Today was a sad but eventful day
[ Graduation ]
Officially, I am no long a student of Victoria School. But as Mr. Maran always says, “Once a Victorian, always a Victorian.” Well I’ll still be a Victorian in the first 3 months of VJC during PAE, thereafter which I will decide on my further adventure.
So, today was Graduation Day. Venkat and Alvin Teo kept bugging me to lend them my Pocket PC to play bejeweled…aiyo
First hour of school in class. Ms Ernie gave our souvenirs, testimonals, report books, fitness test results and CCA grading certificate. The souvenir was some simple paper-holder thing to hold a piece upright for typing etc. Had different colours. Chose a red-pink cos it’s the school colours.
Then, everyone was eagerly reading their testimonals, in which Ms Ernie had beautifully crafted with excellent English and detailed comments about each person, along with our achievements we submitted to her earlier.
The CCA Grading Certificate was a disappointment. I was shocked that I only got 8 points for CCA, which makes it a B3. What?!?! I checked the back. What a short list! Only 2 years of Cyberfair reflected, Victoriana and something else was reflected. Even me being Chairman of IT Club and many other achievements were not printed! And Cyberfair was only 2 points instead of 5 Hozefa got! I was angry with it, and so did Victor. I knew there was a cap on the number of Bonus and Achievement points, but this is ridiculous! At least the testimonal is much much better.
As for the report books, apparently Victor got a higher percentage of 76.6% than my 74.4%, even though his L1R5 got 10 and I got 8. Oh, talking about L1R5, yes, Mrs. Lee gave me the mark as she promised, that’s why now it’s 8 instead of 9. Thanks Mrs Lee! Now, I wonder if I can get the Edusave scholarship with such a percentage. Hope so…
And as for the NAPFA test, it was amazing! I managed to PASS and get a BRONZE!!! HOW? I don’t know! My Pull-up was reflected as 3 instead of 2! My SBJ was reflected as 206 instead of 19x. My 2.4km run was reflected as 13.40min when I only got 14.xx after 3 tries…how come so generous? I don’t believe it. And I don’t know how it is reflected like that. But that’s another answered prayer. Thank You, God. Yes, He really does answer prayer quickly in His own time. PTL!
At, 9 AM, the prize winners proceeded to the Auditorium, of which my class there were about 3/4 of the people receiving awards. Actually, I’m supposed to receive Certificates of Merit/Excellence for the competitions I won, e.g. Cyberfair or eGames. I think Mr. You didn’t know about such a thing. Sigh…but nevermind, P.E. department always cock up the certs anyway…just like the CCA points.
After some briefing and blah blah, the ceremony started at 10 AM with Principal’s Address. Haha, it seems like he’s giving a workshop on life skills, showing us a list of skills etc. Then Kiren gave the speech to represent the Sec 4s. Yes Kiren…WHAT? KIREN!?!?? (vomits blood) Hahaha he made a laughing stock. Everyone was booing, jeering, cheering, clapping, hahaha…Then came the touching part. After Kiren’s speech, there was a PowerPoint presentation, don’t know made by who, showing us pictures and “Words of Encouragement.” Looks something like what I thought of doing, words from Victorian Anthem along with pictures. But they added some lame comments.
Now comes the touching part. They show group pictures of each class, followed by the Form Teacher’s comments. As I was looking, I somehow felt very very sad in that I’m leaving VS already…4 years came and went fast…reading the teachers’ comments and all the pictures really made my throat feel dry and almost shedding a tear from my eyes…tried to control myself……then the teachers….and heard that Ms. Loo is retiring this year….she’s the best teacher I’ve had, very caring and good in teaching. Mr. Khoo’s one was very very funny….his comment was “What makes 4C a good class? (12 marks) L1:…. L2…..” hahahahaha SS question! Everyone burst into laughter Then Mdm. Ernie, Mrs Lee….Every class identified with themselves, each unique some with their own catcalls (such as Jie Wei!) Very very touching moment, as the Vitamin C’s “Graduation” song played along, it really made the atmosphere very ….words are not enough to describe it 😐 🙁 ^__^ -__-
Then was the prize giving. I don’t really think I deserve the 8 points. Maybe Mrs Lee’s compassion mark was because I helped her a lot in Humanities…such as the Economic Literacy, the recent software on ArcGis…etc. etc. I don’t know. But anyway, since I have the privilege, then I shall just accept it.
Then was the Victorian Anthem. A standing Sec 2 band…eeks…not very nice. I asked Alvin Teo to hold my Dell Axim while it was recording so that I can snap pictures. My last official anthem, can hear the whole auditorium singing with pride and glory. Then the anthem ended and the cheer came. Saw Matthais Chew and Benjamin around there cheering…amazing, I was about to join when Alvin Phua beside me tapped me and we started our own along with Samuel etc. It was the best and loudest, but I didn’t manage to snap any nice shots nor take any videos because my camera refuse to release the shutter…Ah…too crowded, no time to concentrate on my camera. The sound recording not very clear also.
Then, it was the reception at about 11am…hmm nice food…but some don’t want to queue so went to buy their food. Luckily, I came down early. Then, it rained heavily.
Later, Victor and I found Mr. You and showed him our stupid CCA grades and told him the problem. Went to find Mr. Lee Boon Kee but he’s away on a meeting. So we decided to come back next week.
