Hard to believe that we're in the final days of 2018. december went by in a flash, so much so that i don't really remember much about it other than the thailand trip. which reminds me, i should upload the photos of the trip from my phone, and back up the data there too. keep forgetting, for some reason.
i had wanted to do a chronological recap of events over the past few days, but a text conversation that i just had with my mentor from the learning lab is weighing on my mind. apparently, there's been parent feedback from one of the classes that i covered. i don't know which class it was, or what the feedback is, for that matter. what i do know is that it's not the positive kind, like a commendation. did a quick mental run-through of my recent classes, and i don't think that i did anything out of the ordinary or against the rules. i wasn't late, nor did i miss any classes. definitely didn't use profanity in class, raise my voice at the students, or do/say anything inappropriate (in my view, at least). could it be the way i taught the content, then? or maybe i taught something wrongly without realizing it. logically, i know that there's nothing i can do about it now since it's already happened, but i also know that the desire to find out what exactly the feedback was will gnaw at me from now till the meeting. best case scenario: unreasonable parent blowing a small thing out of proportion. worst case scenario...i don't know. traumatized student? whatever it is, i should remind myself to go into the meeting with an open mind and assess everything objectively first, and not let emotions or ego take over.
now that that's out of the way, i've got 5 days to catch you up on. as mentioned on thursday, i met my JC schoolmate for lunch. decided to go to northpoint (now northpoint city), which is near his place. it changed so much since my last visit there years ago! we ate at sushi tei, the quality of which was as good as i remembered. over about 2 hours, we caught each other up on the last 12 years of our lives. he's apparently been doing interesting things, like doing computer tech research, working for a startup, and now being based in india while working for an MNC. conversation was easy and relaxed; i definitely enjoyed myself. i always have some level of trepidation about meeting friends after a long time, especially if we haven't been in contact throughout the entire period. after such a long time interval, i don't know if/how their actual self will match up to my memory of them. as you can guess, this instance went well. he's due to fly back to india sometime this week, so we may or may not be meeting again for his remaining stay in singapore. we've agreed to have a meal the next time he's back (probably sometime next year or latest in 2020), so that's something to look forward to.
after work on saturday, i went for mahjong at scary JC friend's place. the session was full of laughs, and i generally enjoyed myself. it was one of the rare occasions that i didn't lose money at her house! didn't win (much) either though...was up $3 after 2 rounds, the entire sum of which i donated back into the central pool. it's nice to play mahjong with friends who don't really care about the money, but yet play reasonably small stakes. end result is that nobody really loses that much. i'm happy that i managed to hold my own this time. made a few big hands too, which was quite satisfying. after mahjong, we went for supper at upper bukit timah. this was at 1:30am, and i had work the next day. thankfully i didn't oversleep or anything. it was a good bonding session overall. scary JC friend is one of my closest female friends, if not the closest. interestingly enough, i get along pretty well with her sister too! like, i'm comfortable enough to tell them about the NSFW thailand experience. they found it hilarious, whereas more uh, sensitive people might have been offended or disgusted. all in all, an excellent way to spend saturday night.
had another dinner appointment on sunday night, this time at tampines mall with my newly-married secondary school friend. he brought his wife, and we went to menya musashi niten for dinner, then swensens for dessert. yes, not the most healthy of options, but well...one transgression (two, counting supper the previous night) will probably be ok in the long run. besides, the sticky chewy chocolate sundae is good for my soul, and it was the first one i've had this year (and maybe last year, too). my relationship with this friend is quite unique. he identifies as a conservative christian, which would imply an anti-LGBT stance. but somehow, he's been generally nice about it to me (yes, he knows). we do disagree about some things (like he thinks trump is good for religious freedom, while i think trump is a moron through and through), but it doesn't really affect our friendship. we usually reach a reasonable middle ground in our differing views, and we're still amicable when discussing hot-button topics such as politics and religion. ultimately, i think we see the goodness/value within each other, and that's why we're friends. it was only the second or third time i've met his wife, and for what my opinion is worth, i do like her quite a lot. she's friendly and easy to talk to, and they seem good for each other as a couple.
