Relatives

Just came to know the other day that a relative in Singapore is getting married. He should be my cousin. A cousin that I have no idea how he looks like. I have never ever heard of his name nor had I have any a photo of him.

All I can remember is his grandmother, because I had met her ONCE when I attended one of the weddings in Singapore. I remembered her hugs, she was so happy to see me. I remembered well because my grandma left me when I was in primary school. She reminded me of the touch and warmness of my grandma. So much. So dear.

Too bad I can't join the band down to the island. Papa, aunts, uncles, brothers, nephews and nieces will all form a big team heading south. Too bad it is in November, too close to the expected due date for my baby...

So to my cousin : May you have a wonderful journey with your partner! All the best wishes to you.

Education

For the past few weeks, we have a constant weekend guest at our little apartment - my nephew and sometimes alternatively accompanied by his sister or the little brother, Yee Liang.

Well, normally they will be here to escape the 'boredom' of having to face grandpa and uncles at home as they put it. Too many yakking it seems. Well, I put it as generation gap. But this time around, they are here not to enjoy the TV, the pool and the nice trip and food that we will normally pamper them whenever they are here. The eldest is to sit for PMR exam next week, that is the reason. And I do not spare the rest, if they are here, they have to bring their books and study. Strictly no FUN as I am upset here!

Why? Well, it has been a while since I last checked their work. I remembered when mum is around, she will ask me to teach them and check their work whenever I am back in Klang. That is why the eldest is the luckiest in that sense because he, at least get some fundamental from me most of the time, especially with the subject of Bahasa and English which they, the typically ONLY chinese spoken, only chinese programme on TV (they will switch the cartoon characters to speak in Chinese whenever it is available, sigh...), ONLY chinese books ...etc. I was upset because they are not only poor in the 'alien' languages, but also their maths and to put it short, ALL other subjects!

I was so shock to find that the syllabus is much different now. Books are very colourful now of course with lots of colour printing. I find that the English and Bahasa's syllabus are very much alien to me. I remembered ours are much simplier and easy to understand (at least to me, a chinese ed student). But why is that there are so many students out there who are so weak in the language and can't even communicate even with simple English? I wonder. When I look at the text book, I find it tough for their level to grasp what the book is trying to preach. That is why they all loose interest in the language....poor thing.

Well, their parents had to be blamed too. My brother and sis in-law are just too engross with money making. After a hard day work, they would simply join the kids for TV eventhough the kids have had loads of TV in the afternoon already. She had practically given up thinking that her kids are just too poor in academic. So be it.

I disagreed. I knew most kids are smart in learning. I believe in hard work and constanct learning. I don't expect straight As from them but at least I want them to understand the basic and to enjoy reading and learning, which I thought is invaluable. In the society with sea of graduates, what do you expect a mere SPM graduate to do? No doubt, they can work for their parents (thank God) but is education fit just for the purpose of looking for JOBs or better JOBs? No!!! No No No, education is meant to give wisdom and education is a life long process. There are so many things to be learnt and they are missing it..I felt guilty as an aunt. I know I can't do much when I am seeing them only 2 or 3 times a month. If the parents attitude is as such, I am simply helpless.

Dear mum, if only you are still here to guide...

The Toilet Story

Here you go again in the newspaper regarding the story of public toilet. First, we have the one that make the authrority real proud : self automated toilet. A one person at a time, one ringgit per entrance toilet. I don't know how it cleans itself but still there would be somebody attending the toilet I guess to make sure the toilet is working or clean I suppose. Or else how can a toilet is self-cleaned? I don't know really. It scrubbed its own floor with detergent and anti-septic? Self-flush toilet yes I had heard of, but you know, sometimes some people might aim at the wrong side and the poo-poo get side ways and I presume this new technology has its way to detect these splashes and clean it right away. Bravo! But with one at a time of usage, I wonder how it can cope with say a group of 20 tourists. Hmm, well, it is our culture to be patient. So when u come travelling here, u must be patient too. Sorry but hold your biz!

Next, we have in Kuala Terengganu, a proudly RM 200,000 over public toilet. With Italian marble and over-the-counter type of basin. Well, I saw in the picture (The Star, today) that at least this toilet may cater for about 5 to 6 people at one go seeing the number of basins provided. They claimed to build more of these toilets for the TOURISTS. Oh boy, you tourists, so lucky cause you only need to pay 50sen for the use of this toilet. They even provide shower soap if you wish to take a quick shower with payment of RM1.50.

