*the love and grace of God in my life..*

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

i've officially shifted.
my new cubicle address: W4.08.20.15
it's 3/4 done today; tmr i'll be shifting in the remaining items. all thanks to my wonderful colleague who managed to borrow two boxes and a trolley and headed to my old cubi in the afternoon
so i hurriedly packed-up (actually, merely throwing in all my stuff) and moved them to W4
not going to announce my move to E2 podders though. a new guy will take over my cubi when he starts work on thurs and probably has no idea why he's so fortunate to be in E2 when he comes in so late, plus a corner cubi!

enjoyed the evening at a colleague's place
just 6 of us but we had so much fun and laughter over silly card games and jokes!

my co-mc has started calling me 'blue toes' instead of my name.
i'm loving W4 a lot; and i'm thankful for all my wonderful and helpful colleagues
love them too!

//posted by ivy @ 00:01//

Saturday, February 24, 2007

i hereby declare that exercising is useless for me
if i lose 50% after i exercise, i'll gain back 100% 2 hours after that!
it's horrible; my appetite is actually increasing as i get older. gosh.

anyway.
i went for a near 3 hrs japanese ala-carte buffet lunch at hanabi restaurant along bukit timah on friday
woohoo~ the food just came one after another and they disappeared at almost the same rate
it was only two of us; we practically shared everything
he is my male colleague.
does that tell you a bit more about my appetite?

went to meet some of my HR uni friends for CNY lunch at crystal jade and i think i ate quite a bit
almost an hour after that, i was munching with wendy and cindy at 'ding tai feng' - yet another dim sum place
the group of us then headed to boat quay's pit-stop cafe (similar concept to settler's cafe); had some fun-time playing the games available there and soon, it was dinner time
right after that, we planted ourselves at TCC for another round of drink and cakes!
i seriously can't believe the amount of junk that i consume today!

all these..after my sports session on thursday evening.
unbelievable.
maybe i should let you know my plans for mon?
11am - 3pm: lunch at JB
5pm - night: visitation at colleague's place (lotsa food again~)

on wed,
some of us are heading to another colleague's place during lunch for visitation as well
i don't even want to think about what delicious food we'll get to taste simply because, she's a well-known tai-tai, and guess what we're doing after the lunch?

tree-top walk at MacRitchie~
*grins.

//posted by ivy @ 23:37//

Thursday, February 22, 2007

staff email is currently under maintenance, thus it explains my presence here.
have i told you how much i'm enjoying this break that i've?
it was only last week where we ended our semester and the whole of last week was doing BOE
but this week is so, so different!

i shall make you jealous by my work-day today
did nothing in the morning but checking email - went causeway point (again) for lunch - did a little shopping and bought a cake back for birthday celebration - spent a whole hour in W4 celebrating birthday and chit-chatting - headed back to E2 to get changed - sports session till it rained at 5.30pm - back to pod to listen to music, clear emails, chat and pack up.
i'm really, really enjoying the break; i'm just not able to tell you the difference between then and now
whee!

before you start cursing and swearing, let me clarify that i do have things on hand
but since the deadline is err, next week, so i decided to give myself more time this week to relax and have some life first.
in fact, i'm on leave tmr too!
haha. off for a celebratory lunch to declare the end of MC role for G106!

alright.
i've also made a decision to officially shift myself to W4
i'm so sure i'm going to miss certain things in E2 - like my nicely painted pantry with the comfortable red sofa, and not forgetting foosball table, dart-board etc.
those of you who know, i love my cubicle too (so many will snatch to be in my cubi due to its secluded factor!) but well, i figured that there's really no point staying in E2
- it's no longer safe pretty soon when someone is going to leave
- he's irritating me big time
- there isn't much CIE people around, and i don't talk to much people in the pod because i don't know them and many whom i know, are leaving/have left
thus..
the decision to shift.
big time movement since i really have a lot of stuff but well, since the guys have offered their help, i shall enlist the moving gang!

