break kejap

will be off from blogworld for few days...

counting the hours to meet my dear sister & cousin tonite, hope weather improves untuk menyambut orang malaya and all our planned activities/itineraries.

kakak's been brave..

this morning i took both kids to the dentist, its aisyah's half yearly visit and aliyah's first taste on dentist chair.

appointment is at 11 but we left an hour early cos we had to take the bus & tram and then walked for 5 minutes to get to the dentist which is at the other side of the city.

aisyah is ok with dental checks, her milk teeth are slowly falling, dentist said her permanent teeth are good, gum is really strong & healthy, slight stain on the teeth could be due to the antibiotics that she took before. the dentist applied banana flavoured fluoride on her teeth and all is well.

aliyah pulak, different story altogether. she cried when i sat her on my lap on the dentist chair. i told the dentist that she's got cavities on her front teeth which could be due to dozzing off while being breastfed and bottle feeding. i think its the earlier; as i stopped breastfeeding when she turned 2 and by that time gigi pun dah banyak and also for the fact that she doesnt 'gonggong botol'. dentist doesnt do any treatment, just gave fluoride tablets to be taken daily.

when she saw these pictures, aliyah said ' kakak's been brave, yaya scared, yaya cry...'

there are 2 dental practices near our house but they dont take anymore NHS patients. nak register as private patient, the charge is ridiculously expensive. kalau nhs patient, the kids get free treatment up to the age of 18. tak faham betul dengan system kat sini.. why so difficult nak ambik patient??? private dentists charges could go sky high!! tak boleh lawan dentist kat malaysia lah.. we went to a good (& young) dentist at Tmn Setiawangsa when we were home last year and spent every other day at his clinic for 2 weeks, membaiki gigi2 !! for me, sitting on dentist chair is more terrifying than lying on the labour bed... so, aliyah ikut my perangai ke???

Bangga

i was 'webbing' (basically sitting on my bum, passing time with reading articles on the net) when i bumped into Modern Wonders of The World.

this one is quite obvious, being one of the 7 wonders of the world. Eiffel Tower was built about 120 years ago in 1889, 10,000 tonnes of steel make up this very prominent structure. i've been there twice and still taken by its amazing construction.

built in 1973, Sydney Opera House is one of Sydney's famous landmarks. never been there, hubby has - he lived there for almost 2 years when he did his flying course. its a world class venue for arts, theatre, music, performance.

Millau Viaduct was built in 2004, designed by Norman Foster the same british architect who's responsible for designing The Gherkin and also the odd shaped London City Hall building. this is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world where the summit of one pier is at 343m

The Empire State building was built in 1931, now becomes the tallest building in Manhattan after the WTC was destroyed in 2001. somehow travelling to the states doesnt really appeal to me.

this is a picture of Eurostar travelling into the Channel Tunnel which is the 'wonder' discussed here. the tunnel was built in 1994. we took the eurostar to paris in 2007; me being claustrophobic doesnt really fancy being in the underwater tunnel for 20 minutes but this is really a brilliant piece of engineering.

Bellagio 'dancing' fountain at Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, built in 1999 with 1200 jets of water and 4500 lights. am not sure whether this is the same fountain featured in 'the ocean 11-13' movies.

and ta-daa... this is what makes me feel bangga to be born in malaya land. the PETT was built in 1999, total height of 1483 metres. the other day it was featured in Discovery Science, one of the documentary channels on tv, ada la few faces whom i knew when i was at my previous workplace.

its raining! its pouring!

the picture says it all..

this is not what summer should look like, its more like autumn except that the leaves are still green..but who are we to complain? we should be grateful that we are living in peace, badan sihat, ada kerja, cukup makan & pakai. but then omputih ni lain sikit. weather is a daily topic. kalau panas complain, hujan complain, sejuk complain.. tak de benda yang betul... are they being ungrateful or just a figure of speech??

when i got up at 6.30 this morning, the sun was out. so i did one load of washing, half hour later the sun began to dissapear and the sky turned cloudy. checked the weather forecast, selalunya 90% reliable - light shower with sunny interval at 10am - 1pm. so ok lah boleh put the washing out when the sun reappears. but...ku sangka panas, rupanya hujan di tengahari and its still drizzling.

the weather put me off from taking a shower (i'm still in my jammies...), going to work or even to the nearby shop to get fresh milk. so 'work at home' lah kononnya. the beauty of flexibility..what have i been up to? house keeping, blog hopping, face booking, .. nothing to do with office work at all and i feel bad actually-this is all about being 'amanah'. i get paid to teach or do other teaching related duties either at the office or when working at home but if i dont do/attempt to do any of that during office hours, bukan kah itu 'tak amanah' namanya??

