It was my second and final visit to Angkor Wat, before leaving for Thailand the next day. Wanting to make the 50 USD Angkor Wat entry ticket worthwhile, my friends and I decided to linger around this manificient ruins to catch the sunset.

As I walked past the main entrance, I saw a girl sitting at the parapet making some sketches out of her A4 drawing block. Impressed by the completed art pieces that were displayed beside her, I stopped to look at her works while my friends proceeded into the temple.

Sophea using a pencil to sketch before applying the watercolours

Fascinated by how well this young girl could draw, I asked her where’d she acquired this skill. She responded shyly, "my organisation taught me how to paint." After continuing chatting with her for awhile, I realised that Sophea (the girl’s name) has no parents, and the "organisation" she was talking about is probably an orphanage that teaches their orphans skills such as art and craft and other life skills.

I’ve also learnt that she is currently attending school (which explains why she can speak good English), and she comes to Angkor Wat to paint until evening everyday after her classes. All the money that she makes from selling her art pieces will be used to pay her school fees.

Without the intention to purchase her painting initially, I smiled and wished her good day as I made my way through the entrance. However, she looked at me earnestly, hoping that I would buy one of her works. I eventually decided that it wasn’t a bad idea buying a piece, since there’s this painting of the temple that I liked quite a lot. It costed me 10 USD.

The painting that I bought from Sophea 

It definitely wasn’t cheap, and this amount of money could’ve been one-third month’s salary for a commoner living in Cambodia. But I paid her without bargaining as I thought this money would greatly relieve her burden in paying the school fees. She slotted the painting into a clear folder delicately, handed over to me and thanked me sincerely. I requested to take a picture of her and she obliged.

What struck me most about this 14 year old girl was her independence and willingness to work hard to provide herself an income to substain her schooling. Sophea could have succumbed to taking the easy way out by quitting school and begging for money to cover her daily meals, but she chose to live her life meaningfully and with dignity. Humble as she is, Sophea possesses a hidden potential to become an accomplished young lady in future. Whatever ambitions she might have in mind, I wish this girl the very best for her future endeavours.

To all: If you happen to visit Angkor Wat and see Sophea painting, why not spend a bit of time appreciating her paintings, or even start a conversation with her? I’m sure that will brighten up her day.  

Yesterday was a long day for me. I had to go for a workshop after school, followed by rushing off to Singapore Conference Hall for the band’s SYF rehearsal. I attempted to do a bit of marking in the concert hall, but eventually decided to just sit back and listen to the 2 pieces played by the band.

Casually flipping through my magazine at the same time, I came across this column that I found it worthwhile to share on my blog.

*** 

Tame Your Tongue 

Your muzzle can get you into unnecessary trouble. Here are three ways you can spare yourself a bruising from the Cuss Control Academy (www.cusscontrol.com). 

Stop Complaining

Seriously, no one wants to hear it. So, don’t whine over things you can’t influence and adopt a calm and rational approach to workable problematic situations. Others will admire you for your cool.

Practise Being Patient

The next time you’re stuck in a queue or in traffic, ask yourself if losing those extra minutes really matter. It doesn’t. Use the time to think on stuff you normally don’t have the time to think about - like where to go on yout next vacation.

Stop Swearing Casually

You won’t win any arguments by swearing. You won’t prove that you’re smart or glib. And you won’t earn respect or admiration. Not the best way to get hired, promoted, or romantically connected. 

*** 

Well, I guess if all of us do our best to conform to these 3 attributes, there would be a great improvement in the interpersonal relationship among friends and colleagues. So if we aren’t already practising the above habits, why not put in a little more effort?

**I don’t know how many bandits would actually read this, but I do hope that you all could stay motivated for the SYF competition. Though scoldings from the instructors could be harsh, they meant well. And I could see a vast improvement compared to weeks ago. I enjoyed watching you all perform. To those who might not get a chance to join this year’s SYF, don’t feel dejected. There are always more events to look forward to, and you will get your chance to shine!  

