Counting Good days

Life normally passes us by and we do not even notice. Is it July 2011 already? How have all the other days passed so quickly?

I felt a need to write something on my blog today because it is one of those 'good' days worth recording. Well, today is my hubby's 55th birthday. It has been many, many years since his first heart attack and subsequent triple by-pass. I'm thankful that he is in reasonably good health. He still looks forward to his twice a week badminton. Only yeaterday, he climbed our mango tree to prune it after the last fruiting.

So today we celebrated his birthday as a family.

It is just a simple meal, followed by cake and durians. I think my hubby is happy that we can celebrate thus.

Another thing that made this a 'good' day is that some months ago, my microwave-convection oven went bonkers. First the microwave stopped functioning. We were informed that repairing the microwave was not worth it. Best to get a new one since nowadays they don't cost much. The unit we have cost us about 2500RM at that time. So off we went to get a microwave for slightly more than 300RM. The convection function was still running well enough to allow me to do all my bakings. Then about 2 months ago my pizzas refused to cook in the convection oven though all lights were on. I was left with uncooked pizzas. The next day we went off to get a new convection oven. This was a rather big one but nowadays the price of electronic stuff is comparatively so low. We were going to sell the old microwave-convection oven to the recycling-collector. None turned up for some days when usually so many of them would be touring the housing area with their vans and loud-speakers. So, stuck with that bulky unit on the porch, I decided to send it to that Sharp shop at Kompleks Kancut. I was told that they may be able to get the convection function working but if anything is wrong with the microwave megatron it would not be worthwhile to repair the microwave function. Okay, I'll get it done if cost is reasonable. No harm having a stand-by convection oven. If nothing can be done or it's too expensive, I'll just leave it there at the shop and they can do what they like with it. In that way I got that unit off my porch.

To cut a long story short, this morning I received a call from Mr Kang, the Sharp shop-owner, telling me that the microwave, convection, grill and combination functions of my unit are all functioning properly again. The cost? 150RM. Wonderful. Now in my kitchen, I've got my microwave-convection-grill-combi oven, a fairly new microwave oven and a new dual-rack convection oven. Hah...I can run a bakery if I want to.

Today, I still went out to buy the birthday cake for my hubby ! Ironically? That's what 'good' days are all about. I can bake a cake if I want to ... but I don't have to if I don't want to. The choice is mine.

And that is what I've enjoyed most since retiring from being a government-employed school teacher. I have the freedom to choose what I want to do with my time.

Such an event-filled year

2010 is coming to a close in a few more weeks. In all it will be to me a year to remember. My son Jonathan entered Secondary school. Like parents all over the country/world, we vacilated about where to enrol him. Finally we enrolled him in the same school where his father was teaching. We decided that though school does contribute a part to his character development, we the parents have the greater influence and responsibility in his overall development , be it his character or his education. I'm glad to see him happily settled in his school. Having a very laid-back personality his school also suits him. I doubt he'll enjoy a classroom filled with competitive bookworms. Well, I finally went to USA this year and visited my aunty in michigan as well. The short trip to Cambodia with my family and TCF was also an interesting break. So was the 6-day prayer exposure trip to Korea. After a long draught this year is also a year of weddings of the church youths who have all grown up - Emily, Kin Onn, Kin Hup. And a fiftieth wedding anniversary in December! Next year we'll see some more weddings... This is a year of great distress for many good friends who were affected by the terrible floods. Thankfully, though there was loss of property-some irreplacable I'm sure, there was no loss of lives among those we know. A few friends returned home to the Lord. They'll be missed. Next year...what will it bring ?

This new year

Well we are now in 2010. I'm enjoying settling down into retirement. I'm relaxed. Not in the slightest bit harassed. This is when a being a retired civil servant has its benefits. Having a monthly income despite not holding a salaried position is such an unbelievable blessing. It gives one a great deal more freedom to do what one wants, when one wants. No computer-generated timetable to abide by. Of course one has other responsibilities.

A matter of learning

I'm in the process of learning how to use photoshop to create folder that can put photos on the web as a gallery of photos. Photoshop is one program I've never got around to learning to use. Too many functions to learn and too time consuming to use. It has taken me a long time to get the process of creating a web gallery despite having a quick demo from a friend some months ago. I'm using a trial version of photoshop cs2. I'm now able to create an flash photo gallery. Now I need to learn how to upload the folder onto a website.

