Christmas caroling 2013

It's the Christmas season again. With teenagers in the house who are very active in the MYF you can't help but be swept along with the excitement of the celebration. This year we decided to help out again by providing transport. 

This year's carollers included three primary kids. Two of them, Jasmine and Monica followed our car along with Eucharia who is an African studying in a nursing school here. Tiffany took care of the little ones along with Charmaine. So the car was packed. 

First stop was a nursing home. Uncle Ben's father is here. So we brought Christmas cheer to him. The MYFers are trained to shake hands with everybody in all the homes they visited. They did a pretty good job. 

Next was singing at Terminal 1.  It wasn't easy as the sound system was bad. They had to sing for an hour. They were invited to return on the next day to sing again. The second day was worse. A few carollers dropped out of the group and a few more were having sore throat. Tough job but they were of good cheer. 

On the second day, after Terminal 1 the carollers came to our house. After the previous day experience, I knew they would be hungry. Indeed they were. We had satay which came a little late. Thank God there is uncle Hoe who helped to get the satay from the shop. Fish balls were the most popular....surprisingly. It's the cheapest and easiest to prepare. They finished everything. We had cupcakes too .. I got them from Ai Poh. Jelly was just so so. Junk food....dark chocolates and a variety of nuts. So good to see them eating heartily. 

On the second day there was slight drama. The van which Rosheen drove broke down. It's quite horrifying to see how he drives and the loud protests from the van. We stopped to help them. The boys pushed and we tried to jump start. Didn't work. Battery and other ailment .... It's an old van. The boys call it the party van. The whole group made so much noise and had so much fun. So when they got down to push the van they had great fun too. Zhi Quan asked me to take pictures of him pretending to push the van. 

Anyway they split to two cars. I followed Nicholas' car. Felt there need be an adult with a 17 year old driver. He handles the car very well. 

We visited Bishop Emeritus Hwa Yung and Bee Teik's house. They were so excited and happy to have us over. Bee Teik has been a great mentor and big sis to me. I'm so glad she is back in Seremban again. 

It was good spreading cheer around this season. It was definitely tiring but being with the teens and seeing them happy makes me feel fulfilled this Christmas. 

May the love of God and the spirit of cheer be upon the hearts of all readers this Christmas. God bless all of you. 

Khmer Village Homestay

Albert very kindly brought his van from Phnom Penh to fetch us from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. On the way to Phnom Penh, we stopped by Solar Cafe for lunch. Solar Cafe is run by a Malaysian lady...Esther Ding. From her surname one would know she is a Foo Chow...like me.

There was already a group of Singaporean kids from a church having their retreat cum mission there. Esther has programs planned out for them like pony cart rides to the village, making khmer noodles, handicraft etc. Esther acts as the in between person for groups that come; whether its for  mission trips or school programs of community services. She arranges for church visits, ministry to school students (the schools allow outsiders to take over their classroom time) and she even brings in kids from the villages to the homestay itself so that these groups can spend time with the kids.

Though Cambodians drive big foreign cars, the poverty level is still very high. There are beggars everywhere; children begging and the use of babies to get the sympathy of tourists is common. Esther suggests activities like teaching them hygiene, improving the infrastructure of the church/school....painting the orphanages etc. 

The homestay near the cafe is really impressive. There are quite a few chalets around. The accommodation itself is pretty basic...dorm style. She provides 3 meals a day with activities thrown in...all coming to USD50 per day.

The Solar Cafe....very clean and breezy. 

 The chalets at the Khmer Village Homestay. Beautiful landscaping and very well maintained.

 Esther Ding...showing us more places around the homestay. She speaks Khmer fluently...having stayed here for more than 15 years. She can be reached at khmervillagehomestay@gmail.com.

 This back door leads to another piece of property down the road which has a few more chalets.

The sleeping quarters....with mosquito nettings and fans. 

History alive

"...Vietnam menceroboh Kampuchea pada tahun 1978 dan menjatuhkan kerajaan Khmer Rouge..."
Buku Teks Sejarah Tingkatan 5.
This is a short line from a very short paragraph in the History text that I teach about the role of Malaysia in ASEAN and the ZOPFAN (Zone of peace, freedom and neutrality) concept.

As a teacher of History, I look for ways to make the subject interesting and alive. So choosing Cambodia as a holiday destination is quite natural for me as Chapter 3 Form Four History covers the agrarian government of Angkor with a few paragraphs on Angkor Wat. I was looking forward to visiting The Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum when I was in Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge was mentioned in the Form 5 text and I remembered Pol Pot from the news report when I was young.

