Headline: Chye free transferred to lechye.blogspot.com
Brothers, I am sorry. I've gotten my own blog.
I feel like Sol Campbell leaving Spurs, like Roy Keane leaving Manchester United, like Fowler leaving Liverpool. Chye and the PTW's blog - inseparable.
It is here at the Stadium of PTW where I had posted countless entries. It is here where I had cultured my style of writing, if there was any style at all. And I actually feel a strong sense of betrayal starting a new blog. It's like selling my soul to the devil, doing what everyone else is doing (no offence to those who already have their own blogs)
The official opening of the blog is 28 Aug 2006, a deliberate choice to coincide with the birthday of Jeffry Thambunanto, whose posts never fail to inspire. If you visit the blog, you will realise the first post is dated 26 Aug but dates are mere formalities. Sheares Hall was inhabited in 2004 but the official opening was in 2005. My blog welcomes its first post on the 26th but its official birth shall be the 28th.
In the future, as I draft my post, it would no longer be 'Old Habits die hard...' that I would see at the near top left hand corner of my screen and I wonder if there would be any difference...probably not...haha
Anyway, the only good thing abt setting up one's blog so far is that I've learnt something abt html. And I've added a tagboard on the blog so can drop by to congratualate me whenever Liverpool wins a match, which should be rather often.
Till then, chye makes his exit from the PTW's blog and will return in 2 years time, when le chye reverts to ah chye.
À bientôt.
regret bu regret
Moments earlier, I was in the toilet. Thoughts breezed through my mind as the smell of shit breezed through my nose.
Ever since I put my signature to paper and contracted (pun fully intended) my immense talents to educating some 15, 16 years old bugger for 5 years, I've been thinking what kind of teacher I want to be. Definitely (or bien sûre as the french would say), I want to be bigger than a Math teacher. I want to direct them towards an adventurous way of leading life.
I recall a conversation I had with Kenny during the fondly-remembered days of wiping LCDs. We were talking about sciences, and perhaps - my memory's failing me - I mentioned that I regretted doing Math, which prompted him to say, "But Math is everywhere what," which is his way of saying that learning Math is useful. And he followed up with a question, "What does not require Math?"
To which I reply - rather ingeniously, now that I think of it - "Happiness."
So as I continued to be intoxicated by the fumes of my own shit, dying of my own making, I pictured myself standing in front of my future class, few years from now, and because I was sick of teaching Math, I asked them, "So who regrets coming to XXX Secondary School?" Oh yes, I'm looking forward to be posted to a school that is perceived to be laoya.
And then one of the boys would respond, "Of course I regret lah. XXX so lousy, also don't know why so long already still hasn't close down." That would warm up the class and prompt a mélanging of "I regret"s and "I don't regret"s, which would sound to me like, "%##@%*&".
And among the chaos, while every student is desparately trying to catch my attention and make known how they feel abt XXX, one student's voice - let's just say that he's David - would rise above the others and he would say, "Chye, I no regret. I no regret coming to XXX, no regret in my life. Life no regret." The class would fall into silence.
And that would be exactly the response I was waiting for, the trigger to fire off a dose of inspiring messages into the little brains in front of me. I would turn slowly to the boy and then, in a shuaiqi tone, with my composure fully intact, say to him, "David, a life with no regrets is an incomplete life. Whoever tells you you must live a life with no regrets is bullshiting. I would be very sad if there were no regrets in mine. Surely there must be some regrets in your life, no?
"
David would ponder for a few seconds and then would try to dispute me. However, what follows would no longer be of grave consequence. My response would have fell a few dominos and started a chain reaction of brain activities. The students in my class would start thinking seriously, for the first time, about 'Regrets'. And that would be my introductory lesson to an adventurous life for them.
After breathing in the smell of my own shit for so long, I was well used to it and no longer felt intoxicated. Wiped the shit, pulled up my pants and flushed. But hell yes, I was intoxicated.
Under one roof
Just for breaking the silence at our blog=)
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In far away france, it's nice to know that there's someone living under the same roof as me who shares my love for chinese music. I believe Jiali (low resolution pic means u guys can't see her name clearly, but yeah, she's jiali), is a Singaporean because (can you believe it?) she has fan wen fang's music in her itunes! Alright, there's only 1 song but still...how much more singaporean can a singaporean be?
I wonder if I have met her along the corridors or at the pantry or at 0 floor (our first floor is the french 0 floor, which in more universal terms, is everybody's ground floor) when I go school every morning. Seriously, I haven't smelt the presence of a singaporean in france more strongly than tonight.
I have gladly helped myself (gam sia whoever came up with mytunes redux) to some of her songs. I want to reap the chinese songs too but she has not put them up for sharing. I hope she senses my presence soon and shares her music with me coz my days at maison des mines are numbered.
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Quek, enjoy your last few hours in Singapore. Do keep the thoughts, or form the thoughts if they're not yet present, to cross the Atlantic one day and find me in Paris. The Eiffel Tower or Mona Lisa might not be enough to tempt you over. I sure hope the butt crack of Venus does.
Balls to lotus
The first time I visited the Chinatown in Paris, I bought fishballs so that I can add some BALLS TO INSTANT NOODLES. They cost abt 1.30euro for a packet of 10 balls, which I tot was quite reasonable, and definitely much cheaper than eating out.
5 days later, when I visited Chinatown again, I spotted a packet of balls which cost 1.30euro also. But this time round, there's like abt 25 of them or so in the pack. Damn good deal, I thought to myself. Below is a picture of the balls.
Looks super like fishballs, right? However, when I first sunk my teeth into one of them, it was with an incredible amount of determination that I did not spit the 'thing' out. It tasted plastiquish...basically, not nice to eat. I thought maybe I had not defrosted the balls properly. However, the second time I ate them, still tasted as sucky. I went to check the packing. There was no mention of what the product is but the picture says it all...
They are LOTUS BALLS! Lotus balls are one of the worst food I've tasted in my life, even worst than ginger and brinjal fried together...not that I've tried that before...haha..and the worst part was that there were another 20 more of the balls left to finish. Under the noble act of not wasting money, I persevered with lotus balls, downing 2 of them each time with my noodles. The Formidable Stomach finally gave up on 2 Aug when 10 uneaten lotus balls found their way , under my 'guidance', to the dustbin. Even the most Formidable Stomach cannot stomach lotus balls.
Next time buy balls, make sure you buy the right ones. Don't be fooled, like the way I was. Balls to you, lotus.
To Ton
I quote Mourinho from soccernet after the charity shield:
"They (Liverpool) are a very difficult team to beat. When you play them you can win, lose or draw. They defend well and they are well-organised."
It goes without saying that in a soccer match, you either win, lose or draw lah. Mourinho's intelligence is brought into question. Chelsea might want to move on to a better manger before the heartbreak comes at the end of the season...=)
Photos & Music
Here're the long due photos from Honn and Chye's treat and the send off at the airport. Also I caught Nacho Libre this week and this song really caught my (and most other people's I believe) ears. It probably won't make it big cos it's kinda traditional and there's no soundtrack yet, but it's a cool song anyway. Download here:
Mr. Loco - Hombre Religioso (Religious Man)
Honn u never join in posting comments for that article ah haha
http://www.caughtoffside.com/its-not-our-fault-youre-all-greedy-is-it.html
The comments are damn funny. All the people agitated by this pro-chelsea article...
