Shazwan Shafie Got 8As!!

Yesterday the PMR results came out. At about 11am, I got an sms from Cikgu Razuki (of SMSTMFP) informing me that Shazwan got 8As in his PMR (I've requested earlier for Cikgu to inform me of his results). I was so happy to hear it that I called Cikgu Razuki immediately.

Now... Who is Shazwan? And why is he so special to me??

I got to know Shazwan when my gang went back to our alma-mater (i.e. SMSTMFP) on 6th August 2006. There were Yasmin (MD, Microsoft), Norita (Telekom Malaysia), Nury (UiTM), Halim (Aramco, Saudi. He was back for the summer holidays), Zuhdi (Process-3.com), Wan Hasamudin (MPOB) and me . We were there to "accompany" Yasmin who was to give a talk during the school assembly. Yasmin gave a fantastic 1-hr speech about her life, her ups and downs (and of course on how she came to be in the position she is now). She ended her speech with advices and tips on how to be successful. I've been back to the school before on similar occasions but I've never seen the hall full of audience (teachers and students alike) who were so captivated by her speech! One lady teacher even remarked later that she should have brought her daughter to listen to the speech! Well done Yasmin!!

After the assembply we had a brief tea break, before we continued with our "Meet the alumni" session with the form 4 and form 5 students. The aim was to give the students some motivation to succeed and also to brief them on various career fields. My gang was very good with the kids (I was only a facilitator, observing them giving talks and having the discussions with the students who were divided according to their interests). I was more of the time keeper, LOL!!

Now... where did Shazwan come in? You see... part of our itinery was to meet with a couple of students who we think need special/additional attention from us - we were looking for one or two students to be "helped" or adopted. And Shazwan was one of them.

The school picked Shazwan because at that time he had just lost his father due to a domestic mishap (he was trying to repair the house roof, and fell down to his death). Shazwan's father was a lab assistant while his mother is a school clerk. Shazwan is also the eldest (or at least the eldest boy) in the family. He is not getting the Biasiswa Kecil Persekutuan since he was considered to come from a double-income family.

We had a talk with Shazwan that afternoon. When Yasmin asked him "what do you want to be when you grow up?", his answer was "I want to be like you!". He must have been moved by Yasmin's speech! When we asked him about his academic achievements and extra-mural activities, we found out that he is not outstanding in either field. His academic performance was averaging between getting 2As and 3As only. We also asked him how was he coping with the lost... His answer showed that he lost some of the motivation due to the father's death, and it looked like he could not count on his mum for some stronger support - he told us that whenever he went home, he would find his mum crying (it must have been a big shock to her too!). We told Shazwan that being the eldest boy, he is now the "head" of the family, and he has to be strong for him mum and his siblings.

My gang decided to throw Shazwan a "challenge". We told him that if he can get at least 7As (giving allowance to some unluckiness), we will provide him financial support until (if) he gets the Biasiswa Persekutuan. He agreed to take up that challenge!!

[we met another girl who's mother is a single parent and sews clothes for a living. For both the girl and Shazwan, my gang gave a "once-off" "angpow". We hope that this show of care would motivate them to strive harder to succeed.]

And yesterday, Shazwan has shown that he performed up to the challenge!! Tomorrow I am going back to Kota Bharu for Eid Mubarak, and our alumni association will have a qurban ceremony at the school mosque (which the association has donated to the school!) on Monday. On the same day the returning students will come back to register for the new year, and they will have the feast of the qurban for lunch.

I have asked Cikgu Razuki to ask Shazwan to come early enough for me to meet him (I have to leave the school just about noon to come back to S Alam). I want to personally congratulate this great boy, and would like to hand him a personal gift. I want to show him that there are people who care about him!! (hopefully by then my friends would have banked in their contributions so that I am able to give him more!).

Note: A couple of friends have either came to me to give their contribution for Shazwan or called topledge. Thank you gang!! I hope Hasamudin (who'd be in Melor for Qurban) would be able to come along to meet Shazwan! Hasamudin's son himself who studies in Sabak Bernam got 9As - Congratulations to Amir!

