Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Parents make “Matchmaking Corner” for their kids

hmm ... hmmm .... sounds very interesting. read this from weird asian news. it must be a very enjoyable morning sessions for the elderly parents. something to keep them occupied and useful.



Parents in Tianjin have spontaneously created a “Matchmaking Corner” in the city’s Central Park to find boy or girl friends for their adult children.

Every morning from 9 am, parents from all parts of the city gather in the park and talk to each other, hoping to find the ideal Mr or Miss Rights for their children.

They talk about their children’s occupation, character, interests, health, habits or even whether parents have time and energy to look after grandchildren.

Some parents write on boards their children’s profiles and requirements for future husbands or wives.

AhYap’s Blog - Better than reading newspaper (Hahaha ... this guy is funny)

Ong Ka Ting, Abdullah Badawi dan Hishammuddin Hussein dalam Rancangan “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire”

Aug 27th, 2007 Posted in Force For Good, Just For Laugh


Cerita ini direka semata-mata untuk tujuan pendidikan.
Ong Ka Ting sedang berada di dalam rancangan “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” siaran NTV7. Keadaan sangat genting kerana dia telah menjawab soalan 500 ribu Ringgit dan sedang menunggu sama ada jawapannya betul!


Jalalludin Hassan, “Jawapan anda … … … … … SELEPAS INI!”


AhYap di depan TV, “Diu!”


(selepas iklan dan banyak lagi air liur dari Jalalludin Hassan)


Jalalludin Hassan, “… Jawapan anda … … … … … BETUL! Syabas dan anda sekarang mendapati 500,000 ringgit!”


(tepukan penonton)


Jalalludin, “Sekarang ke soalan 1 juta! Adakah anda dapat membawa balik 1 juta hari ini? … (air liur lagi) .. Adakah anda sudah bersiap sedia?”


Ong Ka Ting, “Ya, sila teruskan.”


Jalalludin, “Oh, soalan ini memang senang. Ini soalan politik! Tentu YB dapat menjawabnya dengan cepat!”


Ong Ka Ting pun shock sendiri apabila dia terdengar soalan itu soalan politik! Politik adalah mangkuk nasi beliau. Hadiah 1 juta sudah dekat di tangannya.


Jalalludin, “Di antara berikut, yang manakah ejaan betul bagi Menteri Pendidikan Malaysia? …


A. H-i-s-h-a-m-u-d-i-n,
B. H-i-s-h-a-m-u-d-d-i-n,
C. H-i-s-h-a-m-m-u-d-d-i-n,
D. H-i-s-h-a-r-m-u-d-d-i-n”


Ong Ka Ting, “Oh! Diu Lor!”
Jalalludin, “Apa tu? D?”


Ong Ka Ting, “Oh bukan, saya ingin mengunakan life line saya yang terakhir - Call-a-Friend.”


Jalalludin, “Siapa YB nak call?”


Ong Ka Ting, “Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi.”


NTV7 cuba menghubungi Perdana Menteri…


Jalalludin, “Hello, Perdana Menteri? Saya Jalludin Hassan dalam rancangan ‘Who Wants To Be a Millionaire’ dan di sini adalah Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting. Dia perlukan bantuan anda untuk menjawap soalan 1 juta! Anda ada 30 saat. Mulai sekarang.”
(30, 29, 28 …)


Ong Ka Ting, “Pak Lah! Bagaimana mengeja Hishamuddin?! H-i-s-h-a-m-u-d-i-n, H-i-s-h-a-m-u-d-d-i-n, H-i-s-h-a-m-m-u-d-d-i-n, H-i-s-h-a-r-m-u-d-d-i-n”


Abdullah, “Huh? Apa lu cakap, boleh perlahan sikit?”


Ong Ka Ting, “Lu eja terus bagi saya lah”.


Abdullah, “Ok, aku cuba, H-I-S-H-A … eh ada R tak? H-I-S-H-A-M … hmmm, satu M ke dua M? H-I-S-H-A-M-U-D-D … eh, satu D ke dua D?! …ehhh … ehhh … H-I-S-H-A ….”


Jalalludin, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ….”


Ong Ka Ting, “Harlooooo… harlo? Uh.”.


Jalalludin, “YB, apa jawapan yang anda ingin pilih.”


Ong Ka Ting, “Hmmm… Hmmm… Saya mau ambil 500 ribu dan balik. Tak mau teka lah! Susah sangat ni!”


