Naufal tumpang seronok.

B4 op, irsyad kena puasa. So unt lunch n tea, naufal le yg tibai. Bilik baru abg yad ada extra bed, naufal pn apa lagi, syok la dpt baring sambil pegang remote. Abg yad punya kesan bius belum hilang lagi. Abg yad tidur n naufal's got th 'power'. Hai... mengadap Disney channel je la jawabnya.

Irsyad - post operation

Just came out fr th op theatre for hernia.

Naufal's graduation day

At Thistle in Port Dickson

Stay from Cinderella '80 the movie

I still remember how crazy we, the hostel girls, were when we watched the movie on TV3, a new station then.

The movie is a modern version of Cinderella. The girl, Cindy, like Cinderella, has a stepmother and two stepsisters who take advantage of her. Her life becomes meaningful after a so, so, so, so, very, very, very cute boy (that was what we thought then) comes into her life. He appears to be a poor musician, and they spend a lot of their time in a green house for plants. At the end of the story, she discovers that he's actually a prince and she feels cheated. But then, love always wins - they make up and I suppose they live happily ever after, just like Cinderella and her prince charming.

The movie had really moved us, and the theme song "Stay" became our favourite. All of us were head over heels in love with Pierre Cosso and wished that we were Bonnie Bianco singing this song with him. Oh... the way he looks at her in the movie could have killed any of us had he really looked at us that way. We drooled just looking at his beautiful eyes.

So strong was the effect of the movie on us, that one day, knowing that TV3 was having a rerun of the movie and the hostel rule was such that we couldn't watch TV on weekdays, we had actually used a small saw to remove the padlock locking the TV and watched it secretly. We had bought a new padlock beforehand to replace the one we had planned to saw, and then gave the new key to the hostel prefects, coming up with excuses like we had accidentally broken the old key inside the old padlock and therefore had taken the responsibility to replace it.

I can't remember if the hostel management had actually discovered the truth or not. However, I would always remember one of the most powerful movies that had affected me, as well as my friends, as we were growing up together at the hostel - Cindy 80, and a song that has become so sentimental to all of us - Stay.

Anakku graduate.

Majlis khatam al-Quran beramai2 dan penyampaian sijil bg tahfiz2 di sekitar Bangi berlangsung di Masjid Uniten pada 22 November 2009. Terharu dan sebak aku semasa acara berkhatam ini. Rasa seolah-olah baru sehari sebelumnya aku hantar Irsyad memasuki Tahfiz al-Madani dan hari ini dia sudahpun menamatkan pengajiannya di Tahfiz al-Hidayah.

Ujian taekwondo

Jangan main-main. Naufal depan sekali masa ujian baru ni.

Kaki Naufal dah panjang.

Dah besar dah anakku yg seorang ni... dah 6 tahun, tapi masih menyebok di katil kami... hai la anak!

Tiada bandingannya...

Sesiapa yg tengok cerita Nenek Kebaya di TV9 malam2 mesti biasa dengar lagu tagnya..."Kuasa tuhan tiada bandingan..."

Satu malam, lepas dengar lagu ni, masa tengah iklan, Naufal pun bertanya... " Ummi, apa makna tiada bandingan?"

Aku pun fikir... (Hmmm... macamana nak jawab ni?)

"Ha... dalam rumah ni siapa perempuan yang paling cantik?"

Sambil tersipu-sipu, Naufal pun menjawab... "Ummi laa... mana ada perempuan lain lagi dalam rumah ni..."

Lalu, aku pun menerangkan... "ha... itu la makna tiada bandingan... Naufal tak boleh bandingkan ummi dengan sapa-sapa pun dalam rumah ni sebab ummi sorang je perempuan..."

Aku apa lagi, tersenyum2 perasan sebab Naufal terpaksa cakap aku yang paling cantik... he he...

My Love Will Get You Home

by Christine Glass

A great song to practice the first conditional.

Try sequencing these lines to make sensible lyrics, then listen and check whether you have put them in the correct order:


my love will get you home.

my love will get you home.

my love will get you home.

my love will get you home.

my love will get you home.

my love will get you home.

my love will get you home.

my love will get you home.

my love will get you home.

my love will get you home.

Boy, my love will get you home.

Boy, my love will get you home.

Boy, my love will get you home.

Boy, my love will get you home.

