook, but it seemed that they preferred the guestbook to be filled in by foreigners because the attendant in charge of the book pointedly asked Stephen to fill it up, since he was a Mat Salleh. Yeah, we locals are just second-class citizens, right?

Anyway, as for the tour itself, the “strenuous activities” consisted of: wading through water, crawling through water, belly-crawling through water (we four skipped that one. We found that there was a way to walk around it, hahahahahaha), and one slide down a muddy slope. Nothing very stressful - for me, at least. I brought my waterproof Olympus camera and my sister took photos to her heart’s content.

I did have one fall in the cave, because my torchlight gave out as I was wading through the underground river, so I tripped and fell onto the rocks. No serious injuries, but I had a lot of bruises on my legs and arms because of that.

The tour took 4.5 hours for our group to complete because the group was too bg. By the end of the third hour, we were already actually getting bored. There was only so many photos we could take - all we could see was a dark background everytime we snapped because the flash couldn’t illuminate everything! So we compensated by having lots of stupid poses.

My photos and Nathalee’s photos are on Facebook.

Oh… and I couldn’t resist. This photo screamed to be made into an ad. By the way, this Hercules bag has been with me since I was in Form 4 (1995)… so it’s been more than 10 years!! It’s very sturdy and it’s also waterproof. I love it not only because of that, but because no one else seems to have this bag, so no one could ever pick it up and pretend it’s theirs. In fact, no one would want to - it’s not a cool bag! Back in school when everyone was carrying branded stuff like Nike or Reebok or something, I happily carried this bag because I could see it a mile away, and if I left it anywhere unattended, no one could claim it as theirs. If anyone tried to make off with it, I could point and shout, “That’s mine!!!!”

Self-made advertisement for the Hercules bag, starring yours truly!!! :D