Off to Fraser's Hill Today

Like last year, we are going to spend our christmas break at fraser's hill.

For a blog on that Fraser's Hill (march 2006) here.

Note: I'll be back to put in whatever I promised earlier! Have a Good weekend to all!!

Titisan Memori Tuan Hj Hamdan b Ab Rahman

Now being updated!! (as of 6.20pm 27 Dec 2006)

I have written last month on what I remember of Tuan Haji here.

The second part his "Titisan Memori" which covers his reminiscence of our former school has already been published in my other blog. I am now planning to type out the first part.

He divided this first half into a few subtopics:

1. Episod Masuk Sekolah Tidak tahu Bahasa
2. Episod Belum Bersunat Sudah Jadi Guru
3. Episod Masuk ke Institusi Pendidkan Melayu Tertinggi di Dunia
4. Episod Penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris Dari Pergaulan
5. Episod Lepasan Sekolah Atap disangka Lulusan Inggeris
6. Episod Saat Paling Kerdil
7. Rahsia

Please come back for more. I will add on to each of the above subtopics as I find the time... Slowly but surely.... Maybe a subtopic a day?


Episod Masuk Sekolah Tidak tahu Bahasa

Pembelajaran saya bermula di sekolah Melayu. Masa dahulu orn masuk sekolah paling muda umur sepuluh tahun sedangkan saya dimasukkan ke sekolah Melayu oleh bapa saya pad usia enam tahun. Jadi saya merupakan murid darjah satu yang termuda. Murid lain ada yang sudah bermisai. Kami dahulu mengenal [alif bat a} lebih dahlu daripada [a b ].

Pada ketika itu saya tidak tahu pun Bahas Melayu kecualai beberapa patah kata. Apa guru cakap sepatah pun saya tidak faham. Hampir-hampir di hujung darjah dua barulah saya pandai sedikit Bahas Melayu. Bagaimana saya belajar? Saya belajar melalui pergaulan dengan murid2 besar yang bercakap Melayu. Budak2 kecil yang Jawa terus bercakap Jawa, yang Bugis terus bercakap Bugis. Dr Daeng Sanusi Daeng Mariok itu keturunan Bugis dari kampong jiran.

Episod Belum Bersunat Sudah Jadi Guru

Pada tahun 1951 saya tamat di darjah tertinggi sekolah Melayu. Tahap pencapaian agak baik tetapi pada zaman itu yang bernama sekolah menengah melayu belum ada. Peluang yang terbaik bagi lepasan sekolah melayu masa itu hanyalah menjadi guru. Orang lain masuk sekolah umur sepuluh tahun. Jadi tamat darjah enam sudah enam belas tahun. Bolehlah terus menjadi guru kalau kelulusan bagus. Sebaliknya saya baru 12 tahun. Bagaimana hendak menjadi guru, sedangkan bersunat pun belum? Mahu tak mahu terpaksalah tunggu lagi empat tahun dalam darjah enam. Bayangkan sahaja murid lain paling lama kena menuggu dua tahun. Saya ini empat tahun!

Mujurlah selepas dua tahun setengah nampaknya badan saya cukup besat, bersunat pun sudah. Saya pun diambil menjadi guru pelatih. Waktu itu umur saya 14 tahun sebulan. Gaji RM19.00 sebulan dibayar oleh orang kampong. Empat bulan kemudian kerajaan beri tambahan RM41.00 sebulan. Ada seorang sahabat saya terpilih menjadi guru betul2 letika belum bersunat lagi. Dia minta cuti semunggu untuk bersunat, kemudian baharu melapor diri bertugas.

Episod Masuk ke Institusi Pendidkan Melayu Tertinggi di Dunia

Setelah dapat melepasi beberapa sekatan saya terpilih masuk ke Sultan Idris Training College di Tanjung Malim. Waktu itu yang bernama SITC itulah institusi pendidikan aliran Melayu yang tertinggi dalam dunia. Saya ulangi, Dalam dunia!