Boy, my love will get you home.

lost and all alone,

lost and all alone,

lost and all alone,

lost and all alone,

If you wander off too far,

If you follow the wrong star,

If the bright lights blind your eyes,

If your troubles break your stride,

If you ever feel ashamed,

When there's only you to blame,

If you ever find yourself,

If you ever find yourself,

If you ever find yourself,

If you ever find yourself,

A trip to Petrosains.

Zathura movie in the classroom

The new upper-elementary class has been exposed to vocabulary of rooms and furniture earlier this week. Thus, I think Zathura is a good movie for them to watch since all the events in the movie centres around the house. Following the sequence of events is also one of the necessary skills in this level and thus to ensure that the students are awake and alert while watching the movie, here's the worksheet that I could think of for the time-being.

Zathura – the space adventure movie.

Find the answers to these questions while watching the movie.

1. Danny is the youngest of three siblings. How old is he? _______

2. What is the name of Danny’s brother? ____________
How old is he? ______

3. What’s the name of Danny’s sister? ______

4. In which room does Danny find the Zathura game? The _______________.

5. Tick the rooms or parts of the house that you see in the movie.

____ attic
____ backyard
____ basement
____ bathroom
____ bedroom
____ front yard
____ hall
____ kitchen
____ living room
____ stairs
____ study

6. Name three furniture you see in the living room.
i. ________________
ii.________________
iii.________________

7. Number the events in the movie according to the correct sequence:

____ They have to rescue a stranded astronaut.
____ Another Danny appears.
____ Danny's sister becomes frozen.
____ Danny and his brother have to survive meteor showers.
____ The house is drawn into the black hole.
____ A malfunction robot attacks Danny’s brother.
____ Danny’s brother is caught cheating and sucked into space.
____ Danny’s brother gets the first wishing card.
____ Zargons attack the house.


Post-movie question: Complete the following statement.

I like / dislike this movie because _____________________________________________.

I've also found out that NASA has come up with great lesson plans for Zathura. One of those is at http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/zathura/zathura_nasa35_lesson.pdf

Ahlan ya Ramadhan...

Rindunya pada Ramadhan
pada sejuk sebelum subuh
sewaktu dulu kita bersahur
adakala kita terlena di meja
sedang mama leka memasak aneka juadah
pembuka selera anak-anak yang kelopak mata masing-masing
masih melekat kuat
sehingga terdengar bunyi azan
"tak apa..." kata mama, "makan cepat-cepat"
sedang mama hanya melihat dan meneguk air liur saja

Rindunya pada Ramadhan
pada pedih perut di waktu tengahari
diiringi kering tekak hingga ke petang
"itulah rasanya orang miskin yang tak punya apa-apa
untuk dimakan atau diminum," kata mama
"bersyukurlah atas apa jua nikmat yang Allah beri kepada kita,
kerana ia masih lebih baik dari kebanyakan orang yang malang"
dan kita pun terus berusaha berlatih menahan kesabaran

Rindunya pada Ramadhan
pada keresahan di penghujung hari
saat penantian waktu berbuka
kita masing-masing begitu teruja
makanan dan minuman terhidang di atas meja
dan kita setia menadah tangan untuk membaca do'a berbuka
walaupun azan hanya akan berkumandang sepuluh minit lagi
namun kita tak peduli, terus menanti
sungguhpun kekadang "terlupa" lalu "ter"minum air
yang "berpeluh-peluh" di luar gelas yang menunggu kita

Rindunya pada Ramadhan
pada lunak bacaan Qur'an di malam hari
di radio-radio dan TV
juga suara mama memecah sunyi
menjerit memanggil kita turut mengaji - "bertadarrus"
juga rindu pada suara Imam di Makkah
pada jam 3-4 pagi semasa siaran langsung
solat tarawih dari Makkah di kaca TV
sungguh, hanya pada bulan inilah pun
kita lama sedikit di tikar sejadah...

Rindunya pada Ramadhan
berdebar-debar hatiku menanti ketibaannya lagi
seumpama kekasih yang sudah lama takku temui
menitis air mata dan sebak dadaku
mengharapkan ketibaannya kali ini
dan mengharapkan panjangnya umurku
serta keizinan Allah agar dapat kami bertemu kembali

Rinduku padamu Ramadhan
seumpama pungguk merindukan bulan.

Cars - Pixar's movie in the classroom

Here's another movie that I've used in my elementary English classroom. The activities have been based on the students' previous lessons which covered the vocabulary related to towns, geographical features, transport, adjectives, opposite adjectives and comparative adjectives.

We began the class by doing a bit of an "ice-breaking" activity with some of the characters or names that the students will encounter in the movie - a word search activity from http://www.printables4kids.com/. Some names belong to the characters and some are the names of places around the town and such.

