I'm Back

Things did not went well as planned. For now, plan A is cancelled. I'm back leading my normal life.

Freeze for World Earth Day

Frozen Grand Central Station New York

Treasure Hunt to Historical City of Malacca

Another season of Treasure Hunting. As my team was the CHAMPION in last year's Cameron Highland hunting, this year's chance shouldn't be missed. I'm lucky that hubby was around during that time to help looking after the children. This year's hunting was made to the Historical City of Malacca. Our target was to retain the defending CHAMPION's title.

The day started with gathering at the flag-off point at 7am and off we went for the hunting after the final briefing. First hunting point was SS2, PJ followed by Seksyen 14. We then took Sungei Besi North South highway heading to Seremban for the next hunting stop followed by Rembau, Tampin, Alor Gajah, Cheng, up till Melaka Raya before the final check point at Malacca Equatorial Hotel itself. Our team completed the treasure hunt in 5hrs despite the given time of 7 hrs. That is really superb !!!

Spent the rest of the afternoon 'sight-seeing'. I never felt that I'm half Malaccan event though Malacca is my other half's hometown. Walked around jonker street with rain drizzling on us. Had my first-in-my-life Jonker street cendol and felt in love with it. The coconut cream was a 'real' cream and the palm sugar syrup was soooo thick. Never had this kind of cendol before.

The night was spent with buffet dinner at the hotel where treasure hunt result was announced. YES!!!! We got it again !! This year's prize was much better than last year. RM1K Jusco voucher which has to be split for four persons. Not too bad compared to the miserable water filter and hamper that we got last year.

Dinner ended at around 10:30pm and we had a nice walk from the hotel to Jonker street (AGAIN !). There were 8 of us but me and the other 2 friends were left behind due to 'generation' gap with the rest. Ha ha ha. We enjoyed another cendol session at Jonker street at around 12midnight. Alhamdulillah I was not caught with cold. Reached hotel room around 12:45am.

Morning started with hotel buffet breakfast. We checked out around 9:30am and I was sent to MIL's house while the rest spent the day at Malacca Zoo. Had lunch with my team members at my MIL's house and headed back to KL at around 2:30pm.

It was a great experience.

** Pictures courtesy of KKJM. Thank you, sir !!

My Cousin's Wedding

Mukhlees with Mawi

We attended my cousin's wedding at Felda Taib Andak, Kulai during Chinese New Year holiday. My auntie's house is only 2 houses away from the infamous 'Raja SMS' Mawi's house. My cousin, Zul is happened to be one of Mawi's best friends since they grew up together in the same neighbourhood. Coincidently, Zul's birth date and Mawi's birth date was just a few days apart.

Due to that causes, Mawi made an effort to make it for Zul's wedding despite his tight schedule.

Go forth and learn

Couldn't agree more.

My comment will be coming up soon. Please read the article to get the grasp of the issue.....

MIND MATTERS
By RAJA ZARITH IDRIS

mindmatters@thestar.com.my

In a public lecture at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia on Jan 8, Raja Zarith Idris argues why it is important to have a strong command of the English language in 21st century Malaysia. The following article is a condensed version of her speech.

LAST year, we celebrated 50 years of independence, after
having been a British colony since the 19th century. In view of this, it may seem strange that I should suggest that Malaysians – especially our young people who are at school and university – be given opportunities and the encouragement to learn how to speak, read and write in English.

In these first years of the 21st century, fluency in English and a good, strong command of the language, whether it is used as part of our daily life, at social gatherings or at work, is necessary.

It has nothing to do with being pro-English or pro-British, nor with glorifying our colonial past, or being any less nationalistic or patriotic.

We have bright, intelligent young people who, if guided in the right direction, can achieve a lot in whatever discipline interests them.

I dream of reading about young – and maybe not so young – Malaysians who have caught the world’s attention for having excelled as respected novelists, scientists, architects or filmmakers.

For that dream to come true, however, our young people must be given the right tools to work with, one of which is the English language. The other is a thirst for knowledge.

We need to make sure that younger Malaysians can read English and understand it, speak it fluently, use it to express their thoughts and opinions, and understand it when it is spoken by either native English speakers such as Americans, British or Australians, or non-native speakers such as Asians and Europeans.

This will give them the chance to be on a par with their peers from other countries where English is spoken, either as a first or second language.

It also means that we will be able to convey our knowledge about ourselves as a society to peoples from other countries – whether from the East or the West – by writing about our heritage, cultures, religions and arts. We can also share our views about both national and world events with foreigners who use English as we do – that is, as a means of communication and a common global language.

We must think of being able to converse in English as an advantage: that we know the language spoken by so many native speakers although they may not know ours.

The impact of technology, telecommunications and the Internet on the English language

We must dissociate our willingness to study the English language from any kind of hidden political or social agendas. We must try to see our efforts to get our young people to be fluent English speakers as something that is done for their benefit, as well as contributing towards the reputation of Malaysia as a dynamic country with a dynamic young generation.

One of the many reasons that the English language is used far more now than ever has a lot to do with the fantastic rate at which telecommunications and technology have advanced.

As most of us are aware, for good or bad, we too have bloggers – from ex-journalists who write about political and social issues, usually courting the controversial, to the young housewife who tells us about her daily life, children, and, during Ramadan, what she cooked for the breaking of fast and sahur, complete with colourful photos.

Writing as Malaysians for a mainly Malaysian “audience” or readership, why do our bloggers bother to write in English?

Perhaps it is to get a wider readership.