that brings us to yesterday, which was christmas proper. it was a really packed day! i had lunch with my aunt and uncle, and met a "god-aunt" of sorts. you see, my maternal grandmother used to babysit, and one of the girls that she took care of kept in touch with the family. this god-aunt is based overseas, and i do remember seeing her before, a long time ago. probably when i was in primary school? she says she recalls seeing me as a teenager, but i don't really remember when that might have been. at the risk of sounding depressing, it might have been at a funeral. anyway. this meeting was on a way more joyous note. we had lunch at long beach, and shared some interesting conversation. one part that stood out the most to me was when she said, "you know, i can analyze designs and business proposals so well, but i couldn't analyze people" (somewhat paraphrased). for context and without disclosing too much, she was in a pretty not-good marriage and is now in the process of leaving it. i guess i should be mindful of this myself.
i'm tempted to say that i had a christmas date with one of my chemistry seniors. i mean, we technically went out for coffee...but no, he doesn't swing this way. let's move on before i get myself in more trouble. the real reason for meeting him at parkway parade was to pass him some duty-free alcohol. we went to sit down at starbucks, and i had my traditional christmas drink. well, it's not really tradition since i didn't have it on consecutive years. the barista didn't get what i wanted, unfortunately. my christmas drink order is the seasonal peppermint mocha frappuccino, but change the regular chocolate to dark chocolate. the most common mistake is that the barista will enter it as a dark mocha frappuccino with peppermint syrup. while they are essentially the same thing in terms of composition, the difference is that the latter will not have the candy cane bits and chocolate syrup drizzle for the topping. come to think of it now though, maybe it's better. less intake of sugar. we had a nice conversation too, just general catching up and stuff. he did give me some job-hunting advice, for which i'm grateful. we then took a short walk to katong i12, where he bought wine for an upcoming party, after which he went home, and went to my last stop for the day.
last stop was my aunt's place, where i played with their dog a little and had a chat with my cousin. the dog had apparently been sick for the past 2 months. some liver and pancreas problems, i think. he looked thinner and was noticeably less energetic. still wanted attention, though. my cousin seems to be managing ok with the whole fatherhood thing. apparently, my niece said her first word recently, and she's only 5+ months old! i don't know if that's the typical age for babies to begin vocalizing or talking, but it seems that she's advanced for her age. also got some financial and career advice from my cousin. his background is in tax, auditing, and recruitment, so i'd say he does know what he's talking about. he told me to keep my weekend learning lab thing in the near future even after securing a day job, because that would enable me to command a higher salary further down the line. that was already my plan, so at least i'm on the right track. another thing he told me was to learn stuff that is outside of my typical job scope, yet is relevant to my industry as a whole. i suppose that makes a person more versatile in the workplace.
part of our conversation was also about parenting. as a kid, i'd kind of envied these cousins for staying in a big house, having more/better toys (then, game consoles), and other material stuff like that. it was only natural, since that was the side i saw when i stayed with them for the holidays. but as we were talking, my cousin told me that he'd been kind of looked down upon, because his brother was the so-called smart one. we belong to a minority of the male cousins who have never studied in a raffles-linked school. but anyway, i guess that their life isn't as perfect as i'd thought. i can understand, though. my aunt was quite zealous about making sure we all got good grades. in primary 6, i remember getting a ton of assessment papers from her as well. but looking back now...i'm sure she meant well. plus, it did help me get into cat high, so i can't really complain.
somewhat linked to the above, i do think that some people become parents before they're ready for parenthood. "ready" can cover a number of aspects, like financial, mental, even emotional. of course, there's the other argument that says people can never be 100% prepared for parenthood, and it's a process in which you learn as you go along. i agree. but there's a difference between being somewhat prepared and learning on the job, vs being grossly underprepared and causing damage (not necessarily physical) to your kids. there are things i can say about my own experience growing up that have shaped my decision to never have kids, but that can wait for a day when i'm sufficiently drunk and/or angry. came kind of close today, but it didn't go past the tipping point. it's reminded me that i am resolved to moving out, and that i should work towards that goal by saving money, which i have to earn from a job, which i have to apply for and get. got a lead for a life science recruiting firm from my cousin, i've checked their website out. not sure how a chemist will fit into their recruitment plans or job vacancies that they may be trying to fill, but i plan to call them for a chat, at least.
