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!

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!