Kemeriahan 2009

Walaupun masih ada lebih kurang 10 hari lagi sebelum tahun 2009 muncul, aku sudah dapat merasakan yang tahun itu bakal dipenuhi dengan kemeriahan.

Masa kan tidak... kawan2ku di Astopunk sejak hari raya puasa tempoh hari sudah pun merancang untuk mengadakan majlis pertemuan semula (kata mat sallehnya - reunion) selepas lebih 20 tahun kami membawa haluan masing2.

Sebelum ini ada juga reunion kecil2an, setakat mana yg ada terjumpa semula sedikit demi sedikit - setakat minum2 di MidValley pada tahun 2001 atau 2002, kemudian majlis2 hari raya di sini dan sana seperti di rumah Zaza (2004 atau 2005), rumah Ana (2007) dan rumah Tati (2008 - yg aku ketinggalan). Banyak yang "atau" kerana daya ingatanku yang agak "kureng".

Dijangkakan, majlis ini nanti bakal jadi yang terbesar sementelah lebih ramai rakan2 seAstopunk (senior '87) yang telah dapat dijejaki. Majlis telah dirancang untuk diadakan semasa cuti Tahun Baru Cina di Bagan Lalang - kami dan keluarga akan bermalam di sana. Butir-butir terperinci masih samar2 tetapi dari apa yang telah dibincangkan, mungkin akan ada majlis makan malam, sukaneka dan lain-lain.

Konsep yang telah dipersetujui ialah Retro 80an... zaman2 itu kami semua cuba nak rock dan biasanya fesyen kami di asrama ketika itu digelar fesyen "rock tak menjadi". Yalah, di asrama wajib berbaju kurung. Mana berpeluang untuk bergaya dengan jeans selalunya. Maka jadilah baju kurung yang lengannya dilipat hingga ke siku, dan kain yang tidak bergetah atau bercangkuk - hanya dilipat ala kain batik - senteng lagi! Yang bertudung, masa tu fesyennya tudung ikat di belakang dan menampakkan leher. Zaman itu, kalau bermini telekung pun sudah dikata orang "nak tunjuk alim".

Harap2nya ramai yang dapat menyertai majlis itu nanti. Aku juga berdo'a agar tiada aral yang bakal melintang buat aku sekeluarga menghadirinya.

Di sekitar kawasan perumahanku juga kujangka pasti bakal meriah. Jiran di sebelah kananku, kak Ani, baru sahaja pergi ke Puchong untuk meminang bagi pihak anak lelakinya minggu lepas. Majlis perkahwinan mereka dijangka bakal diadakan pada bulan Jun.

Pasangan yang tinggal selang satu rumah pula, Pak Man dan Kak Mah, telah menerima kunjungan peminangan dari Perak pada hari yang sama Kak Ani pergi meminang. Majlis juga dijangka diadakan pada 2009 - hanya tarikhnya yang belum ditetapkan.

Manakala, Pak Abu dan Kak Mas, jiran di sebelah kiri, juga merancang untuk mengadakan kenduri kahwin anak perempuan mereka tahun hadapan... Alamatlah rumahku akan menjadi sebahagian daripada proses kenduri2 tersebut...

Di pihak keluarga sendiri pula, ibu, pakcik2 dan makcik2ku sedang mengusahakan penubuhan sebuah yayasan keluarga efektif pada tahun 2009. Pastinya keluarga kami yang besar ini akan berkumpul dengan meriahnya berikutan mesyuarat demi mesyuarat di peringkat awal penubuhannya.

Demikianlah, belum pun muncul 2009, sudah aku rasakan kesibukan dan kemeriahan yang bakal kutempuhi.

Sad movies for the simple past tense.

This is the worksheet I've prepared to revise the lessons on the simple past of regular and irregular verbs.


SAD MOVIES (ALWAYS MAKE ME CRY)
(Words and Music by John D. Loudermilk)
Sue Thompson

Sad movies always make me cry

He _______(say) he ______(has) to work so I ________(go) to the show alone
They _______(turn) down the lights and ______(turn) the projector on
And just as the news of the world _______(start) to begin
I ______(see) my darling and my best friend walk in

Though I was sitting there they _______(not see)
And so they ______(sit) right down in front of me
When he ________(kiss) her lips I almost _______(die)
And in the middle of the color cartoon I _______(start) to cry.

