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

It's now one whole month into 2009. I'm finally settling into the year. The last few weeks have been crazily buzy - what with school beginning, sports practices,cross-country race, record book and class register to complete, a whole lot of school meetings (70% of which were unnecessary!),fitting

everybody's 2009 (especially the son's) schedule together, hangover from Christmas,

sharing endings and beginnings, preparing for and celebrating Chinese New Year.

What's the title of that song....? Oh yes, I WILL SURVIVE!! Must find the song and add to my playlist. So what's next? As the saying goes "Time and tide waits for no man (or woman)". I believe that it is best to take everything as it comes along and do the best that we can with God's help. There is always something new to learn, something old to remember and cherish, something better to look forward to . Worry a little less... Laugh a little bit more... 2009 would be okay. HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.

Psyching up

Christmas around the corner is usually much looked forward to BUT also signals the approach of holiday's ending. This year Jonathan didn't go on about putting up the Christmas tree. Maybe a sign of growing up. So the tree remains in the box this year. The trimmings of Christmas should remain just that I guess, ...trimmings... The church sanctuary got decorated however. It was an ad hoc thing decided during the Chinese Service prayer and planning meeting on Friday night. So the next morning a group of people turned up to put up the decorations using last few years' deco items. It is not very grand nor thematic, but it 's better than nothing. Still, the Christmas week will be good family time for our family, what with the three sisters' families getting together. There's also meeting up with friends returning to Alor Star to celebrate Christmas with their own families, welcoming the MYF carolers, Christmas worship together ... A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL.

Between and Betwixt

Between and betwixt school terms there are such things called VACATIONS. Vacations are times to do a list of things that we cannot normally do during school terms. GOING OUT AND ABOUT is usually on the list. That was what my family and I had been doing the last 2 weeks. We didn't venture out of the country, only out of the state. Stopping at Tapah SU Campsite to pick up Jonathan after the Tweens Camp, we proceeded to KL just to spend a couple of days with my sister's family. Their church was having a food and fun fair. My sister's cell group turned Nestle Ice-cream seller for the day. Christmas arrived in KL early.

Then we went up to Genting Highlands for another couple of days. We had two days

of very contrasting weather - rain on day one and bright sky on day two. Good thing GH has indoor and outdoor rides. Worked out just fine. The crowd was terrible. Doesn't look as though Malaysia will suffer from any economic setbacks if people are spending so freely. We came back to Alor Star, rested a day and shot off to Penang for a 3-day Mandarin- speaking Christian Teachers Camp. While hubby and son participated in the programmes, I managed to achieve the second item on my vacation list - LOLLING AND LAZING. Wonderful!! Aren't vacations wonderful???

Tyranny of the urgent

This is a phrase I picked up years ago. Told myself at that time to not fall into this trap. However this holiday that began two weeks ago has been day after day of being caught up in something that needed to be seen to immediately. Holiday seems more busy than working days. What incongruency! Today, I MADE time for what I wanted to do- personal timeout. It has been along day but what a sense of achievement one feels when all that 'urgent' matters get accomplished alongside patchwork sewing, tea with friends AND most important listing an item on ebay.com.my to test market response. If you are interested in giving a unique-one of a kind table runner-made by a very careful crafts-person (not yours truly) as a Christmas gift / birthday gift etc. do pop into ebay and search under "patchwork table runner" and acquire it. It is very well-made. See for yourself.

Time off

This morning I was a little 'trigger-happy' but only with the camera. One hand on the wheel and one finger went 'click...' Can only do this when driving an auto car. Manual car - definitely a no..no. See street lamps are still on( and some people are still sleeping!)

When I arrived at school I saw all the girls (mine is an all-girl school) trooping off to the hall. This is Monday morning. Not assembly day. Something must be on. Seems I've been very out of touch. Our school won the Sekolah Cemerlang(Excellent School) award this year, meaning that the school collected a cash award of RM500,000 - so I'm told. And this Wednesday afternoon there's going to be a 'kenduri' (feast) for the whole school. I won't be around that day. The students were being updated this morning. (This teacher required the updating too!) Seems the principal and a chosen team had gone off to KL to receive the award and would be returning Tuesday night by flight. All teachers had been informed to go receive them at the airport. I won't be there either. These are the things that make me glad that I've only slightly less than a year to go.

So having had my class canceled and the camera still unsheathed, I decided to take a morning walk to appreciate God's creation (to counteract man's ridiculousness). A 10-minute walk from the hall back to my room yielded a myriad of leaves that God created in different shapes and sizes. Took about 30 odd shots ( all different plants). I'm glad I had time off to "stand and stare...." this morning.