On a KTM Commuter !

I got an invitation to attend a wedding luncheon of my old friend's eldest son at Klana Resort's Grand Ballroom in Seremban yesterday. Since we had a guest at home, I had to follow my other friend to attend this wedding. We left early at 10.30 am because my friend's son was the mcee for the wedding luncheon.

We were the first to arrive at the Grand Ballroom . The bride and groom were already there rehearsing for the walking in and going up the staircase.We settled at our Table No. 21 and then my old dormmate friend whom I had arranged to sit together came in with her friend. I could not recognise her because she had corrected her eyesight and she had a different hairstyle altogether! Anyway, her look is still the same but I too could not recognise her husband who has put on since I last met them when our children were attending their briefing to leave for Australia for studies.

All throughout the luncheon, we were non stopped chatting away and catching up with the missing tales about one another. It was really good to have met and my intentions were all fulfilled. We must really make an effort to meet our good old friends and I am happy that I had gone that far to attend this wedding.Seremban is now so near to us and to go anytime is not a fuss at all when I see the link with MidValley!

At 3.30pm ,the ceremony was over and as prearranged, my good friend and her husband sent me to the train station to take the commuter home.I was quite scared being travelling alone and being the first time on a commuter from Seremban.I hopped into the waiting commuter but it was so packed with people.I paid RM5.90 for a oneway journey from Seremban to MidValley.

The journey took me one hour and 10 minutes to arrive at MidValley station which is one floor down.The commuter stopped at every station and the first stop after Seremban is a very small town called Troli. I was glad to gain this experience on a commuter to get to know these small stops such as Labu, Nilai, Batang Benar,Bangi, UKM, Kajang, Serdang, Bandar Tasik Selatan, Salak Selatan , Siputeh before finally reaching MidValley station. I could only get my seat after three stops.

It was a comfortable journey compared to a bus journey. I have made to understand the difference between a commuter from a train. A commuter has a standing space whereas a train has available seat for everyone.All in all, I too got to see the rural sceneries along the route and have definitely become a more confident single traveller on a commuter !

My care and concern is backfired !

Recent encounters outside my workplace tell me that what we perceive as caring and concerned may not be interpreted as such by people whom we refer to. I like to share opportunities with close acqaintances but I was on two occasions shocked to receive rather cold and unappreciated responses! So when is nice really nice ? No wonder we have a Chinese saying which says "It never pays to do matching ! " There is so much truth in this well known saying which describes an instance which shows that good intention is often not appreciated and so advising us not to help others on other matters which do not concern us.

I sometimes wonder when educated adults behave this way, what examples are we refering to to show to our young ones who will be watching every action and move of ours ! Even if one does not appreciate the other's good intention, a return call or a wish of thanks should be offered to the caring person. May be, I am a person who likes to think or analyse human behaviour alot and this kind of gesture is too much to ask for ! Please analyse and I always feel that I am on a correct track of perception!


On the other hand, one can be always be thinking of the best for others at one's own expense. Some people will just go on doing nice things without announcing it ! This practice may be taken for granted and no matter what one has done , it may be irrelevant when some kind of expectation is not met with. We have people who does not appreciate all the mundane practices done and I would like to say that it will be too late to show appreciation when the person is not there! Appreciate all the good things everyday , show one's appreciation and be happy everyday.Treat everyday as if it is the last day of one's life! Happiness is the way and take all these unpleasant rebounces as trivial !

Looking forward towards weekends!
Time really flies ! When Wednesday comes, the weekend will follow suit soon! My tagline is " starting everyday with great enthusiasm for a defined goal. " I enjoy my company during weekdays and my weekends are spent with my family or our close friends who stay in the same neighbourhood.We often go out for dinners together on a Saturday or Sunday night!

Last night, being the first day of Metrojaya's branded sale in Midvalley's exhibition centre, we drove up there to see whether we could pick up some offered items. It was raining and the road was jammed up with crawling cars. To my surprise, there were so many shoppers on a Friday night and parking too was a problem. After a week of hardwork, people do destress by going for a stinct in Midvalley.

At the exhibition centre, I saw Laura Ashley's clothes beside the Raoul's.They looked rather old and out of the season ones. I did not find any suitable ones for myself and soon it was announced that it would be closing at 9pm. Hurriedly, I went for another round to see the household items and had identified some of the items to buy if I were to go back again on Sunday.

Saturday morning is often a marketing day for fruits, eggs , dry stuffs and etc at the market place.My stock for fruits have to be replenished every week and today I learn that fruits have to be eaten when the stomach is empty!

On a Sunday morning, a good morning walk up the Kiara Hills would be very relaxing! The place has attracted so many people and I only discovered this place lately. I have really missed nature for so long and it takes my retirement to find out about it . Being early last Sunday , we had a second round up from the Taman side . The scenery is beautiful, with the lake, suspension bridge and colourful plants around the lake. This walking path is more gradual compared to the Kiara Hills's path. We can even pick up all the different dailies before going back home.

The rest of the afternoon is for resting and reading newspapers until dinner time. Another round of food hunting for dinner is another exciting time of a well-spent weekend! There is time for work and time for resting and enjoyment . This way of life suits me very well! Happiness is what we perceive and I seldom grumble because I always place appreciation before dissatisfaction !

The joy of going back to the education world !

I happily returned to the education world two months ago and am glad that I had made this big step after my 20 months of retirement! There is always so much to learn about the technology and its new tools and also to share with a group of aspiring young teachers my experience. Today was our Open Day and I got to meet a very concerned group of parents. Again, I feel children of today are really lucky and parents really keep up with the advances in the education arena.

The school environment is really so conducive and I feel like being a student again! We have international staff over the International school at the moment and later on in January the rest of the Malaysian curriculum teachers will join in. We respect each other very much and the feeling of caring and concern is always in the air. The atmosphere is so different from my previous schools !

All the classrooms are air conditioned and new being a new purpose-built school.They are all equiped with LCD projectors, smart boards , metal cabinets,many shelves for books display and a computer for student's use besides one attached to the smart board. We have an air conditioned staff room, a cafeteria which serves tasty food , a large library and impressive buildings for the Science & Design Technology laboratories. The Science laboratories are so modern as well as well equiped.

I really look forward to more exciting weeks to come !

A Bulk Shopping Experience At Ikea !