Oh-oh-oh sad movies always make me cry
Oh-oh-oh sad movies always make me cry

And so I ______(get) up and slowly ______(walk) on home
And mama ______(see) the tears and ________(say) "what's wrong?"
And so to keep from telling her a lie
I just _______(say) "sad movies make me cry"

Oh-oh-oh sad movies always make me cry
Oh-oh-oh sad movies always make me cry
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

Sad movies make me cry


Original lyrics was from: http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/s/sadmoviesalwaysmakemecry.shtml


I just hope I would remember to remind my students not to do what the girl did - leaving her unfaithful boyfriend and her backstabbing friend right where they were. She should have confronted them right there!! They deserved a slap in their faces right in front of everybody in the cinema... he he... I'm just over-reacting, as usual.

A wonderful resource

I'm going to teach "occupations" to my elementary students and am designing some activities around a jazz chant I'm going to use.

The jazz chant is titled "He's a Wonderful Dentist" by Carolyn Graham. The jazz chant mentions a few occupations: dentist, patient (err...is this an occupation?), singer, dancer, writer, lawyer, teacher and students.

So, while looking for appropriate photos for my activities, I've come across this photo website - http://www.inmagine.com/searchterms/dentist.html

The photos there are so amazingly nice and clear, and just by keying in the job in the search box, it leads me to exactly the photos that I'm looking for.

Thank you inmagine. Hope to buy the CD one day. :)

Blue Jeans Blues

I like to use the jazz chant titled "The Blue Jeans Blues" by Carolyn Graham as either the opening, or the ending of my lesson about the clothes people wear.

My students would normally tell me that this one's more interesting than the rest of the jazz chants that I've made them recite in the class.

They told me those jazz chants made them sleepy, whereas this one is different. It's a song! A simple, yet an interesting one, just right for my beginner or elementary students.

And I'd like to relate about how I had taken an advantage of the students' liking of this jazz chant to kick start my elementary class one day - as well as the result.

First, we revised some of the nouns related to clothes that we had learned the day before i.e. a pullover, a scarf, gloves, trainers etc. Then, we recalled the adjectives that can go together with those nouns, i.e. tight, loose, comfortable, formal, smart etc.

The students were briefed that they were going to work in small groups of four, and their task was to replace the names of the clothing items in the jazz chants with other clothing items, and use a different adjective rather than blue.

They were also required to include some background sounds/music to their new song like clapping or finger-clicking. They were given 15 minutes for discussions and prepare for a presentation after that.

They seemed to enjoy the planning part it. There were lots of laughters and giggles while they decided on the new items and the new adjectives - and there were more of those when they start practising the new lyrics.

However, when they presented their new blues, the presentations weren't as exciting as I had imagined them to be. Most students were still shy - could be due to their age which range from 18 - 36 years old. At that time, my mixed-nationality students had also been classmates for only three weeks, so I guess they were still not very comfortable with each other.

Of course, there were a few students who tried harder than the rest, but their group mates' non-willingness to cooperate got to them quite fast. So when I asked them whether or not they'd like to present again, everybody refused.

I've tried to incorporate such activities (a bit of TPR) to my immersion classes before and they have failed every time. I used to be under the impression that TPR doesn't work with adult learners since their emotional barriers seem pretty high.

However, last two months, I had a chance to practise a bit of TPR combined with the grammar translation method with two groups(classes) of students in a local university. These students were all Malaysians, and the activity took place some time in their 7th or 8th week together as classmates.

I put them into small groups of four, and prior to the task, I had taught them The Beatles' song "Yesterday" in an attempt to demonstrate the lexical approach of learning English through songs.

In this activity, their task was to translate the song to Malay, their mother-tongue. The result was very encouraging. Not only the translation was good, they sang it with actions that portray the meaning of the song (in an attempt to insert the elements of TPR). The result - the whole class and I were very entertained.

Group discussions in progress as in the content-based approach we normally practice - something that I noticed my USIM students really enjoy doing in the classroom.

So, I guess it's not totally the age barrier that prohibits students from participating in this type of activities, but the level of comfort that they feel being with each other plays an important part. As adult students, the duration for their warming up and bonding with the others seems to be taking up quite some time.

Yesterday

I've always used this song, by The Beatles, in my language classroom - usually to differentiate the past tense to the present one. It can also be used to demonstrate the positive and the negative statements.

From my tinkering experience, this song is suitable even for beginners and elementary students since it's a slow song.

So far the result hasn't been disappointing. All the students whom I've taught this song had loved it! So fellow teacher-friends of mine, I would highly recommend this song for your classroom as well.





Yesterday,
All my troubles seemed so far away,
Now it looks as though they're here to stay,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
I'm not half the man I used to be,
There's a shadow hanging over me,
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she
Had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say.
I said, something wrong,
Now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday,
Love was such an easy game to play,
Now I need a place to hide away,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Why she
Had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say.
I said, something wrong,
Now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday,
Love was such an easy game to play,
Now I need a place to hide away,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.


Note: Of course, if you're teaching in an all-girls school or environment - the pronoun "she" can be changed to "he" to make it more personalized.

