Sunway Lagoon 2007

Our very first stay at Sunway Lagoon.Posting this from an internet cafe near to the hotel as my sons wanted to log in to Maple story. The charges are quite reasonable - RM3(around S$1.40) for an hour. The hotel charges RM20 for the use of the internet from the business centre for half an hour! We set off from Golden Miles Complex at 8 a.m. in an Excecutive Class Coach - pretty good as it has a personal entertainment centre ( either games or movies) at each seat which kept my sons occupied through the 6.5 hour journey. I was pretty mad at the check-in though. The receptionist told me that my tour agency did not pay them for the extra bed. I showed him the hotel voucher from the agency which stated that I had paid for the 2 rooms with extra bed. Not a very friendly guy as he refused to call the agency and asked me to call them instead! I will never book a tour with Five Stars again! How could they not pay the hotel when I paid them more than a month ago! I finally got it settled and checked into our rooms which were on the 9th floor. I must say that overall the hotel service is quite good - the room service is prompt and the rooms are quite spacious and comfortable. And I LOVE it for its proximity to the shopping mall - just through a linkway and we can shop and eat at the restaurants anytime!

We ate at Pizza hut and BBQ Plaza on the 1st day. I love the sauce served at BBQ Plaza. The con is that the hotel does not have a swimming pool. In order to use the swimming pool, we have to cross over to the Sunway Lagoon Resort (same management). However, the swimming pool is great and my sons had fun in it the first day. The spread for the buffet provided by the hotel is quite good. Ian had 2 servings of the Nasi Lemak. I took the Tosai and toast. Chris did not have any appetite for breakfast and Lee was still sleeping in the hotel room!

I think the highlight must be the Sunway Lagoon theme park which we visited the 2nd day. The waterpark was fun and my sons really enjoyed it, esp at the Kalahari Kids' corner and the surf pool. I rented a float for them at RM10 (another RM10 as deposit) and they floated along the Little Zimbabwe (which is like a canal around the lagoon). Definitely worth the money here. However they did not enjoy going to the Wild Wild West - probably because the rides were more for adults. We went for a ride in the simulator and we paid RM15 each. We also looked at the limestones exhibit - they call it the scholar rocks! We went to the interactive zoo and paid 10MR each to enter - nothing much inside except that we got into a small train and rode around the park. We also took a photo with a python which cost us RM20.

We went back to the Mall for lunch at Delicious Kitchen - we ordered a set meal for 5 and additional 2 bowls of noodles. My sons love the noodles and finished them all. The meal is very economical at around RM35. We had steamboat in a Thai restaurant. The ambience is good and the spread is good but a bit more expensive as compared to the Chinese Restaurant.at around RM70. On the 3rd day, we decided to check out Berjaya Times Square and Chinatown.

We took the cab from the hotel (RM50 for a MPV) to Berjaya Times Square. I thought my sons will enjoy the rides in the indoor theme park but it proved to be a disappointment. They could not go into some rides as they are terrified of the height. They were not allowed to go into the playground and some of the children rides as they were above the height limit. For the 1st time, Ian felt that he is tall!

After that we took the monorail to Chinatown ( Maharajalela station), which is only 2 stops away from Berjaya Times Square (Imbi station). There was nothing much to see in Chinatown, just a lot of pirated DVDs and imitated bags and wallets. As it was still early, the stalls selling food stuff were not out yet. We had our lunch in a Taiwain restaurant inside a small shopping mall opposite Chinatown. The beef noodle was really good. After that we took the LRT form Pasar Seni station all the way to Kelana Jaya Station. The train was very old and crowded - quite a disappointment. From the Kelana Jaya Station we took a cab which cost us RM15 back to the hotel.

We went to the Chinese Restaurant opposite the hotel for dinner in the evening - a set meal for 5 and it cost me around RM60. The food was good and I highly recommend the restaurant as even the locals patronise it. I went for a foot massage at night and discover an internet cafe amongst the row of shophouses opposite the hotel. After the massage, I brought my sons to the internet cafe so that they can play Maple Story and I could check my emails. Nothing much on the last day - we check out of the hotel at 12 p.m. and kept our luggage at the concierge counter. After that we went to a food court opposite the hotel - much more variety and you can really taste the local food.

