A LONG WEEKEND IN SCHOOL: MARCHING AND ANGLUNG PRACTICE

8:00 - 11:00 a.m. ~ Marching practice for Kadet Bomba but the attendance was not that good. Perhaps we were having Cross Country Competition the day before and at the same time, the PIBG extra class/tuition classes for the form 3 and 5 students had started. But these people were lucky to get free food, thanks to Mr. Azhar.

2:00-5:00 p.m. ~ Angklung Practice, the fourth meeting so far this year. It was real hard to get everybody to come at the same time. A few were not there for either known or unknown reasons. I tried to upload a short video of the angklung music but it did not seem to work. I would try and sleep over it and hoped when I wake up tomorrow morning, it has been done.

CROSS COUNTRY FOR 2011

under 13 boys and girls warming up at the basketball court

the teachers on duty

with the Principal, PTA Chairman and other senior assistants

St John's students at work

the under 13 girls at the starting line

with my newly-found girlfriend, all in pink

warming up at the field

teachers waiting at the finishing line

resting under the tree shade after the run

with the form 2 students

putting the afternoon students according to their sports' houses before the prize-giving ceremony

prize-giving ceremony in the midst of an ocean of students

with Puan Arba'iyah and Puan Nor A'shikin

NOW, THE VIDEOS EVERYBODY IS WAITING FOR...

boys' under 13 category

boys' under 15 category

boys' under 18 category

BOOK REVIEW 12: ORHAN PARMUK'S "THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE"

This is the novel that has travelled with me to many (or a few, actually) countries for more than six month and I just finished reading it last week.

The theme: obsession. The storyline: (1) Kemal was about to get married to his fiancee, Sibel. (3) Kemal had an affair with his cousin, Fusun. (3) Kemal's engagement with Sibel was broken. (4) Fusun got married to Faridun. (5) Kemal, was heartbroken but could not accept the fact that Fusun was now someone else's wife. (6) Kemal was still attached with Fusun because he still befriended her parents and husband. (7) Kemal could not get over his obsession for Fusun - he even started stealing anything he could put his hand on objects that were related to Fusun. (8) Suddenly, Fusun and Faridun decided to get a divorce because of the unhappy marriage. (9) Good news, at last, Kemal and Fusun were back together again and they even planned to get married. (10) Alas, Fusun died in a car accident while she was driving recklessly with Kemal by his side. (11) The best thing that Kemal could do was now to put together all the things that he had stolen earlier and collected later that could remind him of his beloved under one roof - a museum. (12) Kemal also went the extra mile to get someone wrote his story to be published, and the chosen writer was Orhan Parmuk.

That was it. I was very determined to finish reading this novel even though it was a painstaking task. It was just too slow, perhaps to emphasize how obsessed the character was with the love of his wife. Talking about Shakespearean tragedy, or the love between Shah Jahan and his Mumtaz - except that it all happened in Istanbul, Turkey. And what a relief to finish reading it, although I must admit that it was sad to know that the hero was not reunited with the one he loved.

KTMB TRAIN MUSEUM

This is the old Kuala Lumpur train station. I was familiar with this place as I used to take the train during my university days. At that time, KL Sentral still was not yet in existence. It was kind of nostalgic thinking of the good old days. The station is now mainly used as the terminal for the commuter.

And then, I discovered that there was a museum as I was walking around the place. As expected, all the displays here were things related to KTMB (The Malayan Railway Company) and its history. So I spent some of my time here while waiting for my rescheduled bus.

I still remember there was a time if you buy a third class train ticket then you would get a seat that would not be fixed with any seating number. So if there were many people, then you had to fight for your seat. Once, I was going back to Kuala Lumpur and unluckily it was one of the peak seasons or public holidays. A a result, I had to stand all the way from Johor Bahru until Gemas which took long, long hours. With no air-conditioning and very bad lighting, it was definitely one of the moments that I would never ever forget.

Now that many changes have been done to the train service, I could see that it is much better than the past. However, many things still need to be done to upgrade the service. For example, the online ticketing has not been functioning for I think about 3-4 months and it remains just like that up until now. The KTMB officers need to be very strict on certain issue like smoking. There are people who smoke outside the coach but with the door reopening and reclosing all the time, the smoke gets into the train. So the innocent passengers will be the victims as we have to inhale the cigarettes smoke that is trapped inside the air-conditioned compartment throughout the journey.

I am hoping for the fast train service from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in the future. At least, there could one better option for everyone.

LITTLE CHINA AT MID VALLEY MEGAMALL

I was impressed of the way how the Mid Valley Megamall was turned into little Chine for the Chinese New Year celebration. It was red all over and joy and happiness was in the air. Enjoy!