Wonderful Mt Ophir Expedition

I'm finally back from Mt Ophir! Shoulder and thighs aching badly, but I feel wonderful. It has been 15 years since I last climbed Mt Ophir, and never have I thought before that I will touch that same monument at the summit again after so many years and a great emotion just came to me at the summit.

Thank goodness there was no rain in our 3 days on the mountain. Great to be in touch with nature again; sleeping in the jungle, bathing in the stream with fishes around me and drinking water straight from the stream for 3 days.

The climb was tedious with steep slopes that seems never-ending and some dangerous cliffs where we can only use a rope to climb. When I were going down the steep slopes back to base camp, I just wondered how I managed to climb all these slopes and I felt very happy for achiving the climb.

Some reflection I made were that "when the going get tough, the tough get going.", "when there's a will, there's a way.","Important is not the destination, more important is the journey."

At the resort on tues, I read in the newspaper that the Crocodile Hunter, Mr Steve Irwin died on Monday when doing the thing he loves best; playing and teasing animals. I have watched some documentaries in Animal Planet, showing him doing dangerous stunt with animals and I told myself:" This guy is crazy!".

It is really not up to anyone to judge whether what he did was silly or worthwhile. I always like this quote from Abraham Lincoln, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that counts. It’s the life in your years.”

Teachers' Day Celebration 2006

It has been 4 months since I last blog.

I am very honoured to receive the 'Innovative Teacher Award' this year. A million thanks to the people who nominated me. I will definitely continue to think of interesting ways to conduct lessons.

During the concert, the 2 dances were also good; the dance moves were great and well coordinated and I can see there is cohesion. I am really glad to see that the 2 teams have the passion and teamwork to make the dance performance a reality, after I approached them last term whether they wish to perform during teachers' day concert.

The band performance was very lively. I kept looking at the drummer's movement as he was so skillful and animated. Well Done. The instructor was also so sporting to perform. Great job, band. SYF 07, here we come.

Sorry to 1A-ians I can only stay in the classroom for 5 mins, as I am helping the staff well-being committee and I am leaving school early to bring lucky draw prizes to the restaurant where we have a teachers' day lunch. (It is a tradition to have teachers' day lunch every year.) Sorry 2C & 3I, I did not manage to go to your classes. You all are always in my heart.

Thanks for all the handshakes, cards, souvenirs and well-wishes.

Thanks for all the motivation and inspiration for me to carry on with my duty as a teacher. Teachers need motivation too.

For the Sept school holiday, I am going to scale Mount Ophir (Malaysia) with the Sec 3 NCC cadets, (4days, 4 nite, 4/9 Mon nite to 8/9 Fri). I am looking forward to it, as I always like outdoor activities (I grew up in a kampong) and the last mountain I climbed was 8 years ago in Nepal. Hope my knees can stay intact.

Bye for now.