But hey, for a day that began quite gloomily and could have been expected to end that way, things turned out surprisingly well. At least for me...
Well, it all began innocently enough. Pn. Helawati reminded everyone that today we go home at 12.30 pm despite following Monday's schedule.
And then the whammer : The principal comes out and says that PPU will be going home at 1.50 pm instead, since the Monday schedule usually has an extra 2 periods which stretch until 2.40. (Cue headbanging from me, but without a nearby hard surface, my hand had to suffice...) So she decided we should retain those two periods. By the way, I feel the need to emphasise that the decision came from the Principal herself, spur of the moment at 7.30 am. Even the other Senior Assistants like Pn Hela & Pn Tan were far more willing to let us go back at 12.30...
But with the help of Pn Tan, Kah Kit & I, simultaneously on separate occasions, managed to negotiate a 1.30 pm release by discarding the lunch break. (I mean, seriously, it's Saturday. When was the last time there was any food on Saturday?...) The lesser of two evils, perhaps, but nonetheless, the classes I informed were still predictably unsatisfied...
So the day carried on, with PPU students moving around like depressed, hollow shells... After recess though, things began to perk up somewhat... But before that, during recess, I went to the office to inquire about my PMR & SPM certs. The moment I walked in the door, I saw Pn Caroline, the Principal, Pn Helawati, Pn Rafidah, Pn Sumarni & En Thanabal. Almost concurrently all of them asked in one form or another, "Nicholas! You also want to request to go home early for tuition ah?" Surprised yet fully humoured, I replied back the fact that I don't take tuition, much less want to go home early... (That'll be the day, the sky will rain fire and the earth will split open...) Apparently some students had their parents come to pick them up after hearing th news... So yeah....
For PA, all six classes were brought up to Lecture Hall 1 for a short quiz. Thinking back, although En Yassir probably already had the thing planned, I guess even the teachers were trying their best to cheer up the students... The quiz was simple, but the execution was indeed enjoyable... (The winning teams were apparently spirited enough to cheer loudly, heh...)
Then for the Sciences, Wan Loo gave her research presentation in Lecture Hall 2. An interesting one; A refresher course on using the 570 calculator to perform complex calculations, and then some. Ah, but I only had my measly 350 calculator on me (like what I told Kah Yee, I mainly only use it for +, -, *, and / operations and prefer to do everything else manually). Not a problem, as most of SMKC students learn when they get to F5, it can be reprogrammed to access some of the 570's functions. (Remind me to give Rahmat a good handshake one day for teaching it to me...) Heh, but Pn Tan & Pn Ng found the fact new and important enough that they asked me to demonstrate the reprogramming for the class right after Wan Loo's presentation...
In the transition after the quiz, I spoke, loud enough for all six classes to hear, two lines of basic Mandarin. In response, I got an applause, and a "Speak more Chinese!" by the students... Heh...
Oh, yeah, last of all, after classes were over (for the record, some students did "fly" at 12.30 pm... But who could expect any less? After all, the old Cochraneans usually do it at 10.30... ;) I went back to the office to pick up my certs, running into Bruce, Seak, Kuan Hong, Jiang Kai, & Wai Kit there, who've driven from their weekly futsal game, apparently...
Hey, class of '09, when you guys come to pick up your certs, do stop by for a quick chat. After all, it's been more than a year...
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