Moments

Happiness! (Pt 1)

2009-03-19T14:05:00.005+08:00

This entry is of unexpected moments captured that make my heart sing...

Isn't this the most adorable face?

Brotherly love...cleaning little sis' ear...

Yummm

Nyap Sayot! These are some of big sis' medals from her school track events...

Chloe loved to put things on her head when she was around 1 year old...
she was wearing her diaper and yes, she still loves to dig for gold...

Chloe caught with her sister's underwear...

This was so funny...Chloe was actually sucking on the
round knob that's at the end of a window blind string as he slept.

Meg wearing Claudia's specs...
her jammy and her pose is so funny
...like an old granny

Chloe wearing Pooh's t-shirt...

The Green House

2009-03-11T11:13:00.005+08:00

The Green House recently opened on 24 February 2009. Since then, I've been there 3 times and each time trying different items on their menu and I must say their food is delicious and their pricing reasonable - good value.

The 1st time, I had their Mee Kari and lunch buddy had the Rojak Tambi - both are yummy (sorry Azreen Cafe...now your Rojak Tambi is No. 2 on my list...) The 2nd time, I had the Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng and my lunch buddy had the Nasi Lemak Ayam Rendang. Verdict - The BEST Nasi Lemak I've ever had! It's the rice they use. Long grain fragrant rice cooked to perfection with a hint of coconut milk.

Today I brought my eldest princess to have brunch The Green House before sending her off to school. Nasi Ayam Penyet was on the menu...finger licking good! Oh and their kopi-O ice will wake you up!

As you enter the Green House, this pretty wall welcomes you...

At a corner, there's even a foot massager and a comfy couch for you while you wait for your take-away order. The indoor dining hall is air-conditioned and the ambience is very calming with soft lights and pretty windows...

Presenting the Nasi Ayam Penyet....comes with ulam and a small bowl of soup and a finger bowl...

Meet my sweet brunch companion....

The Green House is located along Rubber Road, facing The Original Carwash (another great place).

Art by Megan (March 2009)

2009-03-06T10:10:00.002+08:00

Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T11:07:00.004+08:00

Forget the commercialism, colours, beliefs... Valentine's Day is a great day... It's a celebration of LOVE! To my husband of 16 years, Lawrence, I love you... To my children, Mitchell, Claudia, Megan and Chloe, I love you... To my mom and dad, I love you... To my brother and sisters, Linus, Fiona and Pauline, I love you... To all my family members, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, in-laws, I love you... To all my friends, near and far, I love you... To everyone in the world and the departed, I love you... I LOVE LOVE!!!!

2,000 Years Ago....in China

2009-01-20T08:38:00.002+08:00

Ancient Imperial Language of China – 2,000 Years Ago

How Did it Sound Like? (Mind you, it's no way similar to Mandarin)
Has this Ancient Language Survived?
Who Speaks it Today?

You'll be Surprised. You have heard it. You, your parents, or grandparents may still be speaking this ancient, archaic language!

Yes, it's HOKKIEN (Fujian/Minnan Hua)

Hokkien is:

1. The surviving language of the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD), China 's Golden Age of Culture.
Note: The Hokkien we hear today may have "evolved" from its original form 2,000 years ago, but it still retains the main elements of the Tang Dynasty Language.

2. Hokkiens are the surviving descendants of the Tang Dynasty -- When the Tang Dynasty collapsed, the people of the Tang Dynasty fled South and sought refuge in the Hokkien ( Fujian ) province. Hence, Hokkien called themselves
Tng-lang (Tang Ren or People of the Tang Dynasty) instead of Hua Lang (Hua Ren).

3. Hokkien has 8 tones instead of Mandarin's 4. Linguists claim that ancient languages tend to have more complex tones.

4. Hokkien retains the ancient Chinese pronunciation of "K-sounding" endings (for instance, Hak Seng (student),
Tua Ok (university), Thak Chek (read a book/study) -- the "k" sounding ending is not found in Mandarin.

5. The collection of the famous "Three Hundred Tang Dynasty Poems" sound better when recited in Hokkien/Teochew if compared to Mandarin.

6. Consider this for a moment: Today, the Hokkien Nam Yim ochestral performance still has its roots in ancient Tang dynasty music. Here's the proof: The formation of today Nam Yim ensemble is typically seen in ancient Tang dynasty paintings of musicians.

More Astonishingly:

Although not genetically-related, Hokkiens, Koreans and Japanese share many similar words (which are different from Mandarin).