I was warned that the visit the Killing Fields can be depressive and I need to be strong. I had been praying before the trip. I marched into the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide with my camera...all ready to take pictures home to show my students. The museum is a big school compound. The classrooms are converted into prisons, torture chambers....divided into small dark cells. Pictures after pictures of people who were tortured there. I chose not to enter many of the classrooms to see the exhibits because it was too overwhelming. I sat at a bench outside and cried as the reality of the horror the Cambodians went through in the 1970s crept into me. In my state of shock I did not take a single picture.

Next was the Killing Fields. I expect this to be worse. It was indeed. No guide needed as a very comprehensive recording is prepared and the visitors just need to carry the recorder around. With the voice talking into my ear, bringing to life the whole place and the possiblities of seeing teeth, bones floating in the water or in the dirt, I could almost picture the horrifying sight of torture and killing. Visitors moved around in hush awe....maybe shocked by the exposure of such gruesome happenings and also in respect of the dead that is all around.

Ponds, sunken grounds of mass grave were labelled and pointed out. I can't get the the Killing Tree out of my mind. It's a big tree where the soldiers just swing the babies and young kids to it and then throwing them into the dump next to it. It's awful....

Then the Magic Tree....I could almost hear the songs being played loudly and the screaming of the tortured people and the same time. It was a most humbling and traumatising experience.

A stupa is erected to house the skulls and some bones of those killed there. I had seen and heard enough to know what went in that place during those time. I didn't enter the stupa but sat under the tree outside and reflected on the sad state of the human race. Power and greed have made mad men out of the leaders and turned them into animals.  "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss". This is the motto used to justify what they did. If my family had lived there that day, we would not have survived because we fall into the category of literate people...wearing spectacles and having soft hands.

I am so thankful to be alive where I am today. This visit just fills me with gratitude to God for all the things and goodness He has blessed me and my family. It is a reminder to me again of my role as a teacher in school....to teach my students to love and not hate. To pass on goodness and rub kindness to the students around me with the hope that they will remember to pass it on the the next and the next and the next generations.

End of high school

Yesterday 27.11.13 was the last paper for Lyn. That marked the end of high school for her. 11 years in the public education system and what do I see in her?

Six years in Chinese school. The first three years were a torture. She was used to be pampered in the kindergarten as she was one of the best students there. Coming to the primary school was a culture shock. The harsh way teachers treat the students. It was stressful preparing her for school after each weekends. 

Her senior years in the primary was better. She found her ability. She became bolder though still extremely quiet and shy. Fear of teachers kind of drove her into her shell deeper. But she had lots of opportunities to represent the school for public speaking and story telling both in English and BM. She also joined the choir which built her love for singing in a choir. 

When she joined me in the secondary school, she stayed away from all the extra curricular activities which I joined. She wanted to earn her credits on her own and not because she is my daughter. She rejected the nomination to be a probate prefect twice simply because she thinks she is not good enough and she was nominated because of me. 

She found her niche in the secondary school. It's quite amazing to see her juggling lots of extra activities after school. She would be in the march pass team, first as one of the members and later to train others to march. I hated marching as I have two left legs. So it amazes me to see her shouting commands and drilling other kids. Must be the father's king scouts gene. 

Then she would run off for choir practice. In no time she was leading the choir and had to drop other activities to focus on the choir. Despite her heavy commitment to the school choir she still managed to find time to join a variety of English writing competitions. For the past five years, I had been fetching her home from school at around 5pm every other day. She gets the thrill in activities and competing. 

Gone is the shy and quiet girl that entered school five years ago. She talks too much and talks like a bullet train. I worry the teachers would complain to me that she is not attentive in class. They never did but I know of a teacher who moved her place because she talked in his class. (I'm most grateful for his action). 

She always sits in the last corner in class. Many times when I happen to pass by I noticed she is folding origami. Still amazes me that the teachers never confiscated her papers. She says she's multi-tasking. 

She has grown as a normal teenager should. I'm thankful to God that she is just a normal teenager with all the rich experiences from school.....both good and bad. Not forgetting all the ups and downs as an MYFer. 

She has become a good sister to the brother. They spend lots of time talking and she bullies him endlessly. She thinks it's her right to order him around because she is the oldest.  When the brother has nightmare, he runs to the sister to sleep in her room. When he has a problem, he pours his heart out to her. 

She is open and affectionate to us parents now. She talks to us and is more understanding. How she has matured over the years. 

I will miss praying with her on the way to school. Having her company while driving to school though she is asleep most of the time. Waiting for her after school and getting upset because she will not hurry but take her own sweet time. Listening to her when she gets in the car and goes on a bullet train talk, jumping from one topic to another. I'm lost most of the time but I'll nod and nod. Of course she catches me and say, 'mum you're not listening to me!'