We left the hotel at 3 p.m. in our bus. The bus was old and some of the personal entertainment systems didn't work! My sons could not play games either and I felt that I am being cheated of the $150 upgrade charges for this bus! As mentioned earlier - I will not book with Five Stars anymore!

r

Sunway Lagoon Pyramid Tower Hotel

Posting this from an internet cafe near to the hotel as my sons wanted to log in to Maple story. The charges are quite reasonable - RM3(around S$1.40) for an hour. The hotel charges RM20 for the use of the internet from the business centre for half an hour!

We set off from Golden Miles Complex at 8 a.m. in an Excecutive Class Coach - pretty good as it has a personal entertainment centre ( either games or movies) at each seat which kept my sons occupied through the 6.5 hour journey.

I was pretty mad at the check-in though. The receptionist told me that my tour agency did not pay them for the extra bed. I showed him the hotel voucher from the agency which stated that I had paid for the 2 rooms with extra bed. Not a very friendly guy as he refused to call the agency and asked me to call them instead! I will never book a tour with Five Stars again! How could they not pay the hotel when I paid them more than a month ago! I finally got it settled and checked into our rooms which were on the 9th floor.

I must say that overall the hotel service is quite good - the room service is prompt and the rooms are quite spacious and comfortable. And I LOVE it for its proximity to the shopping mall - just through a linkway and we can shop and eat at the restaurants anytime! We ate at Pizza hut and BBQ Plaza on the 1st day. I love the sauce served at BBQ Plaza.

The con is that the hotel does not have a swimming pool. In order to use the swimming pool, we have to cross over to the Sunway Lagoon Resort (same management). However, the swimming pool is great and my sons had fun in it the first day.

The spread for the buffet provided by the hotel is quite good. Ian had 2 servings of the Nasi Lemak. I took the Tosai and toast. Chris did not have any appetite for breakfast and Lee was still sleeping in the hotel room!

I think the highlight must be the Sunway Lagoon theme park which we visited the 2nd day. The waterpark was fun and my sons really enjoyed it, esp at the Kalahari Kids' corner and the surf pool. I rented a float for them at RM10 (another RM10 as deposit) and they floated along the Little Zimbabwe (which is like a canal around the lagoon). Definitely worth the money here.

However they did not enjoy going to the Wild Wild West - probably because the rides were more for adults. We went for a ride in the simulator and we paid RM15 each. We also looked at the limestones exhibit - they call it the scholar rocks!

We went to the interactive zoo and paid 10MR each to enter - nothing much inside except that we got into a small train and rode around the park. We also took a photo with a python which cost us RM20.

We went back to the Mall for lunch at Delicious Kitchen - we ordered a set meal for 5 and additional 2 bowls of noodles. My sons love the noodles and finished them all. The meal is very economical at around RM35.

We had steamboat in a Thai restaurant. The ambience is good and the spread is good but a bit more expensive as compared to the Chinese Restaurant.at around RM70.

On the 3rd day, we decided to check out Berjaya Times Square and Chinatown. We took the cab from the hotel (RM50 for a MPV) to Berjaya Times Square. I thought my sons will enjoy the rides in the indoor theme park but it proved to be a disappointment. They could not go into some rides as they are terrified of the height. They were not allowed to go into the playground and some of the children rides as they were above the height limit. For the 1st time, Ian felt that he is tall! After that we took the monorail to Chinatown ( Maharajalela station), which is only 2 stops away from Berjaya Times Square (Imbi station). There was nothing much to see in Chinatown, just a lot of pirated DVDs and imitated bags and wallets. As it was still early, the stalls selling food stuff were not out yet. We had our lunch in a Taiwain restaurant inside a small shopping mall opposite Chinatown. The beef noodle was really good. After that we took the LRT form Pasar Seni station all the way to Kelana Jaya Station. The train was very old and crowded - quite a disappointment. From the Kelana Jaya Station we took a cab which cost us RM15 back to the hotel.

We went to the Chinese Restaurant opposite the hotel for dinner in the evening - a set meal for 5 and it cost me around RM60. The food was good and I highly recommend the restaurant as even the locals patronise it. I went for a foot massage at night and discover an internet cafe amongst the row of shophouses opposite the hotel. After the massage, I brought my sons to the internet cafe so that they can play Maple Story and I could check my emails.