Well, I have to give compliment to the authorities for taking concern into making the toilet available for the tourists since we do have a Visit Malaysia Year 2007 approaching BUT I don't understand why such fuss about making the toilet '5 star'.....My concern for public toilet are as listed:-

• Located at the most convenient locations. Preferably ALL tourist destinations. This includes some of the remote areas where toilets are either rare (normally filthy) or none in existance.
• The number counts. Well, don't give me in an area where u expect 10,000 tourists per day and only 2 toilet cubicals are provided. I am not not an expert in holding my biz when mother nature calls.
• Cleanliness and well maintained. Floor are kept dry so that I don't have to fold up my pants and tip toe-ing into the toilet thinking that some of the water could have been the kids' wee wee...yikes!
• Tissue paper is provided.
• Most importantly : the wc and tap are WORKING. Most of the time, you will find that you can't flush the wc. Or there is simply no water flowing from the tap or that the water is simply flowing non-stop. Sheeshhhh..

Judging from the above, I don't see why we need a 5-star toilet. Let it be ceramic tiles, naturally ventilated with ample natural lighting to cut down cost. Or simply cement rendered flooring with a throw of some non-slip tiles in the cubical will do. As long as the toilet is working, that will be fine. I have seen a tastefully done, simple and nice toilet at Cameron Highland, Boh plantation Tea House. It is so nice u know u are in a tropical country because u can still catch glimpses of the lush green outside, you can sense the breeze brushes against your skin and it is well lit (naturally of course). The use of materials are all locally sorted, we don't need imported marble to be proud.

With a whopping RM200,000, one can easily build a bungalow (without the land cost-la) or can easily build more than just ONE public toilet so that more people can benefit from the facilities. Now, I wonder how much money do they allocate for maintenance? Will they tear down the toilet in 3 years' time because the marble has got stain all over it because of poor workmanship and the constant water that is flowing on it? Will there be any accident since marble is so slippery when it is wet? Ahhhh...goodness. Let us hope that the govt can spend the money wisely and not some extravaganza that is always THE TALLEST, HIGHEST, BIGGEST, MOST EXPENSIVE TO DATE but run down in no time....God bless the tourists. Enjoy your stay, Selamat Datang ke Malaysia.

Snore

Yes of course my hubby snores. But nope this article is not about him. It is about ME. It is ME, who is now heavily pregnant, SNORED!

I had been down with stuffy nose about a week ago. The mucus was surely thick and especially nasty when I lied down and prepared to doze off. Hubby complaint about the heavy snoring sound ever since. I told him that I had stuffy nose, perhaps that is why I snored.

Well, the stuffy nose is gone now, but the heavy snoring is still hanging on tight to me. Well, I gave him yet another excuse now. Well, I have put on weight that is for sure and it could also be linked to my pregnancy mah! (well, I have never heard of friends telling me that they snored during their pregnancy, but I have to make something up!)

I asked him favours to turn me or wake me up so that I could temporarily 'switch' off my stereo effect. I explained that snoring is not good as the breathing is via the mouth and thus the air is not filtered thru the nose, bla bla bla...But he said he had rather not do that now (since I am with a lovely baby) but he will surely whack me up side down if I ever do that again AFTER delivery....does this sounds bias or what? I guess it is only fair if I have the previlege to continue snoring for a while since I had been putting up with him snoring for more than 2 years now...

Say Sorry

I remembered clearly we were taught and EDUCATE since young to apologise if we were wrong or did some silly mistakes. It is ok to make the mistakes but the important thing is to REALISE your mistakes, pick it up, apologise if you hurt somebody and go on..

Here you go with Ong Tee Keat who had pointed out about the misused of govt fund in some sekolah jenis kebangsaan in Johor. He was later 'shot' and 'attacked' quickly and swiftly by our dear miniter of EDUCATION to keep his mouth shut because this issue is not within his scope of work and none of his biz. He is wrong for bringing up the topic and clearly should be reprimanded...etc etc.

Thanks to the hardworking Chinese press like Sin Chew Jit Poh which covers the story thoroughly and visited the actual site. Our dear Samy and Ong KT were also there to witness the RM30,000 worth of project. Apparently, what OTK mentioned was correct, some govt officer misused the fund and the actual work on site is only worth RM3000. Clearly our Minister of Education is pretty busy to attend to this trivial matter which concerns his department, he was absent from the scene.

He did not apologise or speak up or comment anything now, a day after the 'discovery' CSI episode .....

Whoever is the hero or whoever previously made silly comments, I don't care la actually. But hey, how come nobody says anything about WHO is the actual culprit? What is the company's name so that we are warned of this heartless Class F contractor and what about the officer? What is his/her name? What is the penalty then?

This, I believed is only a small crumb of the BIG CHEESY CAKE out there. There are so many govt jobs that are worth millions of ringgit. Can I assume ALL to have the same outcome?

Please, the Malaysian culture is not about telling ONLY the good news and cover up the bad news, discuss behind close door kind of attitude. I sincerely hope IF this is the culture, it is about time that we scrap this culture and embrace a more active and transparent policy. Hello, Malaysia, afterall, you are about to turn 50 years old liao la!