It was Deepavali holiday and having no newspapers to read in the morning I decided to go to Ikea to do some bulk shopping which I had always postponed doing . After that I told myself that I will never do it again all by myself! It's a good experience and it's good to share with those who have not done it ! Nobody can tell me the exact procedures before I made that trip !

The most time consuming part is to source for the items which one wants. I cut short this by going through the catalogue book before I made the trip. I then began to wonder who will help me to get all these items on to the trolleys.How can I manage to get all these items on the trolley and then to push the two trolleys all by myself ? True enough, after checking with the staff, I found that I would have to get the item number and the location before I pick the items from the picking location. We have to make sure we get the staff at the computer base to print out the list of items and their locations before we picked them. Now, I understand why people push two or more trolleys at one go ! There is no staff to help us to push the trolleys to the payment counter.So it's good to go together with another friend.

After I had got the picking area 's staff to help me to get the heavier items, it was essential to have that item list for the cashier.Otherwise, I may not be able to make payment. Then only , I had to look for the trolley boys at the trolleys area to help me to push the additional trolleys to the home delivery counter further down left to arrange for delivery.

At the delivery counter, there are numbers to be picked up to wait for our turn. I showed my receipt for him to work out the printout and charges for assembly and delivery. For delivery the charge is RM65 for a load immaterial of the amount whereas the assembly charge is 5 % of the cost of the item. My delivery and then the assembly of the items will be the next day !

From this experience, I learn that I must never go for bulk item shopping alone. For a purchase amounting to RM1500, one must give allowance for about 4 hours ! When can we expect to do shopping there online without having to go through the fuss of looking and carting the items which are not small or light !

Why not incorporate Sejarah in the teaching of other subjects ?

Our Malaysian curriculum has good and extensive contents for most of the subjects and we are already tight with the time factor. Why is there this newly announced introduction of Sejarah as an additional subject in Primary Schools? The number of periods in school per week is fixed and we cannot possibly increase the number of periods to accommodate another new subject like Sejarah . Sivik and Kenegaraan at Standard 4 to 6 is already a new subject at the sacrifice of the other subjects.

There is already the thought of implementing school based assessment in primary schools soon to lessen the stress on our younger generation . So why pressurise young children at their tender age to study an additional subject and therefore an additional responsiblility to the new subject? Young children should perceive their early years of education as meaningful and enjoyable. If we keep on increasing the number of subjects , we are actually moving towards a state of no cognitive focus ! Let us have a generation of pupils with good basic foundation for the numerous subjects which are being taught now.

This does not mean that we are not teaching Sejarah to our young children. We can identify the keypoints in Sejarah and then to incorporate them across the curricular subjects. This approach has been very effective when we incorporate Science and Mathematics in the teaching of English ! The pupils learn English with the contents from Science and Mathematics. Similarly, we can incorporate Sejarah in the teaching of subjects like Sivik and Kenegaraan, Bahasa Inggeris , Bahasa Malaysia , Pendidikan Moral and all the rest.

This move will certainly meet the needs of everyone. The happy faces of the young children must be ensured for better success !

Feeling Good !

I like to reflect since my retirement over things which I encounter everyday. So far, I am blessed because so many nice things happen and by now I had left behind all those unthoughtful and unpleasant feelings which I had least expected to happen ! My happiness is to do many more happy things to make the world a better place ! A teacher is always a teacher to create effective teaching and learning environment and approaches to ensure pupils are nurtured holistically besides trying to help others . I like to think out of the ordinary and for most occasions it turns out to be very interesting . It gives me such a good feeling when innovation generates good actions for implementation.

This afternoon, I was really feeling good when a young girl who was promoting some food in the supermarket suddenly greeted me by calling me "Pn Lee ". She continued saying that it was a long time since she last saw me. 21 months is really a long time ! After a few exchanges of questions and answers I realised that she was a Form 2 student when I retired from the school. I am happy because my young student has attempted to acknowledge me inspite of the long separation and my only contact with her was only on assembly days in the school . Many adults would not have thought of that !

Another incidence was last year's Teachers' Day when I received a red paper rose with a note in my letter box from the 'naughty children of DJ ' as claimed by them. This note was to wish me Happy Teachers' Day and it came from a group of teenage boys ! Many more of these gestures from the young ones inspire me to nurture them further. Some of them are so lovely, innocent and genuine in reciprocating !

An insight into " how to identify a Malaysian "


After having read about Malaysians from The Edge Malaysia recently, I edited some and came up with this edition on ways to identify a Malaysian. As the author puts it, "there is a wise saying that goes like this --" You can take a man/woman out of Malaysia , but you can never take Malaysia out of him/her ."

This is really true because it is not hard to identify a fellow Malaysian in another country.So, what makes a Malaysian?Here's the list.

• We cannot function without Malaysian food
• We eat everything that the pasar malam offers
• We always complain about Singaporeans but our best friend is Phua Chu Kang(may be because rumour has it that he is actually from JB)
• We like to stop our cars at accident scenes even if it worsens traffic jams .If a truck filled with durians over-turns, we have no qualms about getting out of our cars to pick up the durians that have spilled on the road
• Not only do we love our lahs and mahs to bits, but we are also the only people in the universe that understands the word " gostan"
• We only have one forte-- whalloping durians without pinching our noses
• We observe Malaysian time religiously
• We are especially nationalistic if our national shuttler wins a medal or gets into the Olympics badminton finals
• We slam on the gas pedal when the traffic light turns yellow while others in other countries slam on the brakes
• We like to start new projects but never to see them through for a long time
  

So, how Malaysian are we?

Save the Serendah International Orchid Park!

Four years ago, everyone was so proud of Malaysia for venturing into the horticultural business of growing the orchids and the tulips on a large scale. Our admiration continued when the Serendah International Orchid Park was opened to tourists from near and far. This park was highly commented by many tourists and it used to be an ideal place for family outings and an exhibition venue for the orchid lovers.
Malaysia has to continue its pursues to attract more tourists to our country to further boost our nation’s economy. We have the expertise and the resources to revive such a park and furthermore, there is a need to multiply our tourists’ destinations rather than to reduce them. The entire area has already been developed into such a beautiful spot from a virgin jungle and to start another one in Shah Alam is not an easy task . Serendah is within reach without much effort.Why discard it at this juncture? Moreover, it can be worked out to ‘ revive ’ the park to generate income rather than to abandon it as an ugly neglected spot. This ugly scene will only reflect the weakness of the country’s management.