Di sinilah baru saya berkenalan dengan Bahasa Inggeris. Tetapi belajar Bahasa Inggeris di sini serupa dengan belajar Bahasa Inggeris di Kelantan sekarang. Guru bercakap kita dengar sahaja. Entah faham entah tidak tuhan sahaja yang tahu. Cikgu tanya baru kita bercakap. Di luar bilik darjah tidak pernah bercakap. Jadi kesannya macam bayang2 dalam air, macam nyanyian almarhum P Ramlee: “tengok dalam air nampak bayang2, campak satu batu bayang pun hilang”.

Pada penguhujung tahun 1958 saya lulus dari SITC lalu dilantik menjadi guru berkelayakan. Waktu itu guru lulusan kolej dikira sehabis-habis pandai dalam masyarakat. Hendak naik tinggi lagi tangga melayu belum siap. Tangga Pak Tih (orang putih) ada tetapi di bandar sedangkan saya mengajar di sekolah darat. Niat hati saya kalau ada sahaja tangga melayu ikut mana2 pun saya hendak naik juga.

Mujur maktab perguruan bahasa yang ditubuhkan pada tahun 1958 membuka pintunya kepada para guru. Kena mengambil peperiksaan khas. Waktu itu masuk peperiksaan menjadi hobi. Kalau gagal bukannya rugi. Saya mengadu nasib. Alhamdulillah, saya berjaya dapat masuk ke maktab tersebut pada tahun 1960.

Episod Penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris Dari Pergaulan

Lulus dari maktab perguruan ini saya kena mengajar bahasa kebangsaan di sekolah menengah Cina. Sekolah ini kemudiannya menukar corak dari aliran Cina menjadi aliran Inggeris. Maka guru-guru aliran Inggeris pun semakin ramai. Saya kena mengingat kembali pelajaran2 bahasa Inggeris yang pernah saya pelajari sebelum itu. Di sini saya beroleh peluang yang amat luas untuk bercakap dalam Bahasa Inggeris di samping membaca bahan2 persuratan dalam bahasa itu. Saya tidak persia-siakan peluang itu. Hasilnya kebolehan saya berbahasa Inggeris terasah dan tergilap.

Tahun 1962 peperiksaan sijil pelajaran Persekutuan Tanah Melayu buat pertama kalinya diadakan dengan pengantar Bahasa Melayu. Saya buat persediaan secara bersendirian untuk mengambilnya. Alhamdulillah saya lulus dengan Gred 2, mendapat aggregat 25 serta lulus Bahasa Inggeris Rendah.

Pada tahun 1967 peperiksaan Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan pula dijalankan dengan pengantar
Bahasa Melayu. Sekali lagi saya membuat persediaan secara sendirian berhad. Alhamdulillah, saya lulus dengan sijil penuh serta lulus mata pelajaran General Paper dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Kelulusan ini setaraf dengan kepujian dalam mata pelajaran Bahasa Inggeris SPPTM. Dengan kelulusan itu saya dapat masuk universiti Malaya. Orang masuk sebagai mahasiwa, saya masuk sebagai maha situa kerana anak sudah tiga.

Episod Lepasan Sekolah Atap disangka Lulusan Inggeris

Tamat dari universiti saya ditempatkan mengajar di maktab perguruan Ilmu Khas, Kuala Lumpur. Di sana saya beroleh kesempatan tambahan untuk bercakap dalam Bahasa Inggeris yang menyentuh bidang2 iktisas yang lebih ilmiah sifatnya. Saya ikut ajaran pengarah filem Seniman Bujang Lapok. Action! Action punya action, orang atasan sangka saya ini lulusan sekolah orang putih. Ini menjadi punca saya dipilih untuk dihantar melanjutkan pengajian di negeri orang Putih.