—-TAMAT—-


Tujuan utama saya menulis cerita ini adalah untuk mengajar para pembaca ejaan yang betul bagi Menteri Pendidikan kita. Jika nama Menteri Pendidikan pun tak boleh eja, macam mana boleh kita kata Sistem Pendidikan kita baik?


Jawapan yang betul, adalah … … … … SELEPAS INI!
&*%@$!


Jawapan yang betul mengikut wikipedia adalah C. H-i-s-h-a-m-m-u-d-d-i-n.
Tak ada ‘r’. Dua ‘m’ dan dua 2 ‘d’.
Tak payah malu jika anda eja salah sebab ada 741 laman web pun eja salah menurut Google.

Lagipun, dalam wikipedia Hishammuddin, ejaan Hishammuddin (dua ‘m’) digunakan 9 kali dan Hishamuddin (satu ‘m’) digunakan 6 kali.
Google punya spell-check pun tak tepat.









Lagipun, laman web Menteri Pendidikan Malaysia pun ada guna ejaan yang salah.

Mana satu yang memang memang betul?
Kita perlu check dia punya IC lor!


Thursday, August 23, 2007

Teaching Job = Golden Rice Bowl .... yakah?

So teaching is easy huh? people always tell me, "sing sang hou" or "lau si hau" (being a teacher is good), only need to work half day nia. and got so many holiday hor ...

to most people, being a teacher like, ermm ... having an easy life. some can even say this to my face, if let say you take maternity leave every year, you are literally working only for seven months a year. where to find job like this. go into the classroom and blah blah blah for 35mins about 'your life ' history, (not malaysia history hor) after that teach for 10 mins. in between classes can go to the canteen for coffee breaks and more chit-chatting. life is so wonderful if everybody can get a job like this....

grrrr .... let me show you this.

according PR Web Press Release Newswire, the Top 10 Most Stressful Professions; Work Stresses and Colleague Irritations are;

TOP TEN STRESSFUL PROFESSIONS
IT
Medicine / Caring Profession
Engineering
Sales and Marketing
Education
Finance
Human Resources
Operations
Production
Clerical

TOP TEN WORK STRESSES
Workload
Feeling undervalued
Deadlines
Type of work people have to do
Having to take on other people’s work
Lack of job satisfaction
Lack of control over the working day
Having to work long hours
Frustration with the working environment
Targets

TOP TEN COLLEAGUE IRRITATIONS
Seeing others not pulling their weight
Managers changing their minds about what they want doing
Lack of support from managers
Pressure from managers
Feeling put-upon by managers
Interruptions by colleagues
Interruptions by managers
Bullying behaviour by managers
Lack of support from colleagues
Bullying behaviour by colleagues


See, education is ranked 5 among the top 10 most stressful jobs. Although it is least stressful compared to doctors, IT, engineers (hey, lawyers are not on the list!) ... but it doesn't mean that teachers and lecturers are having an easy life and living in cloud 9 all the time. we always suffered from burn-outs, stress from handling discipline problems, the endless piles of papers with bad handwriting waiting to be marked all year round and hey ... our pay is so pathetically low!!!

it is getting harder and harder now to teach in the schools and private colleges. maybe one day, androids will take over the classrooms. at least they won't get angry and pissed off if the students sleep in the class, make noises and not doing homework.

who said caning asses is fun? leave me out ....

Monday, August 20, 2007

welcome to the traffic jams culture

Last saturday night, after dinner with king yeung's parents, king yeung suggested going to putrajaya to see the fireworks competition. i was a bit tired after that fair bit of traveling. but i did really want to go there as i have never been to putrajaya before. .... sorry for my kampungness.

so i asked him, how far is it from PJ? about 45 minutes, he said. initially i thought that was a bit far. by the time we finished dinner it was around 830pm. and he warned me beforehand, the car must be filled with petrol and we must go to toilet first, because it seems that putrajaya is a place without petrol stations and public toilets. i looked at him with disbelief.

so, we stop at a petrol station in puchong. after filling the car with petrol and going to the toilet- even though i don't need it at that time - and also after being fed with a lot of notorious stories about puchong and klang valley, we headed to putrajaya, together with hundreds and thousands of cars, heading the same way.

we didn't know where was the exact place the fireworks would be held, and king yeung insisting on showing me the beautiful bridge.... only one set back, he wasn't sure if the bridge is in putrajaya or cyberjaya. so we follow the crowds, heading towards places which were most jammed.

the traffic jam started the moment we pass the putrajaya tol. and from there onward we move at snail pace speed, inching our way slowly into the city.

