Going under the microscope

Having been nominated for a teaching award, I will be under considerable pressure to perform well. Early this week I received a call where I was told that a members of the awards committee would be sitting in during my classes (announced or unannounced) during the next four weeks. Thus my heart sank when I entered the lecture hall and spotted two faculty members sitting in the back row. I had originally planned not to give a lecture then due to my sore throat--I had already given three lecture classes earlier!--but had no choice but to hold classes just the same. Oh, well.

A rare sighting

As I was walking toward my bedroom late this morning, I could hear the familiar screeching and hissing sound of a yet unknown bird in our garden. Since the sound suddenly became louder than usual, I ran to my window hoping to get a glimpse of the culprits. Lo and behold! there emerging from the bamboo thicket in our lower garden were two black birds, the size of chickens. They remained out in the open for several seconds before retreating back among the plants there, all the while producing that strange unworldly screeching and hissing. I learned much later, after checking out information in the Internet, that the two birds were likely the famous tikling birds (a.k.a Barred Rails) after which the popular folk dance tinikling was named.

Natural air-conditioning

Despite today being declared a public holiday, I reported to work this afternoon to prepare lecture slides for the one course I'm teaching for the first time. With the relatively chilly weather--outdoor temperatures have been hovering in the lower 20s--we've been having these past few weeks I decided not to turn on my air-conditioning unit and just open the windows of my office. What a relief not to have the air-conditioning unit humming in the background and interfering with listening to my classical music.