THE CELEBRATION OF MAULIDUR RASUL

with colleagues while waiting for the event to start

with Nazmi and Azry

The birthday of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was celebrated today in school. This is an annual event where the Muslim staff and students are all invited. The attendance was good and we had a fine weather in the morning.

students listening to the talk by the guest speaker under the tents

the celebrity guest speaker who was the winner of reality TV show, Imam Muda, Ustaz Asyraf

We had a surprise when Ustaz Rifqi managed to get Ustaz Asyraf, the Imam Muda, to drop by for a few minutes. The students (and teachers) were excited and he was given the honour to start off the talk session although it was for just a short while. Then only the real guest speaker was invited to the stage and to deliver the real talk.

with Mr. Sanusi and Mr. Sahari

the food for the students in trays

a colleague's son

form three girls

form five girls

two new addition to the family (for temporary), the trainees from IPTI

with Syazwan and Abdullah, the qari

another group of form three girls

the boys having their meal

with Muazzam

... and Aliff

Afham getting caught in camera

the form five boys, the members of the purple house

the form three boys, who are also the members of the angklung group

Mr. Hisham before going back

The were other routine events like nasyid performance and the presentation of gifts to kids whose parents performed aqiqah for them. But by that time I was already around the school, observing the students' movements and trying to get ourselves photographed. Everyone was willing as they were in their best suits and looked really bright and happy.

Thanks and congratulations to everyone who had made the event a successful one. I know that there will be more similar events which will be coming up soon and hope that the students will give their support.

ATTENDING FATIMAH'S WEDDING

Today it was Fatimah's turn to be wedded. The reception was held at Alumni House, UTM. Other than the bride, I also know her two sisters, Aishah And Khadijah as well as the father, Dr. Hishamuddin. That is what happened when you stay too long in one school - sooner or later you will get to know the whole family.


This time, I had Mr. Ahmad Zaki coming together. He is the Senior Assistant of the Afternoon session for SMK Desa Skudai where Fatimah is now teaching. He was formerly from SMKTUN. To our delight, we saw two other friends, Puan Tini and Puan Intan Badariah were also there.



We also managed to meet a few ex-students there who have grown into beautiful and handsome youngsters. This is one moment that you will always feel that there is no regret being a teacher. I think it is high time for me to organize a reunion for the school alumni. Any takers?

So wishing Fatimah and her husband a long-lasting happiness for their future lives together and my prayers will always be with you.

ANGKLUNG PRACTICE 1

My first attempt embedding a youtube video in my blog, after I failed uploading directly.

FIRST STANDARDIZED TEST 2011 TIMETABLE

SMK TAMAN UNIVERSITI JOHOR BAHRU
FIRST STANDARDIZED TIMETABLE

[CLICK TO ENLARGE AND PRINT]

CHINESE NEW YEAR POT LUCK IN THE STAFF ROOM

some of the food available

boil it yourself

We had a pot luck for Chinese New Year in the staff room. This year, we had yong tau fu as the main dish, plus a few other types of food. We had to make full use of the Saturday replacement class so that we would not feel sad working on a weekend. Thanks a lot to the lady teachers who had prepared all the food and drinks. So when is the next pot luck?

SPOT THE ERROR 3

[found in an eating stall in Stulang Laut, by Suhaizie]

There are many ways how it can be prepared, oh but please, do NOT eat the CRAP!

ATTENDING A MEETING AT IPTI

There was a meeting this morning at Institut Perguruan Temenggong Ibrahim [Temenggong Ibrahim Teacher Training College]. It was about the teacher trainees who will be coming to SMKTUN next week.



I was happy to get to see some familiar faces of friends who are also English teachers. I met an ex-colleague, Mr. Mohd. Zain, who is now attached with the Institute. There was also Puan Samiha whom I met at Dr. Hayati's place back in Coventry last June.

briefing by the Director

And lastly I met Mr. Arshad Amir, an ex-student who is now an English teacher at SMK Desa Tebrau. I was glad because there was someone I could talk to throughout the session. And the whole thing ended earlier than scheduled, to everyone's relief. So am I ready for extra work next week?