finally, we were there. many cars parked by the roadsides and many people walking to don't know where. we found a parking place around 10pm. after standing by the car and mulling over for about 2 minutes on which way to go, we finally started walking. we weren't sure where we were supposed to go. we just followed the crowds and headed to where there were the most people.

after 10 minutes of hard walking - my heels' straps broke, and my soles burned - we reached the dataran where more than 100,000 people were gathered to watch the fireworks. and there we manage to catch our first glimpse of the beautiful fireworks swirling and bursting in the mid air. it was 10.15pm.

we didn't stop at the dataran. we walked further up, much much further up, hoping to get better glimpses of the fireworks. and guess what? everything ended less than 5 minutes. we didn't know the fireworks start at 10pm. it lasted only for 20 minutes. we were still panting from the brisk walk. can you imagine that?!! we got stuck in the traffic jam and the tiring walk for a less than 5 minutes spectacular burst of fireworks!!

in the end, we sat on one of the many benches by the beautiful walkway and look at the people and the flowers and the impressive road furniture. i was too tired to walk further and king yeung would have to carry me back to the car if i refuse to budge from the bench. anyway, i spared him that superman feat.

it was a beautiful night. i even get to see the beautiful bridge that king yeung wanted to show me, and two boats cruising on the dark lake. we didn't bring camera with us. even if we did, we wouldn't do a good job catching those beautiful scenes on the camera like a pro.

thanks god for creating photography enthusiasts in this world, i found some wonderful photos of the fireworks display in putrajaya on the internet the next day, where i get to post it in this blog.


going back was the same story. it was another slow crawl back home and i was tired. i fall asleep in the car while holding on to king yeung's hand...

































Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Shopping Around For A Digital Camera




the camera that i forget to take out from the house during flood in Johor last year. Canon Ixus 50 - it was only one year and three months old and cost me rm1499 (plus a rm50 special case). oh ... hou samtong ar! even right now when i think about this I still feel very samtong.

Now i couldn't see it selling in the shops anymore and i was rudely shock when i found out that Canon Ixus 60 is selling for rm999 last month and Canon Ixus 70 is now selling for rm1079 at the same shop where i previously bought my camera.

... so i am thinking now, should i spend rm1000++ for a digital camera? i don't take landscape pictures or fast speed photos. other brands would do just as nice, fuji, panasonic, olympus, exilim, sony .... to name a few. but why canon?

i think they look stylish, small, dainty, elegant .... so i am shallow minded huh? but check out out the pictures here. the pink one look absolutely gorgeous.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

When we were young



The real story behind the scenes...

But this is how the real story goes...

Early to mid 1970's (Prologue...)
This is the time, where my parents started to meet each other. They started as travelling couples too, just like me and pohyin. Mum had to be stationed in Kelantan as a nurse while dad's running a kicimiao trading business here in KL. After years of courtship by dad,and years of weekend travel from KL to Kelantan, finally he wed mum, in the mid 70's and they stayed in KL. By then, dad was a medium size business owner together with his elder brother.

Mid to end 1970's, (The beginning...)
Dad's business had expanded to supply trading goods to Johor Bahru & Singapore. (Those times, even a telephone call booking is hard enough, and internet buying wasn't available that time), and he decided to run the business alone with his own company.And from there, after months of planning with mum, they finally moved to a place where it's most strategic to transport goods, from KL to singapore. And they chose Segamat.
During that short time,dad and a few of his close friends moved real fast to build up a home there and a business office in Segamat while at the same time mum's already pregnant. That time, most of the time my mum's alone, and her only was her neighbour....another Leong's family as well. Being in Segamat, and my mum from KL, and from English school, she couldn't communicate well with the residents there who very much prefer Hokkien or Mandarin. It was this neighbour, Leong's family, converse in cantonese, the only chinese dialect my mum could understand. According to the some old scriptures i managed to find from mum's old documents, it seems that mum and the neighbour's family's wife, Mrs. Leong as well, were sharing recipeies for pregnant ladies, cause both of them are pregnant. While dad's too busy with business setting up, both of them, mum and her neighbour became good close friends, and sharing advises on pregnancy. By April 1979, mum's neighbour gave birth to a daughter in a hospital here in Segamat, and she named her Leong Poh Yin. Mum and dad visited Mrs.Leong in the hospital,(that time, they were the closet friends to my mum and dad), and took a glance at baby pohyin. In 3 months time, mum's about to give birth to me. And she asked pohyin's mother, if she would to give birth to a son, she will let him to marry pohyin,since both of them are born on the year of the goat with the months favours good fengshui for both family....And pohyin's mother agreed...
By July 1979, mum gave birth to a boy, whom's me. According to an antique scripture i discovered (it was a receipt in a restaurant in Segamat dated all the way to August 1979, 28 years before the day this blog is written) evidence showed that both side of the parents seemed to have a small dinner celebration to celebrate our birth and we were already destined to marry each other.In chinese we call this "jeefookwaifun".

