Saturday, September 20, 2008

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!

Monday, September 8, 2008

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 !