END YEAR POT LUCK

This time it was the last one for this year. Another pot luck with the theme kampung food - traditionally prepared Malay dishes. The dishes were home-cooked and they were in abundance, too much food until you would not be able to choose which one to take (and that is with a bit of exaggeration). There were various dishes like fish gulai, many types of kerabu, prawn sambal tumis, salted fish, fish crackers and many more which I do not know how to translate the names into English. For those who have been following my blog, you must have found that this is a regular event held regularly in the staff room. Food is supposed to bring people together. And there will be other events that will involve eating and more eating on Saturday. Sunday and Tuesday. I desperately need to lose some weight now.

MOVIE REVIEW 3 - THIS IS IT

I sneaked out in the middle of the night to watch this movie and I was glad I had done that. It is not actually a movie but more of a documentary of a concert that-would-never-be by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. I grew up with MJ, as early as when I was in form 1, listening to his songs and watching his moves. He indeed had changed the world with his music. But too bad, he was gone too early. This film was about the rehearsals that they had for his concert planned to be held in London just before his death. He was only performing for the rehearsals but you would be mesmerized by his music, his songs, his dance moves and best of all, his charisma as a true performer on stage, as if you were watching the real concert. Everything on stage was huge, and how people had worked very hard to put such a show. The dancing was superb. The dancers had to be chosen from hundreds who came for the audition, then they were eliminated until the few were chosen as for the concert, something like "So You Think You Can Dance". As mentioned from the interview, the dancers "were the extension of MJ" and "they must have the ooze" to perform. At times, I wonder how these people could move in such a way, synchronized and beautifully choreographed, as if they were MJ themselves. And the most important thing, I was enjoying myself listening to all the songs, feeling every beat and every word. And when he sang "Beat It", I felt like I was 13 again.

Now, stand up everybody, and kowtow to the King. I have truly enjoyed myself, and for those who have not watched this film yet, shame on you. Ooppss, sorry for being too emotional.

KADET BOMBA MARCHING SHOW

waiting for the show to start at the canteen

I thought the marching activities for the Kadet Bomba boys (Fire Brigade Cadet) had already come to its end for this year but we were invited to participate in Hari Kokurikulum (Co-curricular Day) at SK Taman Universiti 4. The fifth formers were not taking part because of the coming SPM examination. Luckily the fourth formers were willing to participate even though they were in the midst of the final exam, while the for three students had nothing else to do after the PMR examination. In the end, there were 16 only boys which was almost half of the team, but the show must go on.

with Mr. Masrizal, one of the Cadet teachers

still waiting

watching taekwando performance

after the show was over

I guess by the end of the day everybody was happy. Hopefully we managed to demonstrate something good enough to those very young kids in primary school. Thanks for inviting!

MY UTM CLASS

with Shih Chau, Jian Zi, Ying Zhi and Chen Kok during the last meeting

with Izzat

I just finished the final work for my UHB1412 class. What a relief because now I can concentrate on other work that needs to be completed. I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to teach English part time in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Other than earning the extra money, I get to face a different kind of audience. As many might think it is easy to teach university students, I always take it as a challenge. I always find that these people definitely need both a lot of coaching and pushing, to make sure that they could do well.

This semester I was teaching the students from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. They were fun in class and most of them worked hard to complete the assigned tasks. I wish I could give them all high marks, but unfortunately, I could not. Anyway, wish them the very best of luck in their future undertakings and hopefully they can do something to improve their English.

Anyway, let's have a look at their final project where they had to present their final essay based on the topics they have chosen. Most of their work is bulky so sooner or later these things will need to be destroyed due to storage problem. Nevertheless, these are a few good ones that I like and worth showing.

Then only I understood, the heart-shaped box is related to the topic "heart disease".

Topic: "fast food", and it is real big

Topic: "obesity", another big one but looks yummy.

Topic: climate change, an impressive piece of work!

Most of the time, it is just easy to do evaluation of students' work just by looking at what they have produced. Definitely, creativity and hard work will get you a better grade.

VISITING AN OLD FRIEND AT THE HOSPITAL

Mr. Jamil lying on his bed but was still funny actually.

This evening, I went with Mr. Masrizal to visit an old friend, Mr. Jamil Abd. Baser, who was teaching in SMK Taman Universiti before. Students who took engineering classes would know him very well. He is now lecturing in Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn in Batu Pahat. Unluckily, Mr. Jamil has to be warded in Sultan Ismail Hospital, the one beside Tebrau City Jusco, as he was down with infection on his left foot. Let's all pray that he will get well soon.

POST HARI RAYA VISIT

Aliff and Ariff in the house

Someone came knocking on my door this evening and here they were at last, the brothers, Aliff and Ariff, who did not manage to come during the month of Syawal. They and their parents were one of the regular visitors for Eid and it was really a pleasant surprise to get to meet them again after more than one year. Aliff is now studying in one of the polytechnics while Ariff in MRSM in Negeri Sembilan. If I am not mistaken, Aliff is from SPM batch 2007 and Ariff is going to sit for his SPM this year. Hope to see them again in December after the exams are over.

DEEPAVALI HI-TEA IN THE STAFF ROOM

food, food, glorious food

In conjunction with the recent Deepavali, another pot luck was held in the staffroom. But they called it high-tea because the food was prepared by our Indian colleagues so we did not have to bring anything. So this time, we got to taste Indian cuisines like idli and putu mayam which was eaten with either brown sugar and grated coconut or curry, and not forgetting muruku. That was my first time eating idli, which was tasty. The taste was similar to tose but instead of being fried on a hot pan, it was steamed. It had this tender and smooth texture like vadeh, best eaten with curry and then you could savour the melting taste of it in your mouth.

happy faces

with Miss Indra

So thank you to Mr. Narasimman, Mr. Punithan and Miss Indra who had prepared the hi-tea for us. I guess we still have time for one more pot luck before the long school holidays.