I DO WANT TO GET MARRIED.


I just received an email notification from my insurance company ABC about this new, current promotion. If I were to give birth anytime between 1st March 2008 to 28th February 2009 at "XXX" Hospital, my new-born would be entitled to a 6-months insurance coverage, free of charge.


Sigh, I want to have my own children too. Loads of them. But I'm not yet married, how to zuo ren?


Anyway, my Father really answers. He not only knows what I want, but most importantly, what I need. With the investment-linked policy that I had taken up a year earlier adding on to my daily expenses (which already covers everything from public transportation, to food, to drinks, to printing services in campus, to purchasing of books, to shopping, to entertainment etc etc etc), my "allocated" allowance is barely substantial. It's just enough to meet ends meet; month by month. No surplus.

And this month, due to unforeseen circumstances, I've got to pay SGD$600+++ for taking a module during Special Term. Luckily I had been giving tuition while studying for the past year, and thus, the amount that I've set aside for "rainy days" are just comfortably enough to offset this module fees. But, of course, after NUS has deducted the amount from my account later this week, money would be very tight for about 2 months until August arrives - that is, the start of a new academic year, when the next allowance payout comes in.

Foreseeing this, I started looking for a tuition assignment to take up of late. As I am quite reluctant to forfeit 50% of my pay as commission to any tuition agencies, I did not look around for tuition assignments with much enthusiasm. All I did was to half-heartedly reply some emails sent by the tuition agencies just to "try my luck". But time was getting tight. I started feeling burdened (about time, too). I prayed. The same day but 3 hours later, came Kelvin Lim. And came a tuition assignment lobang. And I'm happy, because it's my pet subject. In addition, the "student" is in the same course which I graduated from. Of course, it's been 3 years since I graduated, and it's definitely challenging to teach tertiary education. But, luckily, I don't have a habit of discarding old lecture notes. Oh well, so far so good. All I need to do is put in the extra effort and "refresh" my memory before each tuition session. And yes, I'll teach to the best of my ability, and yes, I'm enjoying it.