It has been a tiring week at school. Maybe it was the fatigue from travelling to KL and back. Fortunately, weekdays always pass quickly with all the busy work and stuff. A weekend break will replenish my energy for the coming week, hopefully.

This video below consists of short clips, compiled together, of my actual marathon journey. After running about 2 km, I had this idea of recording down parts of the run and piece them together to form a youtube video. Be warned though, that you might get motion-sickness after watching it, since it was recorded while I was either running or walking. The resolution is also quite bad, because it was captured using my faithful Sony Ericsson phone.

I want to start training up on my swimming. I want to join Singapore Biathlon next year, which requires swimming in open waters for a distance of 1.5km (equivalent to 30 laps of 50m pool). I’m a bad swimmer, and I’m now far from the qualifying time for this event. To join, I have to swim 30 laps in 40 minutes. I can’t even do front crawl. Anyone has any tips on swimming, be it front crawl or breaststroke? Pls leave your tips at the comments area. I greatly need your help!

It was 3.00am. My friend and I woke up and got ready for the much awaited marathon event. I tagged on my bib, had my waist water-bottles filled with energy drink, and stuffed 3 packets of power gel (for replenishing energy for the later part of the race) into my back pouch. We then took a cab down to Merdeka Square.

The atmosphere was okay, but certainly not as packed and electrifying as Singapore’s Standard Chartered marathon. I did a bit of warm-up before the race, and also met up with a some Sgrunners friends coincidentally. 

Soon, it was 4.30am and the gunshot went off. The race had started! I decided to take it slowly in the first 2 km, as I’ve a slight sore at my right shin. Fortunately for me, the sore went away (or was it that I got used to it?) after the first km or so. I, however, still kept to my comfortable pace so as to not deplete my energy so soon.

It was rather amusing during the first 10 km of my run, as a lot of people would stop halfway and suddenly head towards the bush. No need to describe further eh? I guess many drank too much water, and were unable to adapt to such early hours. Such are sights that you’ll never get to see in a Singapore marathon, because here, portable toilets are placed almost every 500m or so. Anyway, there aren’t many huge bushes here for runners to seek refuge.

Ok, back to the run. Water points were placed at every 2.5km, where I would usually sip a mouthful of plain water or 100plus before continuing the run. It is commendable that the organisers had placed so many water points, which are very important especially for people doing the full marathon.

The first 33km was alright, and the only times I stopped for a walk was when I drank the water at the stations. My Ipod shuffle kept me going slow but steady, and the distance markers shown at every 5km motivated me to keep on moving. But once I hit the 33km mark, my legs started to get sore and tired. The thighs felt tight and I had to run slower to avoid any sudden cramps. It came to a point where I had to walk 100m for every 1km run. Luckily, time was still on my side, and I realised that I could make it a sub-5hr! So, as I didn’t want to tire myself out too much, I continued my run-walk routine while making sure I could finish before the 5th hour.

Alas, I’ve gotten to the last km! From then on, I began to pick up my pace and abandoned any thoughts of walking. In fact, the adrenaline was rushing in to the extent that I didn’t even realise my Ipod was accidentally switched off. Met Roonz near the finishing point, where she helped take a picture of me. Thanks!

At gun-time 4:59:03 hr, I crossed the finishing point. I’ve completed my first marathon! The kind of satisfaction I got overwhelmed everything else. I wouldn’t have thought that I could even run 10km half a year ago. The training that I’ve gone through either alone or with my running pals certainly paid off.

Thanks to all the Sgrunners pals, as well as friends who I’ve run with, prior to this marathon for giving me tips and advice to prepare for this 42km run. Without your help, I wouldn’t have completed it without much suffering. Thank you for helping me fulfill one of my resolutions of 2007. =)

Oh yah! And a big big thank you to all my friends and students who gave me support and encouragement! It was the thought of your encouraging words that kept me going when I was exhausted.

