1 Year

It's 15th March 2012 today, exactly a year when my Baby, Wookie left us.

There's not one day that passed where I do not think of him, miss him and wanting him. In all probability, if he had survived that ordeal, he may have lots of other complications with his health and well-being. And God saw it fit to take him away from more pain and discomfort.

But that does not lessen my pain and yearning for him. I HAVE moved on but he has remained in my heart.

My Baby, how Mummy miss you. You are in a better place now but you have left a void in Mummy's heart which nobody can fill. I will always love you and I will always miss you.

A Ballet Teacher's Rant!

This post is dedicated to all my ballet teacher friends.

Ballet Teachers are 2nd class citizens. No, I think perhaps 3rd class. No, no, no, I think we are much lower than that.

What brought this feeling of 'lowness' on? Examinations are just round the corner. Us at DanceArt ( the teachers, I mean ) have become rather anxious about non-attendance. These students do not disappear for a lesson or two. There was one whom I have not seen since Chinese New Year!

When asked, she tells me there's extra tuition classes. So then I asked her, "How come you did not tell your tuition teacher you have ballet class?"

*Silence*

I then asked her, "Is it because tuition teacher is fiercer? Ballet teachers are easy to bully? Don't you think ALL your teachers deserve equal respect? After all, we have been having ballet lessons at that time for years. Why is it, when your tuition teacher decides at her whim to have a replacement class at that time do you just upped and not turn up for your ballet class?" "When you don't turn up for class, you prevent your ballet teachers from doing their work. We are very conscientious about our work. When you prevent us from doing our work, it frustrates us and gives us stress. Then our health will be affected. Do you really want that? Make us sick?" (Something to that effect)

Then, there was the usual, "I was sick" Yeah! Right! In future, when you are sick, produce a medical certificate. If you didn't need to go to the doctor's, you are well enough to come to class, even if it's just to sit down and observe.

One of the gems - "I was tired" As if her classmates were not tired. As if her ballet teachers were not tired!

When are we, the ballet teachers, ever going to get the respect and recognition and awe and yes, FEAR from students and parents where they not miss lessons for whatever reason.

Oh, ya. Some of the other excuses. My dad didn't wake me up. My aunty got married ( this one always has an aunt getting married. I wonder how many she has) One even told me her mother made her stay home to finish her homework. Then, I told her it's not her mum's fault simply because she did not finish her homework on time and therefore had to stay home to finish it. This was met with silence and I knew I hit the nail right on the head.  Then there's the 'traffic jam excuse'. Traffic jam excuses is quite a, er, gem. Simply because, student will knowingly go to the far end of the earth shortly before class, then calls up to tell me there's a massive jam on the way back.

Then there are those who know very well they will NOT be coming for the next class ( students in that entire class knows about it, except the teacher ) but they will not tell the teacher. The teacher, that will be me, will diligently prepare a stupendous class to hopefully help improve this said student who will NOT be turning up. Then, when the hour comes, I ask, where's so-and-so? Oh, she's not coming today. She got tuition replacement.......... All effort wasted since, some of the exercises were specifically geared towards improving certain exercises which others are not in dire need. *sigh*

I have to travel more than 50KM each way to the studio. That makes it a whopping 100KM round trip, not to mention the toll charges I have to pay. It really exasperate me when I get there and nobody turns up till about half hour later. Of course it is not their fault I have to travel far. But it IS their fault for being late.

Now, I feel better and I can , sigh, and say I had a great day at work. There's nothing to compare with that exhilarating feeling of watching students improve and transform.

Have a great week ahead, my fellow ballet teachers. May The Force Be With You!

Elvis the Rat!

I am plagued again. Literally, as in like the plague.

A rat is once more terrorising my life. A few days ago, I left the downstairs bathroom window opened overnight. That must have been how it got in. The next day, I discovered it ate my mango which I left on the kitchen counter. Evidence of shit right next to the mango AND on my fan remote.

I think I make a good RCSI (Rodent Crime Scene Investigator) I deduced its point of entry, where it rested, where it hid that night. I was hoping it also left the same way. But I was mistaken. It stayed around.

It hid in the potato/onion container which I accidently left open. I closed it and last night, it tried to get out. There were squealings which sounded like a pig and I thought it was odd, since I am pretty sure none of my neighbours have pigs for pets. Then, I heard a commotion in the kitchen. It must have summoned a tremendous burst of energy and bolted out of the container, dashed across my stove and countertop and promptly slid into the sink.

