Saturday, April 27, 2013

O stands for Orthodontics

A stands for Alfred, Angela and Alvin  
E stands for Emperor
F stands for Fairy Tales
stands for my Genarasi (generation) 
H stands for Hubby
I stands for I
J stands for Jobs
K stands for Kitchen deco
L stands for Life is good
M stands for My Man and his 1st car
N stands for NTU




O stands for Orthodontics
"Orthodontics is the study of dentistry that is concerned with the treatment of improper bites, and crooked teeth. Orthodontic treatment can help fix the patient's teeth and set them in the right place. Orthodontists usually use braces and retainers to set the patient's teeth."
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wanted the content for this post to be for letter 'Q' to 歌颂 about how wonderful my dentist, Mr Mohan, from Q&M dental is but i couldn't contain my excitement about getting my teeth fixed again till letter Q so here goes.... 

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JC time was the time where i first received criticism for my protruding lower jaw and crooked teeth .... was rather upset about it but as i didnt have the habit of asking my parents for big bucket item, it didnt cross my mind that i would get them corrected... 

fast forward 7 years, after 2 years of work life (= have savings liao), at the age of 24, upon a friend's recommendation, i visited Q&M at Bukit Gombak to have my teeth check for braces by Dr Mohan... opted for ceramics braces because they were 'invisible' and cost only about a few hundred (less than $400) more  than metal braces. cant remember the exact amount but i know i definitely spent less than $4k in total. The price included everything; extraction x 4, braces, retainers, monthly consultation with tightening and scaling & polishing. paid $1k upfront and went on an interest free instalment payment scheme. 

I was also given a massive discount for the teeth whitening kit which i bought after removing my braces.... =) ... He also gave good discount to all my friends (lene, adele, wx) whom upon hearing all the good things about braces from me decided to get their smile enhanced too... =) 

But i wasn't a good patient.  i would skip my monthly consultation every now and then, my record was missing 2 consecutive appointments hence the whole process took me 3.5 years, from dec 2005 to may 2009.... =P


my 'show no teeth & braces' smile for most part of the 3.5 years 


my once in a while 'show teeth & braces' smile when 自拍-ing... 

except for a close-up shot else the braces can't really be seen at all lo... the above and below photos were both taken during the same period of time while holidaying in bintan with mab and laurice in 2007. 



fast forward 4 years after removing my braces.... not a good patient once more cos i have not put on my retainers for at least 3.5 years liao.....yes, i was only good for less than half a year with the retainers.... =P.... i even threw away the retainers cos my gum and teeth were in so much pain when i tried to fit it in about 1.5 years ago.... ='(....


i realised that at least two of my teeth have shifted.... my teeth are no longer lined up neatly and beautifully.... =S.... i was so concerned that i had even contemplated to put on braces once more to achieve my perfect teeth alignment..... i can live with my flabbiness, i can leave with my pimpled face hence i am also puzzled why i m so anal about my teeth.... i can only conclude that the criticism back in jc must have dented my confidence damn much.... =S


anyway, made an appointment and visited the Q&M at hougang mall for my 'yearly' scaling and polishing of my pearly 'whites' by another dentist as Dr Mohan only specialises in braces matters.... 


but i was just super lucky to be at the clinic on the right day and at the right time; Dr Mohan was at the hougang branch and happened to be free in between appointments too... =).... so clinic admin "hooked" us up and i managed to slip in for a quick consultation and he said that a corrective retainer would do the trick.... =D.... chop chop, the mould was made and i can collect my corrective retainers in another month's time.... Yippy ya yo!!!! 


woohoo....happiness.....and to add on to my happiness, he gave me a 50% discount (=$200) and a waiver of sterilization & disposables charges ($10)..... and tatatatata..... my corrective retainers only cost me $214 inclusive of 7% gst... 


by the way, the charges for the scaling and polishing was only $70 with an additional $10 for sterilisation and disposable and with gst, it only totals up to $85.60. It's considered freaking cheap la...i paid $150 for the same service when i visited wong's dental clinic at hougang ave 8 last year lo. =S


Friday, April 26, 2013

N stands for NTU


A stands for Alfred, Angela and Alvin  
E stands for Emperor
F stands for Fairy Tales
stands for my Genarasi
H stands for Hubby
I stands for I
J stands for Jobs
K stands for Kitchen deco
L stands for Life is good
M stands for My Man and his 1st car


N stands for Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

I'm a student of NTU not once, not twice but thrice..... 

