Promising start to the day, but it soon became decidedly less positive. to be fair, it wasn't BAD-bad, just like, got up of the wrong side of bed/uncle murphy things. i woke up early and instead of lazing in bed, got up to shower and get ready to leave the house. ok, having to pee was probably the thing that got me out of bed, but it still counts and i'm taking that win! as i was taking my earphones out of the case while walking to the bus stop, i somehow nudged the ear tip of the left earphone against my finger, and it fell off. spent a couple of minutes looking around, but couldn't locate it. the ground was cement grey, so you'd think a black ear tip would show up quite obviously! but it didn't, so i figured that it had rolled into the (water-filled) drain or into the grass. that meant no music for me today.

thankfully, the alumni gathering was fun as usual, but maybe a little bit more subdued. could have been because of my mood after losing the ear tip too, so it's hard to say objectively. an old boy told scary JC friend and i that what we thought were mosquito bites from dinner on wednesday, were actually sandfly bites. no wonder they're so itchy! thanks to the malaysia OCIP experience during JC, i don't have a good opinion of sandflies at all. hopefully they'll stop itching after i take some zyrtec.

week 2 of tuition at the new place, and i'm kind of getting used to it. my friend gave me a smaller room this time, which means my voice echoes a bit more. unfortunately, the laws of physics don't discriminate, so the 2 new guys' voices also echoed while they were talking among themselves. i realize that i've been very lucky with the kids i've gotten so far...up till these 2 newest additions, at least. the 3 i started with were good, the 2 who joined at the start of this year caught up fast. these latest 2 however...i feel like a bit of friction might be developing. see, they give me the impression that they don't care too much about their learning...kind of the like they don't know something and they're not too bothered to find out, even while i'm explaining it. i mean, it's not acceptable to be this far into sec 3 and not know the 3 common acids! well...they joined late, so it's not my primary responsibility to catch them up. i still have to consider my existing 3 kids. luckily today was more on revision, so i could leave them alone more and focus on the new 2. the 3 even helped me think of questions! shows that their conceptual knowledge is solid enough, i guess.

yes, i know the other side of "if they were that good, they wouldn't need tuition". honestly, my current kids came in at about that level too, maybe a little better. now, they're asking me to buy them drinks if they score above 80% on their tests. i'd like to think i was at least partially responsible for that change in mindset! i also agreed, but set the bar at 85%. i have to remember that i'm not solely responsible for these kids' grades. i'm doing my part, and they have to do theirs as well. might need to give the 2 newest ones a toned-down version of the "you are responsible for your own learning" talk, for me to think about until the next session.

if only that had been the worst part of my day! i took the bus home again, and an hour's journey turned into 90 minutes because of increased traffic due to NDP rehearsal. i wasn't aware of it! but i guess i should have known/guessed, considering the actual event is like only a week away. the extra 30 minutes were spent in a huge jam in the bugis area. i've never seen so many buses all lined up together on the road before! no idea why it was crowded there, since the event seems to be at the national stadium. to think i was contemplating taking the train while waiting for the bus, but decided not to in the end! guess i missed the sign that someone was trying to give me. well, at least i could sit down all the way, and fellow passengers were MOSTLY well-behaved. small blessings!

the past week was kind of average. 2 cases came back with minor revisions, and 1 required a re-draft. i was also stuck for a couple of days on one case, due to there being no clear guidelines on how a particular disease is defined. decided to put that aside for now (going to ask my mentor on monday) and move on to another case, which turned out to be a slam-dunk, in that the invention is already pretty well-known. i'm going to complete it on monday (hopefully), which will accelerate my points a bit! speaking of monday, i've got a trip to MBS for a walk-through of the IP week venue. the rest of the week looks fairly routine other than that, and a national day celebration on friday. the company decided to give us a spontaneous half-day, which i appreciate. question is, what am i going to do with that half-day? i feel like i should make more out of it, like exploring somewhere, or doing something interesting. maybe i'll drop in on my aunt, if she's free.

as part of putting myself out there, i've been messaging people. i must not be understanding some part of this game correctly, because although people say they're looking for friends, one of the first things they do is ask for pictures. 2 things about that put me off. first, some people are rude about it. their first reply to my message (which i typed in complete sentences) is just "pic?". like...don't you have basic decency and/or conversational ability? it seems that the wide availability of apps these days means that there are a basically infinite number of people to talk to, and people are ok being this rude because the next person will come along. secondly, people judge by appearances. some people refuse to carry on the conversation without exchanging pictures, which i guess is well within their rights. some people ask you to send a picture first, then don't send one back, or just block you if they think you're not attractive enough, which i suppose is not wrong legally, but which i find morally/ethically repulsive. go libra equality/reciprocation trait! i'm at the point where i'm just trying my luck with online conversation, and not having too high expectations. i mean, even my expectation of receiving a response that shows a matching degree of effort is hardly met. i think i have better luck with meeting in person, which is why i suppose there will always be a need for physical venues. somehow, people tend not to be so nasty in person, i think because they can more clearly see/feel the consequences of their actions. also, i find it appropriate that the people who display lousy behaviour are also the ones whining about how they're so lonely, why doesn't anyone want to be their friend, etc. i just want to tell them to stand in the corner and do some reflection and repentance!

to wrap up this post, i'll talk about dinner on wednesday. a few of us got invited to seletar country club by one of the old boys. it was a passing conversation at the alumni gathering some time back, and it materialized that day. previously, another group of us was also invited for lunch at the british club by another old boy. it got me thinking if country club membership is something i want to chase. at present, the answer is "no", because it's not  feasible, both economically and logistically. membership fees tend to be high, and the clubhouses tend to be out of the way. it's nice having friends/contacts who are members, though! made me think of my secondary school classmate, whose parents were (still are?) members at SICC. he invited us there, and it was pretty nice! anyway. dinner was in an alfresco area, which led to a few of us getting sandfly bites. was the dinner worth the resulting discomfort? let's see...steak, satay, fish head hotpot, pizza, chicken wings, char kway teow and possibly more vs. several days of itching...i'm undecided. the bites are itching like mad. with luck, the zyrtec will take effect soon.

-random thought of the day: Chemistry guys coming over tomorrow!-