Right before watching the movie, the students were briefed on the while-watching tasks.

Here's the content of the worksheet I've built. Ideally the content should be placed in a table format. Teachers need to prepare the pictures of these characters for the students to cut and paste. Google Images happened to be a good source for me when I was looking for them!


Cars by Pixar - While-watching tasks.

1. Who’s who?

Instruction: Work in pairs. While watching, complete this summary of the characters in the movie. Then, paste the correct picture to match each text.

a. Lightning McQueen is a young r_ _ _ c_ _. He is poised to become the youngest car ever to win the P_ _ _ _ _ Cup Championship.

b. Mater is a rusty t_ _ - t _ _ _ _. Mater runs Tow-Mater T _ _ _ _ _ and S _ _ _ _ _ _ and manages the local impound lot.

c. Sally is a beautiful 2002 Porsche 911. She is the town a_ _ _ _ _ _ _ and also the owner of C _ _ _ Cone M _ _ _ _.

d. Doc Hudson is a 19_ _ Hudson H _ _ _ _ _, a country d_ _ _ _ _ who runs the local "medical clinic" (mechanic shop) in the town. He is also the town’s M_ _ _ _.

e. Mack is a 19_ _ Mack S_ _ _ _ -L_ _ _ _ and McQueen's trusted driver. He pulls McQueen’s t_ _ _ _ _ _ to his races.

f. Ramone is a 1959 Impala low-rider who owns and operates Ramone's H_ _ _ _ of B _ _ _ A _ _ , the local custom body and paint shop.

g. Flo is a 1950's show car. She runs the local diner, Flo's _-_ Cafe, the only _ _ _ station for miles around. She’s married to Ramone.

h. The K_ _ _, Strip Weathers, is a 1970 Plymouth S_ _ _ _ b _ _ _ and a racing legend. He has won more P_ _ _ _ _ Cup races than any other cars in history. He is going to retire at the end of the season and Lightning McQueen aims to fill his treads.


Source of info and content:
http://www.meeko.org/disney/cars/Cast.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cars_characters


2. What is the name of the town featured in the movie?

________________________________________________________


3. Name three geographical features you’ve seen in the movie.
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________



Ideally, discuss the answers to the while-watching questions with the students right after the movie. Then, students can be assigned with the post-movie tasks, either as a follow-up activity in the classroom, or as homework.


Post-movie tasks:


1. Write three adjectives to describe Radiator Spring before the new highway was built, and three more after it has been built.

Before After
i. i.
ii. ii.
iii. iii.

3. McQueen has changed a lot by the time he left the town, Radiator Spring. Compare McQueen to himself before the days he was in the town. Write three sentences. Use the comparative adjectives.
i.
ii.
iii.

If I had more time, I would have included singing the song "Our town" by James Taylor as an additional activity. That would be more fun!



I welcome feedback gearing at improving the activities related to this movie - meanwhile, have fun tinkering in your classroom!

Amusing...

1. Who got to be the co-pilot...

When we first got married, I would sit next to my husband, the driver.

When we got our first baby, I had to sit at the back to monitor the baby. As he grew up and walked and talked, I had to give in to his demand that he would sit in front, next to the driver. He reminded me of He-man's line - "I got the power!".

Then came the second baby. Initially the first-born occupied the front seat as usual, as I took care of the little one at the back seat. As the baby grew up, walked and talked, my elder son found out that he no longer holds the power, as he constantly would have to give in to the younger brother's demand that "he" has to have the front seat.

Amusing, how the young ones rule!


2. Spelling of names as they move across the world...

Here are some interesting names that have amused me...

Ahmad in Malaysia, Ahmed in Yemen and Akhmet in Kazakhstan.

Abu Bakar in Malaysia, Abu Bakr in Saudi but Boubacar in Mali.

Abdullah in Malaysia, Saudi and Yemen, but Abdoulaye in Mali.

Ali in most Muslim's countries but Alou in Mali.

Ibrahim in most countries, but Ibrahima in Guinea.

Interesting names of some of my remarkable students - those whom I would always remember.

HEART

1988-1993
Originally published in Geocities in 1999.

I

WAITING

Every minute in every day

Every moment in every way

is spent only on

waiting for YOU

Every thought during the days

Every dream at nights

is filled only

with images of YOU

I'm waiting for you because:

the sun does not smile

the rain does not cry

the moon does not show up

the breeze does not blow its kisses

since you're not around

Everything is cold

everything is dull

no longer the world beautiful

when you are not around

I'm wondering whether you're thinking of me

I'm waiting whether you'll be coming to me

I miss you, do you miss me too?

