Goodbye, En Hussein!

En Hussein, our school staff has been serving in this school for a total of 15 years. And he is retiring in the year end holidays.

He is a trustworthy, hardworking and excellent staff of the school! We appreciate his contribution really much. We had a simple but most sincere farewell gathering for him this morning though everybody was so busy with the year end chores in the school. Birthday song was sung, cake was cut and present was given.

With a heart full of gratitude, we wish En Hussein a very happy retirement and many happy returns!

Goodbye and take care, En Hussein!

Thank you, 6J!

UPSR results released!
And yes, both the teacher and students's effort is not in vain!
Thank you boys and girls for your hard work!
Thank you for your tolerance and patience while I kept repeating and nagging in the class. Thank you for your attention in the class. Thank you for your cooperation while many tests and exercises are given.
What you reap is what you sow! And your achievement have showered me with joy!
Dear boys and girls, thank you, love you and best of luck to you in your journey ahead!

Changes

40%of UPSR will be school based in 2016.

A pass in History is compulsory to get the SPM certificate in 2013.

History study will be started from Primary one in 2014.

PMR is to be abolished in 2014.

PPSMI is to be abolished.

PTK is to be abolished... ...

Malaysia "boleh", and is always "boleh"!

"Boleh" in producing all kinds of "boleh" policies and then abolish them when they are found "tak boleh".

And the people of Malaysia are also "boleh", "boleh" in adapting all kinds of changes in all kinds of educational policies, especially the teachers, the students and the parents.

They are all the truly "boleh" products of the "boleh" country!

Cheers for the "boleh" people of the "boleh" country!

Year End Mood

API improved, though it is still hazy around the city.

Life still has to go on.

Year end exam will be starting next week and lots of year end stuffs to be done too.

On the other hand, looking forward to the UPSR results too after years of hard work, hopefully good news will be heard then.

Time flies, another year is gonna end soon. There will be a year of change for the coming year, and I am very much looking forward to a more reviving change for the school! 

Do wish us good luck!

Haze Again!

Came back from a meeting at Muar PPD around 5.30pm.

While driving home on the road, I got to be very careful as the visibility on the road was very poor. 

The haze is  back again. It was back since yesterday, and it is getting worse today. The whole town was shrouded in unhealthy levels of haze throughout the day. The air quality is seriously poor for outdoor activities!

Why does this keep happening year after year? Who should be responsible for this? Did the government ever try to make any effort to stop this from happening again? Or... ... we just do not have to be fussy over this as the haze will be disappeared automatically some days later, right?  

UPSR

Time flies, the year 6 students are going to sit for UPSR tomorrow.

At this moment, I used to be feeling rather relaxed as my mission to prepare them for the exam has also come to an end! And I believe that they will be trying their best and will never leave the effort of both teachers and students throughout these days in vain.

Thanks for working so hard these days, boys and girls, I shall always proud of your strife and effort, and best of luck to all!

Hari Raya Treat

While going for cycling exercise this morning, we stopped at a Malay food stall. And to our greatest surprise, the owner of the food stall was offering free treat to all his customers just to share the joy of Hari Raya greeting with all.

There were various delicious food such as: lontong, ayam masak merah, chicken curry, fried rice, orange juice and cookies. We enjoyed the food so much and the kindness of the food stall owner was very much appreciated too. That's truly "1 Malaysia" indeed!

Lemang

On the way to get a wheel chair for 90-year-old mom a day before Hari Raya Aidilfitri, we passed by a lemang stall at the roadside of a Malay village. Out of curiosity, we stopped at the lemang stall to have a look at how lemang was cooked.

Lemang is a popular traditional food that the Malay used to cook during Hari Raya Aidilftri. It is originated from the Iban of Sarawak. Lemang is cooked by filling the glutinous rice into the hollow of the bamboo stick which is lined by banana leave. The glutinous rice is added with little bit of coconut milk too.All the bamboo sticks filled with glutinous rice are then leaned towards the burning fire. While being burnt by the fire, the bamboo sticks need to be turning around frequently to ensure the glutinous rice is cooked evenly and to avoid the rice gets burnt.

When the glutinous rice is cooked, the bamboo sticks will then be cut open and the "rice stick" will then be cut into small pieces too. Lemang is usually eaten with rendang ayam--chicken cooked with spicy coconut sauce or chicken curry. And the mixture of different aroma of the coconut milk, banana leave, bamboo stick and even the smell of the smoke after being burnt has made the lemang tastes such special!

Controversial TV3 Raya Ad

The above advertisement is the controversial Hari Raya Advertisement which had been withdrawn by TV3 after receiving complain from the Muslim viewers that the old Haji and the trishaw resembled Santa Claus and the sleigh!

