Dynamic Duo

My new(turning stale though) student is the richest student thus far in terms of the house he lives in, and the spare car in his driveway.
(yes yes i know there are closet millionaires hiding in HDB flats)
Landed is landed is landed. To own a piece of land in Singapore means you must have some spare cash in your pocket. Unless you're one those dumb enough to sell your soul to the bank in exchange for 10 credit lines of cos.

For some strange reason, the 'poorer' students generally are the ones who bother to give me a glass of water, pay their fees on time. The parents are also more sui2 bian4 about timing and don't complain.

With this student, I've met my worse yet.
Worst student, worst parent. The mother of all combinations. The duo from hell.

Boy, 15: Don't know anything. He can't even do Sec 2 maths. I doubt even Sec 1.
Example: -2 x -2 = -4.
-3 + 2 = -5
????????????????????????? I went blank!
Throw in an attitude like shit, which leaves me asking and answering my own questions.
He'll keep quiet and give me this really frustrated expression whenever I ask him something.
I can picture myself stretching my arms over and putting my hands around his neck.

His Mum, accomplice in crime.
Flashed me a wallet full of notes during lesson one, when she paid me for the assessments.
Like 1k notes. Not Thai Baht i swear.

This woman has something to pick on each time.
Before Lesson 1, she called and said her son always do assessments with tutors, must buy assessments. *Thought bubble: Oh well, this kid must be doing a lot of work* (The agent had said he's in Express stream.)

Upon arrival, he's in Normal Technical. Yup. Okie fine, normal technical it is. I've taught a kid in Normal before, no sweat. Until of cos I realised he's the extreme type.

Lesson 1: "He haven't bought his Maths text yet. You help him buy lor."
Okie fine...

Missing Lesson 2: She called me at 9am. Tuition supposed to be 11am. And said he's got a fever.
Come next Tuesday 11am.

Lesson 2: "Mdm Lee, it appears that his Maths is not Sec 3 standard. Maybe I should teach him Sec 2 stuff first? Or else its very hard to explain Sec 3 concepts."

"You give him difficult questions. He just started Sec 3, of cos cannot do Sec 3 questions."
KNN! *Thot bubble* Sec 3 don't do Sec 3? Then finish Sec 3 do Sec 3 is it?? Sec 1 then take PSLE?

To top it off, she once again mentioned that I ought to do assessment and not textbook.
*Thot bubble* Yes you B**ch. Your stupid son can't even get his number line right.
#Fact: I had checked with Popular and Normal Technical Sec 3 Maths only has ONE assessment book. ONE. Market size too small. No demand no supply. And its a revision test paper kind, not topic by topic kind.

Missing Lesson 3: Called on Monday night: Got family stuff to attend to. You come next Tue 11am. She is freakishly adamant about only having lesson on Tuesday 11am. No more no less, no change of timing is allowed, no other day is suitable for her precious son.

Missing Lesson 3 again: Called at 9am again. My son has stomachache.

Lesson 3: TODAY. She really breaks all records.
Upon arrival, before her precious baby descends the flight of stairs, she flipped open the assessment and said, "You give him too much homework, he has no time to finish"
(*He left most things blank*)
I went 'Huh? I gave him only 2 pages of English...
(Fact: I gave him 2 pages of English + Maths text Exercise Qn1 a b c d, Qn2 a b c d, Qn4 and Qn5.
And he had like 3 freaking weeks?)
Before I could finish, she cut me off and went .. " You tear off his answer keys"
"Ehm, I always do that with my students actually"
"Its not good to tear a book, I had MANY tutors before and NO ONE tore the book"
Argh!!

I want to quit and kick that fat rich ass of hers!
But i can't quit. Y? Cos the first month's pay from another student is still with the agency. If I quit this one, before 4 lessons, they're bound to hold my $.

Bloody. Fuck. This totally sucks.

Western Food @ Marina Food Loft

Disclaimer** Moi does not take any responsibility for loss of potential earnings.

That said, moi will urge you to look at the pics youself and unless you are ...

a. On a diet
b. A gross under-eater
c. Fancy a Kid's meal

Boycott the Western Food Stall at Marina Food Loft. It sells spagetti and some mee too.
For $5.50, you can get a chicken hotplate with rice, some ikan billis, and a few pieces of Kim Chi at the Korean food stall.