Besides, this is a good reminder to all Malaysians not to continue on with this culture of starting something big with no maintenance to see it through and beautiful all the way. There is a need for more strategic planning for any new project by considering all possible factors before starting a new project. Let us make orchid the icon to relate Malaysia to the world !


Appeared in Opinion Page of The Star 3 Oct 2008

To a healthy walk on the first day of Raya

This entire week of Raya holidays is indeed very good for me to catch up with a number things listed in my priority list! At last, my long overdued committment to write the project paper for CASTME is completed and emailed , my bushy orangy allamanda plant in front of my house is eventually trimmed to its lowest limit plus some other things tended to.

Yesterday, being a public holiday, I had the company of my hubby to walk with me in the morning.We decided to try out the Taman Rimba Kiara in TTDI at the early hours of the Raya morning. Somehow it did not turn out that early bcos it was 7.30am when we started our walk.

When we arrived at the car park, there were already so many cars parked there. To my surprise, we must be the last few people who have discovered this place! I have been hearing about this place years ago and I began to imagine the suspension bridge, the big lake ,the beautiful garden , the reflexalogy stoned path and the herbal plants grown in patches to be plucked and not to be wiped off completely from the ground.

We walked through stretches of virgin jungles on both sides of the road and saw some monkeys swinging from tree to tree as well as climbing up the lamp poles . I was more afraid of these monkeys than they were of me. The entire stretch of this healthy walk is indeed made up of ups and downs. Initially, I really felt that I was still not fit in spite of many hours of previous morning walk.Then I realised it was the gradient of the walk path because I walked comfortably on level grounds. It was like an endless walk after half an hour and our destination where there is the suspension bridge is never reached. At two cross roads we walked on following the forward arrow and eventually arrived at where we started.

Looking back, we realised that we actually went to the jungle path and not the Taman proper where the suspension bridge is! Anyway, I realises that my usual morning walk is nothing compared to an hour going through this jungle path. We will surely go back again to look for the beautiful garden path to walk while inhaling the cool and fresh morning air . It is also so convenient to buy all kinds of newspapers , some fruits or even vegetables there after the walk. Malaysians really know how to do business !

A healthy drink to think about !

Many years ago , I would prepare this healthy drink to lower my cholesterol level when I had taken too much prawns for the week . This drink is well known to most Chinese. After a while, I too have forgotten about this healthy drink until a friend reminded me last Tuesday at the dinner table in Nilai. It's good to take it regularly to see whether our cholesterol level really plunges down!

The ingredients are black fungus( called 'Mok Yee' in Chinese ), red dates together with the seeds, a small slice of ginger(optional) and dried longans to give it a more pleasant taste.No added sugar is suggested . All these are boiled together with a pot of water until one portion of water remains from the initial three portions.It probably takes about 3 hours of boiling.To make the drink , we use the same amount of each of these three ingredients . The drink is more pleasant if more longans are added.

I set off to buy the ingredients this morning and I started to boil it on a Saturday afternoon . The black fungus costs Rm1.80 for 100g , the red dates RM1.50/100g and dried longans at RM4.80/100g I ended buying 300g of each and I would see how many times I could make the drink. So lets see the effect after two months!

An Orchid Appreciation Day

The Really Lucky Children Of Today !


This morning, I witnessed the opening of a very conducive international school in Selangor which is situated in Setia Eco Park, Setia Alam. It is the Tenby International School ! The school is purposely built in the area to offer quality world class education in a very conducive education to all children . For a moment, I was so envious of every child who attended school on this first day. The children walked into the school compound confidently in their light blue shirt and grey scotch for the girls and similarly coloured pants and shirts for the boys.The boys wear ties of four different colours which show the houses which they belong. They were welcomed by the school principal at the lobby area of the Adminstration Block.

The layout of all the school blocks is so well planned and strategically located to cater for their needs.The most attractive open space is the Tenby Square where special designs made out of Taiwan grass grown within the design area are spaced sporadically over the entire area. They have the state-of-art facilities such as exclusive and purposeful airconditioned classrooms which are equiped with smart boards, special block for expressive art, design and science block, a sports' complex which includes a swimming pool, a computer laboratory for each block, a 3 stars cafetaria which serves very tasty and nutritious food, an auditorium, a multi-purpose hall , air conditioned staff room with all kinds of beverages available free for all the teachers and etcs.

The professional teachers use all kinds of interesting and innovative ways of imparting knowledge to these lucky children sitting in groups.There is an assistant teacher in every class . I saw an assistant teacher helping a child sorting the things to be kept into the individual colourful locker placed just outside the classroom. The form teacher teaches and the assistant teacher assists him with children who need help. The children are probed to think and not spoon-fed!

The library is managed by a librarian employed from UK. It must be a good place to explore when I have the time next . The socalled sick bay is managed by a well-trained nurse.

When I was there, I did not hear the usual school bell but instead I heard the unusual ringtone to mark the begining and ending of recesstime, lunch time and dismissal time. Other than these times, the teachers will have to keep time.

The pupils in this school are really trained to be independent even on this black Monday.There were no crying child or child clinging on to their parents ! It is indeed a very good school to be in. Now, I truely know what is an international school or a private school as compared to the government day school! These pupils are really lucky !

The many brightly lit sites in KL

Where there is good food at the right time , we would go to eat even if it is raining , late at night or even in Kuala Lumpur . These are the happy times of retirement when we just go to where the heart desires ! The choice of good and tasty beef balls/slice noodles of Soong Kee , near Jalan Silang was so apt for a light dinner especially when I have had tea/snack with my good Pengetua friends in SS2. I really enjoy my fun chat with my friends and then the togetherness with my husband.

We were going round and round to park our car near the coffeeshop restaurant because the earlier crowd had not finished their dinner there.When they left, there was ample space in front of the shop. I would claim that it is quite safe to park there because we have never been booked for illegal parking so far! In KL, one has to know certain designated places which are safe to park and yet get scotch -free from the traffic police! This is the point up for the 'locals' or the
' regulars' of KL.