to make me feel better/less guilty....at least i stay at home and not window shopping or jalan2 kan??

agony aunt

today i got a visit and a phone call from my students' parents. being a first year tutor, i've got do student counselling and sometimes, the parents got involved too but fortunately they are pleasant, cultured and bukan saja2 nak complain or blame us for failing their children.


i felt sorry for the parents who came this morning, especially the mother. she was in tears when we discussed about her son's deficiency. its not easy to admit that our children have learning difficulty. i dont like to mince with words but in this case, i had to be very careful with what i had to say. the university provides special support services for dyslexic and special needs students but sometimes the students wouldnt open up to admit that they have such problems which makes it difficult for us to help. he must have done well in his A level to grant him a place in the course that he's doing. he still wants to stay in the course, his parents are appealing for the son to re-do the modules in september hoping that he will pass and proceed to 2nd year in october. honestly if you ask me, it would be a struggle for him to do all the failed courseworks (5 of them altogether) in a month. but i didnt want his parents to lose hope on him. what makes it worse is that the father was made redundant and out of job (he's a QS) so i suppose, their saving is running out for the child's education. even though its quite late to appeal, being human, i just told them to go ahead and give it a shot. u'd never know.. this is me being a parent, not an academic. before they left, i told the mom to take it easy and her parting words was what other moms would say - "he's still my little boy...".


then i received a call from a mother about her failing son who has to re-take all the modules next year and cannot progress to 2nd year until he makes good all deficiency. this mother seemed very friendly on the phone. she just wanted me to clarify certain things and i explained as much as i know. she was taken by surprise that we took attendances in lectures and seminars and she admitted the fact that her son might not have attended classes on regular basis. all i said was 'there's a correlation between attendance and performance'. the best part was when she asked me whether his son is the only one who failed in his class. i told her, he's not alone... i could hear the big sigh of relief in her voice and we laughed it off.

oh well.. despite the fact that some students get on my nerve and they deserve to fail anyway; some other students deserve a second chance. i'm still human after all. God i love my job!!!

ramblings

again, i'm passing time but this time, i'm at work.


the work place is so quiet cos everyone seems to be on leave. ye lah, we all bukan nya boleh cuti senang2 macam orang kerja office. we can only take leave when the students go on their break (xmas & easter & summer). there is no mid term break. summer break pulak tak boleh main cuti aja, can only go away after exam board and admins week so basically by end of july like now. most of us take the whole month of august off till early september cos we have to be back by then to mark the 'summer exam papers/referred coursework' - those students who failed in june exam to progress to the next academic year in october.


masa mula2 kerja dulu, pening jugak nak absorb all these critical activities, rules and regulations but i slowly learned the ropes, the jargons, the terms.


there's plenty to do, kalau nak list down benda2 yang perlu dibuat memang la panjang se depa. i suppose i'm in the state of denial now, fearful that i may not be able to meet my deadlines. but i guess doing up the list should help in a way. so here goes:-


a) referred coursework on strategic finance (dengan muka tak malu nya, terpaksa mengaku fail exam) - hand in date on 21/8. satu benda pun belum start, just printed out the questions. out of 12 people who sat for this exam, only 3 passed and the module leader who is actually my very own boss, kena justify why so many people failed his subject whereas we did quite well on other subjects. according to reliable sources (tak boleh lah nak cakap siapa yang beritahu.. against work ethic lah pulak), the average mark for other subjects for me & my coursemates are in the region of mid 60s which is not bad. so, the board's decision was to get the failed students to re-work the exam questions but do them as coursework instead. this time he even prepared a guidance on how to answer the questions. earlier on, he came into my room and showed me how to do start off and offered help if i'm stucked, can even buy him coffee at the cafe near my house. (his ex wife & children live in our neighbourhood)


b) Design coursework - hand in date in early september. yang ni, tak tau apa nak buat cos the subject area is too broad. the module leader gave us 10 topics to read through and we can choose to write on any one of them. Design is not my forte as a QS.. i wish my architect friends are nearby. kalau kat msia, banyak choice nak mintak tolong sapa2 buat/give me ideas.. but then, can also seek help virtually kan??!


c) Organisational behaviour coursework - hand in date also in september. yang ni pun, belum tengok apa2 pun lagi.. the class/lecture was interesting but doing the coursework is a pain..havent even read the question!!


