Merdeka Eve

Grandpa Kong-kong is so much better. He was discharged from the hospital last week, and we had a thanksgiving dinner to celebrate his homecoming. Today he looks like the good ol' Kong. His legs are still weak, but at least he can now move around the house better, even without the walking support thingy. God is good.

I FINALLY made a police report regarding my lost wallet yesterday afternoon after school. I've never made a police report or anything before, so I was abit excited also lah. Upon entering, I was attended to immediately by a friendly police officer. Turned out making a report ain't much fuss as I had expected. So I would like to thank Lance Corporal Freddy Peter for his pleasant service. Today I went to JPN to apply for a new IC...and had to fork out RM 30 for the fees, dammit! I did not have enough left to get a new driving license from JPJ. Well, at least I have some identity now LOL.

School. It has been a hectic week. Working double-time to finish marking the exam papers of 6 classes. Mission completed lastnight. Tonight we'll be having the Ambang Kemerdekaan celebration at the school hall. I must say the teachers here memang bersemangat kemerdekaan yang tinggi. So bersemangat that I feel left out LOL.

Merdeka. Tomorrow will be the nation's 50th year of independence. Are we really there yet?

Happy Merdeka peoples

Picture of the Week

When all else fail, read the manual

Sticking onto Nothing

Grandpa "Kong-Kong" suffered from some complications on Friday. It was real bad I heard. I wasn't there then. But thank God he's getting better already. Everyone's been encouraging him, including the doctors. Kong just needs to have that will power to go on. Hopefully he's getting on to that now.

My other grandad, Grandpa "Ipu Balang" is also sick. He's going to Miri to see the specialist. Whether to proceed with the operation or not, we will know soon. Sigh.

My tonsil's been bugging me all week, though not as shitty as it was last year, but still annoying. And now I can't find my wallet. Either I misplaced it somewhere around the house or it slipped onto the car's floor which later dropped off the car when the door was opened. Today I conducted a SAR Ops in my bedroom and living room, but it was nowhere to be found. So it is highly possible that it's somewhere out there. Probably on the road, at the edge of a drain, lying on green grass, covered with sand, soaked by the rain.... I don't know. Probably some dude found it and kept it to himself. Nothing much in it. A Rm 1 note (see how broke I am), Identity Card, Driving License, ATM Card, discount card, some name cards and receipts. If someone had found it, I really expect him/her to return it.

Why. I only have a buck in it. My MyKad is screwed. My driving license expires in 3 months. My ATM card is worthless, I only have Rm 6.17 in my account. Discount card is useless in this part of the country. I just don't want to go through the hassles of reporting the loss of all those things and getting new ones. I don't want no bureaucratic bullshit! And most importantly, I want to cash my paycheck tomorrow...in peace.

Strange, my irritating tonsils and missing wallet creeps into my mind now and then, but sometimes I forget about them. I just can't stop thinking about both my grandads.

Dum spiro, spero

I'm sick, have been sick for sometime now. Mom's sick. Grandad's really sick. No more fever and annoying flu for me, but am starting to cough on a more regular basis. Went to see the MA yesterday after speding sometime with Grandpa. My Dad's giving tuition to his son. MA gave me kick-ass medications compared to the ones given by the MA that examined me last week.

When I was with Grandpa this afternoon, Dr Yap came by and said the test reports showed good signs and they will be doing some more stuff to validate the results. And also I would like to thank him for the 2 days sick leave last week :p. I knew I put him in a difficult position when i asked for 2 days. He was like, "2 days ah?" "2 days...." "i dont normally give 2 days you know" "you want 2 days..." "2 days...." "i'm sick myself and only had 1 day off" "hmmmmm..." "2 days..." "but i guess it's more difficult being a teacher right" *fills in my sick leave*. A doctor friend is pretty handy I must say :p.

Back to Grandpa, he had his first ever ambulance ride on Sunday. I guess it kinda shocked my aunts & uncles when the helper told them something about him being carried to the ambulance. It wasn't an emergency situation. Grandpa had been feeling really weak since Saturday, especially his legs. Even by helping to support him walk was a tough task for me and Dad as he was heavier. So Dad asked my aunt Marianne, who's a nurse whether we could request an ambulance for such case. She said it would not be a problem and better still, it's FOC as Grandpa is a pensioner. So the ambulance came and Grandpa was comfortably stretchered downstairs.