1980's (The good old days...)
In the early 1980's, dad's business was running very good in Segamat. Mum's been staying at home to take care of the family, and had exceptionally good ties with Poh yin's family. PohYin's family run their own business as well, in the sewing industry. According to mum's testaments, it seemed that time, most of my days are spent at pohyin's house with me playing with pohyin at the garden, or at the the living room. While my mum would hang out most of the time at Poh yin's house with her mum.

Mid 1980's (The tide turns...)
Dad's business had not been good due to the economic downturn in the late 80's. Even one of his business partner ran away with his money.Moreover, with more Mafia style gangsters from Johor Bahru began to choose to reside in Segamat, safety had been an issue. In fact, when the partner ran away with the money,he was robbed by the JB gangsters in Segamat and gunned down by 4 guys with AK-47's 7.62mm calibre and 2 guys with SIG 552 commandos 5.56mm calibre. And they are tracing the leads to dad's business to rob dad's company as well, due to economy condition was at a real bad condition that time, gangsters had to depend on robbing of anything for survival. Fearing for my mum and my safety, my dad decided to move back to PJ as soon as possible. As we pack to leave, my parents vow to come back to Segamat to look for the PohYin's mother to ensure me and pohyin get married as sworn from the day we were born.

Mid 80's -End 1990's (The lost touch...)
And from here in PJ, i began my studies, having no idea at all what happened, as was being too young to understand the situation. The only memory i recalled is when i dream when i was in primary school. I always dreamt of a girl with big eyes that always played with me when i was a little small boy... i couldn't remember a thing at all, except her big eyes, nothing more. And my parents only told me that somehow I'm supposed to married to someone, but they will not tell, until they found her. During my year in secondary school, my parents went back to segamat for a few days to look for pohyin's parents, but find that they too have already shifted, as safety had worsen in segamat due to gangsterism.Even after a few trips to Segamat, our former neighbours couldn't be located, despite spending days asking around from local people. And by end of 1990, my dad and mum never mentioned anymore about my wife should be...and they decide to let me to decide my marriage's destiny...

End 1990's - 2006 (The forgotten 20 years of marriage...)
During this time, I fully concentrate on my studies in science and technology, before doing my STPM and completed my degree in Aeronautical Engineering by the year 2002. During the 20 years of my life, I kept dreaming of a little girl, who played me with at a house's garden, whom i can't really recall, but only remembered i do have a deep feelings for her, but I just can't explain where or how is feeling came.... it was as if it was just there since the day i was born... It was dreams that appeared in my life...

Sept 2006 - Oct 2006 (The discovery...)
By 2006, this dreams been coming back to me again, and i decided to relook back at the archive of my dad's documents and decided to search back this long lost dream. Who this girl actually is? This was the question that came into my mind all the time. And after a few interogation with mum and dad, and finally they revealed this story to me. And so, I made a trip to Segamat, with hope with the old address, I could find her. But couldn't.
By 2006 Oct, after 28 years, somehow....someway, we crossed path at MSN, out of millions of people out there.
And after chatting and meeting up, only we knew we are the lost couple.

That how we begin...

Our Home


Ky and I plan to get our house first before getting married. Our first home would probably be a small apartment as both of us need to save for our wedding as well. Size is not really a big problem here as we plan to keep our family small. Comfort is the priority and our home should have the feeling of spaciousness despite it size.

Ikea concept does appeal to many because of its ability to make use of small living spaces and also because its simple sleek designs is not only elegant but functional as well. Maybe we would start by picking up some ideas from there, and at the same time try to improvise along the way, as far as our creativity allows.

Every room in the house should be treated with equal importance. The furniture and decorations in the each room should not only look good, but should also have a purpose - most important is they should not be too difficult to clean ...

hmmm .... we have to do the cleaning ourselves as we can't afford a maid, and I don't want a stranger to live in our house either.

