Today was one of my pupil last day in school. She is Yui, little cute Japanese girl. She will be returning to live in Japan with her parents for good. She speaks wonderful Mandarin and her penmanship is excellent. She really put alot of my local Chinese pupils to shame! Haha... But what a pity that she will be leaving. Today she gave me a nicely wrapped bookmark. I wonder if she will continue to study Chinese when she is back in Japan. Whatever it is, I really hope her 7 years of learning Chinese will do her good in her future life. Sayonara Yui! Hope one day we will cross each other's path again!

Don't you think she is so cute??

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 10:07 PM

Last Sat, I went to my very first pupils' birthday celebration at MacDonalds!
They were triplets! Can you believe it!
I was pretty excited about it cos' I have always wonder how it is like celebrating birthday there. It was also the first time I've been to my pupils' birthday celebration. We were housed in this kiddy's room where there was 1 Mac's manager on hand to take the kids' order. My pupils were all over me when I entered the room. Especially this cheeky fellow---
You know why I said he was cheeky, cos' when we went to the toilet together, he actually asked me what color is my underwear!!! Oh gosh! Haha... But he was quite fun and we even played wrestling in the kiddy's room! I managed to catch up with some pupils whom I taught last year. This is Jason----
He is certainly someone who always stand for justice, and not surprisingly, he is a prefect. Then there is also this girl who always love to have a chit chat with me-Faith Now that I don't teach her she will always wait for me along the corridor and chit chat with me.
We played 4 games. One of those was to make me wear a paper hat and the boys had to clip the cloth peg on my paper hat. The group who has the most cloth peg is the winner! The boys lost. After the games, the birthday children cut the cookie monster cake and the celebration came to an end. It was a wonderful day and I believe this kind of celebration will last in the kid's memory for years to come. Yeah! We lovin' it!

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 10:38 PM

Barcelona 1 Liverpool 2



Haha these 2 fellows have really cheered me and the Liverpool fans all around the world up! Barcelona looked so clueless in the 2nd half which was rather surprising. But I think it's because the Liverpool defence was holding up well. Barcelona defence was crap, worst than Everton! Whenever Liverpool attacked, the Barcelona defence looked shaky and Liverpool looked like scoring. Well done my beloved team! I can't wait for the return leg at Anfield...

FYI-this game=UEFA Champions League last 16 match 1st leg. Liverpool will have to play Barcelona again at their own stadium 2weeks later to decide who goes thru to the quarter-finals.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 12:03 AM

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 9:39 PM

It's the Lunar New Year. Happy New Year to everyone here at my blog.

Eve : Has been different cos' I wasn't at home with my family but at Chinatown with Cindy. The decorations are not as good as last year's ones so my camera ended up working half-day. It was the usual crowd and we were stucked in this human traffic that was pretty scary. Everybody was still pushing towards one direction even though the line wasn't moving. I told Cindy we better moved out from the line and detour. I shouted to the crowd which was moving along with the line "Stop moving in, the line's not moving and it's really dangerous to continue pushing in." It's sickening to imagine if a stampede was to happen. Nobody bother to tell each other to stop joining the line. Do we have to experience something tragic before learning to speak up when it is necessary?

Managed to reached home at the stroke of midnight. Guess what I did? Wash my car! Haha... Well well, a different Lunar New Year's Eve!

Chu Yi : It's been a quiet one for me. Went for Mass with my family at Church of St Mary of the Angels and there was a lion dance performance at the end of the Mass. Happy to get the blessed mandarin oranges from the priest. No more visiting to my grandparents' house on the 1st day of New Year but their niches at the Choa Chu Kang Columbarium. The day was followed by the visit to my Dad's niche at Tai Pei Yun. Seem pretty sad but that's life man. You got to do it to your close ones even when they are no longer around.

Chu Er : Usually will go down to Tiong Bahru to have a New Year gathering with my Dad's side but not this year. Escaping from giving out Hong Bao? Escaping from the crowd? Oh well, just don't feel like seeing them I guess. Lazed at home for the whole day, slept the whole afternoon and only went out for lunch in the evening. At night, my family had mahjong.

Just to add on that I'm feeling a little depressed these days. Nothing seems to interest me and I think I have been experiencing mood swing again. I loses my temper easily and get agitated by the slightest thing. My GP told me to eat the anti-depressant pill to improve my mood but I have not done so. I think I should spend more time praying.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 4:56 PM

All Cried Out

Today I was so angry I threw the book, the pen and kicked at their table. I totally lost my plot,. I have warned them not to stretch my limit. They just won't listen. I've tried to be fierce and firmed(it caused me to lose my voice!), I've tried to be nice, tried another method to treat them, but I've failed. They are just not appreciative. When I met them for a 2nd time in the afternoon for Supp, they folded red packets into decoratives and even came forward to apologise for their actions. I was overwhelmed. But I told them, saying sorry is one thing, displaying your right attitude & action after acknowledging their mistake is truly the most important thing. And obviously they do not know what's the important thing.

