Back To Nature.

Beauty In Nature

It's the long end-of-the-year school holidays.  Children are at home, restless, without anything useful to do.  Or so they think.  Because children will never be able to think rationally or think of useful things to do to while away their holidays.  For them spending the holidays usefully would mean spending time outside the house, no matter how much that may cost their father's expenses.  And for that matter also, they don't really care if their father has been painstakingly saving every single cent possible for the new school year!

Well, a holiday outing, no matter how small or how near it may be, will definitely incur some form of expenses.  I initially wanted to argue that I was tired after hours of invigilating examinations or that I wanted to prepare next year's teaching materials and that the only thing I wanted to do was to just stay at home and relax but my fatherly judgement told me that I would be at the losing end, especially when the vote was three children (plus one mother!) against one father!

So, as I searched my memory banks, I recalled this beautiful place my friend had once mentioned in passing.  Thus, it was decided that we all went to this natural waterfall even though I did not really know how to get there.  But, get there we did!  And we were not disappointed at all!  The waterfall was a wonderful place, unpolluted, unpopulated, undeveloped and best of all, free!  We spent three hours playing in the water and we promised that we would come again.  I hope it would be sooner than later, and hopefully before some greedy entrepreneur decides to develop this place and turn it into a money-spinning holiday resort!

Examination Blues

SPM or the Sijil Pelajaran malaysia is here again and more than four hundred thousand students around the age of seventeen years old started sitting for their first paper that was Bahasa Malaysia Kertas 1 on Tuesday the 23rd of November.  After eleven years of formal education, from standard one to form five, this examination is the pinnacle of an individual's educational evolution.  An experience that will determine the individual's future!  One would expect with such a high stature put on such an examination, students sitting for it would take the examination seriously.

Unfortunately, with some students, this is not exactly the scenario because they do not take this examination seriously at all.  I observed with a sad feeling some candidates leaving the hall within half an hour after certain papers, which usually last for more than two hours, have just started.  With a set time of two hours to complete all the questions, one can only imagine how much a candidate who leaves after half an hour can actually do. 

Some candidates do not seem to take examination rules seriously either.  Regulations stipulate that students need to be in the examination hall ten minutes before any specific paper starts.  Sad to say that some candidates, even saunter into the hall ten minutes or more after the paper has started without even acknowledging the invigilators who glare at their lack of respect for time.  Any advise given to these hardcore candidates just seem to fall on deaf ears.  Or perhaps they are deaf!

No amount of prayer would be able to change these candidates.  I pity their parents who have toiled hard to provide them with worldly necessities and education only to have all their hopes for their loved ones be thrown onto the rocks, broken into a thousand pieces, by their loved ones themselves.  Ironically, I do have a prayer for these candidates; I pray that they get what they deserve!

The Proposal (Malay Custom Style)

The Man's Side of the Family

Today was the day my sister-in-law's second daughter got proposed to, in true traditional Malay style.  Even though they were more than two hours late in arriving at her house, my sister-in-law and her siblings plus all of her eight children waited patiently in the hot afternoon heat with lunch already served and waiting for the man's side to make their grand entrance.

My sister-in-law, who incidentally is my wife's second sister, had not intended this to be a big affair.  The only family she initially invited to help her out with the reception was my wife alone since it, as earlier mentioned, was supposed to be a small affair.  But family bonding and close relationship insisted that brothers and sisters be invited to the event whether or not they could attend.  It was just a matter of respect without a single of intention of asking for their assistance.  But the bond between my wife and her siblings were so close, they all arrived in hordes early in the morning, some even the day before, to lend a helping hand or what ever form of assistance they could offer.

It would be quite some time before I will be in the same situation as my sister-in-law, or for any of my own brothers and sisters for that matter, since most of our children are still studying.  I guess I can use this proposal (merisik) reception as a learning experience for me and my wife to use as a guide when our turn comes to hold such a function.  Nothing beats learning than learning through experience!

Teacher Transfer

Out With The Old, In With The New

Every year there will be some of our colleagues who will be successful in getting their transfers to other schools.  The reasons for their need to transfer may be totally different from one another.  Some may site the need to be close to their spouses and children as their reasons while some may say that they want to pursue their education.  There are also those who ask for transfer just because they can!

What ever the reasons for their transfer, the school that they leave will no doubt suffer some kind of loss.  Man power aside, the school would without doubt lose the expertise of these teachers, especially when these teachers have made a considerable contribution with regards to the success of the school in national examinations.