Nama saya dihantar ke England menerusi British Council. Saya diterima masuk ke Pusat Pengajian Hal Ehwal Timur dan Afrika yakni School of Oriental and Africna Studies di London. Ini adalah pusat pengajian yang terulung selepas Universiti Oxford dan Cambridge. Mula-mua berasa macam gementar. Sementelahan pula ramai kawan-kawan yang meragui kemampuan saya mengikuti kursus di pusat pengajian ini. Maklumlah mereka tahu latar belakang pendidikan saya dan tahu kehebatan sekolah itu, iaitu sekolah yang melahirkan Pendita Zaaba, sekolah yang menghasilkan Professor Asmah Hj Omar. Dengan Bismillah saya melangkah pergi.

Di sinilah baru saya benar-benar belajar dengan pengantar Bahasa Inggeris. Waktu berada di sekolah inilah saya belajar dengan penuh disiplin. Pada kebanyakan mata kuliah, jumlah siswa dalam satu kelas jarang mencapai angka belasan orang.

Pada tahun pertama saya dimasukkan ke dalam kumpulan Afrosia, berkawan dengan siswa dari Jepun, Turki, Kurdis Iraq. Habis penggal pertama Jepun mencicirkan diri. Habis penggal kedua Turki dan Iraq mencicirkan diri. Dalam penggal ketiga saya merupakan satu-satunya siswa yang masih tinggal di kelas itu. Jadi dalam penggal ketiga itu ada kursus yang siswanya saya seorang sahaja. Bayangkan, pensyarah satu pelajar. Situaasi ini mewajibkan saya membuat persediaan selengkan mungkin setiap kali berhadapan dengan pensyarah.

Pada tahun kedua saya pun dicampakkan ke dalam kumpulan EuroAmerica, yang ahli asalnya 3 Inggeris, satu Greek, satu Poland, satu Amerika keturunan Vietnam.

Episod Saat Paling Kerdil

Habis peperiksaan bertulis pada penghujung tahun kedua kami kena ujian lisan. Enam orang professor bertaraf dunia menanti untuk menyoal kita. Inilah saat yang saya rasakan paling kerdil dalam sejarah pengajian saya. Kertaas jawapan kita dilambakkan di atas meja. Para penguji itu mengambil mana-mana yang dia suka, membuka dan membacanya lalu menggertak “apa benda yang kamu tulis mengarut-ngarut ini?” saya disergah dengan satu soalan – saya beri satu jawapan – mereka sanggah jawapan saya – saya balas sanggahan mereka – mereka senyap. Tiada siapa yang mahu melanjutkan soalan. Disuruhnya kita tunggu di luar sebentar. Mereka bermesyuarat serta merta. Sejurus kemudian professor yang menjadi secretary lembaga peperiksaan keluar dengan senyum simpul:

“Well, Mr Rahman, congratulation, you pass. In a couple of weeks you will receive the formal notification from the University Senate”.

Alhamdulillah!! Allahu Akbar!! Tiada kesyukuran pernah melimpahi nurani saya lebih daripada yang saya rasai pada saat saya diberitahu akan kejayaan ini – kejayaan memperolehi ijazah MA dari pusat pengajian ternama dunia. Saya dapat mengalahkan seorang siswa Amerika keturunan Vietnam yang gagal peperiksaan itu dan seorang siswa Inggeris jati yang hanya berjaya setakat cukup makan sahaja.

to be continued!!



Rahsia

Kudos to Mahisham!!

The scanned newspaper cutting sent by a fren to me (TQ Hilmy!)

Today, very early in the morning I received sms-es from friends telling me to read the Mingguan Malaysia. One of the best students of OUM is my old classmate Mahisham.

When I checked the electronic versions, I found the relevant articles here in Mingguan Malaysia and Metro Ahad:

In case the pages don't last, here are the screenshots of the online version:




The full text of Harian Metro:
Siap tugasan sambil baring

Oleh ASMIZAN MOHD SAMIRAN

Tidak hadir kelas setahun kerana kecederaan tulang belakang

KUALA LUMPUR: “Setahun lalu, saya tidak dapat hadir ke kelas selama setahun kerana masalah kecederaan tulang belakang. Malah, kerana kecederaan itu saya terpaksa menyiapkan tugasan diberi pensyarah dengan cara berbaring.

