conman

Chan received a phone call from a man claiming to be from Bank Islam saying that her credit card was overdue (RM7000; to be exact). She doesn't hold any credit cards from that bank. So the man told her that probably her IC and name had been used and asked her to call up Bank Negara. He gave her the number and also mentioned the particular department to contact.

Chan phoned Telecoms for Bank Negara's number and found the number different from the earlier number given to her. She called the real Bank Negara number and was informed that there is no such thing.

Then she called the fraud number and was surprised that it sounded exactly like the actual Bank Negara number....ie the process that she has to go through the auto-telephonist right to the music when put on hold.

So, beware...it's not the first time such tale has come to our ears but this is the first time a person who is really close to me has experienced it.

merdeka!!!

No more exams for the year 2010! After many many moons, finally I hear the TV talking again and Dan laughing as he watched the TV. (I was awakened from my nap by his laughter but he denied laughing.)

The computers and TV are going to work full time again.

I wrote a letter to Dan's teacher yesterday to explain that he will not be attending any extra classes this holiday. I don't understand why on earth does the school want to torture the students and teachers during the holiday. Holiday means being away from what we do everyday...that is, the school for the kids!!

From now till the end of 2010; all the kids need to think about is play, piano, reading their favourite books, computer, tv, tuition (I've paid for it; ok), carolling practises (started already) and best of all....cousins coming to visit from Vancouver!

Merdeka for the kids!!!

studying for exam

It's Science exam tomorrow. Dan studied hard (I believe); from the sofa to the floor. While lying on the floor :
Dan : Don't think that I'm lazing around ok? I'm thinking over what I've studied.
Me : Why don't you think aloud what you've studied?
Dan : It's private!
Me : ??????

no big no small

Was driving past this row of food stalls and saw a sign' NO BIG NO SMALL'. That's the hawker's way of telling the customer....don't ask for big or small; there's none...just take whatever served to you!! I supposed he/she must be pretty annoyed with customers ordering for big or small portions.

Who would have thought of that? That's Malaysia!

ring tone

Today ma asked Lyn to change her handphone ringtone. Her ringtone was cock a doodle doo; now it's ring ring....

She thinks that when she phones people; their phone will go cock a doodle doo...so they will know the call is from her. She has been trying to call somebody and she thinks that body is trying to avoid her call. Therefore she thinks that if she changes her ringtone, she is able to trick that person to take the call.

Lyn said she didn't want to tell her it's not true and explain to her why because it will just get her all confused. I think almost all of us girls from me to the three girls, Ing and now Lyn has gone through the exact situation with her and she is still adamant that she is right!!!

That's my ma.

obstacle race

This evening Dan decided to have his own obstacle race (part of exercising). This was how it went. He ran around the house picking up various objects ... twizzer, spoon, sweets, keys, paintbrushes etc (12 items).

He set the timer on his handphone and said, '1, 2, go' and off he ran....in and out the house into the kitchen, dining, study, living and ended up behind with me at the exercise area. He did it in 1 minute! Then, he ran again against his own time to put back all the items within the 1 minute too. By fifth time, he broke his record by clocking in 58seconds!!!

Quite a good way to get him to exercise; he was hot and sweat was dropping like rain.

Queen's English

The government is employing 300 over native speaking English teachers from UK and Australia beginning next year to teach here. From what I understand, they are to train the English teachers (I might be one of the 'lucky' fellows who will soon be speaking with a British or Australian accent).

I first heard about it many months ago from a fellow colleague. My thoughts were these:
a. We, English teachers have not been teaching well or don't know how to teach; therefore the government has to bring angmo in to teach our students English.
b. Good....send them to the interior...keep them there for 10 years and we will see what kind of students they produce.
c. Wow...pay them in pound??? That will burn the hole in the Government's pocket bigger!! I am sure they will not be paid like how I am paid now; surely double or triple of mine!! Otherwise when they return to UK (after exchanging the money) they will be as poor as church mouse!

To my great disappointment, we will not be able to see how well these native speaking English teachers will perform in the interior. They are to train the teachers or something like that. I did not read the details in the paper; so am not too sure what and how exactly this is going to happen. Come 2011, this project to strengthen the English Language in school will unfold!!!

An afterthought: maybe if the government didn't employ these angmo; we would be given our bonus. Hmm....I am definitely not looking forward to them.

the big lobak

The narrator : Once upon a time, there lived an agriculturist by the name of Dr Chan who planted a real gigantic lobak.

This big lobak won an award somewhere for something.

Dr Chan was very pleased with his white lobak which was fertilized with cockerel..... Anyway, he decided to harvest the lobak so that his wife can cook lobak in porkribs to share during CG.

So he called his wife Rosie to help him to pull out the big lobak. Unfortunately, the lobak was too deeply rooted, so they couldn't even move it an inch.

Then came along the CG member's maid taking the dog for a walk. So they asked her to help.