Nothing much on the last day - we check out of the hotel at 12 p.m. and kept our luggage at the concierge counter. After that we went to a food court opposite the hotel - much more variety and you can really taste the local food. We left the hotel at 3 p.m. in our bus. The bus was old and some of the personal entertainment systems didn't work! My sons could not play games either and I felt that I am being cheated of the $150 upgrade charges for this bus! As mentioned earlier - I will not book with Five Stars anymore!

Click here for more photos.

NUS Geography Challenge 2007

Congratulations to Wasiur, Victor, Hong Cher, Jun Lin and Sean for making it to the finals on 9th June 2007. They will be competing against 29 other selected teams (out of 90+ schools) on a Geotrail around Singapore. Look out for their news on the media!

I must say they had given me a scare last Saturday, 26 June. They were supposed to report to NUS for their Preliminary round and they called me at 9.20 a.m. (which is only 10 mins away from the start of registration) that they went to the old campus of NIE at Bukit Timah instead! I quickly ask them to take a cab to NUS and what a relief when they called to say that they made it on time.

I will be giving them all my support on the 9th June and I hope they will do well - esp when Wasiur and Victor are quite experienced in orienteering. All the best to them!

Sunway Lagoon 30th May to 2 June 2007

I will be staying in Sunway Lagoon Pyramid Tower Hotel from 30th to 2 June 2007. I will definitely update when I am back!

Visit to the Toa Payoh Senior Citizens' Centre

Our Red Cross members visited the elderly today at the Senior Citizens' Centre at Toa Payoh Polyclinic. The cadets tried to interact with the elderly as well as helping them to do some simple exercises. They also helped to serve tea to the elderly. I hope that they had learnt more about compassion through service and continue to serve one another!

I was pleasantly surprised when some of the Sec 1 gave me a nicely wrapped pack of stones. It seems that they had picked them up from the beach and decided to give them to me. I am comforted by the fact that they remembered my passion for rocks and had kept that in mind. One of our ex-student, Peiwen, called me from Australia and I was pretty touched by that. Another ex-student, Fong Yee, wrote in her blog how she recalled my Geog lesson when she went to China for a CIP project and visited Jiu Zhai Gou. Of course I will not forget those who had tagged in my blog and told me that they appreciated the Geog lessons or that they missed me after graduation.

I suppose these are the moments which pushes us on in our teaching carreer - students who really appreciated us and that we had made a difference to their life. I used to have a student who kept sending me greeting cards for Chinese New Year and teachers' day despite the fact that I have shifted house three times! I could still remember her name, Zhang Miao Hui, as I have taught both her brother and her in Rangoon Sec.

World Red Cross Day

Our unit celebrates the World Red Cross Day today. Even though Mrs Lai was sick, she actually came to support the unit. I am still on medication - my third course of antibiotic so I know how it feels to be sick. Marianah also made an effort to come down to help out - a big Thank you to her too! I think it is her birthday yesterday and mine is tomorrow - will always remember that the world Red Cross Day is sandwiched in between our birthdays!

I must say that I am very proud of our Red Cross cadets and looking at the Senior members taking charge of the event, I can't help but think of the time when they were just recruits themselves. They have definitely grown much, not only in size but leadership strength.

Like what Mrs Lai has commented, our unit seems much younger this year, with more Sec 1 and 2s compared to last year when we had a lot more Sec 4s. I must say that the unit has done the school proud, clinching the two GOLDs for both the Community Service Award ( which we had done so for 3 years) and the Unit Excellent Award. The recruits have done us proud too, clinching the champion and 1st runner-up trophies for two categories in the World Red Cross Day Celebration Flag Design competition.

The cadets rehearsed yesterday for today's ceremony and I must say that I can see much efforts put in by them. The only disappointing news was that the dates for our unit annual training camp coincide with the Sec 1 swimming course and I have to excuse 5 of them from 8.30 a.m. to 11.30a.m which is going to be very disruptive! Click on the link below to view more photos taken today.

http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=16n5tjhb.4gspa4zj&Uy=nbqq99&Ux=0

Microsoft Academic Skills Challenge results are out!

http://www.acpcomputer.edu.sg/mos2007/results/Prelims%20-%20Zone%20Championship%20Results.htm

Dingyan is the 2nd runner-up for the North Zone in the Microsoft Word category and is ranked 6th in the National overall. Congratulations to him.

