Simon, The Magician.

Simon, the magician kindly and generously performed a nearly two-hour magic show to our kids here tonight. The kids were really excited and very much fascinated by the excellent tricks presented by him. There were "flaming wallet", "floating card", "magic string", "magic wand" and many others.

kids were invited to join in the magic trick

The kids were lucky enough to have a magic show treat in this long holiday and I believe there will be lots of story to tell about their magician friend when they are back to school after the holiday, and they did feel very proud of having a magician friend tonight.

Thank you, Simon, that's very kind of you!

Cracks before collapsing!

When an object cracks seriously, it will eventually collapse as well, and that's MCA.

Let's witness this sooner or later!

1 Malaysia Tragedy!

Yet, search is still continuing for the 2 missing schoolgirls of the tragedy of the suspension bridge!

The news here reported that "They were jumping on suspension bridge" before the tragedy happened.

Do not try to blame the children for jumping on the bridge and caused the bridge to collapse! Being active is the NATURE of the children!

Those who were responsible for the designing of the bridge and the planning of the camp should have expected how active the children would be especially when they were participating in outdoor activities that provided them chances to play around or even fool around in groups. The organisers seemed rather ignorant about the precautions to be taken while having a camp for so many children near a river!

And giving excuses for all kinds of tragedies is such common here, in the end, there might be more and more sacrifice in future, even the children have become the victims now! So sad!

I just could not imagine how the parents of the girls are feeling now... ...!

My eyes are filled with tears, thinking of how pitiful the poor little girls and how anxious their parents are... ...!!

Traditional Games

tracing the roller track

using bottle caps as chess pieces

playing congkak

walking on the coconut shell

There was a traditional games exhibition when we visited to the National Museum during our school trip in KL. Those games were not so common among the children nowadays. And thus only we teachers knew how to play some of those games.

We had rope skipping there. The students were so excited to see their teachers skipping the rope there as many of them hardly know how to do that!

Anyway, there were still games that they know how to play like congkak.

There were also cartoons of traditional games drawn by my idol cartoonist, Lat.

The children enjoyed themselves very much at the traditional game corner!

with kampong boy, a cartoon character of Lat

R.I.P. Chester!

13-year-old Chester's dead early this morning. So sad :( !

He had been such an obedient and loyal pal throughout these many years!

Rest in peace, Chester, we love you and we'll miss you a lot!

Bottleneck

I have been feeling like getting stuck in the bottleneck of my career these many days. And yet, I'm still making an effort trying to make my way out of it!

A mixed feeling of disappointment, frustration and depression has often been muddling my mind and emotion lately. I'm well aware that I would have to get rid of those unhealthy emotions, only then would I be able to carry out my duty efficiently in the class.

Reading used to be one of the methods to revive my soul and uplift my spirit. Thus, I indulge in lots of inspiring articles and stories throughout this one-week Hari Raya holiday. And I tried to regain my lost enthusiasm in my career from the " Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul", a book that nourishes spiritually.

School is reopening before long, hopefully my effort in refreshing my soul and regenerating my spirit will help to make a difference in my days ahead! :)

UPSR

At last, UPSR was over!
After nagging at the students and pushing them so much throughout these many months, I do feel really relieved at this moment!

I am rather satisfied with the performance of the students after checking the answers given by them on the question sheets collected, and I believe that most of them had really tried their very best this time.

Though their true scores are still yet to be known, I shall have no regret on whatever scores they might obtain, after all, we have already done our best! I would like to thank the students for their effort and to assure them that all their hardwork shall not be in vain!

Wish us good luck!

A Bad Cough

I had been having a rather bad cough throughout the one-week schoolbreak, and it didn't seem better but got worse when the school reopened.

I managed to talk in the class for a couple of days till Thursday, when the non-stop cough hindered me from going further while I could hardly utter a sentence in the class.

As the H1N1 fear had caused quite a fuss in the staffroom, I decided to leave the school earlier as requested when I had finished all my classes.

In the evening, I went to see a doctor, hoping to get some medicine to stop the cough that was such torturing, and I was given a day off the next day, that was the last day of the week before the UPSR starts. I did not worry about my students though I had to take a day off at this very last moment because I believed that they should have already well-prepared for the coming exam.