5 more days until my year-end post. i've thought of the theme already, as well as some things which i want to cover. from now till then, it doesn't seem like there's many/any things on the radar. just work this weekend (with that meeting with my mentor), and my last gym session of this package tomorrow. other than that...can't really think of anything else. i guess we'll see if anything comes up on the horizon.
i had wanted to do a chronological recap of events over the past few days, but a text conversation that i just had with my mentor from the learning lab is weighing on my mind. apparently, there's been parent feedback from one of the classes that i covered. i don't know which class it was, or what the feedback is, for that matter. what i do know is that it's not the positive kind, like a commendation. did a quick mental run-through of my recent classes, and i don't think that i did anything out of the ordinary or against the rules. i wasn't late, nor did i miss any classes. definitely didn't use profanity in class, raise my voice at the students, or do/say anything inappropriate (in my view, at least). could it be the way i taught the content, then? or maybe i taught something wrongly without realizing it. logically, i know that there's nothing i can do about it now since it's already happened, but i also know that the desire to find out what exactly the feedback was will gnaw at me from now till the meeting. best case scenario: unreasonable parent blowing a small thing out of proportion. worst case scenario...i don't know. traumatized student? whatever it is, i should remind myself to go into the meeting with an open mind and assess everything objectively first, and not let emotions or ego take over.
now that that's out of the way, i've got 5 days to catch you up on. as mentioned on thursday, i met my JC schoolmate for lunch. decided to go to northpoint (now northpoint city), which is near his place. it changed so much since my last visit there years ago! we ate at sushi tei, the quality of which was as good as i remembered. over about 2 hours, we caught each other up on the last 12 years of our lives. he's apparently been doing interesting things, like doing computer tech research, working for a startup, and now being based in india while working for an MNC. conversation was easy and relaxed; i definitely enjoyed myself. i always have some level of trepidation about meeting friends after a long time, especially if we haven't been in contact throughout the entire period. after such a long time interval, i don't know if/how their actual self will match up to my memory of them. as you can guess, this instance went well. he's due to fly back to india sometime this week, so we may or may not be meeting again for his remaining stay in singapore. we've agreed to have a meal the next time he's back (probably sometime next year or latest in 2020), so that's something to look forward to.
after work on saturday, i went for mahjong at scary JC friend's place. the session was full of laughs, and i generally enjoyed myself. it was one of the rare occasions that i didn't lose money at her house! didn't win (much) either though...was up $3 after 2 rounds, the entire sum of which i donated back into the central pool. it's nice to play mahjong with friends who don't really care about the money, but yet play reasonably small stakes. end result is that nobody really loses that much. i'm happy that i managed to hold my own this time. made a few big hands too, which was quite satisfying. after mahjong, we went for supper at upper bukit timah. this was at 1:30am, and i had work the next day. thankfully i didn't oversleep or anything. it was a good bonding session overall. scary JC friend is one of my closest female friends, if not the closest. interestingly enough, i get along pretty well with her sister too! like, i'm comfortable enough to tell them about the NSFW thailand experience. they found it hilarious, whereas more uh, sensitive people might have been offended or disgusted. all in all, an excellent way to spend saturday night.
had another dinner appointment on sunday night, this time at tampines mall with my newly-married secondary school friend. he brought his wife, and we went to menya musashi niten for dinner, then swensens for dessert. yes, not the most healthy of options, but well...one transgression (two, counting supper the previous night) will probably be ok in the long run. besides, the sticky chewy chocolate sundae is good for my soul, and it was the first one i've had this year (and maybe last year, too). my relationship with this friend is quite unique. he identifies as a conservative christian, which would imply an anti-LGBT stance. but somehow, he's been generally nice about it to me (yes, he knows). we do disagree about some things (like he thinks trump is good for religious freedom, while i think trump is a moron through and through), but it doesn't really affect our friendship. we usually reach a reasonable middle ground in our differing views, and we're still amicable when discussing hot-button topics such as politics and religion. ultimately, i think we see the goodness/value within each other, and that's why we're friends. it was only the second or third time i've met his wife, and for what my opinion is worth, i do like her quite a lot. she's friendly and easy to talk to, and they seem good for each other as a couple.
