今日我以德明为荣

“做新闻记者跑教育线超过20年，和我工作最密切的是各校校长，从小学到大学，不少，已经成了好朋友。
　　华人常说：“不怕不识货，只怕货比货。”西方人又说：“要橙和橙比，苹果和苹果比，不能橙和苹果比。”做新加坡人最好，东西文化交融兼备；做记者更好，有无数人可以比，有无数校长可以比。而且，因为长期在教育线，“路遥知马力，日久见人心”，我可以有很长的时间去看一位校长，凡我认为是好校长的，一般不会看走眼。因为，他们是经过无数比较后，而且是同类比较，被证明是最好的。
　　去年在“华校校史联合展”的活动“校长论坛”上面演讲的五位校长：圣尼各拉女校前校长李宝丝、华侨中学前校长杜辉生、南洋初级学院院长郭毓川、道南学校校长陈俊敬、德明政府中学校长孙振炜，都在我的校长名单，名列前茅。
　　过去几天，我在为八方文化创作室把五位校长在校长论坛上的讲话，结为一本名为《华校发展的回顾与前瞻》的书，做文字润饰和校对工作。他们的讲话，让优秀校长的身影，再一次跳到我的眼前。
　　其中，杜辉生校长与孙振炜校长的“交锋”，尤其令我难忘。
　　杜辉生是率领华侨中学从上世纪七十年代的风雨飘摇到九十年代能与莱佛士书院平起平坐的英雄。他对一代华校生把自己不如意的日子，归咎于华文的态度，不敢苟同。他说：“我们要感恩。如果今天办得火火红红的特选学校，没有当年那个局势，那样的处境，如果一切都是一帆风顺的话，我们没有今天。”
　　他因此对华中的未来有所期待。他公开要求德明政府中学的孙振炜校长“加把劲”，给华中一点压力，“让华中不断提升，创造双赢的局面”。
　　孙振炜虽然年轻（38岁），面对前辈（70岁）的挑战，极有技巧。
他说：“北京奥运会前，我去中国，看到一个很大的广告牌。画面是一个非洲籍的短跑选手，上面写着英文标语。我对这个广告标语为什么用英文写，感到奇怪。在中国看到的英文广告，通常错别字蛮多，但是那个没有。那个广告标语说“The person to beat is not the one in front but the one inside.”“要超越的人不在前面，而是在里面”。这正是德明办学的理念。如果有一天，我们真的超越华中，那是我们努力的结果，但不是我们努力的目的。”
　　社会景象，经常让孙振炜感觉“在繁华中感到空虚，在朴实中觉得幸福”。他说：“身为德明校长，我认为学校不需要越办越大，越办越堂皇，可是必须越办越好，越办越温馨，越办越像一个家。”
　　他用这样的话，回应杜辉生的期待。什么是好校长？这就是！”


这是取自于早报的一片篇章，有一位学长把它放到了Facebook。读完了这篇文章，心中油然生起了对母校的依恋与骄傲。德明，好比地上的杂草。我们出身平凡，并没有有钱校友与家长的灌溉。我们有的，是彼此上下一心的理念，是为了维护我们的学校的心愿。我们没有宽阔的草地，没有先进的资源，但彼此济济一堂，用心的去分配有限的资源，何尝不是一件快乐的事？

记得刚踏进华初时，真的觉得那里的世界很大。但过了不久，便十分想念在母校的日子。母校虽小，但至少在每一个转角，看见的是熟悉的脸孔。无论是老师，朋友，学长，哪个科系，哪个年级，都是不分彼此的。但与此同时，还是能强烈的感觉到师生之间的互相尊重。这是在华初不能找到的感觉。

刚刚回母校表演，又一次我们到礼堂彩排，发现孙校长正和一些父母们谈话。但时间不多了，我们只好斗胆上台去彩排。校长转过身，不但丝毫没有谴责，反而和那些家长移到外头。换是别的校长，面对着自己的衣食父母，大概会之后把学生大骂一顿。校长在离开之前，用了很标准的华语说 （这很重要，我国甚少校长是双语精通并标准）：“对不起，我今天没有办法出席。我原本已经买好票了， 但我的父母出国，我得照顾孩子。要加油。”身为一个校长，他并没有必要跟我们解释。但一个好校长，却能够让学生感受到他的诚意。尽管我不太苟同他的一些作风，但我相信，他确实是个好校长。

老师在我的毕业册写下，“今日我以德明为荣。明日德明以我为荣。”我以为我已经做到了后面那句话。但看到了孙校长所说的话，我开始惭愧。因为，我连德明十分之一的机智都学不到。孙校长，因为您，我又在德明身上学到了不少。也许，我不能这么快让德明以我为荣。但肯定的是，我能够拍拍胸膛，大声地说：“我是德明的校友！”

　　

Dancers

Plucked up the courage to go for tech class by Laoshi. Hm hm, just as I expected, it was a torture. Thats the beauty about dancers. We take pride and pleasure torturing ourselves, and see who can take the msot pain... haha... But dancers are really strong people. When executing a dance move, its not only ur body moving (or aching). First, your mind has to be really strong and determined to block out all feelings of tiredness and secondly, your mind has to keep reminding u of the sequence, the music, the requirements and the next action. Thirdly, your mind has to convince u that although all these actions are killing you, you are enjoying it and have to put on a smile.