After the sumptous dinner, I started to admire the beauty of KL at night on our way back. More lights and lighting decors are noticeable now as the country celebrates her 51years of independence. I spotted the beautifully lighted- up KL tower with blue and yellow lights which glitter at certain random intervals. The white coloured lightings look like diamonds glittering in the dark skies!

As we moved on to pass by the Dataran Merdeka, which is usually beautifully decorated with its galore lightings , I saw the big screen of all designs, hues and colours spread over the height of the Dewan Bandaraya building . The entire Raja Laut Road is always brightly lighted up but being Merdeka , additional lights have been added . I would say that KL is already well-lighted up with colourful decorative lightings before the Merdeka Day but now we can see even more lights and more sites beautifully decorated with colourful lightings at night.

Some other beautiful sites are the Lake Gardens and the iconic Parliament Building with its road leading to the building donned with poles fixed with big lighted up artificial Bunga Raya flowers .
Horizontal lines of red, yellow and blue lights flash across the facade of the Parliament Building and this effect gives the festive mood to the entire surroundings.

So much lightings everywhere and so there goes our expenditure on electricity! We must start looking for cheaper and suitable renewable energies to sustain this continuous consumption of energy. Besides the additional lighting added on to celebrate Merdeka, the colourful lightings in KL are permanently beautifying KL every night ! I hope there are timers to switch off all these lights when daylight sets in.

A PJ-KL on route bus waiting for passengers !

I have not been going on our bus for quite sometime. Today, I decided to try this means of transport to go to the vicinity of University of Malaya .To my surprise, our Malaysian means of transport using the bus is still never changed ! We still cannot depend on the bus when we need it!

Previously, the bus broke down and we were stranded in Section 14 for almost an hour before we could get into another bus to continue our ride to KL. This delay caused further delay to Putrajaya because the E2 bus to Putrajaya had just left when I arrived at the Klang bus station . To continue my journey to Putrajaya, I had to wait for another half hour before the next bus came in. When I arrived at the Sentral Station Putrajaya, I too had to wait for another half hour before the local bus came along. So, in total, I had wasted two hours for my trip to Putrajaya by bus !

Today, the bus just stopped at the Section 17 flats' bus stop for about 7 minutes to wait for more passengers.The bus engine just stopped and there I saw the driver trying to catnap. Has this practice been observed since the recent oil price hike? So, if one has an important appointment , never rely on our buses! It is still safer and reliable to drive your own car. Are our transport services continuously affected by petrol price hikes? When is Malaysia going to have more reliable transport services ?

Is it our Ringgit or the scarcity ?

Price hike of a number of food items goes on everyday. I used to buy seven Kiwifruits for RM10 and just last week, the vendor told me that I have to buy them at RM2 each. Looking at a glance, almost everything is pricey nowadays !

Today, I had another encounter and this incident really made me wonder why. I always yearn for minced meat mixed with some fried salt fish meat or chicken steamed with salt fish meat for a home cooked meal. I saw a stall selling cut salt fish slices in the market and this attracted me to go nearer to have a look. This look led me to buy a piece after the vendor had confirmed that it is the Kuantan salt fish. To my surprise, this tiny slice is costing me RM14 !

I ponder whether our Ringgit buying power has shrunk? Or has the catch become so scarce due to water pollution ? The once poor man's food is only available to the rich of today ! Of course, the not- so- rich can make do with smaller portions to enhance the taste of food and yet feeling health conscious ! Anyway, it has always been said that we must always eat moderate portion of any food and even the safest food will have its harmful effect if consumed too excessive !

24 August saw another spectacular ceremony

After 17 Olympian days in Beijing, China finally put up another spectacular ceremony on the night of 24 August. " China is really great ! " said by many foreigners. They love the people, culture, food , cities and would surely visit China again to tour the beautiful and fascinating cities! With this hosting of the 29th Olympic games, China has indeed expedited her new infrastructure implementation and other developments besides creating billions of jobs for her people. She has already spent as much as 70 billion USdollars to build the necessary infrastructure and to spruce up the city to be ready to host the games .Less than a quarter of the bill has been used to build the venue such as the Bird 's Nest stadium.Bloomberg reported today that London is planning to spend only 9 billion pounds to make preparations to host the games in the year 2012!

Again, we too gathered at our friend's house to view the ceremony together . We had our dinner in front of the big screen and it was really fun ! We had two types of roasted ducks, satays , Hokkien noodles of several types and a variety of fruits and chocolates. Somehow, I have not acquired the taste to drink red or white wine. There is no inkling to taste it !

It was indeed an extravagant farewell to the Olympics yesterday. A huge party had wrapped up the greatest sporting show on earth.Fireworks of all shapes and colours exploded over the stadium.I looked with awe two huge drums hoisted into the sky with two pairs of suspended drummers thumping out a hypnotic beat in mid-air. This was followed by thousands of dancers who took the centre stage to form all kinds of motives which fell in beautifully from above.Then there were the high tech entertainers who rode on special circular cycles to glide past the entire stadium.

Britain's eight-minute chance to tell the world what the London Games would offer to the world in 2012 started with the moving in of a red double- decker bus into the Bird's Nest.There was an Indian girl with a football who alighted the bus to be led by a lolipop lady to cross the road using the zebra crossing.She then went up the bus to pass the ball to David Beckham on top of the bus. A grinning Beckham then kicked the ball off the top of the bus into the hands of a delighted Games volunteer.This started the countdown to London 2012 ! The red bus then unfolded into a hedgeclipped silhouette of London and the 91,000 fans were entertained by the chart-topping singer Leona Lewis and guitarist Jimmy Page.

All of a sudden ,the tower of memory appeared and thousands of people performed all kinds of quick movement and a number of high flyers with lighted up costumes like that of " Ultraman "
dotted the skies above. The athletes then poured in from all four corners of the stadium blowing kisses and waving flags. Some countries only had the flagbearers around.

In between before the Tower of Memory came up, the Olympic flag was lowered and then passed over from the Mayor of Beijing to the OIC Chairman and then to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.Each of them waved the flag before passing it on to the next. The circular screen around the stadium was lighted up with happenings which went on during the past 17days and when the screen lighting reached the Olympic cauldron, the Olympic flame was extinguished. Everyone will be meeting again for the 30th Olympic Games in London in 2012 !

After the ceremony, we had a long session of chit chatting together before we left our friend's house well past midnight. It was a pleasant night together with good friends!

