Reflections...

So here I am up and early on my Deepavali day-off-in-lieu, sitting at my workstation at home and typing this reflection when any sane teacher with the day off should be sleeping in... Guess I'm in the state which they call "sleep till full" already...

It's just so unbelievable that the academic year 2006 has come to a close. It really seemed like yesterday when I was in the school hall registering my form class, and I've now seen them through 10 months of secondary school education. There were ups and downs. My class (and in fact this cohort) was quite a challenge, and they make me feel the burnout quicker than I expected, so that kinda affected work a little. Thankfully, colleagues are supportive and helped me along the way. But after yesterday's Meet The Parents session, I realised that deep down in the hearts of those rebellious kids, there was still the soft side, the more helpful side of them which I did not see earlier. They came early to help me out, and stayed almost all the way till I saw the last parent. Sure, their mannerisms were still of the uncouth nature, but it's the thought that counts. Am also thankful that I have non-unreasonable parents supportive of the school and what she's doing for the students. That brought about a comforting thought that I'm not alone.

Next year's gonna be a more challenging year for me - being fully in-charge of my CCA, taking up new roles and responsibilities, may be following up my current form class (shudders), amongst other stuff unplanned for as yet. Am thankfully not down for the O-Level invigilation, which means I should be able to use the 3-week bridging period to plan stuff for next year. Have to stop procrastinating... Have to start working!!!

Toy Story

I know I've not been blogging for a while. So a quick update.

Bro got married on 28 Sept, moved out, so now I'm occupying 2 rooms! WOOHOO!

I've got myself quite a number of new toys recently.

So to link the 2 news together, while clearing the bro's room yesterday, I decided to move my whole workstation over from my room to his, hardwire my iinternet connection, and this is the result...!

(just after setting up)

(my fully-functional workstation!)

If you'd look closely (though I really think you can't really see), on the bottom tier sits (from L to R) my new laptop (the IBM Thinkpad T60), a Dell PS/2 keyboard, a Dell 17" LCD monitor, and my Lexmark X75 all-in-one printer. On the top tier, beside my circular mirror, sit my HP iPAQ hx2490 and my mobile phone, the Treo 650, both on their respective cradles. Beside them are my modem and wireless router.

So yesterday, I've managed to hardwire my internet connection, dual-screen my laptop and provide my laptop with a 4.1 sound system! POWER!!!

That is until the bro decides to take his Dell workstation with him, which means I'll lose the monitor, keyboard and most probably the speaker system.

But... timely excuse to get a new one... with the year-end bonus!

Till then, stay tuned... :)

(Credit goes to my Sony Cybershot DSC-W1 digicam for the photos on this post. :) )