A guy walked into a bar one day and said to the barman, "Give me six double vodkas."
The barman says, "Wow! you must have had one hell of a day."

"Yeah, I just found out my oldest son is gay."

The next day, the same guy came into the bar and asked for the same drinks. When the bartender asked what the problem was today the answer came back, "I just found out that my youngest son is gay, too!"

On the third day, the guy came into the bar and ordered another six double vodkas. The bartender said, "Jesus! Doesn't anybody in your family like women?"

The man downed the first drink and shook his head, "Yeah, my wife!"
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Oh let us join our school to praise.
Sing blithe and gay and free
Resolve to follow courteous ways
And ever truthful be
To study hard and play with zest
To always strive to do our best
Sincere in all our living
And generous in our giving

Our school colours yellow and blue,
Mean ideals good and clean.
The lotus emblem pure and true
Forever makes us keen.
To cherish our Alma Mater
Now and forever later.
Onward with zeal and zest,
Forward we of C.G.S.

And though of diverse creeds we be,
Together we must work.
Without a trace of jealousy,
Our aim is not to shirk
In Maths or Science or Geography,
Or games which make us fit and free.
The day when we must part,
May Crescent remain in our hearts.
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Goodbye Mrs Lee,
All the best to you.

And so, I thought I should blog about today’s Farewell Ceremony to our dear principal, Mrs Lee Bee Yann.

So instead of Tuesday’s Mass Run, we – thankfully – had a briefing by Mr Koh on the Farewell Ceremony, after the announcement of The Leaving was made on Monday. And we were all videotaped waving and saying “Goodbye Mrs Lee, all the best to you,” while smiling, so it was a rather ironic and tragic thing. But still. Teachers and students alike – waving, smiling, saying those words with a rather nonchalant expression. Which reminds me - I was in-between smiling, and I looked up to the second floor, and I saw Mrs Yip waving at me, so I smiled back. And she was looking at me! Or maybe she was looking at someone else. But she seemed to be looking right at me! Woah, I'm honoured. And I was telling Cherlyn, and Cherlyn got jealous. HAH. Yay for Mrs Yip!

And moving along, it was rather different from Tuesday today.

We were told to get assembled by 710, in preparation for our principal’s ceremony. I came to school at 708, and the grounds were empty. So I thought: Damn, I’m late. The rotunda was vacant, and there weren’t any councilors prowling around, mooing at passing students to “walk faster” to get to the destination. And so I freaked out, because I thought I was late, and our honoured principal had already reached the hall, so I was gonna get scolded or something.

But I looked down, and I saw the teachers taking a rather leisurely stroll to the auditorium, so I walked instead of ran to the auditorium.

Mr Koh was telling us to shush and behave, and everyone obeyed him, since everyone respects him alot. And then, Mrs Lee arrived, and she came in with a rather pleasantly shocked expression. And then, the other distinguised guests - like the Chairman of the Parent Support Group, and Mr Gary Tan - our ex-Vice Principal before Mr Koh took over, and other people that I don't remember.

“A very good morning to our dear principal Mrs Lee Bee Yann, our vice-principal Mr Leonard Koh, distinguished guests and members of the audience,” And of course, it was Aleena Mansoor being the emcee. Somehow - I don't know how, but somehow - everytime there's a major event, usually, ELDDS provides the speakers. And since there seems to be alot of major events, ELDDS people are always being pulled out of ELDDS to take part in these major events.

And I was warning Kailin, Juanita and Azima that there was gonna be 5 speeches when Aida and Stephanie came to sit beside me with the 3C2 line. And Padmini was there too, I think. Aida attacked my tablet and my bag ferociously, but we shook hands in the end. I personally think Aida's dumb, because she has been carrying a cloth bag saying - I am not a plastic bag - for ages, and I can't believe that the message hasn't sunk through yet. Poor Aida.

And yes - 5 speeches. No joke, but it was amusing. The first speech was given by Mr Koh, which Juanita and I took surprise to, because Mr Koh was actually gonna seriously give a speech. And I was like - WOAH, cool. It was a fun and serious speech. Fun, because Mr Koh is basically a very funny person, and its illegal to keep that sense of humour under control. And serious, because it wasn't supposed to be a very happy and gay occasion to have fun in. So it was rather well-balanced.