I can't hold back my tears anymore as I lowered my tone to explain to them. When I was mentioning about this article in their magazine, I also don't know why I just related myself to it. The article was about more parents sending kids for modelling training to boost their confidence. I told them- "You all give me the confident to carry on teaching. And obviously, my confident is at a all time low. Maybe I should send myself for the modelling course to boost my confident." Then I just can't hold back anymore, tears rolled down as I continued telling them the moral of life.

I think this is only the 2nd time that I cried infront of my class in my whole 5 years of teaching. Maybe this will be my last... I went on to tell them about Fendi, who encouraged me to continue teaching. I told them if not for Fendi and others who had left school and had been appreciative towards my teaching and guidance, I would have quit long ago. To those who was taught by me and had left school-
YOU're the INSPIRATION for me.

But I'm feeling very down now. I may not want to do this job anymore. If parents don't build their child's character away from school, then it is very hard for teachers to do their job well. It really is a shit job because the parents of today are just not role models for their kids (No offence to any parent here, but that's the sad truth).

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 7:56 PM

Weekend come and go

Weekend comes slow but go away fast...don't all of you agree with me? This Sat I was still doing some work. One was to burnt the video of my colleague's drama class into a CD. Thank God the hard drive is able to function in the faster running PC. But I still lack something, i.e Ulead Video Editing.

Chinese New Year is approaching and all I'm looking forward to the pathetic 2 days public holiday. The crowd is out in full force to fill up Chinatown, the neighbourhood's shopping streets, people are rushing to buy flowers (which is the only time you see Normally deserted Nurseries packed with kiasu people!). But I still don't feel the atmosphere yet. Some food stalls are indicating on the glass of their stall that they are open during the 1st day of Chinese New Year. Hmm... don't they need a rest or go Chinese New Year visiting?! It is so rare to see shops open during Chinese New Year last time and it spice up the New Year when you see closed shops. Now, not the case anymore.

Liverpool is in the American's hands, do I thought I can see the players determined to prove to their new owners that they have made the correct decision! Damn! They continued to struggle in front of goal. Against Newcastle, it was disappointing to see our strikers, esp. Kuyt, failing to convert easy goalscoring chances. Maybe now that the Reds have $$$, they can land David Villa and Fernando Torres. Mascherano is not going to make us great, especially when he can't even diferentiate between a Red Devil and a Liverbird!


Carra's shouting couldn't inspire them to a much needed victory.

It's already Sunday, got a new hair cut at the Malay barber and I must say I'm impressed by his skill. I'm really satisfied with his service. He even gelled my hair and make my hair looked super stylo! Maybe from now on, it's back to the Malay barber for me. No more QB, EC, etc in the near future.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 8:29 PM

Just Smile
Will people remember your good? Yes...for a while.
Will people remember your bad? Yes...for a lifetime!
All the good has gone down the drain because of a blip towards the end. Just like a football club which went 30 games without a lost and suddenly loses all their last 8 games to surrender the title to their nearest challenger. Oh well, that's life isn't it? What to do? It's better to hear some of them echo your name loudly than having your good performances written in the books. Don't understand? Why bother? A keeper makes 10 superb saves and in injury time, concede a goal to allow the other team a victory-verdict : the keeper is the villian.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 1:01 AM

Stand up Speak up

I dread our culture. The culture of cowardism. One people done one wrong, nobody speak up. Why? Scared? You have the whole lot who condemns the one wrong behind you and you are scared. Make it a way of life- once one done something wrong, point out! I doubt we will ever speak up. No way, we are all cowards, we are too scared to be punched, etc. Continue to suffer in silence then cowards!

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 11:49 AM

Verdict of Thailand's 15mins walk-out

The verdict is out. Thailand has been reprimanded for their 15minutes walk-out duing the Asean Football Championship final 1st leg match. They were even congratulated on keeping the 2nd leg a "exceptional behaviour and sportsmanship" one. I'm disgusted with the decision. How can Thailand be let of so easily? I urge the Thais, especially the coach, to come out and apologise to Asean. He should be ashamed of his actions! Let bygones be bygones one might say. But what does this verdict serve to warn other countries who threaten to walk-out of matches? None! Asean football countries will remained amatuerist and behave like "big babies"! Disgusting! Oh well, another side of me says "Well done AFF for being so forgiving, Amen" But let me tell you this, a rule is a rule, if countries go against referee's decision by taking actions into their own hands, football in this region will stop developing.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 1:03 AM

Liverpool taken over by Americans


New co-chairman-George Gillett and Tom Hicks

I sincerely hope we can afford big name players now that we have more money to spend in the transfer market. We have always been a club who always missed out on bringing the world's best players despite all our success. Even though big players do not make up a club, having a inflated transfer kitty should not bring us any harm definitely! But on the more cautious side, I hope we don't become another Chelsea and let's keep the tradition of Liverpool FC alive forever. I also hope I can be at Anfield before a new one comes up!