Knowing more about Lutein (pronounced as loo-teen)

Much emphasis has to be given to our eyes. Lutein has the ability to filter blue light that can produce lesions on the retina.Ultra-violet light and infrared light are generally absorbed by the corneas and lens.The lens in a child's eyes are relatively clear, thus allowing blue light to reach the retina.

Many studies have shown that only 20% of blue light reaches the back of the eye in 60-90-year-olds . In the newborns, the amount of light will increase to as much as 70% to 80%.

Lutein is from the Latin word ' lutea' which means yellow. It is one of the 600 naturally-occurring carotenoids and is found naturally in fruits such as Kiwifruits and vegetables.It is found in the retina of the eye as well as in the lens.

Our bodies cannot produce lutein on its own and we need a good diet of lutein-rich food.These includes

• Cekur manis (sauropus androgynus) : 100g has 29.913mcg of lutein
  
• Mengkudu ( morinda citrifolia)
• Wolfberry leaves (lycium Chinese)
• Drumstick leaves ( moringa oleifera )
• Spinach ( red and green ) : 100g has 4,175mcg of lutein
  
• Curry leaves
• Chickpeas
• Green gram bean
• Chinese mustard leaves
• Green chillies.

Egg yolks have high levels of lutein.Breast milk is a good source too.

If taken in excessive amounts, for example like 10,000mcg a day, the skin would turn yellowish in a week's time.These days, children are not eating vegetables and this means they are not getting enough lutein! Then the alternative would be to have lutein-rich milk powder.

39th IChO in Moscow 2007

20 August 2008 is really a special day !

Today is very special day and I did not realise it until I was told by a dear friend who messaged me that ' today is 20082008 ' ie a double match ! It will only happen once in a lifetime ! So, I wish all my friends a very Wonderful Day today !

The Malaysian Chemistry Festival 2008

IKM has been actively promoting Chemistry and Chemistry Education in Malaysia again !On the first day of the August school holidays,18 August, about 100 students and 20 teachers from schools around KL and PJ and an additional of 14 teachers who were attending the National Science Challenge event were gathered in Petrosains Discovery Centre for discussions and activities about the latest developments in the energy sectors. ' Energy ' was chosen for discussion because the theme of the festival was ' Energy Matters '.

Prior to this,being a member of the organising committee, I had been attending most of the meetings held for this festival in Petrosains.Since I was asked to do something for one of the interactive stations during the earlier meetings, I started to recall all my experiences in my teaching of Chemistry and found that the most suitable thing to share during this session was to make use of my teaching aid called " Redox Analyser " to highlight the oxidation of ethanol, an example of biofuels and an example of application of a chemical reaction in our everyday life. I felt very happy to have involved myself in this role when many interested students crowded around my demonstration table to ask more questions. Luckily , I had my prototype model made out of recycled bottles brought along yesterday. Otherwise, my effort would go to waste because when I first saw my actual model which I parked in the Discovery centre a few weeks ago , one of the quick-fit stoppers was missing and the connecting rubber tubing was cut off from it! What a thing to happen in an office? So, in whatever we do, we have to think of all the possiblilities which can happen and we cannot expect it as it is when we depart with it.There should always be a plan B (alternative plan ) in whatever plan we execute! I must always remember this point!

In the morning, we listened to three informative talks on ' the origins of Petroleum:Biogenic or Abiogenic?',' Biofuel/biodiesel 'and 'Global warming and climate change '. From this segment, I learned that

• one barrel of oil is equivalent to 160 litres
  
• our usual theory for the oil formation is the Biogenic theory which stresses on dead organic organisms to be the source of oil
  
• Ethanol is the biofuel which derives from fermentation of sugars from sugar canes or starchy materials like corn
• Biodiesel is methyl esters formed from transesterification
• Three main areas of the consequences of global warming are sea level rise(so a number of land areas submerge), climate change and ecosystem change

After lunch, we had a panel discussion on alternative energies like nuclear, solar and fuel cell energies. It was so comical to hear that the three speakers in the panel gave points to highlight their own type of energies. But, they concluded that they were not competing but in fact complementing one another. All the energies are good and they will be used where it is viable and practical according to location and position.I know more about these alternative energies now. For solar energy, there are two types of panels namely the solar thermal panels for heating up water and the photovoltaic panels which convert solar energy to electricity .As for fuel cells, there are hydrogen fuel cells, microbial fuel cells and enzymatic fuel cells. We too saw the safety in using hydrogen fuel cells compared to conventional fossil fuels. Hydrogen gas is 14 times lighter than air and so when there is a leak, it goes right up whereas fossil fuels are heavier and so they sit at the bottom. So , when there is leakage, the fire of fossil fuels will burn completely the entire car whereas hydrogen fuel -celled cars will just spark off a small fire!

The exitement of the students came to its height when En NorAzhar of Petrosains demonstrated a Chemistry show. He demonstrated how water poured from the first container disappeared in the second container using baby's diapers, the slimy liquids, colour change from kunyit and basic solution like sodium carbonate , turning white flowers pink , the effects of gas carbon dioxide to shot rockets up and the forceful fountain using coca -cola with another chemical. Everyone was happy and they went home excited with Chemistry after the awarding of certificate ceremony and afternoon tea.

The wonders of Kiwifruits

More than a century ago, a teacher named Isabel Fraser returned from a trip to China with some special black seeds. Since then, Kiwifruits have become famous thanks to New Zealand though China is its country of origin . There are three types of Kiwifruits namely the green fleshed variety with hairy skin, the smooth-skinned yellow-fleshed variety and the organically grown ones.The yellow-fleshed ones are sweeter than the green-fleshed ones. I usually peel off the skin before I eat them.Recently, I learned that the correct way to eat them is to halve the fruit and then to eat by dishing out the flesh with a plastic spoon. No wonder, I was once given a yellow plastic spoon when I bought a pack of 6 from the supermarket.