“Bagaimanapun, masalah berkenaan tidak sedikitpun melemahkan semangat saya. Dengan menggunakan kudrat yang ada saya teruskan pengajian,” kata Mahisham Mahmood.

Mahisham, 44, membuktikan masalah berkenaan bukan halangan untuk dia meraih kejayaan apabila berjaya menamatkan pengajian dengan keputusan cemerlang, malah dipilih salah seorang graduan daripada 100 graduan yang menerima pengiktirafan Hadiah Buku Universiti pada majlis Konvokesyen Ketiga Universiti Terbuka Malaysia (OUM), di sini, semalam.

Penerima Ijazah Sarjana Muda Pendidikan (Pengajaran Bahasa Inggeris Sebagai Bahasa Kedua) dengan Kepujian itu, berkata semangat untuk berjaya membuatkan dia meneruskan pengajian walaupun terpaksa menanggung kesakitan dan berdepan pelbagai kesukaran.

Katanya, pada masa sama dia mahu menunaikan hajat ibunya Maimun Abdullah, 72, yang mahu melihat anaknya itu menerima ijazah.

“Alhamdulillah, usaha saya itu tidak sia-sia dan ibu saya berpeluang melihat saya menerima ijazah selepas tidak dapat berbuat demikian ketika adik saya menerima ijazah di Amerika Syarikat 14 tahun lalu,” katanya.

Konvokesyen berkenaan disempurnakan Pro-Canselor OUM, Tan Sri Azman Hashim. Hadir sama, Naib Canselor OUM, Prof Tan Sri Datuk Dr Anuwar Ali.

Konvokesyen selama tiga hari itu menyaksikan 3,378 graduan menerima diploma, ijazah sarjana muda dan sarjana. Bersempena konvokesyen itu OUM buat pertama kalinya turut menganugerahkan Ijazah Kehormat Kedoktoran kepada tiga tokoh akademik dan korporat.

Mereka ialah Pengerusi Lembaga Pengarah Meteor Doc Sdn Bhd, Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Abu Hassan Othman, Pengerusi Malaysia Biotechnology Corporation, Tan Sri Datuk Dr Ahmad Zaharudin Idrus dan Pengerusi Bank Rakyat, Tan Sri Datuk Dr Syed Jalaluddin Syed Salim.

Mahisham yang masih bujang berkata, semangat semata-mata tidak mencukupi untuk dia mampu meraih kejayaan cemerlang.

Katanya, konsep pembelajaran fleksibel yang diguna pakai di OUM, antaranya penggunaan internet untuk berhubung juga menjadi antara faktor dia mampu meneruskan pengajian dan meraih kejayaan.

“Dalam berusaha, saya juga bertawakal kerana ia adalah jalan terbaik untuk saya mendapatkan apa yang dicita-citakan,” katanya yang kini bertugas sebagai guru di Sekolah Rendah Wakaf Baru, Kota Bharu, Kelantan.

Selain Mahisham, Amiza Mohd Salleh, 46, (Ijazah Sarjana Muda Pendidikan (Pengajaran Bahasa Inggeris Sebagai Bahasa Kedua) dengan Kepujian, Azizah Ahmad, 41, (Ijazah Sarjana Muda Teknologi Maklumat dengan Kepujian) dan Paul Baisier, 29 (Sarjana Pentadbiran Perniagaan) turut menerima Hadiah Buku Universiti.

Meskipun mereka belajar secara sambilan kerana sudah ada kerjaya, masing-masing mengakui mampu lulus dengan cemerlang berikutan mampu membahagikan masa dengan baik.

Pada masa sama, disiplin yang tinggi turut diakui sebagai faktor utama kejayaan mereka.

Sementara itu, kakitangan The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad, Roshan Lal Tirath Ram, 54, turut menerima Sarjana Pengurusan pada konvokesyen berkenaan.

Bagi Roshan, usia bukan penghalang untuk dia menuntut ilmu kerana ilmu adalah sesuatu yang perlu dipelajari sepanjang hayat.

