i'm still in disbelief, i can't believe he's really not around with us anymore. the news hit last night, around 11, it just didn't seem true, just didn't seem right. i guess i needed time for the news to sink in, and it's still reverberating in my heart, like aftershocks to an earthquake. maybe this time there wasn't much of an earthquake, nonetheless he was one of the teachers i had the most encounters with, and the 2nd closest pe teacher, after ms lee.

to think of it, there weren't many teachers in ny i consider closer to,

michele choo, cindy tay, dennis lim, petrine lee, john lim, bernard lee, tan siew lan.

ms choo's like a friend, you can crap almost anything with her. mrs tay and mr lim, a bit not so, but still one of the closer ones in ny. the rest i had quite a lot of encounters with, albeit small, but not not small in importance, cos they're kept in my heart.

still remember last year, the tennis girls were 'make-shift' floorball players. he was our coach and teacher-in-charge, for 2 main reasons: 1) to help us gain more cca pts 2) to expose us to this relatively new sport of floorball (he played for a club)

it's still so weird to refer to the things he did in past tense. such is the pain of death, to be 'cut-off' from the world, from the living, i'm sure his family, friends and relatives feel this pain all too well now.

back to him and floorball. he was the one that brought us to OI for the competition, still remember when i was so tired on court, the only darn thing i wanted to hear was 'LINE-CHANGE' from him. still remember the after match briefing, he saying that it was okay and everything to lose quite badly.

he was one of the few teachers i bothered to greet. i mean, who greets teachers in jc? even in ij, hardly anyone greeted teachers.

and more recent ones, i was in the pe staffroom, he called me chopstick! can you believe it. i gave him that look and he was like 'sorry, don't be angry la' or something like that and i think he offered a rabbit sweet or what. and the last encounter with him was when i needed to apply for uk universities, he told me how to go about doing it, and it was so simple! he makes things simple, whilst the other 2 teachers i went to initially were at a lost at this application thing. i still remember him saying, 'anything that you're not clear about can look for me' cos i needed to get my application done quick then as the deadline was way close.

may eternal light shine upon you, may you rest in peace, Amen.

one thing's for sure, he'll be dearly missed.