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 11:27 PM

Love her ok?

Work we can always put aside, but loving those around us can't be put aside. No matter how busy we are with our work, we must always remind ourselves not to neglect those around us. Maintaining a good relationship is so much harder than pleasing your superiors. We can be hypocrites in front of our bosses and they will still blindly trust us as long as we can produce but we cannot put up a fake front when we are with our love ones. Our true colours will be easily unveiled. We will lost those relationship which we have spent a lifetime nurtuting. As I had said it before, it is easier to find another job to earn a living than find the perfect one who will be your partner throughout your lifetime. Therefore, if you have find that perfect person in your life, treasure him or her, and love that person perfectly. Your boss and fellow employees won't love you all your life. Everyone works because of money. It's only money that motivate those working around you. So do you get the picture? Don't love your work, love your man/woman! Don't let this love be tainted.

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 5:40 PM

Tainted Love

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 5:32 PM

Roar Lions Roar...Again!



Oh yes! What a night to remember for all Singaporeans!(well only those who care for our own national football team!)Admist all the talk of problem awaiting for the Singapore team and our fans as they arrived in Bangkok for the 2nd leg of the final, we certainly upset many at the Supa..thongsalai or something lao sai stadium lah, as the Lions emerged the champion of Asean over 2 legs! It was great fun watching the match at Blooie with Cindy and Alvin. The whole place was buzzing and loud screaming and cheering sounded whenever we attacked! The whole restaurant couldn't get any noiser when Khairul Amri scored with a thumping drive to send us into estacy! Well done! And my plead to those people who couldn't care much about Singapore football, please don't jump onto the bandwagaon, you fairweather fans! This victory is for those who have always been behind the Lions through ups and downs!

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 12:13 AM

What a shame !

I guess by now you guys would have saw the headlines in the various newspaper and media after the Asean Cup final first leg at the National Stadium. Yes, it's about Thailand walking out to protest against the referee's decision to award Singapore a penalty. When I saw the Thai players walking out of the pitch, I'm like-"Wah lau, you guys really going to protest the ref's decision by walking off ah?" I just can't believe this kind of outdated action still exist in this modern era of football!!! What lousy professionalism! What "sissy, Gu Niang, cry baby" attitude! What the hell were the Thais thinking of? Sunday morning street soccer ah? Your backdated kampung style football ah? What were they thinking? Don't they understand a referee's decision is final? If you want to lodge a complain, do it after the game! I really think the Thais should just be kicked out of the tournament and Singapore be declared the champion based on the 1st leg decision! I really can't imagine what's going to happen to our players when we play Thailand in the 2nd leg back in Bangkok! I hope even if the match was to carry on, some sanctions or fine be imposed on the Thailand Football Association. No matter what the referee's decision is, you got to obey! If everyone was to walk out in protest against the referee then how are we to talk about rules and regulation in sport or any competition??


Shame on you Thailand Football Team!

Turning attention to the positive from this game...Wow! What a good time I had there with ZM, KK, Al, D and the strong 55,000 crowd. We were chanting "Referee Kayu"(to the referee), "Loser"(to the Thai team), "We want Goal"(to our beloved Lions) throughout the match. As it was the last major game going to be held at the National Stadium before it will be finally pulled down at the end of the year, I felt a sense of nostalgia as I waited for the fans to clear before making my way out of the stadium. I finally managed to go to the top of the stadium to enjoy the view outside of the stadium. This place has given me plenty of memories. Best memories has got to be Singapore v Laos(where were the other 50,000 fans?? You have missed the game of National Stadium man!) and the Liverpool v Singapore Selection match. Worst? When Singapore was beaten 4-0 by Malaysia!


Another 55,000 fans in the National Stadium.

The Thai team walking out of the pitch in protest over the ref's penalty decison.

Mustafic Fahrudin's penalty gave Singapore the 2-1 win!

Probably the last time for these fans walking truimphantly out of the National Stadium.

Come Sunday, it will certainly be nail bitting throughout the whole 90minutes of the 2nd leg in Bangkok. Hopefully, I can get Al and D to watch the match together where many Lions fans will gather. Roar Lion Roar!

Marcus XA
YNWA @ 11:40 PM