Chee How is ranked 5th in the North Zone for the Microsoft Powerpoint category.

As for me - I am the champion in the Microsoft Powerpoint category for MOE staff! Didn't really expected that as I mentioned before that I completed it in 20 mins instead of 50 mins due to the cold.

Well - though happy about the results, I am still down with throat infection and I hope I will regain my voice next week!

Microsoft Academic Skills Challenge 18 April 2007

2 of our students managed to pass the challenge - quite a comfort as they had spent the last 2 days training with me. While waiting for them, I overheard some of the students from other schools telling the teachers that all of them failed! As for the other 3 students, I think they can try again next year as they were not very well prepared this year.

Microsoft Office word 2003: Lim Ding Yan 853 (passed)

Microsoft Powerpoints 2003: Ho Chee How 667 (passed)

Congratulations to the 2 of them as they would be awarded the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification. The Microsoft Office Specialist certification is the globally recognized standard for validating expertise with the Microsoft Office suite of business productivity programs.

I also passed the Microsoft Powerpoints 2003 with a score of 818. I think Powerpoints is thougher as I can see more teachers registered for Microsoft Words.I will enroll in Microsoft Words next year. As the lab was too cold, I completed mine in 20 mins and rushed out - I might have made some careless mistakes in a hurry. The time limit is 50 mins. I will bring a jacket next year!

I hope that Ding Yan can get into the top 3 for the North Zone as his score is quite high. I am quite eager to know the results and I hope it will be released soon. I don't know how's my chance of winning but definitely I am the first to finish! I will update once I get the results.

The next competitions which I must monitor are the E-card Design Competition and the Geography Challenge 2007. I must say Kiat Yi has taken some very nice photographs and I think she can do well in the E-card competition. I am more worried for the other 2 teams as I have not seen their works and I don't teach them. I have asked 6 boys to participate in the Geography Challenge 2007 and I will show them samples of questions for the previous years. I hope that they can make it to the semi-finals to qualify for the Geo Trail where they will have fun exploring Singapore!

Microsoft Academic Skills Challenge

Went through the training for Microsoft Words with Ding Yan and Chee How today in the Computer Lab with the help from Mr Phoon, our IT trainer.

I must say I learnt quite a no. of new skills on Microsoft Words Today e.g.
1. How to use the format painter to copy formatted text.
2. How to insert a horizontal line from border and shading.
3. How to fit diagram to contents.
4. How to insert hyperlink with bookmark and web address with screentips.
5. How to replace a particular font in a text to another by using the replace function under edit.
6. How to use the autocorrect option under tools to replace acronym with the formatted word. This is a very good function e.g. everytime I type HS for example, the full term for it "Hougang Secondary School" will appear.
7. How to add shapes to a inserted radial diagram.
8. How to make a semi-transparent rectangular from autoshapes selection.
9. How to apply shadow border to a bulleted list through formating the border and shadings.
10. How to orientate only one page of the document to landscape by clicking from this point forwards.
11.How to open up the reviewer's panel and accepting all changes.
12. How to merge documents.

We spent more than 4 hours on practising the mock exercises and will spend another hour tomorrow to enhance the speed. Mr Phoon showed us that the top 2 winners for last year's competition had perfect scores of 1000. The Champion completed it within 20 mins whereas the 1st runner-up did it within 28 mins. Seems like it is going to be thougher this year.

The two boys will also practise on the mock exercises for the microsoft powerpoints tomorrow. As mentioned earlier - I am also going to take part in the challenge for Powerpoints this Wednesday with the students. I will update on the results after the challenge on Wednesday. I am just worried for the other 3 participants who are involved in the Art Fiesta as they might not have practised the mock exercises.

I had just emailed to Bixia some of the solutions. For the other two participants - if you are reading this now - please email to me at lily_lee68@yahoo.com.sg

NECDC heritage gallery

Saw this web link on the NECD heritage gallery:

http://www.northeast.org.sg/NEGallery/demo_gallery.html

I remembered that two of our teams won the 1st and the 3rd prize in the NECD Virtual Heritage Design Competition in 2004. There is much to explore in the North-east and I would recommend that you visit the site to learn about the history in the area we are living in!