Thats why most of our brain cells are killed. Even our smartest USP student can ask me," eh, so did u see the leaning tower of Paris?" And then I was stunned and suddenly was unsure if the tower she was talking about is really in Italy, and we had to ask for a third opinion.

Hm, thats why we can always keep our passion for dancing alive~~~

My new eye candy

(To YY: I tried out the quiz, but hmm, its not an added advantage that I am a LEP student. LEP doesnt teach us things like these! Too difficult!!! And I am not still over the moon because of my new house (hmmm.. or am I?) but over the following person!!)

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Yours truly have been following the tv when this person appears. He is no other than....

Ha okay i am not a teenager le, can no longer afford to go gaga and scream, "Wahhhhh, he so cute cannnnnn!" But this guy, is super charismatic. He may have a baby face, but he is a strong fighter. Besides having fantastic techniques in badminton, he never says die. He fought hard against any opponent, although he may be on a losing end. (Note to mr tam: It is not only the china players who have strong xin li su zhi) And when you see him play, you will uncontrollably cheer hard for him because he puts in so much effort. Most importantly, he was a great sportsman! In the match against Bao Chunlai, I hate to say this but Bao is quite a loser (though he won), disagreeing with many decisions of the panel. But this guy just remained calm despite Bao's, hm, being a nuisance.

Interested to know this guy already?

The Peak

I have decided to postpone the blogging of my London and Paris trip because...

mr tam and I have bought our house on 7 June 2009!

Haha, I bet most of your jaws are dropping right now... some of you may ask why so fast??!!! But the house is only ready in 2012, meaning that there will be 3 more years before we will settle down, which is ideally similar to what we have planned before looking at our house.

Let me proudly present to you.... our house at the peak, Toa Payoh!

This housebuying was a painful process, especially for the peak.

We were actually looking at other places before mr tam read it on the newspapers. When we saw this, we were looking forward to it because Toa Payoh is a really good area. Moreover when we saw the show flat, we knew this was the house we want cos it has the main condo features I dreamed of although we did not want to stay in a condo. The location is good, and we like Toa Payoh. Immediately we knew... this was it. We asked around, and reactions to this house was that the price is steep. We were slightly dampened, but after thinking through it for the longest time, we decided that it was worth it. Thus, we applied and waited for 1 long, painful month before the ballot results are out. And out ballot number is near to 1000.

The number is not too bad, we can definitely get a unit, though it may not be ideal. And if we do want to get a 4-room it may be difficult. Thus we went down to see the showflats again and the agent advised us to calculate our hle before proceeding. And then we realised, we could not afford to buy the house at all because I am not working as of now, and they assess our income as of present. We thought of ways to solve the problem, but could hardly think of any. The only way was to give it up and look for alternatives. We were really disappointed, but convinced ourselves that we will find someplace better, somewhere out there.

One week before the selection date, help came from one of our family member, and careful calculation led us to a hopeful direction----we could afford a 4 room!! But we learnt not to get our hopes too high, as we may not be able to get a good 4-room unit with our number. Faithfully we waited, and went down for consecutively 2 days before our selection date to observe the booking of the units. Slowly we scaled down our choices.

And finally came sunday. We went there early (with lots of people) and started choosing our units. It was like a war, rushing here and there, looking at many many different things, listening to different people (but all giving same and good advice) as to where the sun come out from, got view or not, noisy or not etc. With all of their help, we finally decided on a unit that we really want. (For the kaypoh and like to buy 4D kind, you may like my unit number as it was carefully chosen by 4D gurus! aka my parents, my sis and mr tam mum) Then it was waiting and waiting for our turn to be called, while carefully looking out if our unit has been taken by the 20 over people before us. When our turn was here, the lady ask us:"will you like me to lock in your unit first?" My heart was shouting:"yes, now now now noW nOW NOW!!"Ha I think she knows, cos I was stammering when telling her the unit that we want. Then came many documents to be signed, deliberating what kind of flooring we want, signing cheque, and it all ended when she said," Hope you get happiness staying in your new home."

And we got our flat.

On the way home was some massive messaging friends. Alright not massive, just the few of them but their reply was prompt and huge. Thanks gals, for the support! And yes all of you have a slot as my jiemeis, and no, no ugly c****r rings please!

And thanks to both our family, for giving us truthful feedback and support whenever needed.

Huishi is feeling loved by everyone.

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After choosing our flat I went to a dance senior's wedding. She was one of the calmest and bubbliest bride I have ever seen, and of course, she looked pretty (our lead dancer in chinese dance!!). And the company was great, especially at the super juniors table, with me being the most junior. It is always great seeing your friends get married. For this particular senior, I felt really happy for her as I see her walk down the aisle with her husband as I knew how much she wanted to be married to this man, and how much she has gone through for this wedding. And of course, how much she wanted to be called, "Mrs Wee!!" ( *wave wave, to Mrs Wee!)