**This song is also the perfect song for me to listen to whenever I feel like I've been dumped - like today - sigh!

An old piece of writing

Found something in my mailbox, something that I wrote a long time ago, but not available on the net anymore - so here it is for sharing.



Things to do (or not do) when you are not satisfied with your job

by Mima Zohds



Step 1: Do not whine!


Whining does not take you anywhere. The most it can do is making you feel so sorry for yourself and bore people around you. Face the facts: nobody likes a whiny person. They can listen to your complaints and consult you once, but if you do not do anything to improve the situation and yet, keeps complaining over and over again - people will get tired of listening to you and will start avoiding you. The next thing you know, they will label you as a “loser”.



Step 2: Identify the problem.


Try to identify the reason for your not being satisfied with your present job. Is it the salary that is bugging you? Is it the seniority of position? Is it the toxic boss you have? Is it because your present job doesn’t allow you to have your own life? Or is it simply because you feel that you are in the wrong career line? Only by correctly identifying the reason for your dissatisfaction, you can plan on the next move you will take to correct the situation.



Step 3: Identify the solution – some suggestions:


Salary/Position

If it is the salary or the seniority of position that is bugging you, you may discuss the matter with your superior and come up with a career plan that may help you achieve the seniority and the salary that you are targeting for. You may also do a market research to get an idea of how much people with your experience and skills are getting paid outside and point it out to your superior. If you find it difficult to achieve, then just update your resume, and start looking for another job that will offer you a more senior position with a higher salary. The only thing to remember is, higher salary and position comes with higher responsibility and expectations, so make sure you are prepared for them.


Toxic boss

Nothing you can do can change your boss. The one that you can change is yourself - how you look at your boss. Try to find something positive about your boss that you can like and try to develop your relationship based on that. Read books and articles or sign up for courses on “How to manage your boss”. Find out what are your boss’ expectations of his/her subordinates and try to comply with them. Treat your boss as your most important client – after all, you are a service provider to your company, which includes your boss and your colleagues. Ever heard of the phrase “Customer First” or “Customer is always right”? If the situation is really unbearable - again, update your resume and start looking for another job. Don’t forget to pray hard that you will not end up having the same type of boss.


Wrong career line

If you feel that you are in the wrong career line, start identifying what is the field that will really make you happy, and start building plans and identifying opportunities that will help you make your career shift. There was one successful accountant who left his job to become a chef, and is a very famous chef today. There was one high-flying engineer who left his job to become a teacher for a quieter life with his beloved family. The most important thing is they are happy with the career shift that they made and leads a happier life now. However, you may want to consider signing up for courses or diplomas that will equip you with the knowledge and the skills you will need for your new job, and you may have to consider starting over with a lower salary than you have now.


Be your own boss!

If all other methods fail, consider building a small business on your own. You will be your own boss, so you won’t have to deal with toxic bosses. You can work towards the kind of income that you would like, it’s all yours to determine. You can work on things that you are interested in and be in love with what you are doing. Building your own business is certainly not an easy job, but the satisfaction you get out of it will be worth the experience.



Important reminder!


Whatever you decide, do not just jump out of your present job. Careful planning of your next step is crucial if you do not want to regret taking the decision. As unhappy as you are now, you do not want to start wandering on the street for a new job or tie up your stomach with stones! However, do not stay too long at your present job if you hate it seriously since it will be destructive for both your company and yourself. Act quickly, but wisely.



Mima Zohds was a teacher in the public secondary school. She left teaching to explore other job options, seeking to discover her hidden skills and talents. Committed to the cause of education and life-long learning, she has tried her hands at writing, editing, working on translations, conducting training and facilitating experiential groups; and is now experimenting on instructional designing. Mima welcomes feedback at mimazohds@yahoo.com


Published in Prodigy – The Promuda Mouthpiece Volume 1, Issue 5, November 2002.

A confession, or rather, a-bit-too-late review of a portal

Call me outdated, but I just have to make a confession. I'm having a fever, and it's not the normal fever - it's the facebook fever.

I'm or was on ryze, imeem, friendster, ning, wayn n hi5 b4 but I don't really use them. Most of the time when I had wanted to check them out, I would have forgotten what was the ID I used or what was the password.

So when friends started to invite me to facebook, I had just ignored their emails. However, when the invitations kept coming in, I became curious - why so many people are hooked to facebook.

Once I accepted it...wow...almost everyone's here (well, I'm exaggerating it a bit). I found so many long-lost friends here - and not only them - I've also found my long-lost foes. How painful the feelings were when I saw their faces in facebook - I nearly wanted to abandon it.

However, after exploring it for quite some time, I fell in love with it. It's so convenient coz lots of applications are embedded on the web page itself.