First time was as a young adult (old teenager) whatever you call it, at the age of 19.... accepted as a student to study business and eventually chose to major in applied economics.....

浑水摸鱼 through the first and second year cos my aim was just to pass my exam and get my degree at the end of the third year... had the experience of 打包-ing a core module; information technology and had also received a result slip that stated 2Cs and 3Ds....i must have been ranked the last student in the entire business cohort for that 2 years  =P.... 

only started to buck up and studied really hard for year 3 just because i dun wanna 打包 any year 3 module and thus had to do year 4 for a 3 year course.... 又丢脸又浪费钱.... my hard work paid off and my results for year 3 were all As and Bs.... see, 我是可以读书的.... heee 


freshie orientation camp

freshie group - southpark


world peace event..... wahahahaha


Year 1 classmates

sadly, no year 2 and year 3 class photos.... probably because there wasn't any outing to begin with, camera was not the in thing and camera phone was definitely not invented yet..... omg, i sound so old... =P .... 

hung out with vivian, xinying and rachelle for most part of year 2 and 3 but dun remember taking any photos together during that time too leh.... guess camera was either too expensive, too gigantic to be carried around or digital camera was not invented yet.... omgx2, i'm really old.... =S....  

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Second time back as a NTU student was when i did my Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) in NIE at the age of 25... 

love this period much cos i was paid to study and was even paid during the hols.... wahahahaha.... 

tons of assignment to complete every week, plentiful of presentation in the form of macro-teaching but with more passion in teaching than business & economics, and having efficient, smart and selfless friends around, all the homework can be completed 事半功倍-ly... =D .... and because of this, my result was pretty good... =)....

no class photos too.... cos i was always hanging out with mab, claire, laurice and michelle....
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Third time back as a NTU student will be this August, after another 6 years, to do my Advanced diploma in Arts Education in NIE.... it's gonna be a 4 month full time course in NIE.... and the best part is.... i'm paid to study once again..... wahahahaha..... 

am so looking forward to becoming a student once again for 2 main reasons; 

(1) Mr Ang is gonna be my campus mate, just that we will be in different 'school'...he will be in school of material engineering doing his phd while i will be in school of education aka NIE....  looking forward to having lunch together in school oh.... wahahaha.... super cheap thrill.... i know.... =P ... but had never have the experience of dating in uni mah.... 

(2) My timetable is gonna be super blessed upon graduation from the course...... it's a minimum of 60% art ... means instead of marking worksheets and workbooks, i will be busy beautifying artworks for exhibitions and collating artworks for display.... and instead of drilling kids with a standardise method to answer questions, i will be encouraging them to think out of the box and complete their work with as much creativity as possible.... 


and hopefully, i dun have to be a form teacher who needs to do all the admin stuff like taking attendance, keying in student profile, collecting money, edusave form, travel form, giving out newsletter, handling parents' complains with regards to things that dosen even happen during my class.... 

i really really just wanna teach and seeing kids learning in a fun and engaged manner is what that is motivating me to go into arts education despite not having the talent nor foundation in art... =) 

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besides being part of the A to Z blog challenge, this post happens to be part 4 of my "once upon a time" series too... 

Part 3 - JC time 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

K stands for Kitchen deco

A stands for Alfred, Angela and Alvin  
E stands for Emperor
F stands for Fairy Tales
stands for my Genarasi
H stands for Hubby
I stands for I
J stands for Jobs


                      K stands for Kitchen deco

i have to admit i am one of those irritating people who enjoys rearranging furniture around frequently.... lene and everyone in 蔡家 know best.... the position of my sleeping mattress and cupboard changed from one corner of the room to the other at least twice a year during sec & jc times back in the woodlands flat. 

