ATTENDING PUAN ZAIDAH'S SISTER'S WEDDING

I was happy to get invited to Puan Zaidah's sister's wedding. Puan Zaidah is one of our English teachers teaching in the morning session, And I was super glad to meet three other colleagues there who were Puan Aishah, Puan Parimalah and Miss Cheong. Confirmed, I have grown fatter by now!

ATTENDING AN AQIQAH EVENT

with Sharmin and Sharudin

with Sharina

Sharmin's bundle of joy, deep in thought, with the grandma

I attended another event that involved eating, an aqiqah for Sharmin's new addition to the family. I was quite late as I only managed to go after all the events at school. We were more now like family friends and managed to see Sharmin's other siblings who were my ex-students, Sharudin and Sharina. I am sure the next time I have the chance to see the baby, she will grow bigger already.

ONE LONG SATURDAY IN SCHOOL

IN-SERVICE TRAINING FOR TEACHERS

The first event was an in-service training for teachers, which started at 8:00 in the morning. The first slow had something to do with ICT in teaching and learning and the guest speaker was Mr. Khairul Anuar from SMK Teknik Perdagangan who is also Pn. Yasirah's husband.

The second slot was conducted by Dr. Mazlan from Temenggong Ibrahim Teachers Training College. Thank God the talk was interesting and it was about on how to deal with students of this technology era. It ended right on time at 12:30 p.m.

PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATION'S COMMITTEE MEMBERS MEETING

food that kept me awake

The next event was the meeting for committee members of the Parent-Teacher Association. I must confess it was not something that I fancied but I had no reason to skip the meeting this time. The whole thing lasted for three hours and that was long enough for me just to listen and sit through. I think I need a holiday already.

POTLUCK FOR NO SPECIAL REASON

[There was no internet access yesterday, I could not get connected to streamyx. After informing TM, I was told that there was a problem with the internet service. The moral of the story: never leave your your broadband in school]

with Puan Sabariah, chef of the day

We had a mini potluck yesterday, for no special reason. But it could be because of the bad service provided by the canteen for the afternoon session teachers. Originally we had decided to prepare food for afternoon tea so it should be something light. However, seeing all the food brought to school, there was nothing light after all. The best of all, we had jemput-jemput (flour mixed with onion and anchovies fried in hot oil) fresh from the pan.

So I guess there will be more potluck to be done, right? Pray that I will not overeat and become overweight.

MEETING AN OLD FRIEND FROM UPM - PART 2

kacang pool, but not a single bean was detected

grilled tofu

Mr. Azhar was still around so on the second night, we went to savour another authentic Johor cuisine. We went to a stall somewhere near the fire station to introduce Mr. Azhar to "kacang pool" [pool beans?] and "tahu bakar" [grilled tofu]. Although the meal was quite simple, hope that it would give a lasting impression to my guest of honour.

So Mr. Azhar, let's hope for other visit to Johor Bahru in the future, or maybe with other family members next time.

MEETING AN OLD FRIEND FROM UPM

definitely a misleading tag line on the menu

Singapore muratabak but not in Singapore

sup tulang merah [red bone soup?]

people enjoying the live band of three musicians

the famous celebrity corner

It was always a pleasure to meet old friend. Today, Mr. Azhar, an ex-fourth collegian of Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (now known as Universiti Putra Malaysia) came to JB for something related to work. He is married to my ex-TESL coursemate, Puan Sakinah.

Traveling from Seremban (to KLIA and then only) to JB, he was putting up at Thistle Hotel. So I went to fetch him right after school to get dinner. Since he wanted something authentic, I guess one of the few places I know would be Banafee. So we had "sup tulang merah" and "mertabak Singapura" which I guessed were authentic enough for Johor food. Then, brought him home for a short visit, which is a part of the tour package. As he needed to start work early the next morning, we bade each other goodbye right after that. Looking forward for another short meeting tomorrow.

MY UHB1412 CLASS THIS SEMESTER

It is already week 8 of my UHB1412 class. This semester, I am given a group of students from the Faculty of Computer Science. The faculty was located away from other buildings. At night, the place is quite dark and I pray hard not to have any encounter of the third kind.

a new building at the back

unknown students outside while waiting for the morning class to start

students were buried deep in their textbooks

The batch of people I teach this time are better than the one I had last semester, in terms of attitude in learning. Regular problem will be punctuality and attendance could not be that good at times but not as bad as it was last time. In other words, it is still tolerable. Just hope I don't have to issue any warning letter for attendance problem because I just hate the paper work.