my ajumma notes

Watching Surgeon Bong Dal-he e inadvertently made me reminisce about work. Warning: spoilers ahead! Mentors (the head surgeons) 2 contrasting mentoring styles. Dr Lee (in background) is friendly, kind and understanding, though he did tell the Chief Doctor and Dal-Hee off after the incident when the Chief Doc fell asleep and Dal-Hee carried out the surgery on her own. Dr Ahn (in spectacles ) is the 'suffers no fools' mentor who won't hesitate to call the first years 'moron' or 'stonehead' (that's what it says in the subtitles!) because in his brilliant mind, they are morons and stoneheads for all the mistakes they make. Hence he is both respected and feared. I have known both types of mentors. I never thought about this before but it's actually the latter type who have made more of an impression on me. I have worked under/with a couple of extremely sharp and quick brains (not mine, obviously, ha ha). They were not meanies but they did not hesitate ...

May they rest in peace, and may their families, team-mates and friends find closure and healing. (picture from CNA )

Ha! Have you all read this article (ST today)? ' Jump in locals enrolling in international schools here' Here are excerpts: There has been a nearly fivefold increase in the number of Singaporean students in international schools here since 2002. The Ministry of Education (MOE) said 975 Singaporeans are currently enrolled in some of the 40 international schools here, a big jump from the reported figure of 200 five years ago. Their parents pay as much as $2,000 a month. This growing number does not include Singaporeans attending the international arm of three local schools - Anglo-Chinese School (International), Hwa Chong International and St Joseph's Institution (SJI) International. The attraction of the international schools, which cater mainly to children of expatriates, includes smaller class sizes, the broad-based International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, less emphasis on examinations and wider choice of second-language subjects. Some parents whose children have speci...

A letter in today's TODAY: 'A person who is unfamiliar with Singapore's education system and who reads the Weekend Xtra feature by Noelle De Jesus would think that the system is a total failure. The reader might think it is a rigid and autocratic system, and that it is capable of producing only mediocre students. The fact is that the system is held in high regard even by countries such as the United States, which is adopting some of the Singapore syllabuses. The writer should have done her research. She complained about the high 40-to-1 student-teacher ratio — but this is because she has sent her children to popular schools for which places were filled through balloting. My son enjoys a healthy 30-to-1 ratio in his neighbourhood school. The fact that her children cannot cope with the system implies neither that the system is a failure nor that her children are incompetent. She has experienced the system for only two years, while many generations of Singaporeans have gone th...

Parents' minds, naturally, are full of memories of the many milestones our children pass through. I remember a friend telling me that when both her sons were toilet trained, she felt she could finally move on with life. They were already in primary school at the time, but she still remembered. Perhaps some of us more sentimental sorts will even remember the first glimpse of our babies on the ultrasound screen, the first time the kid slept through the night, the first PSLE paper, etc. We have just come to another milestone. Over the weekend, the boy had his First Holy Communion , which, for Catholics, is a major, mega rite of passage. Sometimes, I find it hard to believe that he is already so 'old'. It seems like it wasn't so long ago when he was still drinking from his milk bottle in church. But now, he can share in partaking the Bread of Life. It's kind of hard to explain the full significance of this to 9-year-olds, but they do look rather pleased about the whole ...

Warning: spoilers ahead!! I'm no medical drama or 'human drama' fan as my taste is far more frivolous. Hence, I was never into ER , I've never watched Grey's Anatomy and I don't really like Healing Hands (all 3 installments). So, I've surprised myself by getting hooked on Surgeon Bong Dal-Hee , currently about halfway through on Channel 55. Now, that very... err... 'creative' title provided no attraction whatsoever but it just happened that there was nothing to watch at a particular time and I turned to Channel 55... The serial is far superior to Healing Hands because there are many more hospital scenes and lots more about patients, and the doctors at work. Of course, if you just have the hospital stuff, you might as well produce a 'medical staff training video' or something, so there are the doctors' personal lives as well. I like how this aspect is integrated into the whole hospital theme, unlike how the personal lives take centr...

He did it again! David Nalbandian's performance in the last couple of weeks has really been phenomenal and so he deserves another post. Am I glad I happened to catch most of his recent matches. I've been waiting to see something new in tennis for so long. I'll bet he still can't believe he scalped Nadal 6-0 in the second set of the Paris final . I mean, who can get 6-0 off Nadal? With that, he became the first guy to beat both Federer and Nadal in back to back tournaments ever since the two became world #1 and #2. So, at year end, Nalbandian finishes as world #9, with the top 8 going on to Shanghai for the Masters Cup. His current head-to-head with those 8 guys: Federer (8-8) Nadal (2-0) Djokovic (1-1) Davydenko (6-3) Ferrer (3-6, interestingly...) Roddick (2-3) Gonzalez (5-3) Gasquet (5-0) (Stats from this site ) Very impressive results, indeed...