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 !