In our country, everything can become a controversial issue easily nowadays! I believe the creator of the advertisement does not have any intention to hurt the feeling of our fellow Muslim friends other than spreading the message of the Hari Raya Aidilfitri greeting through beautiful, peaceful and harmonious scenes.

Anyway, if the advertisement had really caused uncomfortable feeling among our Muslim friends, and since TV3 had also withdrawn the ad and apoligized to the Muslim viewers, let's be more forgiving and humble to let the issue be appeased on this holy day of Aidilfitri greeting and to avoid hatred provoked by those who try to take advantage of the issue.

In fact, the people of our country had always been living together in harmony and peace, and there will definitely be peace and harmony forever provided we do not have the most selfish POLITICIANS here!

An Accident

Anthony's fingers were squeezed in the classroom door during the afternoon class. He looked pale because of the great pain though he didn't cry for pain. The poor boy was so painful that he was feeling like fainting when he was brought to me. He was then sent to the clinic immediately and his worried mom who had no transport to come to the school had eventually gotten somebody to send her to meet with me in the clinic. The most thoughtful mother blamed nobody but wanted me to go back to the school for my class and leave the boy to her as soon as she reached the clinic.

I felt really sorry for the mom for the accident happened to her boy, and I was really grateful to her for blaming nobody in this incident. And since she has difficulty in bringing her boy back to the clinic to clean the wound to avoid infection, I promised to bring the boy back for her during my free periods for the following days as the clinic is near the school.

Parents who are reasonable and thoughtful always gain the most of respect from me!

**Do not demand for respect, but earn it.**

Musang King

My girl's dad who claimed himself the Gambling King, gave me a Musang King the day before!

According to the introduction given to me verbally by my colleague about this very special durian species a few days ago, I therefore told myself that I should really have it tried this time!

And after tasting it, only then I understood why was the species such popular among the durian lovers. The flesh was so fine and creamy, and the smell was very gentle too！

According to the news on newspaper, Macau's gambling king Stanley Ho bought a total of 88 Musang King that worth RM4800 from the Republic of Singapore back to Hong Kong in his personal jet to share with his friends. He had hence helped to increase the popularity of the durian as well as the price of it!

I am lucky enough to be able to share the Musang King from our "Gambling King" here, many thanks to him though he didn't need to bring back his Musang King in jet, ha!

Anyway, I just do not understand why didn't Stanley Ho buy the Musang King from Malaysia instead of from Singapore??

Do Not Play With Fire!

The kids were playing "masak-masak".

We used to tell the kids it is dangerous to play with fire and never play with fire.

It seems that those adults especially those politicians should be reminded so too, as whoever that plays with fire, will finally get burnt too!

And those who are trying to destroy the peacefulness of the country should never be spared! Well done, judge Komathy!

Busy July

Time flies, half a year passed!

Had dinner with xinyee the day before, and she couldn't get to tell me lots of stories as she used to be this time. Anyway, hope that everything is doing really fine for her in her degree course. We hadn't met since she last visited me with the others during Chinese New Year. Glad that her mum is recovering and will be able to resume her job some days later.

Failed to meet jookim who has come back for holidays from Poland because we couldn't get to arrange a time that suit each other. Anyway, she will be staying here for a couple of months, so, we shall definitely be able to meet each other some days later. Jookim used to have a meal with me and tell me stories about her life in Poland whenever she was back to Malaysia.

Life was rather busy during the first half of July, as there isn't any public holiday throughout the month, that makes the month seems taking so long to be passed, ha!

Champion!

At last, we had won the 1st prize in the "Shop for Your School" contest participated!

We would like to express our most heartfelt thanks to all our most passionate teachers, students, parents, ex-students, and fans of the school. Not forget too Mdm Lim Yok Lang, our school PTA and the board of directors, we appreciate their support really much!

Let's keep up our good effort and spirit in many other activities held in the school and participated by the school!

Well done, CHP!

Palm Sugar

palm fruit, mild and juicy

On the way leaving Angkor Wat during the 4th day in Cambodia, we stopped at one of the farm houses along the roadside to buy their local product--palm sugar.

Most families along the roadside produced and sold palm sugar in front of their houses during the dry season when the paddy field was too dry for planting. As soon as we reached a simple stall of a family, a girl immediately cut open a palm fruit to let us enjoy the mild and cooling palm juice as well as the soft and jelly-liked flesh of the fruit! And it tasted so..................nice!