d) post grad cert in education portfolio - hand in date also in september. yang ni paling lama time framenya. my colleague Tania has done & handed in hers (malu nya... she started work here only last year and yet she had completed hers!) but she told me that i could have hers when she gets them back. i suppose Rob, the module leader, couldnt be bothered to chase us anymore. its just that i have to hand it in if i want to 'graduate' in november nanti. at least i have done all the other courseworks unlike my good friend who sits opposite me, satu benda pun dia belum buat lagi!!


e) the masters class will resume in october, first weekend back on 10/10 dah ada exam for Design, Value & Cost module. i havent studied for that exam. banyak lagi coursework yang belum siap, mana sempat nak study!!


f) the first year students will be flocking in October. as the first year tutor (by default - contract dah habis in june but since nobody wants to do this crappy job, my boss kind of made me continue doing it) i have to prepare all the welcome pack and organise the activities for induction week. memang la boleh 'cut and paste' from last year's but i always believe in improving my own standard. the best part is, the tutors/programme leaders dont get paid anymore for this extra task.. dah tak de 'responsibility allowance' in our payslip. so lebih kurang macam charity work lah ni. their rationale is, if we perform this additional task well over and above the teaching responsibility, it will show in our Performance Development Review, then we get merit in terms of pay, bukan la dapat annual bonus pun! but then, most of us here dah nak sampai tahap 'gaji mati' dah.. i will only do this crappy work for just 1 more year, after that, i will be adamant on NOT doing it.

g) lecture notes & slides, seminar work, drawings need to be updated. yesterday i sat down with my colleague to map out what to cover weekly for 26 weeks for both year 1 & year 2 module. also what coursework to give to students. tak boleh la bagi soalan sama every year, macam dah buntu idea lah pulak. today i rummaged in the steel cabinet and found some interesting drawings to get the students to work on. memang every september i vow to prepare lecture notes/slides well in advance before the term starts but i dont know what went wrong that i end up doing them the nite before the lectures, stay up till 1 or 2am and of course lah selalu kena leter dengan my other half. yang dia marah sangat tu sebab he has to keep me company and dozz of on the sofa. tak layan bercakap pun tak pe, asalkan physically he's in the same room.

itu je la yang outstanding sekarang ni... bila nak start buat?? slowly but surely.. apa2 pun let me enjoy my 2 weeks break with my sister & cousin and my family.

mummy tok's patch

this morning we bought a few pots of mini roses of different colours. got 2 pots from morrisons @ £1.78 each and also a pot of pink dahlia. then we went to beeston town centre and bought 4 pots of roses for £5, 6 pots of different coloured geraniums at 2 for £1 and 2 pots of lavendar for £5.

dahlia/roses

raspberry/geranium

these flowers are blooming in our back garden. the purple one is called 'buddjela' (there are several species & colours, with quite distinctive sweet smell), couldnt find the name of the pink one

pampas grass/fuschia species

our herb collection - pokok kesum/basil

chives(kucai)/thyme

back from the shops, my mom & i cleared the mess at front lawn, daddy cut the hedges and mowed the front & back garden. then i let mom planted all the roses & geraniums at the corner which from now on shall be called 'mummy tok's patch'.

mummy tok's assistant

mummy tok's patch

i planted the lavendar at the front and hope to get few more to plant at the kerb on the driveway. when kakak/aunty yan comes next year, she will have her patch too but i'll plant some bulbs in november for spring bloom.

sayang anak..

pepatah 'sayang anak di tangan-tangan kan, sayang isteri di tinggal tinggalkan' can no longer be used these days. kalau dulu, parents 'tangankan anak' to teach the kids a lesson if they misbehaved and it worked. memang serik kalau kena pukul tapi sekarang, kalau parents 'tangankan anak', salah hemat parents can be charged for physically abusing the kids.

in our case (well in hubby's case), sayang anak punya pasal, malam2 pun pasang jugak bunk bed.. hubby called me when i was on the bus home, that we could get aisyah's bunk bed malam ni jugak as ikea closes at 10pm. at least it saves us from going out on sunday and we could do the garden if the weather's good.

so off we went at about 6pm, original intention just to get the bed & mattress tapi biasa la, mesti ada 'dan lain lain lagi'.. ikea is on sale, the bunk bed that we wanted tak pulak sale. there was this white metal framed double bed (bigger than the normal queen size), original price of bed frame only was £77 reduced to less than half price which attracted lots of onlookers. but we dont really need a new bed/mattress just now. tunggu lah dulu. priority is aisyah's bed which looks like this in the catalogue.

it was damn heavy to load it into our van & unload when we got home. mula2 daddy kata nak assemble esok tapi standard la.. bila anak dah pujuk. so both of them sat together in the room and the mission began at 9.30pm.

from this ...