However, we cannot stop these teachers from asking for transfers and eventually getting them.  We can only hope that these teachers will serve their new schools as well as they have in the schools they are about to bid farewell too.  And to these friends, I wish you good luck and forever keep us in your fond and loving memories.



It's The Weekend!

It's time to welcome the weekend again.  Even though, we had a rather long weekend last week and this week only consisted of one working day, that was yesterday, weekends are something all of us look forward to.  We go through the working week thinking and dreaming of the two-day weekend that awaits, always thinking of the things that we would be doing.

In reality, it doesn't really matter what you do during the weekend as long as you don't have to go to work.  Sometimes weekends can merely be spent lounging around the house, skimming through magazines and newspapers or just watching favourite programmes on the telly!  Unless, you have got something planned for the weekend, then it is usually any one's guess what can be done during these two days!

I, for one, am one of those people who look forward to weekends!  In fact, I prefer short days off from work rather than long stretches of holidays like four days or more, mainly because I usually get bored of it since I don't have much things to do.  But, nevertheless, weekends like this, is the day for me to just be a couch potato or an amature netizen.  In a nutshell, it is the time for me to be me!

A Good Night's Sleep

Return to Slumber land

I have always found it difficult to sleep when I don't sleep in my own bed like for example when I have to spend the night for a meeting or spending some time with my in-laws or even my extended families.  It's funny because the bed I sleep in when I go for courses or in other people's houses can be more comfortable than my own, and the pillows can even have goose down in them, but I still can't sleep.  And especially when spending the night for meetings, sleep is a very elusive thing, not only because of the unfamiliar surroundings but also because of the people who surround you. 

I guess, it's normal for people, friends especially, to chat way into the night when ever they meet.  This is probably because we seldom meet up with each other to strike a casual conversation due to our hectic work schedule.  With all this, it is not surprising when it is time to go home, I am usually the first few to start my car engine and be the first to leave.  The thought of being able to sleep in my own bed is just as inviting as seeing the smiling face of my wife as she opens the gates to greet me as I reach home. 

Come to think of it, that's probably the reason why I can sleep better in my own home!

A Relaxing Outing!

An Apartment By The Seaside

The three days spent there was supposed to be a meeting of sorts, but for me it turned out to be more of a relaxing experience rather than a difficult one.  It was supposed to be three days of listening to talks and going through documents but all those activities were overcome by the fact that my accommodation was located by the seaside, plus the company of very friendly room mates.

Being someone who had actually spent twelve years of his teenage life in this once idyllic town of Port Dickson, coming here for that meeting brought back many fond and happy memories of childhood days gone by.  Even though the laid back lifestyle of this seaside town has faded away with the advance of time, I could still see the charm in the soft crashing waves of the sea that endlessly caress the shore.

I found myself hypnotically called to the beach and as I lazily walked on the sandy shore, I couldn't help but admire the serenity of the environment and the sparse visitors to the beach; perhaps because it was a working day.  However, the lack of visitors actually made my walk a more relaxing and carefree one.  I even managed to cajole a young teenager into taking a photo of myself.

I do hope that I will have the opportunity to come to this seaside town, if not for a meeting perhaps just for a quiet holiday spending leisurely walks by the beach with its clear pale blue water.

Back To School..... Again!

Students, Students, Students!

It has indeed been a very long Deepavali Festival holiday.  The length of the holiday would have been bearable if not for the consistent fire-crackers that boomed and blared right from the eve of the auspicious holiday until tonight.  What, in my interpretation is a holy celebration, has turned out to be something that has caused uneasiness and much dissatisfaction to their neighbours.  You try and get a good night's sleep when all that ruckus continue well past midnight!

The holy festival seemed to be very a docile and modest celebration in previous years when neighbours drew beautiful and colourful 'kolams' and lit oil candles to brighten their homes.  The only sounds you could hear coming from these neighbours' houses were the sounds of prayers of the faithful and laughter of merry makers. 


Indeed one can argue that times change but it should not happen at the expense of morality and good values.  Children will turn into adults but their respect for elders should grow stronger not weaken.  Families may grow in wealth but that wealth should not be spent on unnecessary things like loud crackers and fireworks that can cause emotional pain to neighbours. 


Change is good; but only if it is for the better.

Second Time Around

Well, as the title of this blog suggests, this is actually my second attempat at writing a blog. I have been actively writing my own blog for two years now when suddenly my previous blog got locked down to the point that I could not access it anymore.

And I like to write! So, whether I like it or not, I have to create a new blog just so that I have an outlet to express my feelings. It's going to be like seeing all the things I have seen, all over again but putting them in a different light and worded differently. It's going to be like yesterday once more1