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!