Meet the Parents... no, not talking about the movie...

Today was Meet the Parents Day at work... same madness as usual in the morning before the session started, with me frantically trying to get all the admin matters settled and my homeroom ready for the parents of my students when they come one after another. I really wonder why everything always has to be pushed to the very last minute at work sometimes. It adds so much unnecessary stress when things could have been communicated in advance and everyone can settle their own things at a more manageable pace. Well, guess that's life at this place.

Anyway, once the session started, I was talking non-stop (so now my throat hurts-- again-- when I swallow!), but find it quite enjoyable to speak to the parents as soon as I got over the initial 'dread' of having to face so many parents, and many of whom are new to me since this is a new form class for me this year, with only about a quarter of kids from my previous form class. But thank goodness most of the parents are really nice, not like those you'd normally expect with kids in a top class, where the pressure of achieving great academic results is really high ( I really thought some would be quite demanding etc) and I soon started to feel more relaxed, especially when I met up with parents of my prev form class kids -- it actually felt like meeting up with old friends cos they are so friendly and nice. :) Hee, what made my day was also when a few of them greeted me with "Wah! You getting prettier already hor?", "You look younger despite getting married!" and "You've slimmed down quite a bit leh!" (Although the last comment always makes me wonder exactly how BIG a balloon I used to look like, cos it's not exactly like I look so hot now either-- still 'ba ba' what, just maybe a bit less :p) Well, whatever it is, these lovely parents really do know how to make me feel better... haha.

Another thing that made my day was knowing how concerned some of my kids were for me, especially my girls who've been with me since they were in Sec 1. Heh. They stayed back to help me during the Meet the Parents session and this girl brought along a whole strawberry strudel from Ritz Apple Strudel to share with her buddies and saved a large slice for me cos she and her friends know that I wouldn't have time for lunch since session would last from 10am to 4.30pm. Oh... fell in love with the yummy strudel! I've tasted the apple one before cos Mummy likes it a lot and used to buy it, and the mango one too, but this strawberry's the BEST!!! It's just oozing with strawberry richness. I love it! Checked out the website and found that a whole loaf costs $26.50. Wow... but really quite good. Thinking of buying one to let family try one weekend... Yum yum...

Mmmm... speaking of yum... must record this sinful deed that I engaged in last night. I got back home quite late in the evening and was feeling kinda tired and stressed cos still had work to do at home, so I demanded that Hubby buy home a nice dinner for us. He bought one of my favourites -- Hawaiian pizza -- and chicken wings from The Pizza Place at Jurong Point. Nice! As if that wasn't enough, he also dropped by Jurong East on his way back and bought a large tub of icecream from this place called Original Mix that resembled the packaging for the Haato one. We tried their peanut and honeydew flavour before (not bad!), so this time he picked mango and dark chocolate flavours. The chocolate one tastes pretty normal, but the mango one's great -- neither too sweet nor sour. Wah, this large tub cost him slightly less than $30 lor. Expensive! Ate two large scoops -- one of each flavour -- some time after dinner. Very sinful and guilty! :p

Sigh, weekend's coming, holidays are here, but still can't relax cos Monday I've to give a presentation at another secondary school and I need to use part of my weekend to prepare ppt. slides for that presentation. In fact, after this, I gtg back to work. :( But luckily, all is not lost for the weekend; there're some exciting plans coming up. Tomorrow Hubby and I going back to his parents' place for lunch (they've finally returned from a three-week holiday trip in China), then we're gonna go shopping. One thing we're gonna get is a swimsuit for me... haha...we've decided to go back to my parents' place slightly earlier on Sunday so that we can use the pool there cos Hubby's gonna start teaching me how to swim properly! Haven't gone into a pool since I was in Sec 2 when I attended swimming enrichment classes (yeah, that was also when I escaped, with a friend as my accomplice, taking the swimming assessment cos had a phobia of drowning if I were left to swim on my own :p).But now that I'm a big girl, I think I can deal with the water better. I think Hubby's right lah. Swimming's a life skill, and I should learn it lor. Maybe will get Beebee to come along. I'm only crossing my fingers and hoping hard that I won't be sharing the pool with the kids from the estate who are currently taking swimming lessons on Sunday! :S So pai seh lor... :p

Oh ya, on Sunday can also see what Beebee bought for us from her graduation trip to Taiwan! So excited... she seems so pleased with her choice of gifts for us that I really am curious to find out what they are... hohoho. ;D