Bits And Pieces

Sultan Sulaiman Shah School or famously known as 4S is about 1 km away from our school, but this morning was the first time I've ever  been to the school. It came as a shock (both to me and the Australian delegates whom I was  accompanying) when we learnt that our bus could not access to the school as there was a narrow entrance and it was impossible for the bus to make a u-turn. Hence, we had to walk through the shoplots and housing area to reach the school. The sight of us walking invites some curious stares from the people in the area. It was indeed a rare sight for some foreigners to be walking around the town in local school uniforms. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the kompang and the representative from the Australian Embassy, followed by the usual opening ceremony and welcome speeches. After a short break, the students were taken to the classrooms for some interactive activities with the selected hosting students. Those students from 4S were very en...

After much anticipation from us, finally on Monday, the Australian visitors arrived at about 6.30p.m at our school. The reception was done at the hostel. The guests were assigned to their respective rooms and after dinner, they were taken to town to buy their school uniforms. This morning, they joined the school assembly wearing the newly bought-unwashed-and-unironed school uniforms. Pity them, from their expressions I could tell that they were totally unimpressed with the uniforms but got to wear them anyway.     The students are from five different schools in Melbourne ages between 14 to 16 years old. Most of them are bigger and taller than our average 16-17 years  old students. One of them could not find the uniform that fit her size, so that she got to wear her casual clothes to the class. One obvious problem is the food.. They are not familiar with our food and most of them refused to eat our hot and spicy food especially in the morning. ...

Next week, our school will be expecting 17 Australian students and four teachers. They will be staying at the school hostel for the whole week and at a foster home for one night. All these while, we expected them to be white but to our surprise, this morning a representative from the Education Ministry came and clarified that these students are actually from indigenous people. I could see the disappointment from some of the teachers as they are looking forward to seeing white Australian. It has never occurred to them to be meeting these indigenous people. (google image) Anyway, I'm grateful to have them at our school for one week as it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for my students to be subjected to an international event like this. In the past, according to the rep, this kind of program only involved cluster/elite schools. This is the first time ever for the embassy to choose a school (well, two schools actually-our school and one n...

Finally, yesterday, their dream came true. The twins were very excited to make their own first homemade pizza (this time with my help coz they didn't know how to shape the crust). Saturday is our grocery shopping dayand  they were more than happy to tag along as they got to choose their own ingredients to be put as topping. They were planning to make seafood pizza so they grabbed two cans of tuna and a big packet crab meat, while I could only picture of mushroom with lotta cheese pizza. It's ok, we make two different varieties, they suggested. Hmm, so clever....   Button mushroom is my all-time favourite. This is how the pizza looked like before it was cooked. The good thing about making your own pizza is you got to invent your own topping and decide the thickness of the crust. So, it was a very thick crust with lotta goodies as topping. Finally, there were three regular size of 'pizza Hut' pizzas for dinner and were all gone almost i...

It was the first time ever happened to me at home (happened once before at the school canteen), a miserable little fly dived into my steaming hot coffee.  It probably died immediately after... A little annoyed, I poured all the content  into the sink and made myself a c up of green tea instead. Maybe it was meant to be, tak ada rezeki, hehe... So, it was green tea and crackers for me that afternoon.... 

This is the first time I've ever written anything about food but I think I need to hail this one to acknowledge my daughters' achievement in making cinnamon rolls.  They've been wanting to make/bake it for quite sometime, but I didn't realize that they didn't know what dry yeast was. So, yesterday I bought them two packets of yeast and they just couldn't wait to experiment with it for the first time with the recipe they found on the net.   They really loved to play with the texture of the flour after  mixing all the ingredients together. It was just like playing with the play-doh...I didn't have to do anything, simply sat and watched them doing it.... The dough balls were left to rise for one and half hours.   Then, it was done...there were plenty of rolls for our tea in the afternoon. Ready to serve...glazed with fine sugar. P.S: they are planning to make pizza next time. 

I'm welcoming and celebrating new babies in March...On the 4th of March, my sister had given birth to a cute baby boy....The first boy of five siblings, which no doubt brings cheers and excitement to the family. My brother in-law commented 'Allhamdulillah, putera pertamaku' on his facebook when he uploaded the first pic of his son to share with everybody...   Welcome Muhammad Ammar Qaweim...he looks so bright and energetic even though he was only a few days old when the photo was taken. Then, a week after on 11 of March, my other sister had given birth to her second son. There's no picture of him to show but I'm sure he's as cute as well; all babies are, aren't they? Now both of the mothers and babies are at my mother's in Kedah. I can imagine how hectic it is for my mum to cope with two new babies along with a bunch of their siblings at home.  My twins are very excited about it and wanted to go back to Kedah to visit their new cousins but their  da...

