When my friends heard that I was going for the golf open, instead of saying “enjoy your golf”, they said “enjoy your swim”. True enough, as I expected, it was raining cats and dogs.

At 10 a.m, 7 of us took a super vip coach from school. The bus was huge enough for 7 of us to play catching games on the bus.

It was drizzling, even after we reached Johor. We thought that most probably we would ended up chatting at the golf cafe instead.

We stopped by at a famous fish ball restaurant for lunch. Seriously, it just tasted like normal fish ball and it wasn’t worth to be hoo-haa’ed about but my fellow colleagues loved it very well. And it wasn’t very cheap either. 10 ringgit per person for a bowl of noodle with a few pieces of fish balls….:(

So we reached at Ponderosa Golf Country Club at 12.30pm. I was in the first flight to take off. Guess what? Most of them were veterans and golf nuts! They used so many golf lingoes that I wasn’t taught before. They were very experienced and have traveled a lot just for golfing.

There were 4 of us in the same flight and I was the youngest one in the team. Because we were the first flight to take off, there was pressure to finish every hole as fast as possible. The experts were all behind us and I felt as if we were rushing to finish every hole so they won’t have to wait for us or overtake us. Being the inexperienced one, I was practically rushing all my strokes and I lost control of my balls. Sigh..

The rain never stopped pouring on us. At the third hole, my cap and glove were all soaking wet. Water was dripping from my cap when I was teeing off. My clothes were soaking wet from top to bottom and from inside to outside (you know what I mean). But still, everyone was so game and that was why I said these people were veteran and golf nuts!

At a point of time when the rain was so heavy that we couldn’t even see the direction of the ball, so we rested at a hut where we met other teams as well.

Picture: sharing snacks. They were very well-prepared. Water-proof jacket and lots of kuehs and snacks. Imagine, standing under the rain for 6 hours without food and toilet. I think I would have fainted on the cold and wet green by the time we reached the 10th hole.

My team mates gave me lots of tips during the play. After all, it was my first golf open and there were many rules and terms that the golfers used that I have yet to learn. I was very grateful that I had such a wonderful and tolerable team mates, especially with a newbie like me in the team.

Because of the harsh weather, most of us did not complete the course. But our team finished all the 18 holes!! I was glad that I managed to survive.

We proceeded for dinner and prize giving ceremony at 6.30pm. Since not many people completed the course, the chairperson suggested to give the prizes away to the newbies as souvenirs. There were 4 newbies altogether (including me) and this was what I have got….

Grin…I like the pen with the golf club.

This morning when I woke up, the muscles of my right shoulder was aching. It was all because of carrying my golf bag. When we reached Singapore checkpoint, we had to carry every belongings that we had when alighting the bus. My bag became much heavier after soaking in the rain. I almost fell down in a few occasions. (I think my bag was heavier than me) Luckily my colleagues helped me to carry it as much as they could.

As usual, we were caught in a traffic jam along the Causeway and we reached home at 11.30pm.

Mom helped me to dry my stuff while I was lying (half-dead) on the sofa. Sigh, looking at the weather…I don’t think it is going to dry anytime soon. The last thing I want to see is greeny and yucky fungus on my bag.

Despite the rain, it was a very good experience. I wished we could slow down a little to enjoy the scenery though (not the rain, of course). Because everything was going in a super fast pace, I couldn’t remember much except walking up and down, looking for balls, driving buggy, changing clubs and LOTS OF RAIN. Now the golf bugs are all over me and I am looking forward to play when I am back in Penang. Yay! 1 more day to go..:)

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Yay! My very first golf open. It has been raining cats and dogs for few weeks now. Hopefully tomorrow will be a sunny day at Ponderosa golf course. That’s right, it is at JB. Pray for good weather and great fun!! More updates tomorrow…if I still have strength to type.

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I have been busy modelling my “Tete” for exhibition. It has been a long time since I last modelled a character.

Smooth version

Added eyelashes

There are still lot to refine. Hopefully I can finish it on time. I still haven’t modelled the hair, clothes, body etc. Will update more about “Tete” as I work on it. Oh by the way, it is done in Maya.

Sigh…Besides this model, I still have a minimum 1000 words essay to do and this assignment is due end of December. Plus, lots of markings to be done…Plus plus, preparing teaching materials. You see, after all, lecturer is not so as free as you think. Actually, I used to think that lecturers would go on holiday during term break. (May be my lecturers were like that) To me, term break is the busiest time for me. There are planning and preparation to do, administration, training/courses, exam invigilation, marketing outreach (eg, my “Tete”, exhibition, workshop for other schools), meeting, subject development etc etc etc x1000.

So my short term goals are still 1) finishing my markings 2) my 1000 words assignment 3) Christmas!!!

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The Make-A-Wish Foundation, Singapore is dedicated to grant the heartfelt wishes of children in Singapore who are challenged with a life-threatening illness. They held a christmas party today at Raffles Junior College and our school had the honour to be part of the event – to be the balloon sculptor of the day!

I was the staff-in-charge of the event. Together with 8 students, we sculpted more than 200 hundreds balloons. Some of the students learned balloon sculpting before from other charity event. So I was taught to sculpt my very first balloon – Doggy! I didn’t expect it to be so easy (may be I am talented) and I learned it in less than a minute!

I took my mom there, too and we had a great time. I was taught to sculpt tortoise and sword.

My very first tortoise. Cute isn’t it?

Our balloon sculpting station

After sculpted many many many dogs, we decided to sculpt something else. I wanted to make a balloon hat like this one (inspired by the balloon hat festival) .

Ta-dah! My doggy hat

My mom’s creation (I meant the balloon lar!)

I was very proud of her. She was sculpting the balloons with us (very talented) from 12pm-5pm.

This one is my creation. After a few experiments, I managed to sculpt a flower with STALK! I hope it looks like a flower to you. I gave this ‘flower’ to my student, who also happened to attend this event. I mentioned about him a few times in my blog. He is one of my students whom I feel so proud about him. Despite his illness (muscular dystrophy syndrome), he strives very hard in all his assignments. It has never been easy for him to type on the keyboard, to use a mouse and to WRITE.

My student dressed up like a clown.

Another student made a huge balloon belt and put all the balloons around his waist.

I have learned so much today. Not only sculpting balloons, but also the “kid’s behavior”. When I said “kids”, I am referring to those kids who are healthy and fit enough to behave badly run around. Let me tell you, nowadays, kids are very different. Last time when we were younger, we were very happy to get whatever balloons that were given to us. But these kids, they stood there and took their time to choose the colour, the shape of the balloon and etc. They shook their heads and demanded a LOT! There was a kid who forcefully pulled my balloon away when I was sculpting it. And he was also the same boy who grabbed all my “unblown” balloons. When I asked him nicely to give them back to me, he hid the balloons behind his back and showed me his TONGUE! He was not a 2-3 years old kid but 8 years old! The worst was, his mother was standing behind him and did absolutely nothing about it!

Another mother who kept sending her kid to take balloons for more than 5 times. They asked for WOLF balloons, guns balloons, bear balloons..etc. We had to squeeze our brains to sculpt things that we were never taught to do.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed every single bit of this event. So glad that my students were so fun-loving and helpful. *grin*

Oh, highlight of the day….Santa’s lap! *meow*

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Yay! I will be attending a charity event at Raffles Junior College tomorrow and sculpting balloons for FREE! If you would like one (especially from me), remember to come by between 1-5pm.

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