my habit only stopped when i moved to mimosa. cos 蔡 daddy customised a wardrobe for me that took up one wall, the attached toilet had the door smacked in the middle of another wall and a caved in hole for the super old aircon unit took up the 3rd wall means i was left with one last wall to place my bed against. =S

I faced the same problem now in home sweet home. Half the furniture are built in and the other half are in specific locations for fengshui purpose so in other words, i can't move any thing la... =S


that's the reason why i kept adding decal to the house till i feel that there's too much around liao.... =P


have the urge to make something more 3D instead.... surf surf surf and came across these simple and seems easy to be created diy stuff/deco for the kitchen... =) 


http://www.overthebigmoon.com/fun-kitchen-printables/
























hopefully i will be more motivated to get my hands working on some of these craft works real soon.... =D 

Sunday, April 7, 2013

J stands for Jobs i had

A stands for Alfred, Angela and Alvin  
E stands for Emperor
F stands for Fairy Tales
stands for my Genarasi
H stands for Hubby
I stands for I

J stands for Jobs I Had

My first part time job was as a 收盘 & 洗碗小妹 at 蔡家 canteen at the age of about 6 on every weekend. It started off really well as I would get to sleep in 蔡爸爸's van or the canteen storeroom till i 自然醒, then happily help out a little here and a little there as if i was playing 家家酒. Daily wage was $3. 

Then i was promoted to be the cashier because my mental sum was better than 蔡 mummy. And eventually promoted to 咖啡小妹 by the time i quit at the age of 18. Daily wage was $10. 

super exploitation right???? but what to do???? 自家生意leh.... =S

so imagine my happiness when i knew that i no longer have to spend all my sundays waking up at 5am to help out at the canteen anymore just because i started giving tuition on weekends after completing my As.... =D

At the same time, i was on a half year relief teaching stint, together with lorraine n mei, at Woodlands Ring Secondary School. Was teaching science to 2 classes of sec 1 pupils and a few CME classes to secondary 3 pupils. This was like the happiest time of my life.... earning close to $2k a month from relief teaching + tuitioning + no finance obligation = spend spend n spend some more....on good food, on clothes, on bags, on shoes.... wahahaha.... =) 

1st job after graduating with a business degree was as a salegirl at iora (the branch at suntec) earning just $5 an hour..... for god's know what reason, i suddenly had this urge to be in the fashion industry upon graduation despite not having any knowledge in it and definitely no flare in it... i think it lasted for less than 2 months...

2nd job was as a management trainee with The Executive (high end boutique selling imported ties and belts)  earning $1400 a month. Lasted another 2 months. Left the job cos boss was announcing to me that the salary of the manager who had worked for him for the last 5 years was gonna hit $3k. He was so proud that he was giving her such a 'HIGH' salary but i was like... (-.-!!!).... 10 different tuition assignments a week, a total of 20 teaching hours per week, could have fetch me close to this amount liao lo..... i was charging $30 - $35 per hour back in uni liao lo. Tendered my resignation the very next day. =P 

And 'management trainee' was just a nicer job title for salegirl... =S... job scope exactly the same lo.... really kudos to people who are in the sales line... they have to be on their feet the whole 8 - 10 hours a day, work on weekends and public holidays, smile at customers no matter how demanding and unreasonable some could be, stress over sale target, clean the shop space, have lunch alone, and the price of a meal in the food court at any shopping centre is not cheap lo... aiyo, the pay really dun justify la.... 

3rd job after graduation was as a full time tuition teacher at smartlab education centre. starting pay $1700 per month. 1 year 7 month there got me one of my BFF, joyce. realised that i dun like and cant handle meetings and admins and management responsibilities. I just wanted to teach. i also cant stand those arrogant parents who talked down just because they paid us to teach their kids. argh!!!.. ya, hate having to work on weekends too.... =P 

Hopped over to moe in 2005 and have been a very happy employee thus far. Was trained as a math, science and english teacher. made the choice to be a lower primary teacher and eventually made the choice to be an art teacher. Reaching my final hurdler to be a trained art teacher liao. Interview result for Adv Dip will be out by Friday. Fingers crossed n praying hard!!!!..... i really really wanna be a full fledge art teacher till i retire.... =)