2 hours later....ta daa....

banyak betul screws to fix this bed..

aisyah tidor on the lower bunk tonite, just to get used to it. timely lah for her kak nik to share the bunk bed when she's here for the holidays. wait till aliyah sees this in the morning!

Life's a b....!

figure that one out! i know..most people would associate it with some bad word kan?? i couldnt bring myself to swear or use vulgar words cos its just not right especially not infront of the kids. at one time, our first born forbade us from using the word 'stupid' in our conversation. but i couldnt tahan one, especially bila geram dengan some students who dont have 'much up there' (no brain laaa..)

well, how shall we fill the blank?

i was so bored at work yesterday afternoon, didnt break for lunch so i decided to leave early and then walked to the nct (nott city transport) travel centre to reload bus pass, passed through the old market square and waaahhhh... ada beach kat tengah2 bandar!!

living in the midlands make the locals crave for sand & sea that the council decided to create beach in the city. siap ada rides, deck chairs and also stalls selling floats. (click on the pictures to see bigger images)

passing time

i'm just passing time. am supposed to be at work 9-5 this week but except for monday when we had the 9am meeting which lasted till 12noon, i never bothered to leave the house till about 10am or so.


there's so much to do at work but i'm not really in the working mood, just counting the days before my sis & cousin touch down on UK land next friday nite and spending 2 weeks with them, out and about. i've already prepared the itinerary, booked hotel in scarborough, called Gill to let her know that we'll be going down to visit her. ticket legoland windsor & madame tussauds je yang belum beli online lagi but that can wait till later next week. its going to be a packed 2 weeks in london, the midlands, the cotwolds and all the way up to north yorkshire. ina ajak pergi fruit/vegetable picking at Esher, in Surrey while we're in london. i'm just hoping that the weather will improve, its been unsettled lately - sunny spells and light rain on most days.


school's closed for summer till september. kesian Aisyah kena layan Aliyah's antic. never mind kakak, its just for a couple of days before cik long & kak nik arrive and we can go away for 2 weeks and then mummy will be on leave till september. i'm taking the whole of august off to entertain my guests and after that spend few days at the library to work on my assignments and september exams. my referred coursework on strategic finance is due on 21st August and i've not started anything yet.


there's a lot to do this weekend. saturday is forecast to be sunny, thot of taking my mum pergi kedai jual pokok bunga on our main street and do the front garden. also planned with daddy to throw the empty boxes and faulty household stuff at the waste recycling centre and then go to ikea to get Aisyah's bunk bed.

kenduri kecil2an

yesterday, we had BBQ kenduri 'masuk rumah baru' and khatam quran Aisyah. even though it was just a small do, it was meaningful to us. our first born dah khatam, but told her that she needs to 'mengulang with tajwid'. guests were mimi & ina and their families, cukup untuk memeriahkan suasana.

upacara khatam started at around 1.30pm with wan (nenek) mun, mimi's mom reciting Wadduha, followed by Aisyah. mummy tok & i read one surah each and Aisyah recited all the surah to Qulhuallah. doa khatam was recited by wan mun.

dah selesai...

selesai upacara khatam, it was makan time.. wan mun masak pulut kuning, mummy tok masak kerutuk ayam & telur dadar hiris halus.

the weather turned out sunny & a bit windy after the light shower in the morning, so we had an outdoor BBQ.

ina bought the beef shanks from london which she brought over few days ago and daddy marinated the nite before. i marinated chicken with coriander & lime for the BBQ and made mediterranean salad & grilled aubergine with mint yogurt as side dish. for dessert, ada popiah and also konnyoku jelly which is the favourite among kids and adults. tak sempat nak ambik gambar the colourful food that we had yesterday.

kalau kat msia, kenduri khatam is a grand affair for most families. pakai cantik2, siap duduk atas cushion besar yang lawa, ada rehal glamer and jemputan pun ramai, ada berkat or bunga telur for guests... as much as i would like to have a grander do than what we had yesterday, i was more than happy that the event went through as it was. to me, we should just do something (and live) by our means, bersesuaian dengan tempat dan keadaan. what matters most, our child has achieved her target and we are proud of her... Alhamdulillah.. It was a good day after all..