I can send messages to people just like email, and there's a messenger-like tool which is embedded so one can see friends who are online, and can chat with them. Cool, isn't it? It's like we get all the yahoo applications but all in one page.

We can even create and join groups here, just like yahoogroups. In addition, there is a wall just like online guestbooks.

No wonder so many people talk about it. Gee... how could I be so ignorant... My guess - more and more people will join facebook and abandon yahoogroups, yahoo messenger, guestbooks, ryze, friendster, hi5 - whatever cool things we already have here but stands alone as a separate entity.

So watch out Yahoo! and the rests... Here comes a very big competitor. But then, it could be just another phase of an excitement - who knows? ((shrug...))

Cerita-ceriti Raya

My other group of new children in USIM:
Awin, Ekin, Syida, Farah, Pijah, Fatehah, Nik, Fizah, Aty, Izzaty & Wawa
- Abdullah Fadzil (jurugambar)

Raya tahun ni memang terasa meriahnya. Entah kenapa selama bertahun-tahun aku tak pernah suka beraya, tapi tahun ni rasanya seronok sungguh... walaupun tahun ni turn raya di rumah mak mertua, dan plan aku nak tukar langsir baru (yg ada tu dah 3-4 kali raya) tak menjadi... Punya la sakan beraya minggu pertama, sampaikan minggu kedua aku kong kerana demam teruk...

Dalam pada suka2 tu, sedih pun ada, kerana dgn tamatnya Syawal, tamatlah servis aku di USIM dan MFI unt semester ini. Yelah, walaupun mungkin jumpa lagi, environment tu dah tak sama mcm dlm kelas kan... di USIM kali ini aku ada 13 + 12 anak2 or adik2... (mana2 kategori pun boleh) - kat MFI 41 orang. So aku ingat alang2 dah raya tu, aku buatlah makan2 untuk anak2 aku ni - kira2 majlis perpisahan le tu...

Excited gak masa merancang majlis ni... yelah, aku ni sebenarnya anti-sosial sikit. Jarang ajak org dtg rumah, apa lagi ramai2 macam ni. Kedua, aku biasa masak untuk habis2 bnyk 4-5 org makan je... ni nak masak untuk ard 70 ppl... cam ne ek....? So, aku pun dapatkan le pertolongan anak2/adik2 angkat sulung aku untuk jadi bentara majlis la kononnya.

Alkisah, sibuk la sikit minggu tu. Aku ajak diorg dtg Sabtu petang jam 5, tp Jumaat malam baru aku sempat nak membeli bhn2 mentah nak masak. Dh tu org belakang rumah buat majlis birthday anak dia, kwn anak aku gak... so, kena la singgah. Since hajat hati nak menjamu laksa dan nasi goreng cina, terpaksa la aku berjaga sampai ke 4 pg menyiang ikan dan memotong ayam. Tu pun anak bujang aku si Irsyad dan anak angkat aku si Nabil dah tolong vacuum rumah dan settlekan muffin sampai jam 1 pagi.

Paginya pulak ada kerja, nk kena gi ofis IH... pas tu visit anak buah di hospital... dekat2 kol 2 baru sampai rumah babe... Kelam-kabut aku dibuatnya... Baru la nak perisi ikan yg aku rebus malam sebelum tu, nak kupas bawang dan bermcm2 lagi yg x sempat aku nak layan malam sebelumnya.

Bentara2 aku yg janji nak dtg tlg kol 2 datang lebih krg kol 4... Tu pun nasib baik datang... dapat le aku delegate kerja2 memotong itu dan ini yg remeh-temeh dlm pembuatan laksa tu kat diorg... Adik aku yg janji nak bawakkan dapur api besar dia tu pulak tak sampai2, so terpaksa la kitorg memulakan proses memasak kuah laksa menggunakan periuk besar (periuk kenduri) yg kupinjam dari mak aku, atas api dapur aku yang hidup segan mati tak mahu tu... Akibatnya, bila tetamu2 aku dh sampai lewat jam 5 tu, kuah laksa kitorang tu macam jauh je lagi nak mendidih...

Nasib baik adik aku sampai kala tu... dapatla tutup dapur aku dan guna api dapur dia. Boleh le sebelah masak laksa dan sebelah lagi wat nasi goreng cina. Urusan tu semua di ambil-alih oleh adik aku dan bentara2 di dapurku petang itu... Aku kena layan tetamu, tapi dgn makanan yg belum siap, mati kutu gak aku nak melayan diorg, habis2 pun takat pelawa suruh minum air dulu le...ahak ahak... Nasib baik lepas tu kuar le kuah laksa dan nasi goreng sikit2... tak tau le aku apa perasaan tetamu aku hari tu... susah2 datang, dah la jamuannya tak seberapa - kena lak tunggu lama macam tu. Dalam hati aku rasa serik nak kumpulkan diorang ramai2 mcm tu lagi... Tu pun students aku yg dari MFI x sampai 20 kerat yg dtg... Lepas2 ni kalau aku nak ajak diorg makan, aku ajak satu kelas demi satu kelas... pas tu pot luck... ha ha ha...