These fruits are super riched in vitamins.One fruit has twice as much vitamin C as an orange and it's also a good source of vitamin E , an antioxidant that helps with heart health. The other added values are summarised below:-

• It's a major source of carotenoid called lutein, which helps to keep eyes healthy
• A great source of folic acid, much needed by mums before and during pregnancy
• It's also high in potasium, almost the same level as bananas but only half the calories
• With kiwifruits,we get our daily intake of antioxidants to help fight the cell damage in our body caused by excess free radicals and oxidative stress
• It can help boost functioning of the immune system by warding off the effects of stress, inflammation and attacks from bateria and viruses
• It aids digestion, good "bowel-mover"( so great to eat if you are prone to stomach bloat and constipation )
• It reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease

Just two or three kiwifruits a day can reduce blood clotting (or platelets aggregation)
Blood which clots too easily is a known risk factor for cardiovascular or heart disease , as it
contributes to arterial and blood vessel blocking.

Very often, we would also see the name ' Zespri ' on the fruit sticker label.Zespri is the biggest marketer of kiwifruit in the world, selling more than 80 million trays of fruits annually to 60 countries including Malaysia.

Fruit Sticker Labels

Fruits are either grown organically,conventionally with pesticides and herbicides or they are genetically engineered . We can get information about fruits by looking at the numbers on the sticker labels which are either numbers with four or five digits. The first digit carries the useful information .

Most conventional fruits labels start with a digit ' 4 '
Organic fruits labels have 5 digits starting with digit ' 9 '
Genetically modified fruits labels start with the digit ' 8 '

Recently, I came across an Australian Navel orange sticker label which carries a number ' 6470 '.
What would be the info from this label ?

I would deduce that it must be a conventionally grown fruit because it does not bear the first digit '8' or '9' . Do you agree?

'Homework' in its true meaning

On and off , the issue of ' homework ' is often debated . Lately, I was taken aback when it was reported in The Stars that a teacher punished students who did not do homework by asking them to do the work on the floor or standing outside the classroom to complete the undone work ! This is really uncalled for because this is not the way to administer homework. The students must be made to feel good to do homework!

Then there is this practicum teacher from Kedah who narrated how dedicated she is everyday when she plans for her lessons to maximise students' learning and she seemed quite agreeable to teachers punishing students for not doing their homework .She added that homework is unfinished work from her lesson and it is to evaluate her students' understanding. From my observations when I was teaching, I would say that " homework " is usually the section which is the least planned by trainee teachers ! Usually, this so-called homework is just taken from the textbook to give to students to show enough work is done and the exercise books look good.There is actually not much evaluation done by trainee teachers for the day's outcome for the lesson taught when they mark the homework!

I enjoyed my teaching days, interacting with my students and having my colleagues as friends. When there is a problem, especially involving so many students, I would analyse to find out the cause of such problem.I would first ask why students are not doing the homework and not to punish them upfront! On the contrary, I would point the problem to myself because there are so many students not doing my work. The following are the many reasons for students not doing their homework :-

• Volume of homework given may be too much for students to cope
• Homework given is too ordinary and not challenging
  
• The work given has no relation to the way concepts are tested in examination
• Teacher's inconsistent marking of the work done
• Students' own personal problems
• Lack of understanding of the teacher's teaching

So, the basis of ' homework ' is challenging work given, if necessary and needed , to enhance students' understanding of whatever concept taught for the day. A good lesson in the classroom must be well planned and well timed to include the evaluation aspect of the learning outcome. So, why unnecessarily make students do repetitive work which they have already known when the teachers teach? To make students do teachers' homework, make sure teachers, set them some challenging and interesting homework of examination standards! Train our young minds to think with application in mind to go forward! To the teachers, do set your own questions to evaluate the learning outcome of your lesson rather than to adapt the ones in the textbook!

If evaluation is done during the lessons for some days, homework is not necessarily given every week and poor students would he happier to concentrate on revision when the homework quota is much reduced for the week.

With all these factors considered, if the problem still persists, then the last resort would be to award incentives by giving a certain percentage weightage to the homework done for the final grade of the examination. So, there is really no need to punish students and to have teachers to be branded as "hooligans"!

The World Stood Still For At Least Half An Hour On The Night Of 8 August 2008

At about 7.30pm of 8 August 2008, I was rushing home to be caught in the jam when everyone was making their way home to witness the fantastic, admirable and spectacular opening of the Beijing Olympics at 8.08pm. The car parks in SS2 were for once left deserted!

I missed all the countdown performances but stayed glued to the big screen in a friend's place where we gathered together with our husbands to watch the greatest magical performance so far ! It was fun watching it with some old time friends as we caught up with some recalls of the good old days of our husbands. For almost half an hour, everyone was mesmerised when China put on a stunning display of pageantry and pyrotechnics to open the 2008 Olympic Games at the National Stadium called the "Bird's Nest" in Beijing.The world practically stood still just to watch this magnificent performance directed by the acclaimed Chinese Movie Director Zhang Yimou.

This dramatic opening ceremony featured a cast of thousands . The ceremony started with the entry of a young pigtailed girl , Lin Miaoke ,dressed in red serenading 91000 people as the national flag was carried into the stadium.I really admired her for her cute appearance , showmanship and confidence. The performances then took the audience through 2000 years of Chinese history! The four great Chinese's inventions of paper, printing, gunpowder and compass were highlighted .We were guessing whether it was the effect of laser or computer tricks until the thousands of performers removed their covers to wave to us at the end of the typesetting movement.

The tiny nine years old boy from Szechuan who saved two others was given the honour to lead China's contingent together with the very tall Yao Ming who carried the nation's flag.

Another eye catching and fantastic feat was the lighting of the fuse which led to the lighting of the Olympic cauldron by Li Ning, a former Gold medallist for gymnastics. He was seen
'walking 'around the roof of the stadium.Some commented that he took too long to walk around before he lighted the fuse.But , I enjoyed seeing him walking with his "shadow " against the screen around the stadium.I later learned that he was not hesitating to light when he was in the proximity of the fuse but was instructed to give time to the broadcasting crews to be ready to capture the historic moment of lighting the cauldron . According to newspaper reports, our hero had to practise as many as 20 times late at nights to keep it a secret and even his wife was not told of the details of his involvement for the opening.

Congratulations to China! The whole world is so proud of you ! We are looking forward to more surprises for the closing ceremony on the 24th!

Where are the Beijing Olympic Mascots During The Opening Ceremony?


These mascots are called Fuwa in Chinese and they were nowhere to be seen since the spectacular opening ceremony.Where are they, I wonder?