After that, the account is rather unclear. I was screaming too much and trying to wake a rather sleepy husband from his slumber in front of the TV. I also had my reading glasses on and therefore could not see clearly where it went. Nikki was of no help. She just dashed about, excited with the excitement. (Please note that this is nearly 3AM)

Andrew, then helped me lay a trap. 10,000 orcs would not have been abled to get me into the kitchen last night. I very quickly bundled up my little girl and went upstairs to my bedroom sanctuary.

This morning the trap remained..........................empty. It is still somewhere about in the house. We need to 'smoke it out'. It's a smart 'Elvis' But then, in any case, every single Elvis I have encountered were all very smart.

Perhaps, they have rat schools, whereby each and every rat learns about things to avoid and people to irritate. Perhaps they have a huge poster with my face on it on their blackboards, telling all rat students, "This IS the person to annoy"

I hate rats. How can I make them hate me? How can I get them to go eat somebody else's mangoes. Why can't they go and shit on somebody else's potato container and prances over somebody else's stove? Why me? Why mine???

Mummy time

This has become a nightly affair for when I am home. After dinner, Nikki will ask to be held. She will sit quietly ( well, as quietly as she can ever be, anyways ) throughout my evening dose of SVU.

It's amazing how much she's grown. I cannot carry her with one hand comfortably anymore. In short, she's quite a handful.

Wookie and her are similar in many ways but they are also vastly different. No matter how much Wookie loves me, he would have not been able to sit still for such a long period of time. He will wriggle and move all over the place and will promptly have fallen.

But they both demonstrates their displeasure in similar ways -  by creating as much mess as possible. Last Sunday, we got home to find that Nikki had got on the sofa, pooed and trampled the poo all over. This is probably her way of saying, "I'm not happy you guys went out and left me alone in the house" Wookie would have done something similar, except perhaps, not poo. He's finds poo absolutely disgusting and run as far away from them as possible. He might have peed, or puked. Nevertheless, similar.

Nikki's rather quiet. She hardly barks. David has friends over from Singapore. It was only the 3rd day that Mira heard her bark. But she whines. And that she can really do very well. Yesterday, I was completely 'paralysed' from the cough drugs Dr. Tay gave me. Nikki was whining away. I could not even call out to Alison to help me out. It was all I could do to speed dail her on the phone when she was only in the oher room. "Take her away, take away....."

She's been with us for 6 months already. How time flies. And she's going to be 8 months old in 2 weeks' time.

Rubbish oozing out

This is my own tiny little corner and I can say/do whatever I like. Today, I'd like to rant a little about how people's FaceBook/Twitter's updates reflect on their personal reputation.

All of us wish to be heard. We want to air our opinions, we like others to think we are witty, smart.....and so on.

I am all for a bit of news on what's going on in your life. Or if something interesting or significant has just happened. I am even all for a bit of quips or sayings to brighten up somebody's day. But is it necessary to update one's status every 15 minutes

Wait, perhaps, for some people, for every 5 minutes something exciting does happen. Look at the TV series 24. Things keep happening every minute! Maybe I just lead a humdrum life. Excitement for me is to slash some enemies in my Zelda game and get out of a locked room. Or perhaps the thought of watching an episode of one of my favourite TV series.There's also those moments watching a delightful dance.

What is the point tweeting "I'm hungry" and 15 minutes later tweet a "I'm still hungry" Just raid the fridge!

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against tweeting or FB updates. I also do it. But sometimes, I think we all have to take some responsibility to what we actually put up. Opinions can and will be formed by the representation of what one puts up. I have actually deleted people from my FB list simply because of the utter rubbish those people put up.

I think there's something like 'follow' on both Twitter and FB.And one strives to get as many followers as possible. I also know of people who regards making it to 'top posts' very important. Does that signify acceptance? Does it mean one is popular? Does it mean we have many friends?

I prefer to be obscure and have just a few people who actually care about what's been happening to me than to have hundreds of idiotic responses to my updates.

For anybody who's reading this ( me included, for this blog is mainly to refresh my own memory some time in the future ) please do re-assess your updates. Nobody needs to know you have not pooed today, unless you have not pooed for a week and requires prayers for your wellbeing or suggestions of remedies on how to make those poo materialise.

Be careful of what you write or put up. It may come back to haunt you or turn around and bite you. We all need to assume responsibility and ownership. When rubbish oozes out via Twitter/FB, it just only means there's nothing but rubbish inside that person.