//posted by ivy @ 21:32//

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

i'm actually rather amazed at myself for the motivation to wake up early and get to work today!
despite having a meeting smacked at 8.30am, i reached office much earlier than that, had time to boot up my laptop and listened to a few songs which i blasted on my set before heading to another pod for meeting
it's amazing.
perhaps, it's the unseen removal of duty. =)

quite an interesting day today
almost the entire dept was at causeway point having lunch!
scattered around but ours has to be the biggest group of 13, while there was another group at the other food court, and some at swensens.

was nominated to attend some training on behalf of the dept and of course, i'm required to share with the rest of the dept after that
my AD wrote in his email "you impresses me with your instructional abilities as the MC for G106, thus would like to nominate you..."
looks like i'm still in his list of "favourite staff".

i was also pretty surprised by what one of my interviewers said during my 2nd interview in june 2005
yes, that was a long time ago but i only got to know it recently
i had three interviewers - sundar, lynda and anderson
in short, sundar holds a director position and during my interview, i questioned him on the employability of rp staff should they leave in future
not that i can remember what he said, but i could recall because that was the only question i posted to him
few weeks back, my co-mc attended a training and sundar was around
they happened to talk and sundar asked about me, how i was doing etc
at the end of their conversation, sundar said "nice to know ivy is doing well. i remembered i interviewed her during her 2nd interview and at that interview, i saw something in her which i like and i knew she would fit the bill of an acad staff"
wow! that is certainly very encouraging to hear, especially now that many of us are thinking otherwise..

looking forward to tmr
sports session, and a visit to the hospital for my colleague who just gave birth

fri will be off-day
and i'm certainly going to enjoy my japanese celebration lunch!

sat has uni alumni gathering, then IG event at NUS, followed by cell dinner.
wow.

still.
i want to eat ba-kua.

//posted by ivy @ 20:36//

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

whee~
the long CNY break is finally ending; i'm so bored!

anyway, was talking to a colleague this afternoon about converting to part-time and as we calculated, we realised that we're seriously underpaid for the amount of nonsense we have to do
should we convert to part-time and do simply what we love - facilitation; we actually command a higher salary and of course, still having 2 free days per week.
hmm?

there is an opening for "youth development officer", under MCYS.
so interesting.. but again, it's slightly different from teaching
i don't actually interact with them, but i develop policy and implement nation-wide projects for youth
not what i really, really want i guess.

so in the meanwhile, i figured i'll stay as a full-timer till august and see if i clear my facilitation certification
because if i do, it's certainly more worth it to convert to part-time and yet, able to focus my attention on being an academic

too much time on hand, resulting in staying online for too long, resulting in excessive blogging!
someone bring me some nice ba-kua! *whines

//posted by ivy @ 18:20//

i'm pretty pissed!
my parents went to open up my letter which comes from the bank, regarding the balance and how much i've spent for the month etc
and they came to question me on why is it that i've only $_______ in my bank despite working for so long and when my pay is so high
before i could even answer, they asked if i loan money to anybody, donate to organizations etc
for goodness sake, why can't you TRUST me in monetary matters? hello. i'm 24, not 14. i don't spend every single cent i have, and i'm paying for my own expenses, right down to my driving lessons which you promise you would pay!

so much for wanting to surprise them when i pass my driving!
now, i'm not looking forward to it
i can almost expect how much they'll nag if i fail, and when i eventually drive
argh.

but my main concern is still..
hello! trust me won't you?
that amount of cash is pretty decent if you ever remember that i give you almost 40% of my pay monthly.
and i don't earn a high salary - ask anyone working in govt sector.
urgh.