PAK UDIN - THE TAXI DRIVER FROM BATAM

This was Pak Udin, the friendly taxi driver from Batam. Not only he drove a taxi, but he was also a good storyteller. This was the story told to us from the hotel to the ferry terminal:

Pak Udin once emigrated to Malaysia when he was young. He arrived in Johor in the middle of the night and at about 3:00 a.m., he was taken into a forest which was actually an oil palm plantation. So there he was, with no choice but to work in the estate and was paid RM12 per day. The money was not really given on a daily basis. Every day when he ate at the "canteen", it was recorded and the prices of food were summed up at the end of each month. An in the end, he did not get much. Even the shirt and hat worn to work were not free, and all the expenses would be deducted from his income.

Staying there definitely was not a pleasant experience, and Pak Udin said it was really dark at night and there was no entertainment whatsoever. Staying in the workers' house whose wall was built from nipah leaves, they could at times see big elephants roaming the place. It was scary as the elephant might simply walked to their house, walked through it and killed all the people inside. He realized he was not getting much, so when a friend from Kedah suggested he and his other three friends run away to Kuala Lumpur, they agreed. Despite the fact that he was afraid of being caught for not having any legal documents, they took a train one night in their attempt to start a new life.

Upon arriving in Kuala Lumpur, Pak Udin was in awe and realized that the world was actually a bright place to live in, literally because there were lights everywhere, after being the prisoner in the heart of darkness. He then started working as a construction worker with a better pay of RM18 per day - which was real money to him. After that, he followed another friend for a better job, selling fruits at Chow Kit Road but he was at first quite reluctant to leave his three friends who had been with him through thick and thin.

There was this experience which he could never forget when he was arrested at his place with no travelling document. At that time he was about to have lunch of noodles but looking at the food in the bowl made him not hungry anymore. After being handcuffed, he was interrogated by one of the police officers. We would expect the policeman would ask him for bribe. Nevertheless, he was let free after the policeman warned him not to get involved in any criminal activities. So, not all policemen asked for bribe, alright?

He related one funny incident when he had to send food to someone on the 5^th floor of the Kuala Lumpur Hospital. He didn’t know how to use the lift so he just went into the lift and pressed the button to the top floor and had to take the stairs down and that took him a long time. The next time he wanted to use the lift to go up, he would then ask other people’s help to press the button. I did not know whether he was illiterate but Pak Udin was telling us that he realized that he was not a knowledgeable person.

In the end, he returned to Batam when his mother sent a telegram to a friend telling that she was very sick and hospitalized. Actually, she was worried because she heard news about a young man who had the same features being killed after his boat was being hit by a tanker on sea.

The story ended once we arrived at the ferry terminal. The ride took about 20 minutes but it made the journey seem very short just by listening to his story. I hope there will be a drama or film producer who will come to see me later after reading my blog to make a big telenovela or movie based on the life of Pak Udin, the taxi driver from Batam. (Dream on!)

ONE GOOD DEED DESERVES ANOTHER

These four students: Syazwan, Amin, Fahmi and Yusof, had been helping me to lock the grills in school before they went back throughout the year for 2010. So I just wanted to say "thank you" to them in a more proper manner and I actually could not thank you all enough. May Allah repay all your kind deeds.

THE ROAD TOUR FOR 2011 HAS STARTED

I started my PMR seminar for the year 2011 today. Actually I was doing a friend who was not feeling well a favour by replacing him. So there I was at SMK Ayer Baloi, Pontian. There was a big hall so it was easy to conduct a talk or a seminar.



The event went well, majority of the students were listening attentively. So it was a good beginning, and it was always nice to see new place and new people once in a while.

A LONG WEEK IN SCHOOL: CHESS COMPETITION

The Chess Competition was organized by the Chess Club as our annual event. This time, there were about 104 participants. So I was not worried for not having a new batch of chess players for the school just by the number of students taking part.

the committee members at work

the teachers on duty

very young school chess players in the making

Congratulations to all the students who had spent their Sunday in school for the competition and also to the Chess Club committee members who had successfully run the whole thing mostly on their own, with a little supervision from the teachers. Keep up the good work!