I've been wanting to write this post for quite sometime but I didn't how to start without making me sounds like a proud peacock or something....  Anyway, often times I was asked by my colleagues or acquaintances if I have any secret of keeping my skin healthy and youthful. If the question was straight forward like this, my answer was also simple and straight forward....'there's no secret, just keep smiling.' Nonetheless, when the question was a bit complicated like what skincare product I'm using, then I need to clarify and explain that my skincare product is not of those expensive brands but the ordinary drug store brands which can easily be found at any pharmacy. Well, the truth is I had tried at least three rather expensive brands; Clinique, Estee Lauder and SK-ll hoping that they would improve my skin condition but after only a few months of using them, there were blemishes all over my face. Yup, all three of t...

Green tea is believed to treat bad breath or halitosis. It is also said to cure gum disease and reduce gingivities. Research shows that green tea polyphenols (antioxidant compounds) can hinder the strength of bacteria causing gum disease and the damage it causes.

Today is the last day of school for the first half of the first term for this year (happy, holiday mood!!!), it's also the last and final day for one of my colleagues. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, in fact I didn't know how to act when someone is retiring. It's my first experience and I was sort of going with the flow even though I was one of the members who organized the farewell party (well, it's not a party really!) for him..... Personally, I'm not very closed with him, that's why I didn't know how to act (or what to feel) but he managed to share some words of wisdom with me when we happened to sit next to each for a brief moment. He said that we need to show our affection towards the students in order to get their attention and make them wanting to learn from us....(thank you, Cikgu Jamali...I will always remember that) In his final speech, he advised the students to respect the teachers and to take a rea...

Right at this moment, I'm counting the day for the mid-term break to start....Even though it's only for one week, I'm desperately yearning for a break right now.........this is because I've been working so hard for the past few weeks that I think I deserve a nice loooong break, but one week will do for the time being..... It's just to spare me sometime to come back to my senses and realign my mood to be ready for the next line up activities waiting to be realized in the second term....yikes! Let's see right after the break, there will be: SPM result  general PTA's meeting a visit from a group of Australian students  meeting and more meeting debate competition And the list goes on.....I think I gonna be crazy if I face all these without having enough energy/spirit to do so, given the stressful and long week I'm having now.....had to stay back all week for a course, meeting and some more meeting...gosh! now I realise...

Yessss!!!! finally I did it, even though I'm not really, truly satisfied with what I 've done at least I have taken the first step and  given the course to my colleagues. So now that the heavy burden on my shoulder had been lifted off and I know where do I stand and what I'm capable of (or not).... hehe..  Credit goes to my hubby who went into trouble to edit my Power Point presentation which no doubt received encouraging compliments from everybody. And I gathered everybody had fully understood what I've shared with them because they didn't raised any questions and seemed to be very attentive during the whole session......phew!!! Clearly, from what I've experienced  I think it might be a good idea for us to try something new in our lives once in a while, so that we can see things from different perspective and feel good about ourselves....

Well.....  the truth is you simply don't......it's something that I learnt that from my previous boss who advised me years back when I jhad just started my early career, the three magic words "never say no". Just the other day, I was debating with myself whether to say no or just accept my boss's suggestion (read: order) without giving him a slightest idea that I'm not capable of doing it ......it's kinda hard to explain coz it's not my job and I don't want to be a scapegoat to be doing it just because somebody else doesn't want to do it.  Anyway, it happened in the meeting, out of the blue like one bright idea bestowed upon him, my boss suggested me doing it ......which, no doubt appalled everyone in the committee and I was left absolutely stunned and speechless........obviously, I didn't make any comment and it was decided then.... Later, came few close friends playing devil's advocate......'This is not your ...

Last January, I have started this so-called monthly reflection...and here is my February's.....if I could remember correctly, I think I would start living a healthy life which means to eat healthily and do exercise....I've been trying, quite unsuccessfully, I'm afraid to exercise on cross-trainer...my target was at least twice a week but it seems it was only twice a month for Feb (too bad). Again, I guess time is to be blamed and it is the best excuse to be found....busy, tight schedule and so forth...And as far as food is concerned, I think i'm pretty satisfied with what I have achieved so far...even though I find it hard to have green tea everyday, at least i'm trying to..... As for my reading, I have finished reading the first novel last month and now have started on the second one....will be finished during the coming school holidays....no worries about achieving ten books for this year.. And since everybody seemed to be pretty preoccupied last m...

This post is to motivate me to drink more and more green tea....at least once a day...which I profoundly think I need a drive force....huhu... it's not easy when all this while you prefer to enjoy a cup of coffee instead of tea....but now, I manage to cut down on coffee to three cups or less in a week. (with a lot of effort, of course) Green tea is known to have antioxidan which can protect the skin from UV rays and chemicals in the air. It also prevent wrinkles and skin pigmentation..... So, ladies drink green tea for your beautiful skin.