“Keputusan belajar dalam usia lanjut juga sebagai persediaan selepas bersara. Dengan kelulusan yang diperoleh, dapatlah saya gunakannya untuk mengisi masa terluang seperti menjadi pensyarah sambilan.


And the full text of Mingguan Malaysia

Penyakit saraf tak halang Mahisham jadi graduan terbaik OUM

KUALA LUMPUR 16 Dis. – Walaupun menghidap penyakit saraf yang menyebabkan sebahagian anggota badannya lumpuh, Mahisham Mahmood hari ini membuktikan ia bukan penghalang untuk beliau muncul antara graduan terbaik Universiti Terbuka Malaysia (OUM).

Lebih membanggakan Mahisham, 44, lulusan Sarjana Muda Pengajaran Bahasa Inggeris Sebagai Bahasa Kedua, mencapai kejayaan berganda apabila dinobatkan sebagai penerima anugerah Hadiah Buku Universiti.

‘‘Walaupun lebih kurang setahun saya tak dapat menghadirkan diri (ke kelas) sebab kecederaan tulang belakang dan penyakit saraf, tetapi dengan menggunakan cara pembelajaran terkini secara dalam talian, Alhamdulillah, saya berjaya ke tahap ini,’’ katanya ketika ditemui Bernama pada majlis Konvokesyen OUM, di Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra (PWTC) di sini hari ini.

Mahisham lulus dengan cemerlang walaupun terpaksa berulang-alik dari hospital dan melaksanakan tugasan beliau sepenuhnya di atas katil kerana penyakitnya.

Mahisham yang kini mengajar di Sekolah Kebangsaan Warkah Baru, Kelantan, berkata ibunya juga antara faktor pendorong kejayaannya.

‘‘Selain daripada sambung belajar, saya juga memenuhi hasrat ibu yang mahu melihat anaknya mengambil ijazah kerana sebelum ini ibu saya tidak dapat menghadirkan diri pada konvokesyen adik saya di Amerika Syarikat,’’ katanya.

Ibu Mahisham, Maimun Abdullah, 72, yang hadir pada majlis itu berkata, beliau bersyukur terhadap kejayaan anaknya.

Pada majlis yang sama, tiga tokoh dianugerahkan Ijazah Kehormat.

Ijazah Kehormat Doktor Pengurusan dianugerahkan kepada bekas naib canselor Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Tan Sri Dr. Abu Hassan Othman manakala Ijazah Kehormat Doktor Sains masing-masing diberikan kepada Tan Sri Dr. Syed Jalaludin Syed Salim, pengerusi Bank Rakyat dan bekas penasihat sains kepada Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Dr. Ahmad Zaharudin Idrus.

Anugerah itu disampaikan oleh Pro-Canselor OUM, Tan Sri Azman Hashim.

– Bernama

The last time I met Mahisham was in 2004, when he was teaching at SRK Zainab 3, K Bharu. The sad thing was that, despite being in touch via sms, he never mentioned about his condition to me :-( Anyway, I called him today, and he's agreed to have lunch with some of us in S Alam tomorrow.

Congratulations, Mishae, we are very proud of you!!!

Tallest Pencil in The World!

Yesterday, after a brief visit to Canon warehouse Sale (nothing worth shouting about), DH and I visited a friend at Faber-Castell, Subang.

Since DH has already written a nice blog on it, I might as well ask you to click here to read more :-)

In the Lobby, looking back at the giant pencil

At the cafe, enjoying the Nescafe tarik!

Note: The Faber-Castell Showroom (the Lobby) is opened daily for visitors to come and have a look at the tallest and smallest pencils in the world! Visitors can also purchase many FC items and souvenirs there. Me? Our family members are loyal users of FC products :-)
FC is also the distributor for Uni and UHU (the glue, yes!!) products too.

