My teenhood is expiring soon. This is my last year as a somenumber-teen-year-old.
Sad to say, I don’t have much to be proud of as I edge closer to the 2-decade mark of exploiting the earth’s resources, fulfilling karmas and being loved.
As a guilty result of blogstipation, I shall make random comments on my life as it is now and other miscellaneous thoughts which possibly could be of interest to some reader.
By the way, through my last few months of teaching elementary English to Primary schoolers, I have accidentally discovered the difference between the usage of “shall” and “will”:
“Shall” follows any pronoun referring to the speaker while “will” comes after the other pronouns.
i.e.
I shall, We shall, Shall we?, Shall I?
versus
He will, She will, It will, They will etc.
I received 2 birthday cards elaborately decorated with coloured pens, tissue paper, paper mache and beads from the pair of sisters I’m teaching.
Primary 1 Lina wrote:
“Happy Birthday
Miss Chen
I am Lina Tay
I will wolkhare
Thank you
To teach me.”
Her Primary 4 sister, Emily, apparently articulate with more words wrote:
“Happy Birthday Miss Chen,
I hear wishes you a………………………………………
HAPPY BIRTHDAY and a……………………………….
HAPPY DAY for you Miss Chen
From that day on I will work hard and do my homework.
(If you are free please reply me.)
(I will tell you more news on that day about me.)
(I will take good care of my health and be hard working ok?)
(Remember to reply ME)
“Yours,
Emily Tay
(Your student)
(For Primary 4)”
Apparently, I have inadvertently done a superb job in getting these two cuties to develop some hero-worshipping infatuation with me. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about my task in their education of English in the areas of spelling, punctuation, subject-verb agreement and parenthesis versus postscripts.
Don’t ask me where the I-will-be-hardworking-and-healthy-as-a-present-to-you concept came from. Never have I condoned anything of this nature (primarily due to the fact that the 2 girls always faithfully finish my assigned homework). Perhaps their Mum cleverly chose this opportunity and their passion for tuition to sneak in this very-Chinese and Singapore-education “moral” principle.
Production week has arrived. This week holds the technical rehearsals and the 4 badly sold-out shows. Sold-out isn’t self-praise here. With practical reasoning, 4 shows with only about a hundred seats per show isn’t hard to sell out. Furthermore, considering that we’re unheard-of amateurs, the good-sales credit then should go to the publicity campaign (flyers, TV Mobile and the Straits Times). We’re also the cheapest show in the TNS-M1 Theatre Connect ($15, $13 for concession eligiblets).
Okay, perhaps I shouldn’t be that wet a blanket (in spite of being logically and reality-wise sound), especially in the performance week itself.
On a brighter, or rather the more enthusiastic, note, this will probably be my last performance in a long time. Chances are that I wouldn’t be taking up Drama again should I enter Uni. As I fill out my CCA records for the university applications, I realised I had not ventured into other areas. I was in Table Tennis and Drama both in Secondary school and Junior College. I’ll like to try out a wilder sport if my Mum allows me to take up some extra-curricular activity (previously, she didn’t have much say since “c” in CCA represented “co-“, or more implicatively, “compulsory”). She’s tired of me having too many distractions in my schooling stint and is bent on ensuring I am closer to getting A’s in the next lap of my educational career.
But again, I digress (never begin a sentence with “But”, “And” and “Because”, unless you have artistic license to do so, or simply unless you’re not taking a Cambridge-related examination). The abovementioned “more enthusiastic” side of things refers to the dull nudge I have within, compelling me to make this performance a good swan song (even if I’m only playing the pimply and grouchy moon occupying the back corner of the stage with a few redundant lines in a 45-minute play).
And while gala night falls on my 19th birthday, I am aiming at the very least, not to make a pathetic memory of my presence on stage on that over-glorified annual event. The additional impetus lies in the reality that the gala-night Thursday is the only day when my family and friends are coming. In other words, Thursday would be the worst day to make a dog's dinner of myself.
At the end of this week, I am really looking forward to the return of my nightlife (just staying home). I can’t wait to part with the lonely late journeys home from rehearsals (which also requires me to walk past the still hauntedfied-by-night swimming pool in my estate, where I imagine some hair-covering-face “The Ring” woman emerging suddenly from the “Dark Water” and pulling me down into her world).