I remember Mr Koh saying something, and then some baby in the room cried - I think it was Mrs Eleanor Goh's kid - and Mr Koh was like,"Sorry ah, baby," HAHAH, he's so damn funny!

Which reminds me of an incident when we had to prepare for the Minister's visit, and we had to go collect canal water data, and Mrs Yip and Mr Koh came along to watch. And Mrs Yip was telling us about how there used to not be a fence around the school, and she as an old girl was able to smell the canal everyday when the wind blew. And Mr Koh was laughing, and he said,"Wow, aroma therapy," To which Mira and I laughed like mad.

And yeah, Mr Koh made his speech - which I cheered and clapped for - and he went back to allow 4 other women - who made various stands in society - to speak. And I kept on hearing one of the speakers say "ogres", and the sentence was rather weird, because it would be like, "We, the 'ogres', thank Mrs Lee greatly for her great contribution..." After that, I thought about the "ogres", and I realised that it was "old girls".

After that was some performance by the science department. Mrs Yip and some Chemistry teacher whose name continues to escape me - were reciting a poem, I presume they wrote. Mrs Yip was so elegant when she was reciting the poem in expressive tones, and I was very impressed. The other teacher accidentally dropped her mike, but it was laughed off. Then the whole of the science department trooped unto the stage and sang the chinese song 朋友. And it was touching, but quite upsetting, because people who didn't understand chinese would just be gaping at everyone singing and wondering what the hell was happening. Three mikes were given, Mr Lim Min Cho occupied one. There was a Mrs Lim, and the teacher whose name escapes me, and Mr Lee Jian wei who occupied another. Then Mrs Leow, Mr Tan Tze Yong and two other people I can't remember got the last mike.

It was quite sad. Just these bunch of people standing in front, and the rest of the science department were in a straight line at the back, and they were trying to not look embarrased - or something along that line. Rather upsetting - they should have let everyone in the science department sing. I would have loved to hear Mrs Low sing. And Mr Tan Tze Yong was holding the mike, but he wasn't singing into the mike. Mr Lee Jian Wei was trying to evade the mike, but he finally sang into the mike, which was brave of him to do so, and I think he sang pretty well. Or maybe I didn't really hear much, but I guess he did sing rather nicely.

After that was Mr M's special performance. He was telling ELDDS yesterday that he had no idea what he was gonna do. But he came up with something within 12 hours, and it was great. He added an anecdote before that, which he'd never told ELDDS - or maybe he did - but it increased my respect for Mrs Lee, somehow. Mr M's special performance was a modified "Home" version. And I'm pleasantly surprised that Kailin found Mr M's singing talent surprising. Its true, I was running around my clique last year, telling people,"Mr M can sing,". And yeah - it proved through.

The song Wind beneath my Wings part was redundant. Or maybe it was supposed to be an emotional moment, but the students were just seperated from the teachers, and the teachers were tearing, and Mrs Lee herself was crying, and the student body talked and stared blankly amongst themselves, and the teachers tried to calm themselves down and all of that. So, we didn't do anything constructive.

Mrs Lee's turn to say a few words, and she was crying. I was a little down and all, but I was looking around at the teachers, and they were tearing. Madam Lim was tearing badly - but she wasn't crying, and I felt rather upset, because Madam Lim has a very strong character, which was what gained my respect for her. Ms Karen Tan was also tearing, and it was so unexpected, because to me - they are two very strong-willed teachers - in charge of uniform groups, so, yeah, they've a certain decree of self-discipline.

During A-Math, we watched Mr and Mrs Smith. So thank god Mr Choy didn't come in. Physics was about going through the paper, and Mrs Low was praising Padma, and telling 3C3 how she approached Mr Keong to ask about Padma, and he actually remembered her and said she was hardworking. And Mrs Low was saying that he was very happy when she told him Padma was the only one in class who got some question correct or something.

The rest of the day was spent finishing Mr and Mrs Smith, and wondering how fantastically hot some people can be. Shihan must have been jealous of us, because we finished Mr and Mrs Smith, and she wasn't there.
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Padma was pleasantly surprised to find that Mr Keong actually remembered her. Yeah, I think Mr Keong has a very good memory. He actually remembers me, even though I don't have a very unique name nor was I a very good student who paid attention and was hardworking and did well in math, not like Padma is.

So yeah, rather impressive.
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