Ewa, Wak & Harlisya

Today I accompanied Ewa to InTECH for an interview. Ewa was my student way back during her A-Level years. She was in the "A-Level - German" programme (Batch 16), where she studied for her A-Level exam (UK) and at the same time she also studied the German Language. At the end of the programme she went to Manheim, Germany for her Diplome (which is equivalent to our degree here, if not higher). While she was there, I managed to visit her (in 2001), and last Christmas break my daughter Nuni took the opportunity to visit her and travel with her in Germany.

During her A-Level, I was her Pure Maths lecturer as well as the class lecturer (like the class teacher, if in school). Apart from that, during their German language lessons I joined them as one of the students. The German language lecturer was Renate Kiringer, who is a German native. We had fun during the language class as the students got to treat me just like one of their classmates! We also had role-playing sessions where we practiced our (very limited) communication skills in scenarios such as at the market, and on travel.
(When DH (read Dearest Hubby) & I visited Germany in 2001 for our 20th wedding anniversary, we stayed at Renate's place in Heidelberg for a night! She and her DH also took us up the Heidelberg castle, and we met up with Ewa there too with 2 other girls, Puteri and Dhira. Some of the pix can be found here and here, at Aina's blog. Yeah... We had to take Aina along...)

After the interview, Ewa followed me to the bank. Then we went to Tesco S Alam to have JM Beriani. When I was going to pay the bill, I noticed a guy who looked so familiar to me. The name that came to my memory was "WAK". He's actually my former A-Level (Batch 10) student too. He happened to be with another x-student, Harlisya. Both of them were classmates. What a day!! I went to greet them, and fortunately they still remember me (phew!).
Who said only students should greet their former teachers if they bumped into them? It also works vice versa :-)

Wak aka Hilme Sahar now has his own company, IntegritSystem, while Harlisya is attached to UPM.
I had a nice chat with them (poor Ewa had to wait for me then..).

At 2pm, I sent Ewa to the commuter station - she's going home to Kajang.

All in all, todays' outing was a good one. I forgot that my handphone has a camera, othewise I'd have taken some pix to be added to this blog. Next time, Wak, next time.....

Kak Salbiah (SMSK73-79)

It's nice to be able to meet again after 27 solid years!

I went back to KB on Saturday morning, leaving at 10.30am, from BIL's place in Segambut. There were BIL, MIL, FIL and me.

We arrived in Ketereh just before maghrib (the temporary bridge a bit north of Ketereh town was really congested).

Sunday morning was spent in KB to settle some matters at Pejabat Tanah. Unfortunately my old friend Zamri Ismail @Zamri Dabong who was an ADO there, has been transfered to Tanah Merah (effective 1 Nov 2006 - He's now no.2 there!). However, Zamri managed to get me to meet another officer there who helped speed up the process that I had to go through.

In the afternoon, I visited Kak Salbiah in Machang.

Kak Salbiah was one of the pioneering seniors (i.e. those who had to "tumpang" in SMIP). During our school days she was a state netball player (she was the "Centre" person) just like the other players. To adik2 junior who are reading this, during our time, SMSKel represented the state in many games, esp soccer and netball.

K Sal was one of those who stayed in school all the way from form 1 until form 6. I became very close to K Sal when we were in the same dorm, and had to sit for the exams together (MCE for me, and HCE for her). The exam time was a very memorable one since there was a huge flood then, that Pengkalan Chepa (where our school is) was cut off from other towns. I remember coming out of the exam hall and suddenly stepping into ankle deep water!! The flood water almost went into the hall. It was bad enough that exam paper was pretty tough (I think it was the Add Maths paper), we had our lunch (after the exam) of rice with only very tiny sardines and half a serving of ikan kering. No vegies. We were told by the dining hall staff that the supply could not get to us, so they had to make do with whatever dry/can food that they had in the storeroom!
We found it strange to have such a big flood when the weather was pretty sunny - no heavy rain nor thunderstorm. Later we found out that the heavy rain was mainly in the Ulu Kelantan and there was even a major landslide in Kuala Bala!

Back to Kak Sal, we had some nice time together especially on Thurday nights and Friday nights (free nights with no prep). We would either watch a movie in the hall, or just stay in the dorm, singing the popular tunes together. She was such a sport! I still remember her comment in the school mag on being in SMSKel for 7 yrs. It goes something like this: If I knew I was going to be in this school for 7 years, I would have asked my dad to build our house nearby.