So... ni le rupa2 majlis aku hari tu...

MFI guests- all male, babe! Kalu suami aku ada, sure dia jealous tak pasal2.


Some of my USIM girls... (gambar tak cantik..anak aku yg amik...)
Girls, kalau u all ada gambar elok sikit, tlg email yek...

Piknik para penanggah (kat belakang rumah).



Sedia berkhidmat - Fazlan (USIM) dan Kamal (MFI)


Tak lupa ucapan terima kasih kepada Hamizah yang tak berhenti2 mencuci pinggan mangkuk.

Farah dgn misi membuat kek coklatnya... tak sangka Kamal pandai bagi konsultansi pasal kek...


Bentara2 aku yang lain melepaskan lelah... sis Nana, son Irsyad,
Fithri, Hasnur, Asila, Mahmudah, Izzati, Adila...

Thanks everybody. All of you (baik yg sudi mampir, mahu pun yg tlg rewang) had made the recent hari raya a very meaningful one for me. Love all of you. Mmmmuah!!!

Di ambang perpisahan

Buka puasa with my first babies in USIM.

Ramadhan hampir pergi,
amalan tak cukup lagi,
masihkah ada umur kami,
untuk bertemumu sekali lagi?

Setiap kali kauhampir meninggalkan kami,
setiap kali itu aku berjanji,
akan kubuat itu dan ini,
jika diizinkan-Nya bertemumu lagi.

Setiap kali itu juga kurasa,
kaupasti berasa hampa,
apa kukata tidak dikota,
peluang yang ada kusia-sia.

Apa yg nyata aku jua yg rugi,
sedangkan engkau semakin pergi,
insya Allah kaukan datang lagi,
hanya aku yg tidak pasti,
apakah umurku masih berbaki,
untukku bertemu denganmu sekali lagi?

Wahai Ramadhan, selamat jalan,
mudah2an amalan kurangku ini diterima Ya Rahman,
segala khilafku Dia ampunkan,
dan umurku Dia panjangkan,
agar mampu bersamamu lagi di tahun hadapan.

Mom's birthday



Buka puasa with my new USIM kids:
Haziq, Nabila, Syaima, Fisha, Miza, Nurul, Ain, Safiyyah, Sa'adah, Fazren, Hani, Mu'azzah

In your wildest dream by Moody Blues

I used to be so crazy over this song when I was a teenage in the late 80s whenever TV3 aired their music video. Up until now, I've never had the kind of feeling I have for this song when listening to other songs. It's like the feeling that a secret admirer has whenever the person admired passed by near... sounds crazy, nevertheless, a wonderful head over heels kind of feeling which I find out I still have for this particular song...



Once upon a time
Once when you were mine
I remember skies
Reflected in your eyes
I wonder where you are
I wonder if you
Think about me
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams

Once the world was new
Our bodies felt
the morning dew
That greets the brand new day
We couldn't tear
ourselves away
I wonder if you care
I wonder if you still remember
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams

And when the music plays
And when the words are
Touched with sorrow
When the music plays
I hear the sound
I had to follow
Once upon a time
Once beneath the stars
The universe was ours
Love was all we knew
And all I knew was you
I wonder if you know
I wonder if you think about it
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams

And when the music plays
And when the words are
Touched with sorrow
When the music plays
And when the music plays
I hear the sound
I had to follow
Once upon a time

Once upon a time
Once when you were mine
I remember skies
Mirrored in your eyes
I wonder where you are
I wonder if you
Think about me
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams
In your wildest dreams
In your wildest dreams

My morning breakfast for the past few months

Choosing a career : A personal experience

(This post is a mirror copy of my blog post in Web Writing).

For the last two weeks, the topic for my "Reading and Writing" class in a local university was "career". We read three articles in the textbook - and we ended up with a lengthy discussion about my students' interests and where they think they are heading to.

We discussed the reasons why people would work, and what would be my students' personal reasons. Some of their answers got me to think about myself. Like most people, I work for money - but not for a lot of money, just enough to sustain my life. I place a higher priority on learning. Yes, for me to stay interested in my job, I've got to be able to learn new things - once work becomes a routine and my learning graph becomes static, I would become restless and start looking for a new job.

That explains why in my resume, I only stayed for about 3 years in a place - or simply put as why I job-hopped. And it also explains why I now become a freelancer.