Onto school matters. I arrived during exam week. A good thing for me to bed in, but i found out later it was sucky at times. Turned out, the teacher I was replacing was also a GSTT. And she had some work left undone, and gave me the honor to finish them. The question papers she prepared were behind schedule due to some "technical problems". So to cut the story short, yesterday morning was chaotic in the distribution of my question papers. I had not put down the names of the teachers responsible in invigilating the papers (I partly blame the teachers who went home on time the day before and the lack of written information available). And I had also forgot to attach the OMR answer sheets. I thought this was the biggest screw up in the school's PKS 3, until 'disaster' struck again, this time even a bigger pile of sh*t. It somehow made me feel better, even more so as it was the Head of the English Dept's mess :p.

Last Friday when I reported for duty was also the first time I set foot in the school. It was actually smaller than I had imagined. There were only 2 blocks of classrooms, 1 block for labs and then the administrative block which houses a cramped faculty room. The faculty room is just average in terms of comfort, and that's a compliment! I particularly dislike the seating arrangements. The teachers' tables are set classroom style, with rows and columns facing 1 direction. I was also surprised that due to limited classrooms, some forms had to take up buildings that were meant for other purposes. The most surprising was a class that was set up on the ground floor of a staff quarters. One element I find missing there are "jokers". Back in the previous school where I taught, there were always people who had something to say that would crack up the others.

I probably sound like I'm complaining haha. But I'm adapting. I just wish this cough would be gone real soon.

Looking forward to a nice weekend.

down with the sickness

I'm very sick. Not the chronic type lah. Flu, slight fever and a sorethroat. The complete package. I've been sick since Saturday but it became worse day by day. I hope today (Tuesday) there will be some improvements.

Anyhows, yesterday I had my KPLI interview. Me & Dad started our journey from Limbang on a Sunday evening around 4.30pm. The timing was a big mistake. When we arrived at the Tedungan-Kuala Lurah border around 5pm, the queue was about a kilometer long and very slow moving! We got held up for almost 2 1/2 hours at the border. Brunei Immigration sucks!

So we arrived in Miri city just before 10pm. My interview was supposed to start at 8 the next morning, but I still had to complete my Borang Pernyataan Hasrat. There are 3 questions: 1) Why do you choose teaching as a profession. 2) State your experience in teaching. 3) If chosen, what will you contribute to the teaching field. I finally went to bed after 12.30am. Supposed to wake up at 6 but i didn't hear my alarm, and my Dad's alarm did not go off too. So we were up 20 mins late.

So I finally arrived at Maktab Perguruan Sarawak 10 minutes before 8am. When I got there, they were just starting to prepare the place for the interview, dammit! All the rush for nothing. There were supposed to be 6 candidates for the 8am slot, but 1 didn't turn up. So the 5 of us then sat for a table test, 30mins essay writing. After that we were told to wait in the hall while the interviewers do their stuff in the room. I thank God those 4 other candidates were the nice types. We got to know each other, joking etc. Alu sik nervous agik lekak ya. The next activity, we were to go through a group discussion, on the lack of civic-consciousness among students in schools for 30mins. No problems, nobody monopolized the discussion, everyone got their fair share. Perhaps the "bonding" thing worked haha.

Later on came the final stage, the individual interview. And I was the last one. The interview was pleasant to say the least. Formal of course but in a very relaxed atmosphere. I wasn't asked any general knowledge questions, which is cool. They mainly asked about my experience in teaching, the challenges I faced, the best moment etc. They then excused me, my hand was already holding the door knob when the chief interviewer called me again.

Chief: Benjamin, I must say that I'm impressed. Your English is very good!

Me: Oh, thank you madam.

Chief: So tell me Benjamin, how does a boy, born & raised in Limbang (i specifically said "born & raised" at the beginning of the interview when they asked me about myself) have a very good command of English?

Me: *still standing at the door* Well...

2nd Interviewer: Sit down Benjamin

Chief: Yes, come take a seat again. So, tell us...

Me: Television

Of course I mentioned other stuff like reading etc, not to mention both my parents are English teachers. It went on for a couple more minutes and then I was excused, but somehow I had forgotten to showed them my original IC, and they too forgot to ask me for that. So again my exit was delayed. I gave the chief my IC, she took a look and told me to state my IC number. With the birthdate, state code and 4 unique numbers. I did so, and remarked "Teacher's Day" at the end. Yes I was born on May 16. She smiled. Her smile was, I dunno. It was like a sign. Unless she was just mucking around with me haha. Will just have to wait til December 19.

I'll be teaching again tomorrow, at a secondary school. I hope i feel much better later today. Else might ask for MC.