A while later we found Mr. Lee back and eating together with Mr. Ang and some other teachers. Victor then went to find Mr. You and he approached Mr. Lee and inquired (yes right in front of Mr. Ang!) We were arguing why Cyberfair so little, then why so stingy never print everything. Some more, Victor’s was calculated wrongly. Mr. Ang looked at my list, then ask Mr. Lee why. Then Mr. Lee say Mr. You submitted too late, and never reflect properly, and say what Cyberfair is not a competition such that we are selected to represent Singapore as a country in an international competition. Argh! Didn’t Hozefa got 5 points last time?! Then, thanks to Mr. Ang, who requested Mr. Lee to up me to an A2 (9 points) because I did a lot for the school, following Mr. You’s comments. Good thing that P was there and he knows me! 🙂 So Mr. Lee decided to up mine to A2 and correct Victor’s marks to get A2 but can’t do anything for Cyberfair.
Later, we go searched Mr. You’s laptop for the Excel file to clarify…we were commenting that PE Dept very what…everytime cock up then not sure how the system works. Saw some people approaching Mr. Lee but he just brushed them off. Luckily Mr. Ang was there just now. Found the file, and brought the laptop to find Mr. Lee. Alas, he’s back to the Hostel to change, then Mr. Ho explained to us about how the system works, saying that it is such that clubs and societies are very difficult to calculated, that’s why they encouraged us to join a mainstream CCA back in Sec 1. Argh! Biasness! Say what Clubs difficult to count points, difficult to score blah blah blah….the more I hear, the more I want to go Poly>>>>
Later, Victor and I visited Cedric’s AEP O Level Project at D&T Classroom 2….woo…the photos are flying…hanging from the ceiling. Printed with Canon S9000, they look quite okay, pasted on black cardboard, tied from the ceiling. The room was filled with hanging photos. Very cool and nice photos with a lot of meaning and artistic and skills and …Memories are made of these… can form some kind of photo timeline for our four years in VS…very cool. He’s gonna add some shoes at the ground. Cedric also made 2 cardboard photo album, with their class photos and individual photo and comments, as gifts to Mr. Khoo and Ms. Loo. Interesting class 4C is, with their Russian T-shirt and everything.
[ TJC & MJC Open House ]
Then, Victor and I went to TJC Open House in the drizzle at about 1.30pm. I like the idea that TJC has separate modern “TJC: The Future. Now.” Logo apart from their traditional crest. Looks cool…their website too.
Explored the building…the Auditorium and a few blocks around it are new, while the rest are very old, dating back to 1970s. And they are SHORT….mostly only 2 storeys high, the most only 5 for the main admin block. Toured the school ourselves, with the usual array of CCA exhibitions and many TJCians promoting themselves and their CCA. Small hall, nice cafe-like canteen. Saw many other Victorians there like Izzu, Shafeeq, Jurong, Leonard, Xuguang, Eric (4C), Kaihong and his BB friends, 4G people etc.
The Library very cool, especially their small heritage display, very high class and with spotlights and their school model in the middle. But not much exhibits though, only displays on the walls. Quite large library with 2 storeys, and a small cafe area and wide variety of books.
There was a Guitar Ensemble concert in one of the LT. Visited and quite nice. Sound a bit like CO because of the plucking of strings. They performed a Russian classical song, “Yesterday” and a pop song with vocals called “Sway”. The lady who sang had a nice ang-moh-singer-like voice.
Then walked around again, through the sports complex, then back to the auditorium…took a peak…wow BIG!!! The main seating area is so huge and there’s even a small gallery at the top. I think about 800 seater…very cool …but seats not cushion. Msged Aunt Poon but she did not reply.
Sat down and chatted a while. Asked around who wants to go Meridian but no one really interested. Then Victor met his primary school friend and left chatting with him. Then I visited their computer lab. Leonard and xuguang playing CS…haha They using Dell coms also. Later, I decided to proceed to MJC myself. Decided to try the “Fried Ice Cream” ($1.20)…some pastry sort of thing, dipped into oil and deep fried, and inside is ice cool ice cream….very interesting…crispy hot on the outside, cool vanilla on the inside.
3+pm, Took Bus 12 and saw Shafeeq on the Bus. Then, later I changed to 81 and reached MJC. Very crowded, a lot of neighbourhood school people. Nice school building, very impressive, like some high-class institution. Very blue too….their uniform is light blue…
Walked around myself, they having some sort of fun-fair called “Learning Agora”. Picked up a programme sheet and proceeded to the Library entrance and waited for the tour guide. Still early, so I went into the Library and explore…very new and cool, heard that it’s managed by NLB. But not many books yet. Then I waited outside for the tour. The tour guides came but disappeared. Not very organised. They led some into the Library but took so long to come out that I decided to attend the Principal’s talk. It was held in one of the LT….this one’s quite big…hmm…
A while later, the talk began. The Principal, Ms Lye, say this and that…psycho me very well…boast about the building, the young and passionate teachers, the not-play-and-play attitude, high expectations, that’s why 15-point cut-off, focus is academic, etc…talked about the subject combinations…hmm no computing. Now at least I understand more about the subjects, she said about the requirements and assured us that JC is super tough. O levels x5…sigh..maybe I should really go poly. Realised that both MJC and TJC don’t offer Computing. Deprive me of studying something I like for once … The school has 5 LT, of which seating capacities are 150, 150, 150, 250, 600 respectively…no auditorium. The 600-seater is big but has a very small stage….ahh what’s the point? Walked around again, small and normal hall and canteen,…hall’s stage very small…then I decided to go home.