Before that, they also phoned Mrs Teng to join them in pulling out the gigantic lobak. There you see them huffing and puffing over it.

But they still could not pull it out; so Rosie phoned Mr and Mrs Poi to help them.

Then the iron lady passed by and they stopped her. Probably her energy would help them succeed in pulling out the lobak. But iron lady was on her way to the swimming pool and she had no time for them. (Later on she repented and joined them.)

Donna who just returned from Korea dropped by the house with some ginseng. It was hoped that the ginseng would give them strength to pull out the lobak.

But they decided to pray...and walao....

They got the lobak out of the chair and standing up!!!!

Lesson learnt: work together as a CG and pray at all time, over all things!

This was one of the skits put up by one of the CGs for the church Family Day. It was hilarious. The story was a very simple one but loaded with lots of lessons and fun. I was most touched by the enthusiasm shown by the all the CG members who are made up of senior citizens (except for the maid and Shanti's two daughters). The earlier group that performed were also senior citizens (much older than this group)!

ptk

It was announced yesterday that this examination will be replaced with some other form of assessment next year June. Sigh. Such fickle minded people....how many types of changes we teachers have gone through in regards to our assessment as teachers and how to give us increment in our salary etc etc.

Anyway....today is my last time hopefully to sit for that exam and I am not proud to say that I have been busy reading story books instead of books related to the papers I am sitting for. From my experience; whether I read or not my results will be almost the same. I have achieved a grade of 3 for both papers with and without effort of studying. Of course people have told me had I studied, I would have achieved grade 4 which is the grade to get in order to get an upgrade in salary scale plus a jump.

I was a diligent student when I was young but I realised (long ago) that as a teacher, I am the worst student. I just don't find joy reading academic books anymore for the sake of sitting for exam. Perhaps if there is no exam, I would have enjoyed the knowledge that I gain from reading them.

Another bad trait of mine, I am not an achiever ( I was quite competitive as a student last time). That is why I did not study at all and have no idea where my books are. I know I'm setting a bad example for my kids...hope they don't catch it from me. But I wasn't like this when I was a student....honestly.

Ok....better get ready....about time to leave and take the bull by its horns. Am not hoping for anything...just to get over with it and know that I have given myself a chance.

Why am I babbling like a nervous student?

the motorhome

About 9 years ago, we visited Vancouver and one of the best adventure we had was to go up the Rockies and all the way to Calgary and back to Vancouver using the motorhome (above picture courtesy of Ing) and an MPV.

As I look at the tour advertisements on tour packages to the Rockies, I realised that we did almost everything that is offered in the package and more but costing us less.

Uncle John bought the motorhome just for this purpose; ie for his family from Malaysia to do the tour. We thought we could return to Vancouver one day sooner or later but unfortunately it has to be much much later. So Uncle John couldn't wait for us any longer and he has finally sold off the motorhome.

Well, when we do visit Vancouver one day later, we will have to find some other means of adventuring!

Thanks to Uncle John and NeeChia for sharing this wonderful vehicle with us.

growing teens

One has gone for a school excursion and the other will be going for a party and later to the movies. And this means money. I gave Dan a small amount to spend for the excursion; reminding him it's not meant for souvenirs and useless stuff and there's no room left in the house for useless stuff. He looked disappointed as he wanted more money. Before he left, I topped it up to the amount he wanted and reminded him again....don't have to spend all; bring home whatever not spent. He is one person whom I worry will overspend as he has the tendency to buy everything under the sun.

Lyn....gave her the same amount as Dan; but she said she doesn't need so much. I didn't bother to remind her not to overspend or what not to buy as she has a better sense of economy. She reminds me much of myself; I never wanted to take more money than necessary from ma when I was depandent on her.

Those days when we went out with friends, I think we survived on very very little money. Probably $10 or less? Now....that's not even enough for a McDonald or PizzaHut.

Not too long ago, Lyn went out with some friends and one of them paid for all the food, snacks and movie tickets! I was quite horrified. Well...the friend had reasons to do so that time. OK...so I accepted the explanation.

As for my kids, I have some ground rules on how much and how they should spend their money on occassions like this. Not that I am kiamsiap (though I am a little) but I believe all children who are still depandent on the parents must be taught how to be responsible for every cent that they come into contact with and be accountable to the parents for them.

black n yellow, red n white....

...they are precious in His sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.

This song comes to my mind as I ponder over thots on the orang asli students that I observe in a school which I am invigilating the PMR exam. Most of them are in the weaker classes. Both the Science 2 and English 2 papers; they walked out after half an hour. Today one of them is absent because she has gone fishing with her father.

Are they less smart than students of other races? I don't think so. As sunday school song goes; no matter what colour we are, God has made us equal. There is no one race or ethnic group that is superior to the other and vice versa.