//posted by ivy @ 12:55//

it's a nice 2 months of holidays ahead
time in office where they is no distraction from students
oh well, they'll still be around i guess but at least, no facilitation, no clearing problems, no grading, no UT marking etc
needless to say, both the canteen is almost vacant so most of us will head out for lunch which is good because it has been a long time since i really had the chance to talk to everyone else in the dept
the pod is really, really a disgusting idea
initially, they restricted only 6 people from the same department to a pod; the last i heard, W4 has got 10 CIE people
see? nonsense!

i'm seriously considering shifting out of E2
only two major factors though - the new pod has to be a happening place; i have to take a new cubicle which has the similar configuration to mine (kind of used to it after 3/4 year).
E2 is getting dangerous - shan't elaborate more
some of you are aware; one day you should steal my staff pass, get in to E2 and slap the fellow upside down
i promise i won't report you to security

looking forward to mid-march cos my mummy will be back
woohoo! =)

was just thinking through what do i have to do after the CNY break and i realised..pretty much!
- students' testimonial
- facilitation certification portfolio
- IG budget for 2006
- IG planning for mar/apr
- SLP report for NYC

i'm also thinking of sending my laptop for a maintenance work but the status of our IT-helpdesk is really pretty much hopeless
my laptop might come back with more problems if it doesn't have much now
it's functioning well despite being a tablet near to 2 years and i do want to keep it that way
i'm rather attached to it now and i have no intention to change it to the big, bulky Acer tablet. eeks.
ugly.
i'll stick with HP i guess.

fireworks was nice just now and it really didn't feel like it was 5 mins long
it wasn't exactly fascinating this year but well, at least i get to watch it!
thanks dear! =)

//posted by ivy @ 00:01//

Friday, February 16, 2007

it's 30 mins more to the final BOE presentation to SEG, and i can then close shop and head home
haha. kidding.
prob gotta stay till 5pm then leave
well, doesn't really matter i guess
i'm really not in the mood for CNY at all; what a long, boring weekend
argh.

i've done absolutely nothing today except to present at SIT and STA's BOE, had a long chat at the W4 canteen before leaving for lunch outside and then back to E1 massage chair for an hour
back to slack for a while before SEG's BOE
feels quite weird, so much work, then so little work.
eeks.

yesterday's sports session was good
played 3 rounds of captain's ball against the students; and i think it's more tiring than basketball!
some basketball and we headed back
more to come next week
someone is organizing tree-top walk soon as well. =)

//posted by ivy @ 14:33//

Thursday, February 15, 2007

it's a rather fast-paced day today
woke up at 8 plus and headed to office straight since i had a dept meeting at 11am and i'm supposed to share about my SL trip
plus the need to finish up BOE and get it vetted through before BOE meeting at 3pm later

reached office at 10.20am; cleared email till 10.30am; read through BOE draft till 10.40am
and i decided i really should start doing some slides for dept sharing in a while
and so, i did a presentation slide of 9 slides within the next 10 mins plus going through the screening of the 5-mins video which was done back in chiang rai
got my stuff, headed to meeting room and while my boss and others were doing their presentation, i was 1/2-listening and 1/2-BOE-ing
soon, it was my turn
went up and shared a total of 15 mins.
not bad uh?
but i do hope i had cleared some air about service-learning and inspired some to go for it
the only thing upsetting is that both my director and asst director (admin) were not around by the time i shared

there was also some appreciation thingy where we wrote things and put in red packets for others
was seriously too busy to write for anyone last week but i actually received a total of 16 notes.
so sweet!

alrighty.
typed this in 3 mins.
got to get ready and head to E1 for BOE clearance now
i hope it ends early or rather G-module MCs can go off after presentation.. since i really wanna hop by sports complex for some sports later.

//posted by ivy @ 14:38//

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

my colleague was being really nice to me today!
i reached office at 9.30am and on my table lies a pink paper nicely folded up and sticked together with a translucent tape and a heart-shape drawn onto it
on top of the paper was three ferreor rocher chocolates nicely placed

aww.
what a pleasant surprise and then *click
it's valentine's day!
no wonder.. a short and simple note but it really, really made me smile
and i know his intention was simply to cheer me up in the midst of semester ending plus BOE
i'm just amazed by his care and concern! =)