The medicine given by the doctor didn't seem work on me after all. I am still coughing, till the muscle of my stomach becomes stiffened.

I used to thinking that nobody knows the problem of my physical body better than I am. A doctor may be able to cure one's sickness after knowing the cause, but he may not always really know the cause of the problem, and thus, I begin to trace back my most recent diet and habitual activities, trying to find out the root cause of my bad cough and then fix it myself.

Do wish me good luck!

Gift On Merdeka Day

... ...and the BIGGEST gift from the government to the people here on the Merdeka Day is the announcement of

PETROL PRICE HIKE!

The announcement can't wait to be made not even a day after our "Happy Merdeka Day"!

So sad, everything seems very saddening and disappointing here!

Should I not be so pessimistic? But it's a fact!

Sigh.....

Too Late!

The late Yasmin Ahmad was awarded the best director for her film "Talentime" at the 22nd Malaysian Film Festival last night.

There was comment pointed out that recognition in our country always came a little bit late! This reminds me of the late Sudirman Arshad, a talented top artist of our country who was just posthumously conferred a Datukship by the Sultan of Pahang recently, and it was 17 years too late!

Geniuses are ignored, talents are neglected, and the wise are rejected... ... how far can a country marches towards the globalizing world if it doesn't treasure its resources??

Haze!!

Haze again!!!

And our kampung Muar, is one among the 4 areas which recorded an unhealthy air pollutant index with a reading of 135, how unlucky we are!!!

And the moon was so sad, it looked gloomy in the hazy sky! !

API reading:

0-50 good

51-100 moderate

101-200 unhealthy

201-300 very unhealthy

Birthday

I do not used to celebrate my birthday, but just be thankful to my mom for bringing me here to this wonderful world on the day!

My one and only birthday party was held by several of my buddies when I was studying in Form 6, and it's a story of a very long time ago, ha!

However, when I started my teaching career, and when my students are grown, some of them would some times remind me of my birthday by sending me some birthday greetings through sms or cards.

And this time, they had their greetings for me writing on the facebook, thus, almost the whole world knows that I am getting older!

I am really moved by the many greetings from my old girls and boys who are now scattering all over the country and outside of the country, thank you girls and boys, wishing you all the best in your studies and your life ahead! And I love you all so much!!!

My heartfelt thanks to my girl's most loving mom for holding me a birthday dinner on the day, she has been doing so many things for her children as she loves her children so much. There were also a cake and birthday cards brought by our most sentimental and thoughtful boy yan and my old girl liling as well as her brother and sister.

Thank you, girl, xiuyi, aik, yan, and your kindest mum and dad, your love touches my heart deeply and I love you all a lot too!

Lots of thanks to my colleagues Qishun, Shanshan and their children for joining us in the dinner and sharing their most precious time with me too! Thank you and love you all too!

Thanks to Rebecca, Benjamin and Xinyee for your birthday gifts and xuefen for the card sent, I love you all so much as well!!

Besides, many thanks to my good friend Huijing, Yiming and their charming darling girl, Yongling for the birthday card drawn by Yongling and the bouquet of roses sent, thank you so much and love you all a lot too!!!

Visit to monasteries in Ipoh

Visited to 2 monasteries in Ipoh last weekend, they are the Vihara Gotama Buddha, a monastery situated on a piece of 15-acre-land near a graveyard in Temoh, Ipoh; and the Sukhavana Monastery, a monastery at a cave in Ipoh.

Love the environment around Vihara Gotama Buddha really much, it is surrounded by greenery and the atmosphere there is such serene and the air is extremely fresh. The abbot of the monastery introduced many kinds of plants to us while showing us around the monastery, there were cherry plant, camphor plant Tongkat Ali plant and many others.

the 10-year-old bodhi tree

nest of the weaver bird hanging from the tree

Kinta Valley view from the compound of the monastery
"This is Malaysian ginseng, the Tongkat Ali plant,"
said Bhante
an insect that camouflaged as leaf found in the compound of the monastery

At Sukhavana Monastery, we were shown around the limestone cave where the monastery situated by a bhante. He also had a talk and a game with the children.
We had also practised dana giving in the morning. Giving dana is a way to practise the virtue of selfless giving.

foliage over the limestone hill

"Do not tell lies..." said Bhante Kumara to the kids.