I don't know if ky will help with the house work in the future.but so far I am happy with him. He help with the dish-cleaning and he change the bedsheet and clean his room when I come. And .... one very important thing, he emptied the wastepaper basket in his room and all the dirty clothes are put in the laundry basket. .... ^-^

after i came back from Bill and Amy's house last week, I think we would probably get a house something like theirs too. Their place look nice enough for a newly wed couple. And they have a nice kitchen cabinet and fit-in wardrobes in their rooms too, left by the previous owner. i wonder if we would we lucky to get something like that too. it would be nice and we would have save a lot on our first house.

I hope to upload some pictures into my next blog, of how our future home would look like and also how much it would cost to furnish our house decently.

I wish i still have my camera with me ... sigh ... i forgot to save my rm1500 canon digital camera during the flood last year. i have to wait until i get a new one before i can upload more pictures.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Long Distance Relationship

long distance relationship is a real challenge to any couples. it isn't healthy to be separated and in most cases, "Absence does not really make the heart grow fonder".

both couple must be willing to sacrifice their time and trust is really a very big thing here, especially if most of the time we do not know what each other are doing and who we hang out with.

ky and I travel each weekend to see each other, spending short happy weekends together but long lonesome weekdays apart from each other....

ky is sick now. I am in Segamat and he is in PJ. it is sad not being able to hold him and tell him everything is alright. i am not there with him when he needs me ...

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Double Happiness




In Chinese legend, "yuet lo," (the old grandfather of the moon) ties a red string around the ankles of a man and woman when they are born, to connect them as soulmates. Thus, no matter how far apart they are, they will eventually come together. Over time the thread shrinks until the two are joined.

Ehh.... How could it shrinks? I think the old man probably wound it up like a pancing for the ikan, when he felt it is time for the couple to meet.


This symbol means "double happiness." It is the symbol of shared bliss and longevity. If you look at it closely, you can actually see the image of two people walking arm in arm. Both of them are wearing the traditional head gears for the bride and bridegroom.

This Chinese character "Double Happiness" is a very important symbol in the Chinese culture. It really means that man and woman are meant to go through life together, hand-in-hand.

The Ring of Eternal Love

Yes ... it is the wedding ring. The ring that binds two hearts together in an eternal promise to love each other forever.

The circle has always had significance from ancient cultures to the present as a symbol of wholeness and perfection. Its endlessness is the perfect symbol of oneness and unity - no beginning. no end.

The habit of wearing the wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand is based upon a Grecian fable that the artery from that finger, which was believed to be the vena amoris - also known as the vein of love - ran from that finger directly to the heart.


The Red Love Seeds

Red is the symbol of love.
In the south, the Saga Seed Tree buds in Spring.
The red seeds spill from the pods,
scattering on the ground.
Pick them up,
as many as you can,
as if gathering thoughts and memories of those you love.



"Old fashioned as it might sound, I have picked some for king yeung, a small little glass bottle filled with the red saga seeds. It is also well-known by many as the Red Love Seeds. Now it is sitting on the pc table in his room. He told me it is one of the best gift he had ever received and he loves them the most, because of its symbolic meaning."

pohyin



























Saga Tree -
Saga seed is reminiscent of deep emotions and passion and this gift from nature is often used by many as tokens of love and affection; sometimes it's also symbolic of one's earnest heart to apologize.

Singaporean has dedicated a special website for this wonderful tree. Its members shared interesting facts, stories and also locations of the trees in Singapore.

In Segamat, there are only a few saga trees left in a field near Li Chi primary school. I remembered them being there ever since I was very very young. It was perfect evening as I went to the field to pick those lovely seeds. They have brought back a lot of my old childhood memories, carefree and happy, a gentle reminiscence of the time long past.

















Burung kakaktua - All types of birds used to frequent the saga tress in that field, making them their favourite perching grounds.


















In its dried up pods -
The green pods would dry up and burst open, liberating its little red seeds. They looked very pretty peeking from among green grass, waiting to be picked up. Each seed looks so shiny, as if it has been lacquered.



This Chinese poem is written in dedication to this lovely seeds.





















Monday, August 6, 2007

This Is How We Met


Do we need to say anything more ?

Yeah .... to some, this might sounds just like another blind date. But to us, God has lent a helping hands.

A lot of things happened before we met. But things are sweet when we found each other.

Our first date, on a rainy evening at wongkokcharchanteng, we ordered maggi mee with hopaudan and luncheon meat. Hahaha ... I told him I could cook better maggi mee. I promised I would cook for him someday ...

That is where the story started.