BOE report was okie
not done with it yet, only 1/2-way through
will continue and finish up by 10am tmr, then i'll need to prepare for my sharing on service-learning trip
after report is vetted, simply many, many rounds of presentation on fri
and tata~
short break over the weekend
pretty bored i can foresee since my parents don't really bother about CNY
which means, i'll have nothing to do, and no one to go out with because everyone will be out
eeks.
i really don't like CNY
and not to mention, i haven't been to chinatown to watch fireworks on the eve for two years?
boo~

//posted by ivy @ 22:53//

Monday, February 12, 2007

last day of the semester
i never would have imagined this day to come months ago
i remembered how much i regretted taking up the role, and how much i wanted to let it just go
i hated the amount of admin work, the tremendous responsibility, the agony of dealing with so many facilitators, problem crafters who simply are not cooperative, the ridiculous demand of my then-boss's boss.
it was madness.

16 weeks of 105 facilitation classes per week
2 problem briefings per week
16 problems to clear and brief
4 UTs to craft, clear, administer and mark
40+ facilitators to manage, activate and respond to their every call/email of help
it's over!

okie, it's not.
i've not done the BOE report, and of course presentation to the various Schools
but once this friday is over, module chair appointment is over

i think i'm gonna miss the days where i sign my nice, big signature on the module resource review; where i send emails to all-acad to notify them of UT invigilation, where i post announcement to all students
and especially when i overhear students or facilitators who go "hmm, i'm going to complain to the module chair" when i'm in the lift or in class or via email.
haha!
my class kids will probably laugh their heads off as well. =)

//posted by ivy @ 13:45//

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

i think im beginning to like driving, but with my instructor beside me
he's really patient and explains a lot of details repeatedly
ah, it's also because i made some mistakes over and over again. haha
like.. i usually don't have the habit to overtake if there's heavy vehicles in front of me since i figured that i ain't driving that fast
like.. i accelerate too slowly when i see an uphill approaching so he always has to remind me that our poor engine of the car is choking and i'll then recall what to do
interesting instuctor. =)

it's probably mid-week virus because i'm getting very, very lethargic
to the extent that i seriously have no motivation to get any work done.
sigh.

3 more facilitation days before semester ends and i'll be choked up for the entire of next week doing up BOE reports, plus dept presentation of my SL trip and not to forget, facilitation certification portfolio. =(

//posted by ivy @ 15:43//

Sunday, February 04, 2007

marking of understanding test is exhausting
as i go down the classes, the answers looked more and more crappy and inserting a '0' seems the easiest thing to do.
quite a bit more to go on mon i guess
plus my daily grades. argh.

driving today was fun!
drove all the way from bukit gombak to ubi, and back to jurong point
whee~

i need to sleep.
my eyes are going crazy from the nonsensical answers in the UT!

//posted by ivy @ 00:38//

Saturday, February 03, 2007

6 more school days till the end of the semester
and currently, i'm still undone with UT marking, 2 classes of grading plus others
eeks.
how did i get myself into UT marking when I specifically wanted none of the MCs to be involved for UT4?

was talking to a couple of newer colleagues when i was over in pod W4 last friday
and some online last night
they all have something in common to say
which goes along the line of "ivy, you looked kinda jaded, tired these few weeks. we missed your cheerful and bubbly self."
yes, yes.. i know.
take the role of MC away; that would do the job.

i must remember to set a calendar invite to one of my closer colleagues who is leaving rather soon
feeling a little upset as well; after all, i really enjoyed the times together.
and yea, to also set another invite to my beloved new boss
i need to talk to him, or rather let him realise how some of us are feeling
it's not within my control how our relationship might be strained or affected; but rather i don't want to see people leave as a result of it or being unhappy doing what was originally the work we came here for.

on a side note, i love my new wallet
pure white!
finally something that is not pink (or at least, the one i wanted was out of stock already)

//posted by ivy @ 13:45//

Friday, February 02, 2007

1+1+1+1 = 4

i love 2nd feb
ah no, i love you! =)

//posted by ivy @ 23:11//