Timing:

10km: 1:11:14

21km: 2:25:12

30km: 3:25:51

42km: 4:59:03 

The moment has finally arrived. I’ll be taking part in my first ever marathon in 30++ hours’ time.

Prior to this event, I’ve been training regularly either alone or with my running pals. It has been less than half a year since I started running long distances regularly, but much effort has been put in and I hope to achieve a sub-6 hour for my upcoming maiden marathon run.

This running event holds a great significance to me, and I will need lots of determination and will power to finish the race. The race will start at 4:30am (yes, morning!) on Sunday, and if nothing goes wrong, I would be finishing at between 10-10:30am. My phone’s on autoroam, so if you have my number, pls.. pls.. during this period of time, can sms me some encouragement, or any crap or lame jokes to keep me going? Your participation is very much appreciated!! Haha

Cbox is down, and thanks to clair and miaowz, I’ve got the flashbox up. Till then, see ya!!!  

Well, had an enjoyable morning playing soccer with few of my students in school! Despite the hot and sunny weather, it was real fun. But I got tired in the afternoon and napped for 3 hours.

Anyway, here’s the youtube clip that shows how soccer players do diving trainings. It’s not just a simple sports kicking a ball around afterall, sadly.

Yea, quite an old clip.. but I still get a good laugh over it. 

This one shows a compilation of soccer bloopers. Haha, it’s probably the only video you could see a referee being shown red card.

Ok, enough of bloopers. I like this clip a lot. It shows how skilful the soccer players are, especially the later part of the clip. I was awed.

Nice?

Dedicated to the Joey(!). =P

I had time after I got home from camp on Saturday, so I bought 4 light bulbs for some experimental shoot. I had previously seen this idea on some photography galleries, and decided to try it out on my own.

This is how the lightbulb lits up. Nothing special.

And what happens when the glass is broken? It burns!

And with a little photoshopping, you get a clearer observation of how the fume diffuses.

Cool? Now, anyone can explain this phenomenon in terms of science?  

Holidays came, and I finally have some time of my own to explore something that I enjoy: Photography. I’ve always seen pictures of droplets of water captured in motion freeze, and I decided to get my hands on trying such still shots as well.

It wasn’t easy. Focusing had to be precise and timing must be right. A tenth of a second meant a lot of difference. After a hundred plus shots, I only got a few decent ones. So here they are, after some post-processing.

Hope you enjoyed viewing them!

*Oh, and by the way, I went to the Sec 3 Leadership Camp yesterday, which explains why I didn’t respond to your queries and tags. Anyway, it was a good experience to join the girls in the camp. Most were sporting and spontaneous, gaining praises from the trainers. Had a great time with the colleagues as well. But dead tired.  

Some of you seem to be confused regarding the Sec 2 science homework that you need to do, so I’ll try my best to explain what you’re supposed to do. (I apologise for not being able to tell you how to access to the respective documents step-by-step because I don’t have a student accoung to log in.)

First of all, you will need to view a powerpoint presentation. You can either view the powerpoint online or download it.

Next, there’s this online quiz that you’ve to do. It consists of MCQ, fill in the blanks and true/false questions.

After finishing the quiz, please download 3 word documents: 1) Science Coursework Instructions, 2) Science Coursework Homework and 3) Proposal Worksheet.

Read through the Science Coursework Instructions. Then do the Science Coursework Homework and submit it online upon completion. For the homework, you are supposed to come up with 3 project titles and state the hypotheses. (Check out the coursework instructions’ last page for some idea of possible project titles.) 

Finally, print out the Proposal Worksheet and meet up with your project group members to decide on a project title and fill up the whole worksheet in detail. You have the whole one-week holidays to complete this proposal, and submit it during the first science lesson in Term 2.

I hope it’s comprehensive enough!!