In Sabah and Sarawak, there are all types of natives from a great variety of ethnic group. Some are better off than the others like the Bidayuhs. Idris Jala is a Bidayuh and there are so many ministers in our cabinet from Sabah and Sarawak who are natives too.

What makes a difference in them?

A Muslim man made this observation about the natives in Sabah and Sarawak and their level of education....he said, 'They are Christians'.

That speaks volumes. It means the mission schools have succeeded greatly in educating and thus bringing about a better lifestyle to the society around them. This is another topic that can be expounded on its own. Anyway...I am the proud product of two mission schools... the Convent and the ACS.

town school vs rural school

This is the first day of the PMR examination. I am invigilating a rural school in Labu; about 15km from my house. Driving to that school is totally different from driving to my school. As far as the eyes can see; it's just trees and more trees to my left, right and front.

As I approach the school, I have to be careful as there are potholes everywhere (huge ones) and also cowdung all over. It's just like driving into Sitiawan Estate except this is tar road and not red soil road. Cows and goats here and there.

The students.....I have been teaching in an all girls school for 13 years now and I am so glad that I am teaching girls only. The boys....there is this particular Chinese boy who caught my attention. He was holding a 1.5L 100Plus bottle; sweating as he looked for his table. He is rather big and plump. He finished the paper in less than 30minutes and was looking around restlessly. Later, when he had to do the second paper (writing), he copied everything from the question paper (including the charts). Once he completed that; he asked for permission to leave the hall.

I noticed that he is not the only student who is like that....don't know what they have been studying the past 9 years in school. Infact almost every other student in his row looks blur.

There was a boy with very dirty nails...black. I think he works in a motor shop. I find most of the boys rather dirty and untidy looking. Probably because of their economic background and upbringing. Though there are many poor students in my school, but most of the girls look clean and neat and presentable. The chief invigilator had to ask some of the boys to leave the hall so that they could tuck in their shirts and look neat before entering.

During the writing papers, very very few students ask for additional papers. This is so different from my school where we teachers are on our toes all the time; passing papers to the students. I happen to notice too the SPM2009 result....one student acheived 7As and a few with 5As and 4As. That was their best results...hmm; my school...no need to compare. If we get something like that, all the teachers will be in hot boiling oil!

I think the lack of academic achievement in a rural school has a lot to do with the students' economic background and upbringing. I am able to see it so clearly today (not that I am unaware of it; just that I have been in an excellent town school for too long).

Another interesting observation, there are many natives (orang asli) here. There is an orang asli settlement nearby. What puzzles me is their names. Some of them has names like Norhayati binti Alias; keturunan bumiputera (exactly the same like a Malay) but agama bukan Islam. Then there are those with names like Jelita AK Chong Ah Kau, keturunan bumiputera. I'm pretty confused....when is anak kepada used and when is binti used? I thought bin and binti is for Muslims only but this is not true. I checked Norhayati binti Alias' IC and saw that it is not stated she is bukan Islam whereas some ICs are stated bukan Islam or Islam. If she dies; she may be mistaken for a Muslim and be given a Muslim burial!!!

Well....This is Malaysia!

kindness

Took a drive into the interior of NS yesterday...Labu. While returning; after packing wild boar rendang from the Labu New Village (it was a hit amongst the CG members who came to our house for potbless last night) I drove past a tortoise crossing the road. KC went...stop stop stop....let's take it home and show the kids (we had 12 kids in the house last night; more than the adults).

I made a U-turn. The tortoise was still there slowly crawling across the road. But a taxi had already stopped and an Indian man was pushing it off the road. When KC approached and said he wanted the tortoise; the man gave him a nasty look; lifted the tortoise and took it to his car.

I suppose he thought that KC wanted to take the tortoise home to make tortoise soup. He was trying to protect it from us. As we drove off, I realised that the thought never occured to me to stop and push the animal off the road to safety unlike the taxi man who took the trouble to do so. He definitely had shown kindness to the animal and put both KC and I to shame....

when the lights go blinking....

Went to Jusco to pick up grocery with KC last Friday. I just popped my head over to his side and noticed the petrol gauge showed two bars left. Ahem....he just returned from KL and I think we need to fill the tank.

After shopping we hopped in the car and he casually said; "Let's go for a drive."

My antenna went up!! I knew it....the petrol signal was blinking wildly. Off we went to the nearest station and I was up to my usual self...nag and nag.

I recalled my experience with this car five years ago. There was also two bars left, I jammed up the hill to pick up the kids, left them in the car to buy lunch and by the time I drove off; the lights went blinking too. Stopped at the traffic light and when it turned green, the car just stopped. I was shocked and panicked. It was a new car then....what could have possibly gone wrong?

A kind man pushed the car to the side and told me to walk to the petrol station(about 300m away) and buy some petrol.

That's why I have great phobia whenever the lights go blinking. I never allow the gauge to drop any lower than two bars!!!