For $5.50 at the Western food stall, you'll get a rather pathetic "Breaded Dory Fish"
For comparison, I've placed the fish and half a slice of garlic bread side by side. Observe the thickness. Remember its BREADED dory fish? Remove the flour and what's left of the fish? Haha!

The very first time!

I gave my very first time to my camp GL from years ago. My very first time attending the wedding dinner of a friend. My very first red letter bomb!!!

It was a simple affair. SImple but still sweet. I figured he must have gone to the gym everyday for many many days to prep for this dinner.. because frankly.. yesterday was the leanest he had been in a long time i think.. haha.. Not only women go for facials and diet to prepare for their big day. Men too must pump some iron and shed that belly to look good in THE suit.

The bride was radiant. Happy and radiant. Her skin fab, her hair very very long and rebonded. And she made me feel BIG, not BIG ehm, but BIG sized when I shook her hand, cos her hand was so tiny and soft that I felt my hand enveloped hers! (So shocked! Aahhh!)

By the way, moi here got my money's worth with a double serving of shark's fin soup cos 2 girls from our table 'migrated' to another table. So table 13 had 8 instead of 10 people, hence extras of everything.. Since the folks at table 13 all knew moi has a healthy appetite, one of whom very kindly/unkindly reminded everyone with "Remember who was the one who always got hungry during Insinyur Camp??", I was given "priority" to 2nd helpings. It was very shiok when everyone dispensed with the overdose of formality you get during dinners like this and tucked in normally. Esp the prawns bit, thankfully nobody act niang with chopsticks and spoil market, else it would have taken forever to shell one pathetic prawn!

Holding the box of wedding choc like a goon!
While watching the video clip of the bride and groom, it seemed so amazing that somehow fate brought 2 people together, they fall in love and decide to spend the rest of their lives together. The groom had put together the clip himself, not exactly the most pro thing you see, but its made with a lot of love. The last line sums it all up simply with "The happiest thing in life is to love and be loved in return".

Sitting there with the same group of people I knew 4 years ago, it dawned on me just how much we had grown in 4 years and how fast time really flies.

On a lighter note, I finally laid my hands on the promised box of Krispy Cream Donuts. The 4 donuts had barely survived the journey back and a couple of them looked rather deflated by the time I got it. I polished them off anyway that night, AFTER the wedding dinner!, cos I figured they won't last another night. Despite the less than fantastic condition, the cream filled donut with chocolate coating on top tasted great. Absolutely sinful stuff! Maybe I'm deluded but i think i did compensate with a super duper long walk.

65mins

Its been a long while since the last post...

Today i did a couple of queer things.
1. I chased after a lecturer in pointy pumps(not the best shoes to run in), along with my fellow Eucharisian ...
Tink i freaked Gupta out a little as i went 'clop' clop' 'clop' down the corridor.
He kept going as I 'cloped' away behind him, the echos reverberating off the empty corridor.
Finally, he twisted his head back 120degrees
and saw a crazed looking moi waving madly at him.

2. I spent 65mins at the void deck at 11pm, in between practising my 'Lancome' speech (thus getting really queer stares from passer-bys) and peering at a kitten at the stairway.

In this time, it changed its 'location' like 5 times.
But its movement was confined to a radius of 3metres.

It barely managed to hop across a small drain and stayed on a grass patch for about 5 mins,
before deciding that it wanted to get back to the other side

Hence it stood tentatively at the edge of the drain for a while before barely leaping across it again. (i figured it got scared in the darker spot, since a fat rat would probably be larger than it)

It proceeded to stay at the foot of the stairs for a long while.. (at a strategic location where if you're walking down the stairs and don't open your eyes big enough, you might just flatten it with a foot (again, bigger than it if you're a size 8 and above)

Finally it moved a few steps to this boarded up area right beside the stairs landing and proceeded to put its head and a tiny paw through a small opening between the metal boards.
It chickened out and withdrew the head and paw.
Put back again
Repeated the process again and again..
Finally it settled down and stayed put.

And i would like to thank my two very special frenz for yakking on the phone and rehearsing with moi during this period. Ha!