Honeymooners Return

Luke and Tahlia flew back into Singapore on Thursday morning and I went out to the airport to welcome them.   Eric was a bit under the weather with another bout of the flu so he had a sleep in.  Just as well really, as they skipped through  immigration so quickly I missed them, they had already collected their bags from the belt and were in a taxi as I arrived. Just as well I didn't go ahead and make that big sign! They called me from our own apartment where they had surprised Eric. We enjoyed most of the day together before we had to head to work. They shared lots of photos of their trip and we showed them the initial rules of our version of mahjong since they bought a set while they were away.  I thought this was a canny idea as they were both pretty tired after an overnight trip from Beijing, but in fact it was me who got the rules confused.  I haven't been playing at all.

Wow, what a week at work.  It has been Parent/Teacher interview week and of course it is the parents of the youngest students who are showing the most interest in turning up - appointment or not. This wouldn't be so bad but I am expected to be responsible for my class at the same time and you just can't expect 3 and 4 yr olds to be self contained for 10 mins let alone interview backed up to interview. The system we operate is flawed at every turn as far as I am concerned but it seems you just have to run with it because it will not be changed.  I have said my piece and been told that quite succinctly. Ok, I'll shut up now. I can't remember ever being so tired though as Sunday evening after work and we have more in the week ahead, though it can't be many. I have more than 80 students and so far I think I matched the right child to each parent, but who knows. Eric, having mostly older students, had far less interviews which was good considering he was not well.

But how lovely are these K2 (5yrs) students, its not their fault.

Despite really wanting to sleep in on Monday morning we were out of the apartment and on our way to Kranji MRT (an hr away) to meet the other socialites from work at 9:30am for a day of shopping or golf across the causeway in Malaysia in the town of Johore Bahru (JB).  Fancy having to pack your passport for a game of golf, but that's what we did.  Almost all of the courses in Sg are private so really the only option is to head over the border. Its really not that difficult, many workers live in JB and travel through immigration everyday to work in Sg so the infrastructure is well set up. 6 golfers took 2 taxis to Daimon 18 Course about 20 mins out but unfortunately one got waylaid by an errant driver so they detoured via Ponderossa Course.  That carload considered playing a round there instead, but the fees were more than RM$120 for 9 holes so they eventually returned to Daimon.  Meanwhile Eric, Wayne (ex Butterworth) and I arranged to play as a 3, the green fees were only RM$39.  We had to have 2 carts (only RM$2 ea) and were supposed to have a bag each (RM$60 ea to hire) but the buggy manager offered us his personal bag and another spare bag so we could split the set between the buggies (RM$35). Then we realised we had no balls and once again he came to the rescue, dashing off and returning a few mins later with a shopping bag full for RM$25. I bet he knows a few young fellas sneaking onto the course in the early morning finding and cleaning the balls and ready to sell them back to the players, just like Butterworth. I searched his bag for tees and found some interesting matter but no tees so we scrounged the broken ones left behind as we progressed around the course.  It was a lot of fun, I certainly got my money's worth with the number of strokes I played.  Most fun was driving the carts, I've never played a round with one before. Wayne managed to crash his before we left the buggy shed so I kept behind him the whole way! The other group caught up with us for drinks at the 19th.  I had a magic drive off the first tee and again on the 9th so I'll be back (not going to go into detail about the other shots). The only downside for the excursion was that travelling over there with a bug bunch of people with different interests means you end up wasting a lot of time reconvening as a group. By the time we got back to Serangoon it was 8pm, almost 12 hrs to play less than 2 hrs of golf. Next time we will just take the golfers.