A BOX OF FRUIT TARTS FROM AN-EX-STUDENT

the baker surrendering the box of tarts

Today was my lucky day when an ex-student, Khaulah Abdul Rahim, came to school to deliver her homemade fruit tarts. The exact reason was not that clear but I was happy just the same.

the baker's sister was forced to pose too

So if you are interested to order the delicious fruit tarts, perhaps you can place your order through me. [Suddenly I have now become an entrepreneur.] To Khaulah, thanks a lot for the tarts as well as the kind thought, I am deeply touched by your kind gesture. [read: "Terima kasih daun keladi"]

"Teachers appreciate being appreciated, for teacher appreciation is their highest award."
~ William Prince ~

MOVIE NIGHT AGAIN

Two ex-students, Syhmil and Hasbullah, suddenly wanted to have a meeting after disappearing for about two years on 20th December 2011. I would never say "no" if the time was right so we met a restaurant near my house.

The first meeting led to another one on 29th December but this time it was more elaborate - first, a movie at KSL City, followed by a (late) dinner after that. I was glad the plan could be executed and we could spend more time together.



Next time we should hang out longer, if only there is a next time. Anyway, thanks a lot Shymil and Hasbullah for initiating the outing and the fun time. I do hope to meet you all again soon.

SPOT THE ERROR - BEIJING 9

a banner found in one of the markets in Beijing
[The thing is too long, I have to cut and paste the pictures together]

error #1 - spelling
error # 2 - punctuation

THE FIRST TEACHERS' MEETING FOR 2012 SCHOOL SESSION

The first teachers' meeting for 2012 was held today. Considering the fact that there was a need to provide a comfortable place for the school's big number of teachers, we were gathered at CTL Hall in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia nearby. Bad news: many people were not around including the Senior Assistants as they were involved in marking exam papers but the good news was the meeting ended much earlier than the ones we had had in the previous years.

With this, it means that the school session is going to start soon. That soon? Oh my god! My school holiday has come to its end.

WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND FROM THIS?

If let's say, you do not know where Yong Peng really is, by looking at this banner, what can you conclude?

(1) Lucky Garden, Yong Peng, must be located somewhere far away from Peninsular Malaysia, perhaps on an island.

(2) If you want to go to either to Singapore or Hatyai, Thailand, from Yong Peng, you have to go to Peninsular Malaysia first.

(3) Peninsular Malaysia must be located in between Yong Peng and Singapore/Hatyai.

MOVIE REVIEW - "OMBAK RINDU"

I don't really go watch Malay movies. However, the main reason I went to watch this one was because I was very much influenced by my friends' discussions in one of my FB accounts and the other one is, I wanted to see Maya Karin['s superb acting]. The movie had been rated wrongly in my opinion, it should NOT be classified as [U] because there were scenes which were not suitable for young viewers actually especially in the earlier parts.

An adaptation from the novel of the same title , I must admit it was a good movie. [TAGLINE: Support our local movie industry, if the movie gets good review]. It was a story of a love triangle among a husband, the first and second wife. The first marriage was supposed to be a marriage of convenience and meant to be a secret - but it was then filled with true love. The second one was a forced arrangement, and the conflict started. What do you expect from of a Malay story? I don't want to elaborate as I believe you either have watched the movie too or you will be able to watch this movie on television during Hari Raya next year.

And after watching then only I understood, why many women cried at the end of the movie. They had been empathizing with the two women characters who had been the victims of the male protagonist. In conclusion, there is no such thing as sharing is caring in a Malay drama, and perhaps in real life.

I read the newspaper today stating the collection of this film has exceeded RM11 MILLION already which should be an achievement for a local movie. Kudos to those who were involved in the film, and also the actors and actresses: Aaron Aziz, Maya Karin and Lisa Surihani [she is marrying Yusry Abd. Halim in February, by the way]. But I like the beautiful pictures of the sea and the paddy field the most so please continue on making beautiful pictures with beautiful stories for the women out there.

SPOT THE ERROR - BEIJING 8

found inside one of the markets in Beijing

...AND WE WERE GATHERED AT ALAMANDA PURTAJAYA

17th DECEMBER ~ A gathering for a group of UPM TESL class of '93 was called again for one good reason: we wanted to meet our lecturer, Dr. Fauziah Hassan, who was not in a good state of health. This time around, ten friends managed to stay for lunch (or brunch) and then later for tea at two different places in Alamanda, Putrajaya.