So....when I picked her up from school yesterday, her uniform was like this:

The end of another chapter and beginning of a new one. God watch, protect and guide her in this new chapter that she is starting. 

Multi seed walnut wholemeal bread

I have problem understanding my bread machine. It had been producing bread of irregular shapes. Recently Yee shared a recipe with me which is so delicious that I used it as the base to all my bread. After much experimenting finally my loaf of bread yesterday turned out almost perfect. 

7/8 cup milk

1 egg 

2 tbsp margarine 

2 cups HP flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

3/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2.5 tsp yeast

2tsp poppy seed

2 tbsp sunflower sees

2 tsp flax seed

1/3 c walnut ( crushed lightly)

Bake at Basic...the loaf should look like the picture below. 

Totally nutty and wholesome. Every bite has a crunch in it. 

Half Broke Horses

It's the year end holiday. One important agenda on my holiday to do list is read books. Saw the review of this book : Half Broke Horse by Jeannette Walls and decided to read it. 

No regrets. Beautifully written biography of Lily Casey Smith, the writer's grandmother. It has humor, pain, reality....all in one. One tough woman who made it in life. Truly inspiring. 

One of the best moments for me is reading a good book without anyone disturbing me or having to worry of what to do next. The bliss of holiday when I can throw the stress of work life in the bin for a while. 

Karen Kingsbury

My favorite writer at the moment. She makes me cry, laugh....puts me in suspense. The best Christian romance writer so far. 

Karen Kingsbury

Novelist

Karen Kingsbury is an American Christian novelist. She was a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times and later wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News. Her first book, Missy's Murder, was based on a murder story that she covered in Los Angeles.Wikipedia

Born: June 8, 1963 (age 50), Fairfax, Virginia, United States

Movies: Like Dandelion Dust, Gideon's Gift, Every Woman's Dream

The Chance

2013

The Bridge

2012

Let Me Hold You Longer

2004

Loving

2012

Leaving

2011

Coming Home

2012

Redemption

2002

Fifteen Minutes

2013

music

Music has played an important role in the family. It's the factor that bonds the kids. They speak music language. Many a times there is music from the piano and cajon. Then there is the ukulele that goes all over the house....everyone strums on it except me. I'm the only unmusical person in the house.

Dan with the ukulele. 

Started with the guitar. 

The next instrument that is coming to the house is the saxaphone. We are waiting for a good time to visit the music shop, find a teacher to teach the instrument and get the instrument. I was very impressed by a band that performed in a wedding. The saxaphonist was good and I enjoyed it very much. So suggested to Dan to pick up that instrument too. We'll see. It will be our year end project.

slow blogging year

This has been a real slow blogging year for me. It's the mid of October....almost year end and I hardly have time to blog. The whole year has been so busy that I put on hold almost all the things that I enjoy.

Climbing hill has slowed down; very irregular. Evening stretching and exercising has almost come to a stop. As a result I can see myself blooming again. Watching videos at night on YouTube is totally out. Reading books...I still managed this though not as many books as previous years. If I don't do this...I'll go nuts.

Why has the year been so hectic? Blame it on work. It's scary how work and the amount of work just take a big chunk of my life and I end up not having enough time for myself. I am able to sit here tonight to put some thoughts together because I have not been in school for two days....attending course and therefore I am not troubled by work!! Think I should go for courses more often and forget about work.

Some things that had happened this month: somebody tried to break in the house. Thank God we reached home on time to see the person in action. Blur me horned at the car parked right in front of the gate just to realise later it was an attempt to break in.

Made two trips to PD with the kids to destress. It was good. Just driving there and taking time to soak in the sunset and the sea.

Coming up: the most important event of the year....SPM. Lyn will be sitting for it in like two weeks time. Time flies and changes keep happening.

I hope the building in front will be done ASAP. Endured the dust for the whole year now.

5 Theta had a sad year....two students lost their parents...one to cancer and the other to accident.

Good to type these words down.

Old house

Took a drive to Paroi Stadium one day to eat the best Nasi Lemak in town. After the breakfast decided to turn in to Taman Tasik Jaya to visit our old house which we sold off 6 years ago. 

The drive down memory lane was interesting. The so called Tasik has been filled and there are houses there. The row of shops are still the same. 

This house....is still the same. No changes except for a coat of paint. Very run down. The mango tree is still there. 

Such memories this house holds. There is a side gate to the garden. This is where the kids will play and cycle on their tricycles. There is a slope and the would slide down the slope.  