Sad to say, I don’t have much to be proud of as I edge closer to the 2-decade mark of exploiting the earth’s resources, fulfilling karmas and being loved.
As a guilty result of blogstipation, I shall make random comments on my life as it is now and other miscellaneous thoughts which possibly could be of interest to some reader.
By the way, through my last few months of teaching elementary English to Primary schoolers, I have accidentally discovered the difference between the usage of “shall” and “will”:
“Shall” follows any pronoun referring to the speaker while “will” comes after the other pronouns.
i.e.
I shall, We shall, Shall we?, Shall I?
versus
He will, She will, It will, They will etc.
I received 2 birthday cards elaborately decorated with coloured pens, tissue paper, paper mache and beads from the pair of sisters I’m teaching.
Primary 1 Lina wrote:
“Happy Birthday
Miss Chen
I am Lina Tay
I will wolkhare
Thank you
To teach me.”
Her Primary 4 sister, Emily, apparently articulate with more words wrote:
“Happy Birthday Miss Chen,
I hear wishes you a………………………………………
HAPPY BIRTHDAY and a……………………………….
HAPPY DAY for you Miss Chen
From that day on I will work hard and do my homework.
(If you are free please reply me.)
(I will tell you more news on that day about me.)
(I will take good care of my health and be hard working ok?)
(Remember to reply ME)
“Yours,
Emily Tay
(Your student)
(For Primary 4)”
Apparently, I have inadvertently done a superb job in getting these two cuties to develop some hero-worshipping infatuation with me. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about my task in their education of English in the areas of spelling, punctuation, subject-verb agreement and parenthesis versus postscripts.
Don’t ask me where the I-will-be-hardworking-and-healthy-as-a-present-to-you concept came from. Never have I condoned anything of this nature (primarily due to the fact that the 2 girls always faithfully finish my assigned homework). Perhaps their Mum cleverly chose this opportunity and their passion for tuition to sneak in this very-Chinese and Singapore-education “moral” principle.
Production week has arrived. This week holds the technical rehearsals and the 4 badly sold-out shows. Sold-out isn’t self-praise here. With practical reasoning, 4 shows with only about a hundred seats per show isn’t hard to sell out. Furthermore, considering that we’re unheard-of amateurs, the good-sales credit then should go to the publicity campaign (flyers, TV Mobile and the Straits Times). We’re also the cheapest show in the TNS-M1 Theatre Connect ($15, $13 for concession eligiblets).
Okay, perhaps I shouldn’t be that wet a blanket (in spite of being logically and reality-wise sound), especially in the performance week itself.
On a brighter, or rather the more enthusiastic, note, this will probably be my last performance in a long time. Chances are that I wouldn’t be taking up Drama again should I enter Uni. As I fill out my CCA records for the university applications, I realised I had not ventured into other areas. I was in Table Tennis and Drama both in Secondary school and Junior College. I’ll like to try out a wilder sport if my Mum allows me to take up some extra-curricular activity (previously, she didn’t have much say since “c” in CCA represented “co-“, or more implicatively, “compulsory”). She’s tired of me having too many distractions in my schooling stint and is bent on ensuring I am closer to getting A’s in the next lap of my educational career.
But again, I digress (never begin a sentence with “But”, “And” and “Because”, unless you have artistic license to do so, or simply unless you’re not taking a Cambridge-related examination). The abovementioned “more enthusiastic” side of things refers to the dull nudge I have within, compelling me to make this performance a good swan song (even if I’m only playing the pimply and grouchy moon occupying the back corner of the stage with a few redundant lines in a 45-minute play).
And while gala night falls on my 19th birthday, I am aiming at the very least, not to make a pathetic memory of my presence on stage on that over-glorified annual event. The additional impetus lies in the reality that the gala-night Thursday is the only day when my family and friends are coming. In other words, Thursday would be the worst day to make a dog's dinner of myself.
At the end of this week, I am really looking forward to the return of my nightlife (just staying home). I can’t wait to part with the lonely late journeys home from rehearsals (which also requires me to walk past the still hauntedfied-by-night swimming pool in my estate, where I imagine some hair-covering-face “The Ring” woman emerging suddenly from the “Dark Water” and pulling me down into her world).