In the class, we also discussed about identifying our personal talents, strengths and interests in order to determine our career paths. And I came across some students who somehow reflected myself - they have too many interests and thus, it's hard for them to decide on a career path. Like them, I want to know and be everything. I used to dream of becoming an architect, but I was also interested in arts - and I had wanted to be a writer too. Due to my family's financial constraints though, I ended up taking a scholarship to be a trained teacher.

I loved teaching, but I had wanted to learn other things too - so, right after I'd completed my 7-years contract with the government , I'd become a web-content writer for a web-designing company, and later a subject-matter experts coordinator cum editor with a company dealing with educational software. That was when I found out that I'm actually a people person. Working in an office facing the computer most of the time had made me feel a bit lonely. I missed noises, and I missed being surrounded by young faces that adore me. So, I went back to teach in a local college.

Teaching in a college proved to be more satisfactory than teaching in the secondary school. Students were more willing to learn, thus I had less problem with class management. I had more freedom to experiment with my teaching methods and approaches too, since colleges have soundproof classrooms. But once I'd taught all subjects possible for all the faculties in that college, and my learning graph had become static again, I just couldn't resist trying on something new.

Being a freelancer, I get to continue doing what I love - teaching - and at the same time I'm free to explore new areas that I'm interested in. I am teaching in three different places on and off, so I get to experience three different teaching environments - one deals with the international students, another deals with all-male technical students and the other one deals with human sciences students from religious education background. On top of that, whenever I don't have classes, I can learn about financial planning, how to pitch for sales and at times be a sub-translator for those who are doing it on a full-time basis.

And being me - these are not enough. I'm still far away from calling myself a "writer", and I want to be one. Plus, I have another ambition that haven't been realized - I want to study interior design, and I want to be a farmer, too.

So... how do I advise my students on how to choose their career paths?

I told them they can choose one area of interest, study it deeper and deeper, and they will be called as "experts" in that area. Famous and rich.

Or they can explore all of their interests for the sake of experiencing and "knowing" about each, but they will be just like me - not established in any field. Not rich, yet content. :D

Yes, that's me - Mima.

We ended our class with a thought-provoking poem by Robert Frost - "The Road Not Taken".

TESL Pioneers' 20 years reunion

Our reunion happened on the 23rd of August 2008. A Saturday nite.

Balik malam tu aku punya bersemangat kalau boleh nak upload all photos and write all abt it in my blog , and send to the TESL yahoogroups malam tu gak... but me n th internet... memang lembab sikit selalunya... sebab bnyk sgt commitment lain yg nak dilayan, such as homework anak2 murid yg berlambak aku tk dan nak mark tu... he he... so sampai la la ni... ni pun aku copy n paste n modified je message aku kat depa...

This was 'us' during orientation week in UKM, back in 1990.

Tapi malam tu memang seronok... makan memang la tak lavish sangat mcm dibah belanja kitorang dulu, but then malam tu memang tk berapa ingat nak makan sangat sbb seronok sgt dapat jumpa kawan2 especially yg dh lama lost contact. After so many years... aku ingat ada 6-7 tahun aku lost contact dgn Noraizah and Nurazlina, housemates aku kat BBB dulu... malam tu baru dapat jumpa balik... halis, partner aku kat high school kajang dulu pun lepas practical langsung tak pernah jumpa - jumpa gak malam tu. Wan jiran lama aku, zuhana yg aku pernah contact masa aku kerja kat renong dulu dan lps tu lost contact balik, nazima n che' khai yg aku tak pernah jumpa sejak grad, dan ramai lagi lah... excited sungguh rasanya malam tu...

Bukan setakat yang mai malam tu aku dpt jejak kasih... yg tak mai pun sama... esok tu aku belek balik skrip lagu yg organizer sediakan, tak sangka siap nombor telefon semua org ada dalam list tu... buat penat aku mintak nomboq semua org je malam tu... Nampak phone number salmi, housemate aku lagi sorang kat situ... terus aku call...

Rupa2nya setelah aku berpisah dgn salmi lepas aku berpindah-randah dari rompin ke kelang ke penang ke kl ke pj ke cj , salmi dok setia lagi di mersing... ye lah... dia kawin org sana... but then, bab yg sedih, aku baru tau yg husband dia dah meninggal abt a year ago... pas tu salmi bg tau aku nor pun dah kehilangan husband dia abt 4 years ago... Innalillahi wa innnalillahi raji'un... Terasa sgt aku ni betul2 kawan tak guna sbb tak ambik tahu hal kengkawan for the past few years.