SAHARA TENT

This was an Arab restaurant that served Arab food with beautiful and colourful interior decor. We managed to get a separated room from the main dining hall so the other customers would not be disturbed by our voices and laughter that lasted for about three hours.


The discussion this time was more exciting as we had a lecturer present so the stories came from different perspectives. As usual, there was never a dull moment but we had to move away to other place to avoid being shooed away by the restaurant staff.

SECRET RECIPE

We then adjourned to Secret Recipe nearby for dessert and the conversation just continued naturally. Once everybody felt that they could neither eat nor drink anything anymore then only we called it a day. It was sure a great time spent together with old friends (and a lecturer} and the most important thing, we had made Dr. Fauziah happier and hopefully, healthier.

PUAN HAYATI'S HOUSE AT PRECINCT 14

As I still had a lot of time [I still had not bought my ticket back home yet], Puan Rozana Sani who had been ferrying me around, was kind enough to drop Puan Hayati at her doorstep as the house was just nearby. We stopped for a while to have a look at the things that were put on sale. Actually, she and her husband had a big collection of things bought in the UK when she was studying there and now they are selling them at reasonable and negotiable prices. The items varied from shoes to cartoon character figurines, fine china to books, chess sets to jigsaw puzzles. If you are interested in these kind of things, you can always contact me.

It was a successful gathering even though it was only planned in a short period of time. Thanks to Facebook, and sms services too. It is amazing how I get to meet a few of my old friends quite regularly and that was like the fourth meeting for me this year. As usual, I would like to thank Puan Aliza Alwi for all the moderator's job well done, Puan Rozana Sani for her kindness to pick me up and send me back to TBS, and each and everyone of you who had been there: Mr. Ridwan Wahid, Pn. Hazlina Aziz, Pn. Maslinda Mohd. Dahalan, Pn. Suzanni Amin Leembruggen, Pn. Salmiah Mohd. Ghazali, Pn. Hayati Ismail and Ms. Jashireen Mohd. Bashir. And not forgetting our beloved lecturer, Dr. Fauziah Hassan, who had taken the trouble to come to Alamanda [the original plan was to visit her at her house] and we will always pray for your good health and maybe we can meet again some other time.

MOVIE REVIEW - "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL"

This was one of the movies I watched last week with a friend in a movie marathon session. The hunger for action movies is just insatiable. So off we went to see Ethan Hunt make everything impossible become possible. This time Agent Hunt was framed by the enemy of the USA as the Russians believed that he was the one who had bombed Kremlin, and thus triggered the possible nuclear war between the two countries again.

From here the running action started - I never know the Police Sentry game I used to play when I was younger could be that that thrilling The usual "I catch you, you catch me; I shoot you, you shoot me" session progressed right until the end. I wonder whether a person like Agent Hunt really exist in the real world. People could simply get hurt just by slipping on the floor, what more after jumping off from a building. I am sure many people are hoping the same kind of thing could happen to them - an exciting job that could take you all around the world.

As usual, in the end, the good must overcome the evil. Even though the ending was predictable, this was a fun movie to watch. The moral of the story: physical strength alone is not enough - you still need smart phones, tablets and many other IT gadgets to accomplish any mission.

And look what I have found on YouTube. It is not wrong I hope to embed this in my blog. Tom Cruise did climb a real building after all. Go watch this on the big screen for better effects and it should be alright as the level of violence is still tolerable for young people [and there is no sex scene which is rare for an American movie].

Now I have to go see Burj' Al Khalifa in Dubai. Dang!

THE LAST CLASS FOR UHB1412: SECTION 58

22nd December ~ Suddenly it was the last class for the semester. Time really flew, fast. I was assigned to coach a group of 31 students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. All of them were direct entry students who had completed their diploma courses and are now pursuing their degree programmes.

I was thankful that these people had displayed a great interest in learning English. I was satisfied with the assignments submitted and oral presentations done, and I believed that they had put a lot of hard work in carrying out the required tasks.

with the class monitor, Ahmad Amsyar

the last two groups after the evaluation of discussion activities at the library

It has been a pleasure to get to know these people and I do not know whether I would be able to see them again after this. Based on experience, sadly this will not happen once the class has ended. However, I really hope to see at least a few if they still ask me to join them in ping pong games in the future.

Thanks for the good time, everybody. Hopefully I have imparted some useful knowledge to you all and most importantly, they had learnt something from me. So, good luck guys and girls in the final exam and your future undertakings as well. May you all be successful engineers (or other professions of your choice) and don't forget me.