These mascots carry the messages of friendship , peace and good wishes from China to children all over the world. They embody the natural characters of four of China's most popular animals.They are as follows:-
Bei bei (fish) symbolises the sea(Blue Olympic Ring)
Jing jing (panda) symbolises the forest( Black O Ring)
Ying ying(Tibetan antelope)symbolises the earth(Yellow O Ring)
Ni ni (swallow)symbolises the sky ( Green O Ring )
Huan huan (Olympic flame ) symbolises the fire ( Red O Ring )

With the first syllable of the mascots' names , it can be read as " Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni " ,the Chinese way of saying "Welcome To Beijing " . These 5 syllables carry with them Prosperity, Happiness, Passion, Health and Good Luck.

Matryoshka dolls

Reading about an advertisement on Matryoshka chairs reminds me of the Russian Matryoshka dolls.These chairs go by the same name and are the stackable four-in-one series of papa, mama and two baby chairs.

I was in Sergiev Posad last year and this tiny village about an hour or more away from Moscow by coach is an area notable for Matryoshka dolls and famous for the monastery and nature. All visitors cannot resist buying these dolls and other wooden wares such as whistles, combs , cutleries etc at a price very reasonable and cheap compared to other places in the city.

" Matryoshka " is pronounced as ma-TRYOSH-ka where YO is pronounced as a hard "o".
"Matryoshka" is a derivative of the Russian female first name " matryona" which is traditionally associated with a fat, robust Russian woman.

This set of dolls of decreasing sizes placed one inside the other can have as many as 100 nested figures ending up in a baby that does not open.These figures are cylindrical, rounded at the top for the head and tapered towards the bottom. These dolls have no hands and the painting on them can be extremely elaborate.The theme for the painting ranges from pleasant girls in traditional dresses to anything from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders.Such souvenirs are symbolic of Russia. So what are our symbolic sourvenirs ? Are they the pewterwares or the batik
ones?

Science as a unifying factor !

So much emphasis is placed on the teaching of Mathematics and Sciences in English but many fail to realise that many activities can be more effectively carried out to encourage and further fostering the closeness and real integration of all students across board.The call for RIMUP (Rancangan Integrasi Murid Untuk Perpaduan) should blend in many Science activities to meet its objectives.

The recent international competitions such as the 39^th International Chemistry Olympiad held in Moscow in July 2007 and the 40^th IChO held in Budapest, Hungary this year are very good examples of the effectiveness of such activities. Students from all over the world who gathered from 68 countries could actively participate in a friendly and enjoyable manner to interact academically through 5 hours of Theoretical Chemistry and 5 hours of Practical Chemistry. Though there is a language difference, they could communicate through the common Science language when the problems were explained. The hosts could arbitrate over the scores of the individual students without having to know everyone’s language! So marvelous is the Science language and it is indeed a good unifying tool!

Besides this,there are so much happenings about Science in our beloved country who had newly celebrated her 50^th Aniversary of her independence.More than 1500 participants from all over the world had gathered in PWTC Kuala Lumpur last year to participate in the 12^th Asian Chemical Congress and this included a number of prominent scientists in the World. We were the host for the 27 Asian Chemical Societies who attended this biennial activity. Among them, we had a Nobel Laureate Professor F Sherwood Rowland from the United States Of America and a number of other prominent professors in various fields of Chemistry. There is not a single mention in our papers and the general public hardly knows the current development of Sciences.So, how is Malaysia going to produce a Nobel Laureate in the near future? On the contrary, when Mawi or Datuk Siti Nurhaliza is in town, there is so much publicities. So, Malaysia, where are our priorities? Do we really need the correct networking to publish these news in the papers ?

Furthermore, our students’ achievements in the international arena too are not highlighted . Nobody knows that they have gone that far and when they are back, their achievements are not made known. Malaysian students should know the benchmark for achievement before they go on achieving more excellence. How many would know that we had obtained three bronzes for each of the two successive years when we had participated in the International Chemistry Olympiads in Korea and Moscow.These attempts are our first and second attempts only.Nobody too knows the silent heroes who had trained these students and without their involvement how could our less than 20 years old students answer questions of Third Year University standards?

I sincerely hope that the various authorities concerned would seriously look into these areas to ensure that all the objectives of Wawasan 2020 are met with and the bottom line is Malaysia excel in the various international platforms.

Support Fully The Boomgate Project In Housing Estates

Crime rates have been rising every day and proactive residents of the area are going all out to ensure that their neighbourhood is safe to stay. Many have remarked that “ We dare not even go for a walk in our neighbourhood after dinner”. Imagine, we have to be all cooped up in our houses all the time, manually locking our electronic gate from inside at night, letting the radios play the whole day long and many other means to stay safe in our own houses. Why has security issue become our problem nowadays? Where are all the police?

If I take a walk in my housing estate in Damansara Jaya at anytime of the day, I could hardly see any police patrolling the area. There are so many police reports being made for cars stolen from inside the locked houses, snatch thieves and house break-ins during the day and night. We residents have played our roles as responsible citizens to lock our houses and what steps have the police taken?Lately, in many housing estates, the residents have initiated to put up boom-gates to gate their neighbourhood as the solution to security problems .Such initiatives are highly praised but it can only be launched when 85% of the residents have agreed.Also, the price to pay by each household would be greatly reduced if everyone participates in financing it. Let us make sure our full support is given to this group of residents who care and is doing a noble job to make sure we feel safe in our own neighbourhood as soon as possible!

Heed these SMS mannerism!

In this digital era, manners should still be encouraged even when one is so busily engrossed in one’s tight schedules.It’s like one of those examples of good daily practices as quoted by my friend who said “ even though I am busy, I must still have time for friends ”. It really surprises me these days that mobile phone users lack some basic manners when handling sms messages.

What then are these bad practices? Very often we encounter incidences like

· No acknowledgement of messages received

· No reply to messages whether it’s a yes or no, especially so when the answer is ‘no’

This implies that there is the breeding of the so called lackadaisical attitude which may lead to very serious consequences . Why is it so difficult to just key in the two works like ‘ ok, thanks ’ ?

Etems should go on !

Since the year 2003, English has been the medium of instruction for the teaching of Science And Mathematics in our Malaysian schools. So much effort and money have been spent to give this winning edge to our students to compete on the world platform. Given more exposure, our students are of course better in terms of delivering the English Language and this year’s UPSR results should not be the determining factor for doing away with English as the medium of instruction.The success of the implementation is not only measured by means of academic results!