Cambodian kids with palm fruits, male and female flower of the plant

pot used to boil the palm sugar

According to our tour guide Sothik, the juice used to produce the palm fruit is actually from the female blossom of the plant. Almost every farm houses there has a big pot on a stone fireplace which is used to boil and crystalize the palm juice to make into palm sugar. The palm sugar is then packed beautifully into the dried palm leaves for sale, and the palm sugar tastes really awesome, it's a true nature product and it has the taste of the nature too!

palm sugar packed in dried palm leaves

palm sugar

Weird Food

While dropping by a shopping center that sells gems during our 1st day in Cambodia, we saw 2 Cambodian ladies eating duck eggs outside of the shopping centre. And they were actually not eating the eggs but the fetus of the duck. The Cambodian ladies told us they tasted very nice and kept encouraging us to try one too. However, all of us felt really disgusting. There were tiny feathers on the fetus and they just ate like that ! YAK!

Old lady that sells duck eggs

Back from Cambodia

Back from the 5-day-trip in Cambodia.

It was a rather enjoyable trip, though the climate there was deadly hot.It's a trip that many might not like, as we had to walk under the hot sun for a consecutive of 3 days. There are so many ancient temples, and most of the temples were badly ruined and destroyed. We climbed up lots of rocky staircases which were so high, so steep, so dangerous, so scaring and so challenging!I hadn't forgotten I had just had a really bad fall from the staircase at home a month ago.Thus, I had to get rid of the bad fall history in my memory while climbing up the high, steep staircases which the steps were very narrow.

School is reopening tomorrow, got to prepare to go back to school, shall write more about the trip when free later on.

Travelling

Will be leaving for the 5-day-Cambodia trip 2 days later with our Sunday Class teachers, yet I still do not know what time are we leaving for the airport and boarding the flight! I am actually craving for a really good rest at home instead of travelling, especially in such an extremely warm climate! I was told that the climate in Siem Reap is even much warmer, just couldn't imagine, I hope I won't get burnt there, ha!

I am hopelessly lazy to travel around, always regret for joining the trip when it's time to set off!

Anyway, I do not really resist travelling, provided I am not too tired before setting off!

I shall still thank my colleague Mr Lim for getting this trip perfectly planned and for helping all to have the air tickets and hotel rooms booked. And I would like to wish all of us a happy trip too, ha!

Busy

Life seemed rather busy recently.

We had just got the students' test papers marked one week before the holidays started. Then, we had our teacher's day celebration on the day before the holidays started. And then we went for our newly registered Self-Reliance Dhamma Centre's 1st children camp on the weekend when the school term ended. And the camp was held successfully, everybody was so happy! Then, went back to school to have extra class, and then there will be a motivation camp for the UPSR candidates, and before that, got to go back for the stupid PTK exam tomorrow!

And will be leaving for a 5-day-trip to Cambodia together with the members of the Self-Reliance Dhamma Centre on the following week, hopefully I will be energetic enough to travel with all!

Then, will be going to clean the newly rented room for our Sunday Class. We start everything from zero after being independent! Hopefully everything will be going smoothly with the enthusiasm and passion owned by all.

Well, shall stop writing more here, got to study for the stupid PTK exam now...

The end of the world

The climate is extremely warm, my colleague asked if we are really coming to the end of the world?!

I do not know, though I believe that there will be an end to everything in the world. Everything that exists on this Earth or in the universe will come to an end, either living or non living things, nothing will escape from this universal law, not even the Earth.

Nothing is permanent and immortal in this world, this is the eternal truth.

Coke and Sperms

One of my year 5 boys brought a bottle of coke instead of plain water to the class as his drink.

To discourage the children to take too much soft drink, I wanted them to tell me the disadvantages of taking too much coke.

And there was a boy shouting aloud，“IT WILL KILL SOME OF THE SPERMS IN US!"

Excellent! I just couldn't help praising the boy for his knowledge!

"How do you know that?" I was curious.

"I read from the newspaper." The boy said. And he is Ming Wang, a boy that enjoys reading and reads a lot.

So, dear parents, cultivate your children's reading habit instead of sending them to tuition classes.

In tuition classes, they will learn the same thing that they have learned in school. But they will learn and obtain a lot more new knowledge from reading!

Good Luck, MCA!

It's gonna be an exciting weekend, just because of the MCA fresh polls!

We talked about MCA's fresh polls recently, but that doesn't mean that we care about MCA, we are just feeling excited looking forward to the further development of the story of a soap opera.

MCA means nothing and has no contribution at all to the Chinese community here after the previous GE. It is in such a mess and has even become a laughing stock to the public throughout these days. And will MCA be reorganized and be peace after the coming fresh polls? Nobody knows! But MCA will definitely be totally deserted by the Chinese community if they still couldn't end the conflict among themselves after this. And it will eventually dissolve and evaporate from the Earth!

So, good luck, MCA!