PMR 2011 RESULTS WERE OUT TODAY

It was time for the form three students to reap what they had sown. The Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examination results were announced today to end their agony of waiting and predicting. From what I could see, there were more parents seen in school to accompany their children for the moment of truth.











All in all, compared to previous year, this year's results were better - an increase in the overall passing percentage and many subjects, as well as the number of excellent students getting straight A's, 47 people. This should be good news to the students, parents and teachers especially; now we do not have to answer many questions during the upcoming PMR post-mortem meeting.

And this year's form three high-fliers are....
[drum roll... drum roll...]

9A's

Muhammad Amin Mohd. Rosli
Noor Amirah Amirmudin
Siti Nuramalina Md. Zain
Nurfarahin Abu Bakar
Siti Norsyamimi Mohd. Noh
Nur Farehah Sulaiman
Hanani Anis Mohamad Sabri

8A's
Aqil Muhammad Nasir
Ahmad Tarmizi Esam
Dineshwar Ganish Nair Ravindharan
Iqballuqman Mukhtar Hilmi
Muhammad Emirul Mahmood
Mohamad Nor Rahmat Md. Abdul Razak
Muhammad Faiz Zulkifli
Lim Zi Yong
Mohamad Nabil Mohd. Noor
Mohammad Shaqir Mohd. Rozainee
Muhammad Afiq Md. Zain
Muhammad Aziruddin Mohaini
Ng Ching Kai
Yew Ji Hao
Aisyah Nabilah Abd. Latif
Amirah Hassan
Nur Fatihah Diana Ahmad
Sarah Nurain Khaidzir
Cher Yuan Li
Choong Sze Lei
Nursyamimi Mohd. Baharuddin
Sahara Antartika Suliman
Soo Ming Huey
Sabrina Asilah Khairulnisan
Nurul Ain Zakaria
Rubeniy Ramanaidoo
Nur Dhuhaa Tajul Ariffin
Koo Shi Xun
Ain Khadijah Yob Sa'ed
Chai Wen Hui
Fahda Melissa Mohsin
Gan Li Yin
Law Mei Jun
Nor Syafiqah Mahat
Nuramira Ramlan
Wan Nadhirah Ismid
Tang Mei Ay

7A's
Dharshini Suparmaniam
Sharmilla Thirutamalai
Dinesh Ramamurthy
8A's 1B
Siti Aisyah Saniman
Mohammad Nor Fitry Mohd. Yani
Syed Muhammad Yusuf Syed Abd. Rahman
Nurul Alisyah Mohd. Yusri
Nurul Fatin Nabilah Zulkurnain

Congratulations to everybody who has done well. But believe me my dear, if you have done well, do not get too excited and if you think you did not meet the expectation, do not feel to sad. This just a small step to a more challenging world. I have seen people who had done well in PMR but did not excel in SPM, and people who were not excellent in PMR but did real well for SPM. So it is time to have a clearer picture of the whole thing so you will be more prepared for bigger obstacles ahead.

BEIJING LAST DAY - BIDDING FAREWELL TO CHINA, FROM TIANJIN

After arriving in Tianjin, we still had a few hours to explore two famous tourist attractions in the city.

The first place was the Ancient Street Market where the locals put the local products on sale old school style. The buildings were preserved in their original and traditional architecture but other parts of the city were actually seen rapidly developing.

some of the items for sale

The next and last stop was the snacks market where variety of local Chinese food and snacks could be found like preserved and dried fruits, as well as many other things. Then we had our lunch at a restaurant nearby before we were sent to the airport and said 'goodbye" to Miss Yang who had been our guide for the long six days.

exotic local fresh food, anyone?

Here is a short video of Tianjin recorded from the moving coaster.

at Tianjin Airport

and now everybody can fly home

So I guess this is the end of my six days escapade to the mainland China, particularly Beijing. I hope that you have not grown tired reading the travelogue and looking at the pictures. I hope I have also shared my wonderful experience and you never know, maybe one day you will be there too.

I would like to thank Syazwan and his parents [I was not sure who initiated the idea] for inviting me to join in the tour group. This was actually something unexpected and you had given me the chance to set foot to a place that I once wished I could visit. And I don't think I could go there on my own, mostly because of language and cultural differences. [And yes, I am having difficulty finding a travel companion.] Hopefully, one day, they would ask me to go again with them to other place.

With a few more days remaining before the school reopens, I have now to focus on my work more seriously. I am already thinking of a reward for my hard work [which I have started doing] so to all my fans [as if I have one] please be prepared for more, soon. I am full of surprises, you know.

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page"
~ St. Augustine ~