Mima Zohds


II
A POEM FOR MY LOVE

The sun shines brightly

the cool breeze caresses my cheeks

all the flowers are dancing

as if they are happy

The world seems beautiful

as it had never been before

and all of these changes

happen when I'm with you

Thank God for this most wonderful friend

who shines my life with his smile

Thank God for this very special friend

who has stolen my heart by showing he cares.

Mima Zohds

SOUL

1988-1993
Originally published in Geocities in 1999.


DALAM DIRI 1

Di persimpangan ini

aku terhenti

aku tertanya-tanya

ke mana aku nak pergi

Jalan yang kanan atau yang kiri

atau yang sedia terbentang di tengah-tengah

Jika ke kanan, pasti banyak tentangan,

Jika ke kiri, pasti aku tersesat,

Jika ke tengah, pasti tiada rintangan,

tetapi pastikah aku

tidak akan tersesat?

Mima Zohds

DALAM DIRI 2

Ustazah Siti Hajar pernah bercerita:

"Dunia ini ibarat pentas dan manusia adalah ibarat pelakon-pelakonnya. Satu hari nanti pentas ini akan digulung, dan setiap lakonan akan dihitung..."

Ustaz Nik Daud juga pernah mengajar:

"Manusia dijadikan Allah untuk menyembahNya. Kita lahir ke dunia dengan ikatan janji terhadapNya untuk menunaikan tanggungjawab sebagai Hamba dan Khalifah Allah di muka bumi ini..."

Abang Koji pun pernah mengingatkan:

"Islam memang menyuruh kita bersederhana tetapi itu tidaklah hermakna dalam menunaikan perintah Allah pun kita bersederhana, sesiapa yang berusaha melaksanakan hukumnya dengan lengkap dituduh "extreme"...

Kini hatiku pula berkata:

"Ah... tersilap konsep aku rupanya... bersederhana hanya dalam menunaikan perintah dan larangan Allah sahaja, sedang dalam hal lain tak pula aku ingat untuk bersikap sederhana. Berlakon... selama ini berlakon saja aku rupanya. Aku tak perasan pula peranan apa yang aku dah bawa, penjunjung titah atau pendurhaka? Apakah perananku sebagai Hamba dan Khalifah Allah telah aku jalankan dengan berkesan... yang patuh atau yang engkar? Yang meninggalkan rasa kasih atau rasa benci...pada Penghitung lakonanku?"

Mima Zohds

TAZKIRAH: Dari petang ke petang

Adakalanya

kita kurang meneliti ciptaan Tuhan

kita lupa Dia yang menjadikan

lalu kita angkuh dalam kehidupan

Adakalanya

kita terlupa bahawa kita adalah hambaNya

lantas kita pilih jalan sendiri

tanpa menghiraukan jalan yang disediakan

atas dasar 'kesederhanaan'

Zaman ini

zaman manusia kembali kepada agama

sebagai ad-din

tapi aku masih ketinggalan

kerana gagal menembusi tembok kehidupan.

Mima Zohds

LOVE

1988-1993
Originally published in Geocities in 1999.

SAJAK BUAT DIA 1

Bukan aku seorang penyanyi

Untukku dendangkan lagu-lagu sepi

(Sedih pilu)

Bukan pula aku seorang penyair

Untukku gubah kata-kata puitis

(puja rayu)

Bukan juga aku seorang pelukis

untukku coretkan warna-warna perasaanku

(tak menentu)

Aku hanya seorang perindu

yang hanya mampu berkirim salam di angin lalu

(buatmu).

A POEM FOR HIM 1

Too bad that I am not a singer

otherwise, I would sing those lonely songs

(sad emotion)

Neither am I a great poet

if it's so, I would compose some love sonnets

(pleading and worshipping)

Nor am I a great artist

or else, I would paint the colours of my heart on a canvas

(rickety)

I am just a poor dreamer

who keeps wishing that the wind

would whisper my love wishes

into your ears.

Mima Zohds

SAJAK BUAT DIA 2

Jika aku ini cermin

akan ku cermin ke dalam dirimu

untuk ku lihat hati budimu

Jika aku ini penyelam

akan ku selami lubuk hatimu

untuk ku ukur dalam kasihmu

Jika aku ini ikan

akan ku renangi lautan perasaanmu

untukku tahu jauh rindumu

Tapi aku hanyalah

seorang manusia sepi

yang setiap malam menunggu pagi

sambil bertanya pada diri

"Adakah matahari akan bersinar untukku lagi?"