Is is OK to send a child from an English-speaking home to a Chinese-medium school?

My son's UPSR (Year Six) results will be released tomorrow. He says he has tried his best and I believe he has. All the pimples that popped up on his face two or three months before the exam is testimony to the pressure he was under. Just this morning I mentioned that his pimples are clearing up and he reminded me that there is no more stress. Will he get all As? No he won't. Do we regret sending him to Chinese-medium school which would result in him not scoring all As? No we don't. He may not score As in the 2 Chinese papers but he has acquired an extra language. This will stand him in good stead. Besides, he is able to communicate better with his paternal granny in Mandarin. So parents, if you are pondering whether to enrol your child in a Chinese-medium primary school (you being unable to assist your child in any way in Chinese language), let me assure you that it is OK. I remember my son floundering when he was in Year One and Two. He did not understand announcements made during assemblies or over the PA system. Sometimes he guessed right. Many times he guessed wrong. Last week he was singing a chinese song that the whole Year Six students were to sing during the school graduation day. He sang but he could not tell me the meanings of all that was contained the lyrics. But he could sing it well and he enjoyed singing it. So next year my son goes to Form One. He has survived six years in a chinese-medium school!

Power versus the milk of human kindness

I had the opportunity today to chat with a colleague. She had just returned to work after being undergoing home quarantine for about 10 days. She told me that she was given 10 doses of tamiflu. Fearful on hearing that an acquaintance had died from influence A H1N1, she had gone for a checkup because she had experienced severe headaches and ‘cutting’ chest pains for some days. Though she has completed the treatment for H1N1, she still had to get further treatment because her lungs have been affected. She is worried. She is also upset because those in authority were neither sympathetic nor supportive when she needs to go off for further follow-up checkups. One even commented on her being away from work for so many days! Why am I sharing this? Because even while I was chatting with her, I could empathise with her. She is really very hardworking, putting in long hours at work. She has a great deal of responsibilities and paperwork so she is even willing to dish out money from her own pocket to employ an assistant to do the computer-work for her. Of course, one may reply that it’s okay since she can afford it. But that’s not the point. She doesn’t have to take this extra step to ensure that all the work assigned to her gets done on time. She could very well say that she does not know how to operate the computer well. So many people pour a great deal of time and energy into their work and career. When they are able and can contribute, their superiors seem to appreciate and value them highly. Sad to say, many feel let down by these same people when the situation is reversed, when support and understanding is needed in return. Why is it that when people are promoted to administrative positions they seem to forget where they came from? I know there are some good administrators but there are so few and far between of them. What George Orwell says in the Animal Farm is so true: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Trying to make a comeback to blogging

It's not easy because for the last few months whenever I sit in front of the computer one task or other crops up and I've had to put blogging on hold. I must really follow Covey's advice of filing and doing more tasks in the IMPORTANT BUT NOT URGENT box, rather than lumping everything in the URGENT box and have not enough time for what's important. Besides the camera acted funny and so I couldn't even get good shots to post. The few that were presentable went onto Facebook. Perhaps I should decide where I want to focus my stuff- Facebook or Blog. Mustn't be repetitious. Very tedious and 'lao-lang' 'cheong-hei' to repeat oneself. God has been good to me. These past week I had only 10 periods to cover. A GSTT (Guru Sandaran Tidak Terlatih) teacher came and she took over my one Form 1, one Form 2 and one Form 3 classes. I held on to my two Form 5 classes though she was to take over my whole timetable and I was told to observe her and operate on a-TST (teacher-support-team) basis. I did it a few times and then I cried off because I couldn't stomach the errors she subjected my poor ears to. What our kids have to put up with in class during English lessons! I shudder at the thought of this. I must remember to remind Jonathan again to ignore teacher-errors in his English class. So having to go to class officially for only 400 minutes a week left quite a good deal of time on my hands to pack and clear up many things in school for my departure from the world of classrooms. 30 August would be my last 'teaching' day for after that my fifth formers will be having their Trial Exams for SPM until I say good-bye to them on 17 September. They break off for the Hari Raya holidays. I break-off and that's it for the rest of the year. I DON"T HAVE TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL ANYMORE! Hooray! PTL