SPOT THE ERROR 134

If you can spot the error, then you do not have to worry about your vision.

One letter missing making it too glaring to be ignored.

And I find the Malay translation a bit awkward too - or am I too old school not to accept the word "VISI" which derives from the English word "VISION"?

THE NIGHT MARKET IS BACK AFTER MORE THAN 3 MONTHS

Happiness was when I saw there were stalls lining up on both sides of the road at the night market site in Kampung Melayu. After more than three months, the night market is now back in operation again - but with the new normal kind of thing.

First, there were two entrance and exit points. Second, visitors had to scan the QR code and fill in their details, and the body temperature would be taken after that. My body temperature this afternoon was 42⁰C and was let off by the officer on duty after a few failed attempts to get the right reading. 😀

There was this white and red stripes tape that divided the road into two sections - indicating that there should be only a one way flow on each lane. This in a way should make the night market not too crowded but I was there very early so there were still not many people.

However, one could easily jump over the tape if he/she decides to get to other side.

Unfortunately a few people just could not grasp the concept of a one way street.

It is a blessing to get the night market back in business as it is a place where some food items especially the Malay "kuihs" - sweet delicacies which should be eaten as dessert, as well as other food, could be bought easily. Just hope people would be more in practising social distancing and other SOP during the RMCO at the night market.

OF AN INJURED FRIEND AND STEAMBOAT/BARBECUE LUNCH

26th JUNE 2020 ~ A friend met with an accident last week so I decided to visit him at his house in Taman Mutiara Rini. The house visit turned out to be a superb lunch session with steamboat/barbecue spread served on the dining table - and I am not complaining. This was even bigger than the regular Eid visit.

Another friend, Puan Rumaiah, was also there. She must have known earlier of the food that was going to be served so it was not a surprise at all. 😁

Get well soon Mr. Khir and I am sure the wife, Puan Mazzelina, is doing great in making sure he will recover real soon. Thanks a lot for the food and the hospitality. For one thing, we don't have to go to Seoul Garden anymore after this.

GOING BACK TO THE MOSQUE AGAIN AFTER 100 DAYS MCO STARTED

When MCO was first implemented 100 days ago, only 4 people were allowed to perform Friday Prayer at the mosque. 2 weeks ago, 40 people were given permission to congregate for the weekly meeting. And starting today, as the number of people who got infected with COVID-19 has become smaller, more people could now go to the mosque to perform their obligation to the Almighty. By still following the SOP and social distancing, people could fill up one third of the capacity of the mosque for the Friday Prayer.

I was there at 12:10 p.m. and not many had arrived yet and this time, we had to bring our own prayer mat but that would not be necessary actually as the floor is carpeted. I managed to secure the third front row. Next week, I would go slightly later - by 12:30 p.m. As usual, we had to check our temperature outside (mine was 32.2⁰C) 😀 and register our names in the log book. The ambience of the place was different from any other Fridays in the past with less people occupying the space in the main hall. Even the sermon was shorter than it used to be.

I got to pick up a box of food and a banana to bring back home even though I left the mosque late - something that would not happen on an ordinary day when there were too many people. 😆 However, I still want to have the crowd back at the mosque on Friday and hope that will happen soon.

SPOT THE ERROR 133

THEME: SOP during RMCO

Have to at least to give a B- for the effort to use English.

As for the language, I will have to think about it. Despite the glaring grammar errors, meaning still comes through which will put this piece of writing in the lower band of the grading scheme. 😀

Thanks to my colleague, Mr. Noor Rahilme for the feed. Keep on hunting for more mistakes and never let a single escape our prying eyes.

UPM TESL CLASS OF 1993 THROWBACK SERIES - PUTTING ON AN EXHIBITION ON MALAYSIAN LITERARY FIGURES AT THE LIBRARY

discussion stage

My 6 years in Universiti Pertanian Malaysia was fabulous and I enjoyed myself there a lot. Besides having great friends and getting involved in college activities, I always found the chance to venture beyond the campus fences just to get certain assignments done exhilarating. I remember going places together with my coursemates - taking photos at Zoo Negara and the night market at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, watching numerous plays and theatres and even going to the British Council Library to find reference books.

at the NST building for the interview

We had to do this one assignment under the tutelage of Mr. Malachi Edwin for his subject: Malaysian Literature in English. I could not remember which semester we were in when we did this. In groups, we had to first choose a local author/poet/playwright (a few whose names we had not heard before) and come up with something like a biography on this literary figure. In order to do that, we had to conduct an interview, do more research on him. For the final product, each group had to put on an exhibition at the university's library.

Mr. Kee Thuan Chye in the middle

My group members for this project were Mr. Mohd. Azman Awang, Mr. Daniel Chow Ung T'Chiang, Ms. Sharon Taty Mokhtar, Ms.Christina Chan and Ms. Wendy Chan. We picked Kee Thuan Chye from the name list and we happily went to see him at his office in the New Straits Times building in Kuala Lumpur.

We also went to interview Mr. Krishen Jit. I couldn't remember why we went to see him because we were working on Kee Thuan Chye for our assignment and not him.

After a few weeks, it was about time for us to set up our booths at the UPM Library where the exhibition was about to take place. This project was HUGE and we had to display our very best products to the campus community (even though only a small percentage of the population would be interested to pay us a visit).

It was not easy to have this exhibition at the library as we would have to keep the volume low all the time. I guess we behaved well as there was no complaint at all that I knew of, or no librarians trying to shoo us away.

a TESL junior

A few of the writers that the groups were researching on turned up at the exhibition. Apart from Mr. Kee Thuan Chye, there were also Salleh Ben Joned, Muhammad Haji Salleh and Anwar Ridhwan. They must be proud that we had chosen them for our assignments and had to check that we got the facts right about them.

This assignment required us to spend a lot of money and time, but knowing us, we pulled it through eventually. All the hard work paid off as my group members were awarded with As for this course (I think). It was a good experience and we would have to thank our lecturer, Mr. Malachi Edwin, for giving us the opportunity to take up the challenge and see the real people outside once in a while. I wonder if he still asks students with this kind of assignment anymore.

EID THROWBACK SERIES - 2004

Another batch of Eid photos that I managed to scan from photo albums collection a few weeks back. All this took place in 2004, 16 years ago. They narrated the time when students of SMK Taman Universiti came for Eid house visits, either in big or small groups. This happened during the time when there was no Grab Car service yet so some of them had to take the trouble to hop on and off two buses to be at my place - from Taman Universiti to the town city and got on another bus to get to my house. Smart phones and digital cameras were still not in existence and as you can see, the photos are not of high quality.

I was also invited to join them to go on house visits to their friends' houses as well. 😀

One thing for sire, there would be no throwback series for Eid 1441H because house visits were actually prohibited during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were still a few people came to visit but I did not post any photos on Facebook but published the updates on my blog.

Let's pray things will get back to normal and we can celebrate Eid again next year like the way it used to be.