A POEM FOR HIM 2

If I were a mirror

I would be able to reflect your inner thoughts

and I would know what's inside your mind

If I'm a diver

I would dive in the depth of your eyes

to find out how deep is your love for me

If I were a sea-creature

I would be roaming in the sea of your feelings

and see exactly how much you miss me

Unfortunately, I'm a plain loner

who would wait for the nights

to turn into days

and at the same time wondering

whether the sun would keep on shining

for me.

Mima Zohds

SAJAK BUAT DIA 3

Gembira

mendengar suaramu

di hujung sana

hati jadi lapang, riang,

dunia jadi terang, girang,

dan aku terus jiwang.

A POEM FOR HIM 3

So happy

to hear your voice

on the other side of line

my heart becomes light and cheerful

the world becomes bright and colourful

and I... have fallen deeper in love.

Mima Zohds

SPIRIT

1988-1993
Originally published in Geocities in 1999.


I
AKU SIANG-SIANG

Aku sepatutnya bersemangat waja

tapi aku siang-siang

bersemangat tahi ayam saja

Aku sepatutnya berjuang

menebus maruah bangsa

tapi aku siang-siang

sudah putus asa

Aku sepatutnya berusaha

mencapai kecemerlangan

tapi aku siang-siang

sudah bosan menghadapi cabaran

Aku sepatutnya terus mencuba

tapi aku siang-siang

kibar putih warna bendera

Aku sepatutnya

tapi aku siang-siang

aku mula tertanya-tanya

ke mana arahku akhirnya?

DEFEATED TOO EARLY

I'm supposed to be strong-willed

but I've been disheartened

too early beforehand

I'm supposed to be fighting

to regain the honour of my race

but I've been feeling discouraged

too early beforehand

I'm supposed to strive for excellence

but I've been feeling tired of facing the challenges

too early beforehand

I'm supposed to keep on trying

but I've been waving up the white flag

too early beforehand

I'm supposed to...

but I've been too early beforehand...

I'm beginning to wonder

where exactly am I heading to?

Mima Zohds

II
AKU DAN DAUN

Pagi, basah embun, segar hijau.

Tengahari, terik sinar mentari, kuning lesu.

Petang, tenang sepoi bayu, maut di pintu.

Malam, timpa hujan renyai,

selamat tinggal pohonku.

THE LEAVES AND I

Morning, damp, dew drops,

fresh and green.

Early afternoon, sweltering,

sun drenched, yellowish, comatose.

Late afternoon, gusty, breezy,

depleting, death knocking at the door.

Night, rainfall, it's drizzling,

goodbye my tree.

Mima Zohds

III

AS LONELY AS I AM

I never feel as lonely as I am

Nowhere to go to

Nobody to talk to

No group to whom I belong to

Where are my best friends

With whom I can spare my thoughts easily

to share my dreams,

my happiness and sorrows

No more laughing together

No more crying together

(I see... our togetherness is not forever)

Friends... greatest friends,

I do miss you like hell!

As lonely as I am,

Mima Zohds

Perjalanan

1988-1993

Originally published in Geocities in 1999

Dalam meniti sebuah perjalanan

tidak ada ertinya kita berpatah balik

mahu ataupun tidak

terpaksa juga kita memilih satu jalan

antara persimpangan demi persimpangan

dan dalam meneruskan perjalanan

kita akan temui manusia-manusia baru

dalam diri kita sendiri!

A journey would be meaningless

should we have to turn back

whether we like it or not

we got to choose one way

amongst the many junctions we come across

and as we continue along our journey

we will meet someone new

within ourselves!

MIMA ZOHDS

Once upon a time...

Alamak! Geocities is shutting down... and once upon a time, when I was so 'jiwang', I had written a lot of 'jiwa-jiwa' poems. Back in 1999, when I got so interested in the Net, I had self-taught myself on how to create a website with the help of Yahoo PageBuilder, Frontpage's "Help" pages and a few online buddies then. And guess what was the content? All of my 'jiwang' poems, of course - with translations, and background music! They're still available now at http://www.geocities.com/azimahmt/ but they won't be there anymore beginning October 26, I reckon.