The borderless Internet world that we are part of means that we can no longer afford to be the proverbial katak di bawah tempurung.We have to try and be frogs who are no longer ignorant and merely satisfied with that little world beneath the boring coconut shell. We can still argue and discuss local issues but let’s be more daring and confident, and take our place in the global blogal world.

The English language in global literature and as part of global understanding

India – because of its British colonial past – has maintained and kept a high standard of English. I’ve visited India three times now and I keep making comparisons between India and Malaysia because we share the same colonial past. India gained independence in 1947, and we in 1957, a difference of 10 years. But while India kept as its strength the ability and facility of using English, we have let it go. India has about eight newspapers and just as many tabloids. We can only boast of having three national English-language newspapers. Why do we not have more? It is perhaps because most of us find it difficult to express ourselves in English.

If we do not make an effort to catch up with the rest of the world, we will be left far behind.

There is another valid reason for using English as a means of communication with other countries: post-9/11, and in a world where wars, terrorism and violence occur too often, there is a great need for all of us to understand each other. Books can help us to better understand peoples of other cultures, religions and races. Unless a newer, global language replaces English, we have to rely on the knowledge from books written in the language.

Last year, I met some American lecturers from a film school that has an Asian base in Singapore. Earlier, I had asked some friends to take them around Johor because they wanted to see real kampungs.

They were invited to visit a small Malay kampung and were amazed by the hospitality they received: it was during Ramadan, and all the villagers were fasting but they had made the effort to cook lunch for their guests. These Americans had of course seen the daily media reportage about Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, and the aftermath of suicide bombings.

When I tried to explain that Muslims in Asia are a peaceful people, they were able to nod in agreement because they had experienced the peacefulness of the village, and the warmth and kindness of the villagers themselves.

This interaction is an example of how the use of English (which I used to explain the Islam as practised in Malaysia) can help foreigners gain a clearer picture of our society, including our religions, cultures and races.

This sort of interaction matters. Our students who are studying in countries where the native language is English can act as ambassadors who can give clear explanations about our country.


English as it is spoken in the 21st century

Pop music and what we see on television have a strong impact on the younger generation of Malaysians. We cannot ignore the pop culture of the young people nowadays: to do so is to alienate them. We should, on the other hand, try to understand them, the way our parents once tried to understand us even though they too were perplexed by our own youthful behaviour.

At one time, I was upset that Malaysians had its own rap groups and singers, denying it was part of our culture.

But when I was growing up, I listened to British and American rock groups and pop singers, like Deep Purple and Santana, or Olivia Newton-John and Barry Manilow. I was a great fan of the Jackson Five and the Osmond Brothers. They were not part of our culture.

In the same way, my parents, aunts and uncles listened to Engelbert Humperdinck, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Connie Francis. These singers were not part of our culture either. But our parents loved their songs and sang them to us. And our parents were respectable, responsible people.

We have to let go of our young people a little. Guide them, teach them, but give them the chance to be curious about our cultures and to make judgments of their own. We turned out all right, you and I. So why can’t the younger ones be all right too?

Living in the 21st century means that we have to think 21st century thoughts and act in 21st century ways but still retain our identity, hold on to all the values that our grandparents taught us, be proud of our historical and cultural heritages, and yet be able to absorb new ideas.

The English language is not just useful but can offer us knowledge that would be denied us if we did not have the motivation and conviction to be heard in the 21st century world.

Raja Zarith Idris is Royal Fellow,
Faculty of Language Studies and Linguistics, UKM, and holds an MA (Oxon) in Chinese Studies. She also writes a column in Sunday Star called Mind Matters.

Birthday Mukhleess 01.01.08

Today is Mukhleess' 4th Birthday. He had requested Bob the Builder's cake for his birthday. Keep asking me for his birthday cake since the weekend.

When he woke up in the morning, his first question was:

"Mama, kek birthday Bob Eess dah siap ke?"

Mama was still busy searching for the recipe then. ha ha ha....
I finally decided to make African Marble cake but I changed the chocolate layer to orange layer since Mukhleess' favorite color is orange and he likes oranges very much.

I started my day baking his cake, juggling between breakfast preparation. I finished with Mee hoon soup for the breakfast while marbling the cake layer when the family were all ready to have the breakfast at 9:30am.
Cake was decorated in the afternoon and the cake cutting ceremony was held at night after we came back from celebrating Mukhleess' birthday dinner at Nancos Nanchos at SACC mall.

Aneess made a special birthday card for the little brother. It's a pop up card.

Happy 4th Birthday MUKHLEESS !!!

Dinner at Kluang Station

Anness craved for Kluang station's roti bakar. We had our light dinner at Malacca's Tesco's Kluang Station. Here are some of the meal that we had there. Cham (mixed drink of coffee and tea) and roti bun bakar.

Happy faces of the kids

Mukhleess is enjoying his 1/2 boiled egg.

Mukhleess' Birthday Presents

Mukhleess' birthday is on the 1st of Jan. He had been wanting his 'lori simen' and 'lori angkat' for the past many months. He wanted to complete his construction vehicles collection with these last 2 wishes list.

Since I have RM25 Toys'R'Us voucher which would be expired on 17th Dec. I finally bought his birthday present before his birthday date.

Mukhlesss is a happy boy now.

Dinner at Kedai Kopi

It has been a while since my last entry.

Last Saturday night, my husband took us out for dinner at Kedai Kopi. The kids enjoyed their meal very much, especially Nafeess.

Nafeess is enjoying his chicken chop.

Wasseef and his all time favorite coconut drink.

Mukhleess just enjoyed his 'air suam' (plain water)

My husband's order Fried Loh Shee Fan or mee 'tikus'

My order, Cantonese Kuay Tiaw