If people ask me what else I remember of K Sal, I'd say it's her handwriting! it's unique - so simple, smooth and elegant. I am sure I can still recognise it now..

I went to her house yesterday with DH (dearesr hubby)'s auntie, Cik, who was the state netball coach in the 70s (together with the late Cikgu Mahmud of Pasir Pekan)). Cik also knows K Sal's mum since they went to the same teacher training college.

Though the visit was brief (K Sal had many other guests over the weekend), we managed to talk about some common friends who are, though distance apart, still very close to our hearts (The Malay's saying: "Jauh di mata, tapi dekat di hati").

This morning I left Ketereh with BIL at 8am, after a breakfast of the well known Nasi Kerabu Bt.11 (with ayam bakar, for me). I even took back some nasi bungkus with daging bakar for another BIL and my kids!!!!
I left BIL in Segambut, then drove back to S Alam alone. I arrived home at 3.30pm.

Distant Cousins from Sepilok!

Here they are!!

And on close-up:

Yeah... Nice to meet you too!

These cousins are quite a "show off" bunch:



Note : For better blog on this trip please go to DH's blog (look for the Sandakan trip in Dec 2006) or go directly to this page and this page.
well.... I like to work smart - why re-do something that someone else has done (especially when he's done pretty well!)

Melaka Trip

My MIL (mum-in-law) & FIL are at my SIL's place in Melaka so we decided to give then a visit this morning.

SIL has a new baby boy (her no.4 and only son) who was born 3.5 months ago. Babies at this age grow up very fast, so, it's always a delight to be able to see any of them again.

We left home at abt 10.30am. The highway was quite crowded for the Nilai-Seremban stretch. A Minor accident just before the Seremban/Labu exit slowed down the traffic tremendously :-(

Just before the Senawang exit, we could see that there was another long crawl ahead of us. It could be due the the roadwork, or may be another accident? Who knows... We then decided to exit the highway at Senawang and headed towards the old Road 1, via Rembau, Simpang Empat, Alor Gajah then Melaka.

Whe we arrived, we were very much ready for the feast of "nasi dagang" that we forgot to snap any pix.

Only much later, when baby Eiman was alert, and we were "playing" with him that we remembered the cameras (yeah, hubby carries one SLR and I carry an autofocus one).

Here are some pix taken by hubby:

Me holding baby Eiman

Bok's turn to hold the cuddly baby.

Eiman tried hard to grab Bok's mobile phone, with prowd grandma looking over, and Eiman's mum in the background. Nafis (in Liverpool t-shirt) was actually holding the phone for Eiman!

Aina enjoyed so much playing with her only female cousins (3 of them out of 11 cousins that Aina have!) that we decided to leave her behind. Tomorrow she'll come back home with her uncle (my BIL), and the grandparents.

2 cousins playing with Aina (extreme right), with Bok minding the baby (asleep) and Nukman so engrossed with the DS2!

Tupperware Everywhere!!!

Yesterday I went to K Huda's house. Being a seasoned Tupperware manager herself, she has all sorts of Tupperware in her kitchen.

For ages, I have been a "fan" of Tupperware myself but most of my purchases are with other friends (some at dealers' prices). I went to K Huda's place to grab some good offer (she was having a "Tupperware bazaar" where she sells many of the Tupperware products at 35%-40% off the retailed price).

Being a sucker myself, I finally ended up signing in a s a member, realising that I can get better deals by being one :-(
So, anyone for Tupperware? Want to be a dealer yourself, or just to grab some good bargains, just contact me! :-)

Today our family is going down to Melaka to my sis-in-law's place. My pa-in-law and ma-in-law (MIL) are there (they came from Kota Bharu). MIL is cooking Nasi Dagang today!!! Honestly, her nasi dagang is the best we've ever tasted!!

Maybe later tonight I'll put up some of the pix of us there....