the•truth•shall•set•you•free

Hi everyone.

Let me attempt to provide some valid reasons to explain my prolonged absence on this plot of virtual territory called thetruthshallsetyoufree.

Well, it may sound cliche and lame, but I was indeed bz bz bz, like a bee. （忙得像个无头苍蝇，蜜蜂, whatever..）I had work right up to my nose and I could barely breathe. （真是忙得喘不过气来）

In fact, I was swarmed with work all the way since the Chinese New Year period.

Prior to CNY, my dept had to plan for the cny prog. I was tasked to train the emcees. So I had to meet them for quite a couple of times to get the loose ends tied up. In the end, though there were many hiccups and they had to react on the spot, they did well (and I'm supposed to owe them a drink each, according to sz. hah). Then during cny itself, it was a whirlwind of visiting pple and pple visiting me. Students came to my hse, so I had to prepare food and entertain them (though the entertainment part largely came from themselves). It was good fun and I was very happy to see some of my old students. They are prolly juz into their 2nd term of jc life or the 1st few wks of poly life. I wish them all the best.

Upon coming back from the cny break, I was being thrown in to a whirlwind of work. I had to plan and co-ordinate the chinese oral exams schedule for the sec 3 and 4 students. It was no easy task as there were many restrictions. First, there was the english oral exams on the same days, so we could not clash with them. Then certain students could only do the oral exams on certain days due to syf practices. That presented another layer of constraint for us. Thankfully, my very helpful colleague helped me, and we could roll out the oral exams as scheduled (with many changes and relocation of venues, examiners and students in between due to teachers/students being absent, etc.. Phew).

Then it was the march holidays. Which was no holidays at all. I had to set exam papers. I had to prepare a whole week's worth of relief materials, as I had to go for reservist come the first week of term 2. That meant I had to churn out alot of worksheets for different classes for the whole week (of which a large part was not really completed upon my return, which is why I do not like to miss school for any reasons, coz I had to spend the following 2 weeks trying to chase back all my work.. argh). Thankfully, however, I had my colleague to help take one of my classes, so I did not have to prepare work for that class. I also had a CCA camp, during which I did not really sleep for the 2 nights. It was good fun, though I was upset as certain parts of the camp went out of hand. And back to the topic of exam papers, I was glad I was able to churn out my papers on time. I realised I like to set papers - I like the idea of searching for good passages (I actually went to the lib to borrow books and magazines juz to set the papers, and my house has newspapers lying around everywhere - I actually flipped through weeks of newspapers) and churning out good questions with challenging answers to befuddle students. Hahah. My papers were also well-received and I give God glory for the compliments I received for my exam papers. Coz He led me through the many sleepless nights at Macs, and gave me the strength to pore thru' the materials and squeeze my brain juices to come up with the million questions.

As school reopened, off I went into the far and ulu army camp that I had to call my home for close to 2 years of my life. It was fairly light training, (shooting and ippt, which I passed!) with loads of time for catching up with my old buddies from long ago. It was good seeing everyone again, doing well in their lives. I wish they would know Jesus (for some of them) - that would make everything complete.

SYF. That was the main thing on everyone's and my mind as I returned to school the 2nd week of term 2. It was barely 2 weeks away from the big event, and my cca was into its final burst of fire, with practices into the night, students calling for their own extra practices, teachers trying their best to provide encouragement and support and morale rising to an all-time high. Personally, I was touched to see the students putting in alot alot of hard work to pursue their dreams. Everyone came together, including the school population in general. I was pleasantly impressed by the support the school gave this time round, from the principal to the heads to the teachers to the students from other syf groups. I think this support made a difference. It sent a strong message to the students - they were not alone in doing this. And in the end, they delivered. Thank God. Unless the Lord builds the house, we labour in vain. He alone saw us thru' the whole process, right from the balloting of rehearsal slot and the actual competition slot (we were the last team to perform) to the choosing of the pieces to giving us all the strength to carry on amidst homework and other commitments to granting us favour to blessing us with such sterling results.

Phew.. What a whole string of events that happened. Things have since slowed down to a breathe-able pace 1 wk after the syf for my cca (other syf groups are still working towards their dreams), which I believe will pick up soon, as the exams are round the corner, and my beloved 4E4 and 5A2 are taking their O level chinese exams come 28/5.

God (will) bless you and me (coz He is good and kind).

p/s: Thanks for reading, its quite a long post. Thanks to all my readers, who constantly come here, only to be disappointed by the same old post. Thanks for bugging me to write, and for being interested in my meagre (and sometimes boring) existence.