Technology is in the eye of the beholder

When I came to Singapore I was expecting a world of high technology, one where imagination knew no bounds. A world where TVs would know instantly what I wanted to watch by scanning my fingerprint as I pressed the remote, or one where toilets would know how much water had been displaced and instantly flush with the required strength.

I did not expect ooohs and ahhhs (not unlike those heard at a firework displays) and actual, genuine applause over refillable whiteboard pens as was heard in our staff meeting on Monday morning.

Having said that however, I was on this escalator the other day and I thought it was pretty cool.


It went in a circle! Now that's more like it!

C2K: now worldwide

There has been a disaster in school. Classroom 2000 or C2K, bane of every student and teacher’s happy dossing on tinternet has reached Singapore. For those of you who simply remember school computers as BBC computers with that cat and mouse game, or Pod, or that thing in the corner of the library where you had to type in a million commands to get it to even print one thing, let me explain. Classroom 2000, is the network that NI school computers runs on. And with that comes a web marshall thing that prevents you from accessing anything untoward. Fair enough you say, school is not the place for porn! I quite agree. But it often means that the most harmless of sites is inaccessible, such as the National Farmers’ Union. It also means that you can’t look at things at home and expect to be able to use them in school.

Well, it seems that not only can I not get onto the Radio 1 website in school (I miss Chris Moyles!) I can no longer access Blogspot! Gutted! What am I to do in my free periods now if I can’t blog?!

Anyway, here is something I tried to put on on Monday.

Salubrious isn’t the word

I moved to a hotel this weekend. Not the most luxurious of places. Apparently it is very close to being torn down so they haven’t spent any money on it in, oooh, the last thirty years. But at least it is my own space.


The view from my balcony. You need to show your Typhoid immunisation certificate to be allowed to swim in the pool. Note the antique paintwork too.


The water feature on my corridor.

With the move to the hotel I am getting to experience more of Singaporean life than before with visits to a supermarket and a hawker centre. The supermarket was fun, although there was a limit to what I could buy with only a tiny hotel fridge. But the food was quite cheap and I came across some interesting items.


Green cauliflower.


On one of those TV programmes where they laugh about what domestic products or words are abroad, our Marigolds would get a big laugh.


They also have 7Elevens here! And Slurpees!

A hawker centre is a bit like a food court. There were stalls selling all sorts of asian food, drinks and fruit. The food is pretty cheap but tasty. I am not very adventurous when it comes to food but I have a feeling all that is about to change.


One of the stalls and people I don’t know.

Back to school tomorrow and I have classes to prepare.

Coincidently I'm wearing my Monsoon skirt

So since yesterday, I promise you it has not stopped raining. It's a torrential downpour. Apparently it's monsoon season. I prefer the clothes.

So my first week is over. It went ok. I am still trying to remember how to teach and what not, but I am thankful for a good timetable and my own classroom to work in. The students here are on the whole well behaved and conscientious which makes my job easier. I hate, absolutely hate, teaching ancient civilisations and cannot think of a duller topic in History to teach. It's a real pain that each lesson I have of it I have to do three times! No major funny stories, lots of me winging classes and thinking on my feet, especially when eager students ask me things like how many ice ages there were.

It's officially the weekend now. Not really sure what I'll get up to, but no doubt I'll be able to busy myself with schemes of work and lesson plans. Woo hoo.

It can rain a bit here

Agh! I just had a post but somehow when I went to post it, it went! Arse! Anyway the highlights were thus:

- it rained today. A lot.
- I looked at an apartment last night. It was lovely but waaaaaay over budget.
- I just taught my 'bridging' class for students who need to improve their English but I looked like the one with language issues as I couldn't pronouce places names in the history of South East Asia like Srivijaya and Majapahit. They could and I still can't.
- About to watch a video on the First World War.

It's all go my end!