And 'coz I'm a sentimental person and I've a failing memory (getting old, I suppose), now I have to copy all those "masterpiece" poems of mine (LOL- of course I'm being sarcastic to myself ;)) and move them here so I can remember all those days when I was just a shy and confused young girl who had kept my feelings to myself. :)

Yellow Submarine

A perfect song to supplement my vocabulary lesson on transport - sharing the worksheet I've prepared. The students have been exposed to the past simple versus the present ones in the previous lessons, so grammatically it's perfect too!


Instruction: Rearrange the letters to make sensible words to complete the lyrics.


YELLOW SUBMARINE
(The Beatles)


In the town where I _______(swa) born
______(deivl) a man who ________(aiseld) to sea
And he ________(oltd) us of his life
In the land of submarines

So we ________(lasied) up to the sun
Till we ________(dofun) the sea of green
And we ________(devil) beneath the waves
In our yellow submarine

We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

And our friends ________(rea) all on board
Many more of them ________(veil) next door
And the band ___________(sbgien) to ______(yalp)

We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

As we ________ (evil) a life of ease
Everyone of us ________(ash) all we ______(dene)
Sky of blue and sea of green
In our yellow submarine.

We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

The Elephant Song's worksheet

Finally I'll get to use this favourite song of mine in a lesson. We're doing a topic on animals this week - basically on pets but my co-teacher and I are going to include something on the endangered species, illegal poaching and the conservation efforts.

As a follow-up activity, we're also planning to take the students on a field trip to the National Elephant Conservation Centre in Kuala Gandah, as well as to Deerland in Lanchang. I'm all excited about it already.

So, here's a worksheet based on The Elephant Song by Kamahl that I've prepared.


Instruction:
Which ones are the missing lines? Complete the lyrics. Then listen and check.


The Elephant Song


Tell me said the elephant
Tell me brothers if you can
……………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………….

Tell me said the elephant
Tell me why this has to be
……………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………….

refrain:
People kill without regret
although they fly by jumbo-jet
……………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………….

Gentle is the elephant
Pulling loads and everything
……………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………….

Happy was the elephant
Happy was his jungle life
……………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………….

refrain:...

Listen, please listen, said the elephant
if we want the world we know, to stay alife
……………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………….

Listen said the elephant
It is conservation time
……………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………….

refrain..

a. Let the world of men remember
Let the children not forget.

b. And then they came, the cruel hunters
with their rifle and their knives

c. Then man and beast, we must work together
and together we will survive

d. So take the warning when we trumpet
for the future of mankind

e. Why all the world is full of creatures
Yet we grow in fear of man

f. We love to hear the children laughing
when we’re in the circus-ring

g. We have to run from man and hunter
Never safe and never free

Bagan Lalang - the beach

Bagan Lalang in Sepang is a place I'd heard about a long time ago... family and friends had talked about it since I was a school girl - but somehow I'd never made it there. I remembered whenever I mentioned about going to the place, people around me would say, let's go to Port Dickson instead...so the thought had remained a thought until...

My long-lost hostel mates during my secondary school years had planned for a reunion there. So curious about the place, which is not really that far away from where I live - just 30kms away - I urged DH to take me and the kids there, just two weeks before d'day.

Well... I was so surprised to see the large pool of people there... the area looked a bit smaller than Morib in Banting - a popular beach in Selangor (as a girl, I had thought it was the only beach we had in Selangor), but there were so many cars which had made finding a spot to park our car a challenging task.

On the first impression, I thought - wow... not bad! The beach looked as attractive as any other beaches, especially to my kids. The sand looked white - I thought it was as white as the sand on the Pangkor Island in Perak (meaning, it looked a lot better than the sand in Morib).

It has an interesting view since the "Sepang Gold Coast" thingy is being developed and we could see some buildings in progress. There were people flying kites, people swimming in the sea, people strolling along the beach, and people setting up their tents to spend the night there! Cool!





It was an interesting view, really... until.... I saw these sceneries:

Filthy, right? And they spoiled the overall picture...



Nevertheless, my kids still enjoyed being there - just take a look at how happy they were:


They were enjoying it so much that we were reluctant to call them out from the sea, that we just let them continue swimming until the sun set. And oh my! I couldn't remember when was the last time I did this with DH - sitting together side by side enjoying the view of the sunset. Wasn't it romantic? And the view was breathtaking!

All in all, judging from the loads of visitors there, Bagan Lalang is already a place of interest to many people in Selangor. However, it needs a bit of more serious management from the local authority, especially on the aspect of its cleanliness. Then, we wouldn't be embarrassed to highlight it in the Selangor Tourism brochures as a popular tourist destination.