Tunggu bas for the visit to "STAR"

Aku memang sokong cadangan jadikkan the reunion an annual event. Mudah2an dapat jumpa lebih ramai kengkawan and refresh mana2 memories yg dah hampir pupus sebelum kita betul2 dah tua n nyanyuk (if the next reunion is in another 20 years :D). Being a cikgu for so long now, I don't mind tempat tak mahal n makan tak sedap, I'm used to it. For me, buat kat kantin UKM pun tak pe. Yg penting dpt berkumpul n feel belonged to the group once again.

So aku nak tabik spring kat semua yg terlibat jadi organizer malam tu. Thank you for the wonderful night frenz!

Irsyad khatam al-Quran

Malam ini malam majlis tahlil keluarga berserta acara khatam, hadiah hari jadi dari nenek untuk irsyad.

Cheng Ho Restaurant review

We were invited by dear Norish to taste the new food in her new restaurant on the 5th of March. She has been talking about her plan to open a restaurant for few years and alhamdulillah, now it's taking flight...

Food was umphhh... fabulous, no where that I've tasted food as good as those they served us that night ever before. The kerabu mangga was out of this world. The mix vege was excellent, nothing that I could complaint - the vege were all fresh and crisp, even the prawns inside tasted like they came fresh from the sea - like those I used to have back in Kuala Rompin. Not to mention their fried prawns... umpphhh..... can't describe its deliciousness. You simply got to taste them yourselves!

The tom yam - only now I've found one that is better or close to the one I used to like in a restaurant in Kuantan so many years ago. Can't recall the name of that restaurant though. Was it Restoran Pattani? For years, I've lost appetite eating tom yam since nothing that I've come across was at par with the one there, but in Cheng Ho, I've found that appetite again.

The last dish was siakap masak nyonya. We were almost full by that time by so many dishes they served us and was surprised that there was another one. We thought we wouldn't be able to finish it - but well, as it was so good, we manage to clean the plate. He he!

All in all, it's a restaurant that I would recommend to anybody, not because it belongs to someone dear to me, but because the food is really, really good you wouldn't regret ordering (or paying for it). Ah yes, and the kids were given oreo ice-blended, I couldn't resist tasting it - it was so surprisingly good - make sure you order that too when you happen to visit the restaurant!

And the ID, though according to Norish, is not 100% completed, is still catchy and attractive. White and red - plus black and white large buntings on Chinese Muslims' lifestyle - I really like the surrounding. Red is always a good choice for eating places - increase the appetite and make people hungry but combine it with white - it looks so stylish and create peacefulness while eating.

Location? Wangsa Maju, the road behind Carrefour, Jalan Wangsa Delima 10 - 15 & 17G - you wouldn't miss it.


I pray to Allah that this restaurant will become a success story, that Norish and Amy will be able to open more branches across Malaysia as they have planned, and that their life together is always blessed by the Almighty in the world and in the hereafter, forever.

Ameen...

Eye on Malaysia

Yes, it took us that long to finally reach this much talked-about place in the city. It happened on one fine Saturday afternoon, when DH finally felt like he could sacrifice some of his time to be spent with us rather than working.

Irsyad took it as our celebration for his khatam Qur'an. I took it as one of our special quality time spent together as one small happy family which rarely happens.

We spent the afternoon riding the giant merry-go-round. It was then when I discovered that Irsyad was scared of height. Ha ha, so much for dreaming to be the future angkasawan. Naufal enjoyed it, and Irsyad soon forgot about his phobia and began to enjoy the ride.



When we get down, we had a nice teatime with a cup of muffin and a piece of cake as Irsyad requested for us to celebrate his khatam Qur'an (pity the boy since his dad didn't want to conduct a kenduri for him). Then, the kids began to surround the clown who was there, hoping to get some balloons from her, which they finally got after waiting for abt an hour!


What disappointed us was when we prayed Maghrib, the surau was so dark without electricity,not to mention its size. How could that happen when outside they had so much light, in fact, they were having this lights and sound shows at night!

Anyway, we did enjoy the lights and sound shows, and just couldn't resist buying some souvenirs as the moments we spent there were beautiful. The time we spent there has opened DH's heart to spend such time with us again in the future, of course in other tourists' locations that we've been neglecting to take our children to all this while. :)

Kakiku ditoreh

Berbulan2 tumit kiriku sakit. Segala refleksologi dan urut x meredakan kesakitan itu. Aku dikhabarkan bhw ia mungkin bpunca dr kegagalan buah pinggang yg mnyebabkn asid urik bkumpul d tumit. Maka bila si tkg bekam kata bekam blh mngeluarkn asid urik dr tumitku, aku pn setuju melakukannya. Kusangka darah akan disedut melalui leliang roma. Mana ku tahu kaki ku akan ditoreh2 sebegini. Lbh 2 minggu aku menahan sakit bekas torehan di kiri kanan tumitku. Manakan tidak, tiap kali berwudhu atau keluar tandas, pasti dibasahi air. Menurut si tkg bekam, ia akan bertaup dan xkan meninggalkn parut. Tp sehingga hari ini kulit yg tertoreh itu blm bertaup sepenuhnya dan masih berparut. Rasanya aku dh serik nk berbekam.

