Ready for Collection

My new passport is ready for collection. But I am too lazy to go all the way to Immigration & Checkpoints Authority of Singapore. I decided to opt for collection at an alternative site - SingPost. Although I have to pay an administration fee for collection at SingPost, it is a small price to pay for the convenience I get.

Botanical Inspirations: Orchids of Singapore Botanic Gardens & Their Heritage

I finally took some time out to visit Botanical Inspirations: Orchids of Singapore Botanic Gardens & Their Heritage at Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG). Since SBG obtained its UNESCO World Heritage site status, I haven't had the chance to visit it even though it is a 3 minutes journey from my front door to the entrance of SBG. :P 
Botanical Inspirations spans across two exhibitions: Orchids of Singapore Botanic Gardens & Their Heritage and Tropical Splendour - Plant portraits from Shirley Sherwood Contemporary collection. I am really happy that I took time to visit the exhibitions. The orchids are really beautiful and the portraits are life-like. 

Orchids named after VIPs and celebrities

Orchids named after the late Dr Goh Keng Swee and Mr Lee Kuan Yew

Singapore National Flower - Vanda Miss Joaquim

I should really take advantage of the SBG being in my backyard and visit it more often.

Relaxing Piano: Studio Ghibli Complete Collection

Music from Studio Ghibli complete collection never fails to invoke smiles, serenity, fantasy and fond memories for me. :)  

Relaxing Piano: Studio Ghibli Complete Collection [uploaded by Cat Trumpet (Mediation Music/ Binaural Beats)]
  

Relaxing Piano - Hayao Miyazaki Collection:
0:00 Spirited Away - Itsumo Nando Demo
4:52 Kiki's Delivery Service - Umi no Mieru Machi
9:34 Princess Mononoke - Mononoke Hime
11:15 My Neighbor Totoro - Kaze no Toori Michi
16:42 Porco Rosso - Toki ni wa Mukashi no Hanashi wo
22:27 Kiki's Delivery Service - Yasashisa ni Tsutsumareta nara
27:49 My Neighbor Totoro - Tonari no Totoro
32:10 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - Kaze no Tani no Naushika
37:00 Laputa: Castle in the Sky - Kimi wo Nosete
42:28 Spirited Away - Inochi no Namae

Relaxing Piano - Ghibli Collection:
48:18 From Up on Poppy Hill - Sayonara no Natsu - Kokuriko-zaka kara
53:38 Whisper of the Heart - Take Me Home Country Road
59:20 Kiki's Delivery Service - Message By Rouge
1:04:08 My Neighbor Totoro - Stroll
1:08:51 Tales from Earthsea - Teru's Song
1:14:12 The Secret World of Arrietty - Arrietty's Song
1:19:03 Ponyo - Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
1:22:50 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - Nausicaa Requiem
1:27:05 Howl's Moving Castle - The Promise of the World
1:32:34 Spirited Away - Reprise

Pianist: Makiko Hirohashi

Good News IV

My colleague alerted me to this special online issue by Taylor & Francis that collated a collection of articles around School and Teacher Assessment because my research article has been included in this special issue. What a wonderful surprise! :) Feeling proud that Singapore is represented by my article - "I can assess myself: Singaporean students' and teachers' perceptions of students' self-assessment ability". :)
For those of you who are interested in assessment, click here for a whole collection of interesting articles. Enjoy reading. :)

Intense

There is only one word to describe the data collection currently on-going in my project. 
INTENSE.

Observation & Hands-On

Today is the start of our project's intensive data collection period. We have to collect data from 49 schools within 10-12 weeks. :S With permission from the school, I led my 7 part-time and full-time RAs to the school to conduct data collection. I felt like a mother hen with all her chicks lol. :P I always believe that seeing and doing helps one to learn better than just listening. Indeed the part-timers felt the observation and hands-on were useful for them. :)

Pilot Study II

It is day 2 of our pilot study. I am glad that I could still silence the misbehaving students with a stare. :P

Pilot Study

Today is the first of our data collection for our pilot study. All went well. It is nice to be back in the classroom and be in front of students. I haven't lost my touch as a teacher. :P 

Term 2 2011

Data collection starts again. After a week of break, it is back to scheduling of backup RAs and being on standby.

My Collections

Most of us have collected things at one point of time or another. Likewise, I have collected different things at various points of my life.

When I was a child, I started to collect stamps due to my mother's influence. I used to marvel at her huge collection of stamps. I still have my stamp albums in my book cabinet. I only stopped when I went to Australia for my undergraduate studies.

During my teen years, I started to collect bookmarks. Most of the bookmarks had Chinese wordings on them about friendship, love, and life. As most of these bookmarks were printed in Taiwan, when I visited my relatives in Taiwan, I was able to build up my bookmark collection over the years. The other day I was just looking at my bookmarks which I kept in two cookie tins and all of them are still in mint condition, lol. Again, I stopped collecting them when I went overseas for my studies.

In my late teens, as my best friend migrated to Australia, I became an avid letter writer. At the same time, I started to collect letter sets. I continued to collect letter sets and writing letters when I was in Australia. And surprisingly, some of my nicest letter sets were bought in Artbox, Melbourne when I was actually studying in Brisbane. Lol. Well, you see, I used to visit my best friend who stayed in Melbourne and also my ex Aussie boyfriends who were also from Melbourne, lol. :P Soon, with the advancement in IT such as email, I started to write less letters and so, there was less need to buy so many letter sets. But occasionally now, if I see nice ones, I would still buy them. :P

From my teenage years until now, there is something that I am still collecting most avidly - postcards and magnets, lol. I still have the postcards that I bought, when I was 15, at the various countries in Europe in mint condition! Postcard is one way of preserving my memories of the places I have visited, besides the photos that I took. But of course, if I haven't visited the places/ countries, I look forward to visiting them, lol. All my friends know about my postcard and magnet collection. So when they go overseas, they would all buy me postcards and magnets without me asking for them (sometimes lah, lol)!! I am really glad to have such nice friends. Lol. :)

Not sure what I am going to collect next... lol.