that brings us to yesterday, which was christmas proper. it was a really packed day! i had lunch with my aunt and uncle, and met a "god-aunt" of sorts. you see, my maternal grandmother used to babysit, and one of the girls that she took care of kept in touch with the family. this god-aunt is based overseas, and i do remember seeing her before, a long time ago. probably when i was in primary school? she says she recalls seeing me as a teenager, but i don't really remember when that might have been. at the risk of sounding depressing, it might have been at a funeral. anyway. this meeting was on a way more joyous note. we had lunch at long beach, and shared some interesting conversation. one part that stood out the most to me was when she said, "you know, i can analyze designs and business proposals so well, but i couldn't analyze people" (somewhat paraphrased). for context and without disclosing too much, she was in a pretty not-good marriage and is now in the process of leaving it. i guess i should be mindful of this myself.
i'm tempted to say that i had a christmas date with one of my chemistry seniors. i mean, we technically went out for coffee...but no, he doesn't swing this way. let's move on before i get myself in more trouble. the real reason for meeting him at parkway parade was to pass him some duty-free alcohol. we went to sit down at starbucks, and i had my traditional christmas drink. well, it's not really tradition since i didn't have it on consecutive years. the barista didn't get what i wanted, unfortunately. my christmas drink order is the seasonal peppermint mocha frappuccino, but change the regular chocolate to dark chocolate. the most common mistake is that the barista will enter it as a dark mocha frappuccino with peppermint syrup. while they are essentially the same thing in terms of composition, the difference is that the latter will not have the candy cane bits and chocolate syrup drizzle for the topping. come to think of it now though, maybe it's better. less intake of sugar. we had a nice conversation too, just general catching up and stuff. he did give me some job-hunting advice, for which i'm grateful. we then took a short walk to katong i12, where he bought wine for an upcoming party, after which he went home, and went to my last stop for the day.
last stop was my aunt's place, where i played with their dog a little and had a chat with my cousin. the dog had apparently been sick for the past 2 months. some liver and pancreas problems, i think. he looked thinner and was noticeably less energetic. still wanted attention, though. my cousin seems to be managing ok with the whole fatherhood thing. apparently, my niece said her first word recently, and she's only 5+ months old! i don't know if that's the typical age for babies to begin vocalizing or talking, but it seems that she's advanced for her age. also got some financial and career advice from my cousin. his background is in tax, auditing, and recruitment, so i'd say he does know what he's talking about. he told me to keep my weekend learning lab thing in the near future even after securing a day job, because that would enable me to command a higher salary further down the line. that was already my plan, so at least i'm on the right track. another thing he told me was to learn stuff that is outside of my typical job scope, yet is relevant to my industry as a whole. i suppose that makes a person more versatile in the workplace.
part of our conversation was also about parenting. as a kid, i'd kind of envied these cousins for staying in a big house, having more/better toys (then, game consoles), and other material stuff like that. it was only natural, since that was the side i saw when i stayed with them for the holidays. but as we were talking, my cousin told me that he'd been kind of looked down upon, because his brother was the so-called smart one. we belong to a minority of the male cousins who have never studied in a raffles-linked school. but anyway, i guess that their life isn't as perfect as i'd thought. i can understand, though. my aunt was quite zealous about making sure we all got good grades. in primary 6, i remember getting a ton of assessment papers from her as well. but looking back now...i'm sure she meant well. plus, it did help me get into cat high, so i can't really complain.
somewhat linked to the above, i do think that some people become parents before they're ready for parenthood. "ready" can cover a number of aspects, like financial, mental, even emotional. of course, there's the other argument that says people can never be 100% prepared for parenthood, and it's a process in which you learn as you go along. i agree. but there's a difference between being somewhat prepared and learning on the job, vs being grossly underprepared and causing damage (not necessarily physical) to your kids. there are things i can say about my own experience growing up that have shaped my decision to never have kids, but that can wait for a day when i'm sufficiently drunk and/or angry. came kind of close today, but it didn't go past the tipping point. it's reminded me that i am resolved to moving out, and that i should work towards that goal by saving money, which i have to earn from a job, which i have to apply for and get. got a lead for a life science recruiting firm from my cousin, i've checked their website out. not sure how a chemist will fit into their recruitment plans or job vacancies that they may be trying to fill, but i plan to call them for a chat, at least.
5 more days until my year-end post. i've thought of the theme already, as well as some things which i want to cover. from now till then, it doesn't seem like there's many/any things on the radar. just work this weekend (with that meeting with my mentor), and my last gym session of this package tomorrow. other than that...can't really think of anything else. i guess we'll see if anything comes up on the horizon.
-random thought of the day: I tolerate idiots poorly.-
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