Taekwondo acts

Aksi Irsyad sms ujian taekwondo sabtu minggu terdahulu. Terkejar2 aku balik dr USIM nk hantar dia, rupanya dia ikut tati celebrate bday irfan. Panik kejap aku takut dia x dtg test. Call tati x dpt2. Last2 gi tpt taekwondo rupanya dh ada kat sana. Irsyad lulus dn dpt green belt. Paling gempak si nabil dpt double promotion, tego 2 terus...tak sia2 sponsor dia.

ELSP in USIM

As I prepared to leave my house on a saturday last two weeks, I kinda regret tht I hd accepted this task of being a facilitator for this program since I hv to leave th kids n x able 2 spend th weekend w them. But as th day went by, I actually enjoyed spending time helping th stds to get prepared 4 MUET as I had liked them. They were polite and nice; eventhough they were sleepy, they tried to hide it from me. He he. There were abt 28 stds in my class. Most r weaker than my FKP students last sem, but they r just as cooperative. Overall, tching in USIM hs always been a nice experience for me n I'v already planned to teach here again nxt sem. B-)

Today's theme: A floral visit

Paying a visit and a closer look to all the flowers in my front yard that I've been neglecting for quite some time, today.

Luckily, you guys still bloom nicely to give me a nice welcome home greetings!




I don't really know what's the name of this plant or what people call the flower, but I like it anyway... :)

This is an exotic tropical flower... again I don't know what its name, but I call it 'pokok pisang' (banana plant) since the leaves look like banana plant. Orange has always been my favourite colour.

I used to plant the white version of this flower back in Kulim. Somehow, I prefer the pink ones now. The white ones remind me of my late dad a lot. I always remember how I tried to plant the white lilies on my dad's grave but somehow, it wouldn't grow there like it used to grow in my frontyard.

This larger orange lily was given to me by sis Tati when she was moving out fro her house in BB Bangi, and has been planted, and replanted, potted and out for a few times since.

I used to think of this plant as 'pokok rumput', something that I'm not so keen to have in my garden. But Irsyad liked it and had actually brought it home and planted it. So now it's there, and has given us so any flowers that I finally think that it's quite charming in its own way...

The name? Again I fail!

This 'kemboja' plant has been with me for a long, long time, since kulim if I'm not mistaken, and it's my only bonsai attempt that has ever survived. :)

This flower that looks like the malay 'siantan' flower tht my late grnma used to have in her frontyrd hd caught my eyes when I first moved to work in Cyberjaya. There were so many of this flowers alongside the road near Ericsson tht it made me crazy of wanting to own it. I found this plant first in a nursery in Seri Kembangan, but somehow it died aft I'd bought it. This one I found in a nursery in BB Bangi, and this time I made sure I asked for tips on how to take care of this plant. Alhamdulillah, this one has survived being in my possession for over two years now.

This one is called 'bunga mahkota' (direct translation: crown flower). I used to feel so impressed when I first saw this plant, that a cacti can produce so many beautiful flowers! Oh wow.

This one is really, really 'bunga rumput'. Nevertheless, it has nice purple flowers that look like buttons. This one is planted outside my house. I don't remember how it has reached my house but I guess it must be another Irsyad's project somehow.

Maka terhasillah...

Naufal's self-taken photos!

Gaya si irsyad merakam gambar diri sendiri

diperhatikan oleh naufal...

Pengaruh Ben 10

Dh 2-3 hari naufal x lepa dgn jam ben 10 nya sejak babanya kena ketuk di hentian awan besar.

Lutut budak nakal

Dahi budak nakal

Inilah akibatnya apabila anak kecil berlari-lari menyeberang jalan...hmm...

"Kan Ummi dah kata..."

Finally...after 9 days

As I left for work ths morning, I saw piles of BN's flags and posters along th road. 'Finally, they r cleaning up th place,' I thot. Tru enuf, I didn't c any (am exaggerating) campaigng stuffs on my way home. All Pak Lah's posters on th trees were gone! He he... But I did c 4-5 small posters of Khir Toyo still stuck on a few lamp posts. Th price of being famous, I take it. Hvg ur nice smooth face being exposed to th sun n th rain... Even eating tempe can't help in that sense, now tht th face is on posters, i mean. He he...

Nice view in Cyberjaya 2day

Pabila mentari sembunyi di balik awan...