'Migration'

Hubby was offered a job in Perth, Australia the other day. He asked me if it is ok for us to move there for say 2 years. Well, a lot of things came gushing into my mind and the first thing that struck me was of course about my profession.

Well, if we were to move there, I have to baby sit our baby at home. I have to forgo my practise. Well, isn't that what I want? Well, if hubby's remuneration is good and can cover my earning, WHY NOT?
But I can't help to think that I still LOVE my job. I love the thrill of designing a house, a building etc. I still love to contribute to the society and working can keep my mind working and also keep me abreast of what is going on with the rest of the world. But at the same time, I want to be with my baby, if possible, full time. Hahaha.. greedy woman.

I somehow made up my mind to move. I told myself I will look for a partner to take care of all my current projects and maintain my practise here. And when I am back, I can still continue the partnership as well as my own sole proprietary practise. Perhaps I need a break now and it is a good time to take a break since the economy is slowing down quite evidently.

The actual offer did not look that promising. We scrapped off the idea then. Yesterday, hubby told me that the company is offering him yet another package. Hmmm...this time around, would be of six month's work in Perth. Well, that does not sound too bad. After all, Perth is not too far from Malaysia.

So, baby ah, are u ready?

Good Job! Well Done.

So much was talked, discussed and disputed in politics for Penang lately. From the development of monorail, Second Bridge, to who to build, who to bid, where to link, to fantastic topics like so and so race is ignored/neglected, so and so is not leading well until our poor PM had to step in and said SHUT UP but still these people can't seem to zip the mouth. Seems like Pak Lah needs to show his sterner side already-la.

Ok, I am not really into politics. So let's talk about something that is, well, NICE.

This is the restored Penang Teochew Association Temple in Chulia Street, Penang (picture courtesy of The Star) that won the Unesco Asia-Pacific Heritage Conservation Award. According to the paper, the prime mover behind the restoration was the Teochew community, who donated towards the fund and offered their expertise. No doubt that the master artisans from China have to be brought in for such detail work. Nevertheless, I believed the local who involved in such project must have learnt a great deal from such experience.
Penang has a number of such restoration works that are not only interesting architecturally, they are the 'living' museum. For example the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion in Leith Street. Not only it boasts as a historical site but also couple as a boutique hotel. Also the Hotel 1928 (if I am not mistaken) at Burmah Road and E&O Hotel to name a few. Other association like the Khoo Kongsi is also beautifully done and conserved. WELL DONE and continue the good work!
By the way, I hope the Minister of Tourism does consult the right persons/experts/consultants when he thought of changing the function of Coliseum Cinema in KL...

Garage Sales

Now a pal of mine has decided to have a garage sales. For those who wish to add some extra bit and furniture to your home, please do visit her blog : http://pu1pu3.blogspot.com/.
Good luck!

Hilarious

Yesterday was our appointment with Dr.J again. I 'brain wash' my baby again by repeating a request to ask him to show his movements while the doctor is doing the scan.

Oh, and he did. We all laughed seeing him doing that. He was literally punching with his tiny fists! He was so adorable and sweet. So cute! I was on top of the world. :)

25th weeks

It is definitely an advantage being in a pregnant state. Hubby did most of the house chores now. I got to choose the food if we are going out. I make decisions. I sleep whenever I feel like sleeping. Eat whenever I feel like eating. I, I, I....hehehehehe...hmmmm

Well, you get the conversation started too with people who are total strangers to you just because you have a bump in the tummy. 'Ini anak lelaki ya?' 'First child?' 'How many months already?' 'Which hospital are you going?' 'Congratulations!' etc etc. Well, it used to be a blank stare at the wall in the lift but now I get people to stare at my tummy and smile at me especially mothers or mother to be.

I received some pregnancy yoga mail from Pru the other day. Well, I think it is time for me to start doing some exercise and boy, I started swimming just last Saturday and it was wonderful! I guess I need to make it a habit again to walk or swim in order to stay fit!

September Now

It is already September 2006 now. Phew! We are almost at the end of the 3rd quarter of the year! And last Sunday, we had celebrated Haz's (one of my closest friends, a pretty leng lui mama) birthday, and that also mean that more birthdays to come and then, it would be mine and next would be OUR BABY's! :)

After that fantastic dinner party ( no wine for me this time, aiseh, too bad-lah because her husband always serves yummy-licious wine! ), I had a diarrhoea the next day and hubby has got hung over. Luckily, it was not that bad, it was only in the first half of the day. And I was ok but rather tired for the rest of the day and had to rest pretty early at nite. I wonder was it this incidence or is it my baby approaching 3rd trimester, I felt sleepy ever since.

Next week will be our appointment with our gynae again. That reminds me of something : to weigh myself and eat less! :P Ok, till next time. Pardon me, I need a nap now...hooooahhh...