Lexy

Lexy-face Michelle

My niece Michelle brought some excitement back to all at home a couple of weeks ago.
She bought a puppy back from a pet shop in Serdang. It was a 7-week-old puppy when it was brought back and it cost her RM600.
Lexy, the puppy, is so....................cute!!! It is clever and restless. It can shake hand with us, stand up and sit down when is ordered to do so, isn't it wonderful?!! :)

soundly asleep...... zzzzzzzzz....

Back from Indonesia

Candi Borobudur

Back from Indonesia.
Enjoy the 4-days-trip pretty much.

Candi Borobudur is a monument that may only attract tourists with buddhism background or those who are really interested in arts and architecture. Candi means temple.
It is surrounded by 5 volcanoes and 2 rivers. There is a possibility for it to disappear from the earth again as what had happened in the old days due to the earthquake caused by the eruption of the volcano around it.

Candi Prambanan

We had also visited to the Candi Prambanan, a Hindu monument, Candi Sewu (Sewu is a Javanese word that means a thousand), a buddhist monument, Kraton Palace and the ruins of the palace where the 1st to 3rd Sultans had stayed in the old days in Jyogjakarta.

Ramayana Ballet

And ya, we had also watched the Ramayana Ballet at the Prambanan theatre. Ramayana Ballet is a very beautiful Javanese arts performance in combination of dance, drama and gamelan music. In their beautiful costumes, the dancers presented the story through their graceful movements as well as various facial expressions. We enjoyed the show really much.

The morning view of the Merapi volcano from the Candi Borobudur
Sunrise at the Candi Borobudur

Besides, we had also witnessed the sun rose early in the morning at the Candi Borobudur too, every one was thrilled by the awesome view of the sunrise, it was such amazing and the surrounding was such serene at that moment.

My heartfelt thanks to our trip organizer for his effort to have the free and easy trip planned perfectly, and not forget my fellow members of the trip, who had been bringing lots of joy among us throughout this trip!

House Broken In!

I used to be very confident of the safety in our housing estate here, but...
my house was broken in the previous night!

The thieves made used of all the materials outside of the house to break into my house.
They used the socks and shoe laces of our sport shoes to tie and join the 2 bamboo sticks that we used to use for hanging the washed clothes under the hot sun, and at one end of the joined bamboo sticks, they tied with an umbrella with a hook-shaped handle. Then, they opened the sliding glass door of the house and stretched the joined bamboo sticks through the grille to hook the house keys which were placed on the dining table, and this was how it happened!

They had also brought another wooden stick with a sharp end into my 89-year-old mom's bedroom. And thank heaven, mom was soundly asleep while they entered the room, and they didn't wake mom up, it is a great relief indeed that no one was harmed!

Some appliances were stolen as well as my handbag. And it had really taken me some trouble to have all the stolen cards replaced.

My most heartfelt thanks to my siblings who had been standing by me after the incident and to my younger brother who had taken a day off to accompany me to lodge police report, to have all the stolen cards replaced, to reinstall the locks of the grille and doors which the keys were taken, and to replace some of the appliances immediately. And many thanks to my kindest colleague Esther for bringing us breakfast and helping me to arrange for my afternoon class to be substituted. Thanks to my colleague Mdm Lam for taking care of my afternoon class. Thanks for the warmest consolation from my fellow colleagues, Benjamin and Rebecca as well as their most caring aunts!

Thanks to all who care and love me, your care and love is very much appreciated!

Happy Valentine!

Big Harvest!

The students have had a wonderful harvest for their project after months of hard work on their passion fruit plants. Both teachers and students are really proud of their passion fruits hanging from the plants in the school compound. Our great thanks to the school guard who has been helping to water and taking good care of the plants for the children during the school holidays.

fresh and juicy!

3 cheers to the children!!!

Happy Reunion

It's always time to meet with my old boys and girls again during lunar new year! There will always be lots of laughter and nostalgia in between hours of long talk...

graduates from the Pengkalan Bukit Estate

graduates of 1998

graduates of 2001