I can still remember the plentiful Etems ( English for the Teaching of Mathematics and Sciences ) courses which were conducted nationwide, computer competency courses to create multimedia teaching resource materials, all the computer hardwares to facilitate fun learning and printed and electronic modular aids to facilitate the teaching of these two-six subjects in English. All these are extra effort put up collectively by the educationists to achieve the common goals for our children. How can we just throw everything away to waste when we shift the medium back to Bahasa?

The other justification is the world is getting very competitive and most references for the Science and Mathematics fields are in English. How can our children perform well globally when they have not mastered the international language? Added to this, all the internet resources are in English and in this fast changing world many other printed materials are now going online via this electronic medium. Many ideal competitions and projects are posted in English in the internet to train our young children to be innovative and creative.

The real problem to the issue is that most people are resistant to change, the authority entertains public viewpoints and the delivery system wants an easy way out. Why can’t we just leave educational matters to the expert educationists? The implementation of this medium of instruction is not carried overnight but instead a lot of time and money is given to it.

Zooming down to the problems , the teachers and education officers must play a more committed role. The tagline for a good solution should be analyse-discuss-innovate-coach. In this direction, action researches should be carried out by every school at school level to overcome the problems encountered in the apects of students studying and the teachers teaching. There is no one solution for all schools .Thus such studies are important to track down each school’s immediate problems. The monitoring of the programmes proposed is also important because our system usually carries out programmes and activities which are not monitored for evaluation of the effort made. In short, we must not do the same things day in day out.

To be with nature with mum

Last week, I took time off to drive mum to visit Laman 2008 at the Perdana Lake Gardens.This landscape and gardens exhibition is around every two years and this year it was held in our scenic gardens in Kuala lumpur.
When we arrived, being a local, I did not seem to be welcomed bcos the car park at the entrance was so fulled.After a few times patrolling the area, I eventually found a car park in front of the Kuala Lumpur Open Birds' Park. Mum and I got down to walk up the steps to see the Orchid Garden opposite.
The blooms were so beautiful and there was really no regrets to be there! They have doubled up the number of species of orchids in the garden with the expo on. I just could not resist taking the beautiful pictures of each and every specie of the orchids and the counter of my camera showed a total of 150 pictures taken.It is so nice to be walking around this garden with my mum during my retirement days. I really felt so thankful that we both had grabbed this opportunity to be with nature even though we live in the city.My mum is very independent and she moves around either alone or with friends very often. I treasure the times I have outings with her bcos we both share the same liking for plants and flowers.

The Orchid Garden is such a serene place for us to visit whenever we feel like to be close to nature. Besides us, we saw some students with their teachers, some photographers getting the best shots of the rare orchids and some foreign visitors. When mum took a shot of me in front of the abundance orchids, one of the students asked permission from my mum to take a shot of my mum with his camera! I was so surprised for my mum to be asked for such a pose. I suppose that he must have admired her to be so passionate with flowers bcos the radiance on her face always show this quality of her.She is very active and passionate with plants for her age!

From the exhibits, we moved on to buy some orchid plants. These stalls are permanent stores in the garden and they are opened for business everyday.After my first round of survey of the three shops, I realised that orchids are sold here at very reasonable prices.The usual dendrodiums cost about RM10-15 for a pot whereas the phalentrophis are sold at RM35 a pot or RM100 for 3 pots. My hands were full with these orchids as we moved to my car to park the orchids.

Since we were in the site for the exhibition, I decided to get a convenient ride on the shuttle service coaches which is a free service for visitors to move around freely. Both of us hopped into one and there we were on the way to the entrance of Laman 2008! The round-about in front was so beautifully decorated with bonsai and orchids. I moved on to the ticket booth to purchase my ticket and mum enjoyed a free ticket in. Children below 6 yrs and adults above 60 yrs were free to enter without any ticket purchased!

As many as 50 stalls were selling plants and gardening gadgets at the entrance's open space. I was looking for peat soil to germinate my petunia seeds , found it being sold very cheap but it was just too troublesome to cart it for it 's 10kg! I shelved the idea and decided to look at the beautiful orchids, air plants and some beautiful earthen pots! Mum was attracted to the catteya cuttings becos she has green fingers with this species and she has propagated so many for both my brother and me. She was given only one starter cutting and today she has easily more than 20 pots hanging in her garden at home. With these new cuttings she will end up having a good collection of catteyas of all hues and colours.

Some yrs ago, I was with my children when they were 6 and 9 yrs old in the same garden. The sunken garden in the centre still brought back memories of those days when mum and I took the children there for outings. So many yrs had gone by but today this sunken garden is relandscaped with different plants but the centre still locates the fountain against the deep blue mosaiced pond base .The Parliament Building can be seen in the far background and it was so nice to be with mum after so many yrs when the children were still small. Now, both of them are in their twenties . Both of us behaved like sisters and an American couple offered to take a shot of us together!

Moving on, we felt that we had to have a bite at the temporary food stalls there. Nothing much was offered and we decided to buy the corn in a cup for a prelunch snack. We needed this supplement to move on . With this bite, we were more energetic to walk another distance to the Edible Garden and the Floral enclave. Within the huge white tent which was airconditioned, we saw a number of gardens layout , flowers display and arrangements. Some of these displays were internationally owned and we could see the owners exchanging the faded flowers with fresh ones to last for the next few days before the closing ceremony on that Sunday which was four days away.

Besides the exhibition, there were still many available permanent gardens which are open to public everyday. Over the hill slope in front of the Floral enclave, I saw many umbrellas of red, yellow and green colours spreaded in a design over the green hill slope to create the sculpture effect to our gardens. Malaysia has indeed many places for us to explore nowadays.

On our way back, we stopped at the park entrance to wait for the shuttle service to get to our car. This time we waited for less than an hour bcos the crowd grew being past early lunch hour. We rushed to the coaches and managed to grab two seats which were singlely spaced. Never mind, somehow, we arrived at the Birds Park to get our car . It is indeed very convenient to get close to nature any time at our own disposure! My mum and I had good times together and we told ourselves that we will go close to nature again and again ! There is so much to share during our walk around.

During the last leg of our time out, we drove to Jaya One to have our lunch. There is a variety of eat-outs there to choose and eventually we settled in one of the Hong Kong style cafe to have a nice meal before going back home.