The staircase where Lyn fell while walking down holding her imaginary friend. Not her first fall. The road goes downhill....when she learnt to cycle, she lost control of her bike. The father ran after her and threw himself in front to stop the bike and cushion her fall. 

The many hours in the dining area baking cny cookies with the kids kneeling on the chairs to watch and help. 

Water gun fights and playing in the pool at the porch. Hours and hours of Barney and pooh bear on the tv that I could almost sing all the songs and say their lines. 

The back room where the whole family will sleep together..I decided to forget about Dr Spock and all the other gurus on bringing up babies and moved the whole family into one room. How Dan would kick and fuss trying to find his position before sleeping. 

How precious these memories are and so much forgotten already. Sometime the yester years seem so surreal. Like it never happened but it did. 

Catching the sun before it sets

The holiday is ending. It was a quiet and restful two weeks with a few busy trips to Melaka and KL. on top of it two wake services to attend. One of it was Uncle Lincoln's who was 90. 

On Friday we decided to drive to Port Dickson to watch the sunset. We started off at 5 pm. We exited the first toll and tuned into Pantai Cahaya. Our favorite beach here.

Some changes have been made. There is a bridge that connects the mainland to a little swampy island. Usually we would be very careful here because we need to leave the island when the tide comes in or we'll be trapped. This time we found platform has been built to enable us to walk into the island whether there is a tide or not. The sad part is a lot of trees have been cut to build the platform. 

As the tide was low, we were able to walk around the island. The kids went off on their own and walked to the rocky side overlooking the sea. It was totally secluded and nice and we had a great time in this corner taking pictures of the sunset. 

It was still hot when we arrived about 5.40pm. 

The tree, the sea and the rocks. I'll never get tired of the sea even though it is the same place that we visit each time. 

Walking the rocky path to the secluded side of the island where we found a pond and lots of balitung amongst the rocks. 

Various shades of sunset. 

Finally we got off the island. Was a bit difficult to walk on the rocks with slippers. So didn't want to stay till its too dark. 

Then off to find dinner. We went to the roundabout before Teluk Kemang. Lots of shops along this road. We wanted Ramli burger. So went to a Malay restaurant and ordered Ramli burger. It was so so delicious. 

What a great way to end the holiday. 

Cendol

I've heard about this cendol place at Bukit Rambai, Melaka from uncle Ben n Lyn. Few months back when we visited Melaka, we googled and found this place. But I was close by the time we reached. 

Today we made a trip here with the Myfers. We reached past 11am. There was a long queue. There is only this old lady....I think they call her Aunty Poh. She was doing everything. 

There are coconut trees around her house. She took coconut milk from 30 coconuts. She made everything herself. 

Around her compound are fruit trees. People were helping themselves to the rambutans. There is also durians at the back. Langsat is for herself. Before leaving Pator wanted to pay her for the fruits because the youths were also happily plucking rambutans to eat but she didn't accept. She just mentioned that the Langsat is for herself but we can take other fruits. I saw the youths returning home with bunches of rambutans and Aldrin had two durians with him. 

Anyway back to the cendol....after queuing for more than half an hour, it was our turn. She had only Santan for 9 bowls but we wanted 25 bowls. So we ended up sharing...each of us taking a few scoops. We had 10 bowls of tai bak going round also. Tai bak is without coconut milk and gula Melaka. Some sweet dessert also. 

We washed our own bowls and spoons. The youths helped her to clean up the table. Interesting how she runs her business. 

The car park was full. We just park whatever space there is around her compound. A shed is built in front of her house where there are a few tables. She has her ice machine and whatever needed for the cendol. She sold her cendol in less than two hours. 

Poppy seed bread

1cup warm water

1 tsp butter

1/4 cup oil

3 cup Hp flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp poppy seed

2 tsp yeast 

Put in d bread machine in the order above 

Kenwood machine: 750 g, dark

3 hours 18 minutes 

Banana walnut muffins

The kids are tired of sandwiches everyday and asked for a change in menu. So I decided to bake banana walnut muffins as requested by Lyn. I've tried a variety of recipes but can't remember where I found or kept them. Today I decided to keep the recipe I use in this blog or else I will forget again. 

Did some changes to the recipe below. Used cooking oil instead of butter. Used half a cup of brown sugar instead of the amount suggested. Can still reduce a little as it is still too sweet. Replaced coffee with cinnamon powder. 

The product: fantastic. As the cups I have are rather big I have only 10 muffins instead of 12. I reluctantly let KC ate one after his dinner. All of us took a pinch. Really great because it is so so nutty. A good healthy snack for the kids' recess. 

Now I have only 9 muffins left. Need to ration them because Lyn wants to share with her friends too.