Happy 52nd Birthday Malaysia!

In 3 days time we will be celebrating our 52nd Independence Day! So here wishing Malaysia Happy 52nd Birthday. My college is organizing an exhibition and invite staff and students to express themselves on what Independence/Merdeka means to them. So here I am squeezing creative juice in me and think of below poster. The colouring are contributed by the girls and I, designed my mommy and printed by daddy, so it's kind of a family affair here.

This is my prayer for my homeland:

Malaysians
Emerging as one, not differented by our
Race, colour of our skin, beliefs and social status,
Dedicated to our beloved land,
Encapsulated with love and respect for one another,
Knowing no barriers,
Achieving true 1Malaysia

To all Malaysian out there, Happy Merdeka and Happy Holidays!

Artist, busy at work...


Children playing together, knowing no barrier..

Children are colour blind, what about us? (picture courtesy of Petronas advertisement)

Last but not least, my precious "Siti and Aminah"

Ah... our final masterpiece

I'm the dentist, so is MIL!

Yeap, I played dentist last Sunday. Michelle was complaining that her front tooth is giving her trouble, it swayed left and right and interrupt her daily schedule, she's in pain during her meals and can't seems to stop playing it with her tongue. MIL was the one who manually extracted the other front tooth previously and she complained that MIL was rough and it was painful, blood came oozing out from her gums.. blah blah blah.. I asked if she wanted me to do the job this time, though reluctant at first, she agreed to the proposal.

So here I am, using a piece of slightly wet hanky, I hold her tooth with my thumb and forefinger, secured it and make sure I have a good tight grip of the tooth, shook it a little bit and pull downwards. I got to make sure it is done quick and painless....... A little "grr..ak" sound was heard and soon the job was done.. I found myself holding her front tooth but thank God it's not that bloody... managed to stop the outpour of blood in a minute by pressing the location with the hanky.

And it was such a relieve for her, not for long though and soon she complained that she got a huge big gap in between her teeth.... haiz.... can't wait for the new teeth to appear.. at the mean time she avoids pronoucing anything that starts with a "f".. LOL

Movie Night

After 3 disturbed nights of sleep (Emily was down with fever but thank God she's back up already), 2 nights of sleep recovery and one long week of marathon revision with Michelle (for her 3rd term test), hubby and I are planning an impromptu date tonight. Our college recreation club is kind enough to organize a movie night free for its staff and spouse. So we are planning to go for a nice dinner after work, then the movie before head back home. I informed the kids of the plan and my plans for them yesterday(they could tag along with MIL to the cell group and play with other kids). Below was Michelle's comment yesterday night when hubby got back home from work:

Michelle: Wah daddy, tomorrow you are very fortunate eh? (She actually used the word "hao ming")
Daddy: Puzzled?? Why you say so?
Michelle : Get to go for a movie wor...
Daddy: Smiling....

We are so blessed to be able to go on dates occasionally, thanks to MIL..

Tricky answer..

My colleague and I were sharing on our encounters with our unpredictable batch of diploma students....

My colleague in one of her Microcomputing class...

Colleague: Tell me class, what do you know about computers?
Student1 : Ah, I use it to download songs..
Student2 : I use it to download movies...
Student3 : We use them to watch porn movies.. (my goodness)
Students : I access the facebook, friendster, twitter etc...

My colleage commented that she needs to find new ways to teach them...

In one of my class (we were discussing on some techniques that we can use to generate research idea)

Me : What do you understand by brainstorming?
Student 1: Crack our head, hit the head real hard?
Me : Err... in a way..., tell me more
Student 2: Ah, is it something to do with disturbance to the brain..
Me : Err... (you can't actually said they are wrong, right?) BUT I honestly believe they don't get it quite right, so I got to interfere to clarify their understanding on what does it really mean by "storming" the brain..

I believe we should not limit our students' answer and encourage them to be expressive and critical, but at times you do need a lot of sense of humour and patience to deal with them and be open to receive whatever answers they have for you. :D

First Class of 32

Today I have the first lecture with my Diploma students and comtemplated to get some inputs to the questions below:

1) What do you want to achieve out of the module?
2) How do you want me (the lecturer) to help you to achieve what you listed in (1)
3) What can you do to achieve what you listed in (1)

The inputs were:

1) Almost 100% said they wanted to achieve high distinction in the course
2) 60% asked for more tips during the final examination (typical students!), one answered "Make the exam paper easier" and one commented "Give me a high score in my assignment".
3) Majority answered "work hard, play hard, be attentive in class" and one even commented, "prayed that the lecturer will like my assignment" :)

Well, it's a good start isn't it? I told them the tips will be given in each of the classes, so they got to attend all lectures and be aware of the magic words "This is very important...". At the mean time I am to deliver the lessons clearly, make the classes fun, interactive , provide good notes and give a good lecture.... these are what expected from me. Not a bad start for a class of 32, as for now, we'll see what transpire later...

Natural inspiration

I was preparing for lecture this morning and attempted to use this UK based company by the name of "Pret A Manger" as a case study exercise for my students. As I was exploring their website, I found below pictures from their website very naturally inspirated and hopefully will give some mothers out there some inspiration while preparing food for our kids. I extracted some information from their website (www.pret.com) - Pret opened in London in 1986 by two college friends, Sinclair and Julian, made proper sandwiches using natural, preservative-free ingredients...

You see they can turn this sandwich into a big empire today, that's call entrepreneurship, so mothers out there if you have a new way of preparing food, it might end up to be a great enterprising idea, so don't be sceptical, who knows one day your home recipe might turn out to be a multimillionaire business... :)

A great way to get our kids eat oranges...

How about using this idea to get your kids eat their vege... and also to remind them to brush their teeth after every meal..


Let's take this before we go to school and work eh...

Ah... it seems the fish is enjoying its dip....

Oh ooh........

A friend of mine is pregnant for the fourth time and a bunch of us mothers of three and two were like “ooh and ahh..” over her courage. We congratulated her and at the same time expressed our admiration of her courage to go for four. She’s the second family in our church that has gone this far, most of us stopped at two and three.

After spoken to her, she shared that it took her a few weeks to come to the realization that the baby is real and that she’s having another baby and also to accept the fact that whatever God chooses to do, no man can stopped (no matter what type of family planning methods you are using!)

Ha… so there we were a bunch of mothers of two, sharing our tales on how we dreaded late periods, anticipating yet-to-come menses at the end of every month, fearing of another baby in our late 30s or 40s and discussing the reliability of our current birth-control techniques!

I jokingly suggested that let’s go for our 3rd one, then terminate our ability to conceive once and for all, have peace of mind as it seems that doctors only agreed or recommend to the procedure of tubal ligation (on female) and vasectomy (on male)….. when we have reached 40s with at least 3 kids. At the mean time whatever birth control we are taking is not 100%. On another hand, there’s a voice speaking inside of me and sort of reprimanding me which sounds like this “Tsk tsk tsk, why are you so afraid of receiving God’s blessings, didn’t God says children are a blessing from Him?”

You see, women in 30s are in a dilemma stage when it comes to child bearing, we are not young anymore to bear more children as some of us would gladly testifies how our body changed and “suffered” during those times, at the same time not too old to have one also. Haiz…. At the mean time, let everything be status quo and let the Master decides.