Cars Knocked Twice In A Week

Two days ago, when I was coming back from the town, at a junction near my house, a careless driver knocked on my car at the door. I did not even know the sex of the driver as it happened too fast at that moment, and the car fled immediately after that. I did not chase after it to ask for compensation too as I believed the reckless driver would be taught a lesson in future if he or she still drives with this type of manner! I got down of my old car to have a look at the condition of my car. The side mirror of my car crashed and the door was slightly depressed. Finally, I sent my car to the workshop to hammer the depressed door and to replace a side mirror. I felt lucky enough as I was not driving my 2-month-old new car at that moment, else my heart would break as the side mirror did!

This morning, on the way to school, my car was "kissed" again! It was the 2-month-old new car this time! It was "kissed" by an old car driven by an A Pek -- old man, in a heavy jam on a road which was under construction. The impatient A Pek kept too close to my new car and then "kissed" on the bumper of the car! The car did not damage as much as the previous one but some of the paint was scratched and dropped. I did not get down to ask for compensation again this time, though my pretty mood was slightly stirred early in the morning after the incident. Anyway, compared to the careless driver that knocked the previous car of my, I believed that A Pek might really couldn't control his car properly during the jam, aged people is always a bit sluggish, and I would be aging too, I thought!

Anyway, I still felt lucky enough that A Pek didn't hit on my 2-month-old new car as hard as the previous driver did!

Don't you think that I am still lucky enough?!

Heartfelt Visit

The moment I left the school, they were in standard 5 and 6, and they used to visit me every lunar new year when they are grown. There are faces that appear every year, and faces that appear alternately too. Anyhow, they will never absent during the new year day, and there will be at least two representatives here! Their persistence has always touched my heart.

They are my boys and girls that once from the estate.

The boys are late, so they are not in the picture

There is another group of girls and boys that visits to my place regularly during Lunar New Year. They used to come in a really big group in the past, but their number has become smaller when many of them were offered scholarship to study overseas. They are a group of active and cheerful boys and girls, always bringing lots of stories to share with each other here. I enjoyed sharing their stories too when they were here.

Thanks for your most sincere visit boys and girl, I appreciate it very much!

The Reunion of The Tigers and Tigresses!

With a 12-year-old picture uploaded and the map shared on the facebook, we had managed to gather back 18 tigers and tigresses of the 6P class in this Lunar New Year, the year of the tiger!

The picture uploaded had helped to reunite most of the girls and boys on the facebook, and they are really happy to meet again ever since they left school 12 years ago. After their secondary school study, they scattered at every part of the country and some of them have gone overseas to further their study too! How very excited they were to have been gathering back again at my place though there were still some that couldn't make it on that day.

Tigers and tigresses

There were stories sharing, addresses, phone numbers and email exchanging. They had also left some messages in a memo they brought along.The house was filled with their chatter and laughter, it's indeed a really touching afternoon!

Full Moon

It's the mid of another lunar month, the full moon is shining brightly in the clear sky, and it reminded me of another mid-month night in December when my 8-year-old nephew Nigel from Singapore was here looking at the full moon together with me.

"Look, the moon is so big, so round and so bright!"

I pointed at the moon and told the boy.

"And it's brighter and rounder than Singapore one!" The innocent boy added.

And yes, our moon is supposed to be rounder than Singaporean moon, I thought, but it doesn't seem like it should be...

Farewell, JCQ9160!

After serving me for a total of 18 years, it was sent away early this year!

JCQ9160, my first love, was sent away on the 4th day of the new year. Its name is Proton Saga, a 1992 national car. When I first got it back with me, it immediately brought me into the rubber and oil palm estate early the next morning. It brought me to and fro the school which was situated in the estate everyday for 5 years before I left the school. And it served me without any complaint though it had to travel such a long way everyday. Sometimes, it would have to travel even longer when I had to attend any training courses or meetings. As it had to travel through the estates everyday, thus, its body used to cover with red dust and even bathed in red mud during raining days. However, it was really tough and faithful to its owner compared to its new generations. It never showed temper on the road and was always as "healthy" as its owner that it was called a "healthy car" in the past! Not only did it serve its owner well, it had also served its owner's colleagues, students and family members too. Besides, it had also contributed in helping us completed our degree study by driving us to the U almost every weekend for a number of years! It had indeed done a big help to me and I really appreciate its contributions dearly!

However, it got exhausted and physically worn-out in the flow of the time. As it was aging and could not afford to travel longer distances, I decided to get it replaced, though, I felt rather reluctant to do so, let alone it had been serving me for so long, never brought me any trouble till its "old age", and it's rather saddening the moment it was sent away!

Farewell, my most faithful and dearest companion, thanks for your most excellent service and contributions! I am always proud of you and you would be in my memory now and forever!