That's because Hokkien was the official language of the powerful Tang Dynasty whose influence and language spread to Japan and Korea (just like Latin – where many words were borrowed by the English, French, Italian, etc). Here are just a few words in Hokkien, Japanese & Korean for your comparison:

Hokkien	Korean	Japanese
Sin Boon (news)	Sin Mun	Shinbun - newspaper
Cheng Hu (government)	Chong Bu
Pang (room)	Pang
Chhia (car/vehicle)	Ch'a
Mui/M'ng (door)	Mun
P'hio (ticket)	P'yo
Eng Wan (eternal)	Yong Won
Chaek (book)	Ch'ae
Ki (flag)	Ki	Ki
Kang river)	Gang/kang
Poh Hiam (insurance)	Poh Ham
Sio Sim (caution)	Cho sim
Mo Kui (demon)	Ma gui
Cham (attend/join/mix)	Ch'am sok
Kantan (simple)	Gan Dan
Sin Sei Kai (new world)	Shin Sae Gae
Kok Ka (nation)	Kuk Kka
Hya (elder brother)	Hyaeng
Choon Pi (prepare)	Jun Bi
Si Kan (time)	Si Kan
Kam tong (emotion, feeling)	Kam Jong	Kanjoo
Kamsia (gratitude, thanks)	Kam Sa	Kansha
Keat Hoon (marriage)	Kyol Hon	Kekkon
Oon Tong (exercise)	Un Dong	Undoo
Tua Ok (university)	Tae Hak	Daigaku
Aun Chuan (safety)	An Jon	An Zen
Mua Chiok(satisfaction)	Man Jok	Manzoku
Ai Lang (lover)	Ae In	Aijin
Seng Kong (success)	Song Kong	Seikoo
Chhiu Sat (suicide)	Cha sal	Jisatsu
Pu Do (grapes)	P'o d'o	Budoo
Chin Por (progress)	Chin bo	Shinpo

To all 49 Million Hokkien Speakers:

Be Proud of Your Ancient Hokkien Heritage & Language! Speak it Loud and Clear. Teach Your Future Generation this Imperial Language, Less it Fades Away.
Be Proud Children of the Tang Emperors.

To all Mandarin-speaking friends out there -- do not look down on your other Chinese friends who do not speak Mandarin – whom you guys fondly refer to as "Bananas". In fact, they are speaking a language which is much more ancient & linguistically complicated than Mandarin.

Keep in mind that Mandarin is just:

1. A Northern Chinese dialect (heavily influenced by non Han Chinese) that was elevated to the status of National Language by Sun Yat Sen for the sake of China 's national unity.

2. Mandarin was never spoken by your proud, imperial Tang Dynasty ancestors. It was probably spoken by the Northern (Non-Han) Jurchen, Mongols and Manchu minority. Start speaking the language of your ancestors today.

Other interesting links: http://www.famouschinese.com/virtual/Penang_Hokkien

Art - Part 2

2009-01-14T12:33:00.002+08:00

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...enjoy them....they were all drawn in 2008

By Megan

By Chloe

By Megan

Art

2009-01-13T12:30:00.003+08:00

My girls love to draw and can draw pretty well, except for my boy who is 15 now and cannot draw even if to save his own life (it really is that bad). Will post one soon when I can get my hands on them...

This one is by Claudia. She did this when she was she was about 5 or 6. She loved the PowerPuff Girls and would draw them everyday. Kept this on my office noticeboard for years so it's faded.
Ha...this one is by the artist of the family, Megan. She's 5 and has been drawing as soon as she could hold a pencil. She will draw on any surface! This one was done last year on our upstairs hall wall. Can't even get mad at her for drawing on the walls...as I find her drawings so adorable and as the years pass, I can see the changes in her drawing skill...that's the advantage of wall drawings, you can preserve them ahahahahha - that is until they get painted over.

More later...

Legs...thighs...calves...feets....toes....(and shoes??)

2009-01-09T09:30:00.006+08:00

Observe this pair of beautiful legs. Try to spot the abnormality and try to guess whose legs these belong to.

Hint: She's from Malaysia, an actress, a celebrity....

What ears love....

2009-01-08T15:32:00.003+08:00

Aaaahhhh....so nice....gentle scrapping and a massage on the ears and around the ears....it's a regular treat for all of us in the family....(for me it's as good as the BIG O ;)

Fighting back

2008-11-07T14:22:00.002+08:00

Was driving and thought about the recent cases of women drivers being tailed and having their car windows smashed by motorcyclists. I tried to imagine what I would do if should a thing were to happen to me...1st thought was I should just keep driving...then I thought, why should I fear them? I should fight back! I will swerve and hit them hard with my car and make them fall and then honk hard and call the Police MPV immediately. What do you think?

I'll let these pictures speak for themselves...

2008-10-30T09:01:00.004+08:00

Inspiring Reminders

2008-10-30T08:26:00.003+08:00

Received this today from a girl friend of mine, Mildred.

Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.
Every moment, thank God.

*****

"Face your past without regret.
Handle your present with confidence.
Prepare for the future without fear."

Blocked!

2008-10-14T12:24:00.003+08:00

I am back in business :) Was so shocked to discover my blog blocked and had to submit an appeal to review my blog to get it unblocked. There wasn't anything controversial in my previous postings but I suspect the last article that I posted tripped the alarm for them to review my postings. So an article touching on religion may just get your blog blocked.

Message from, HRH The Queen

2008-10-08T09:50:00.001+08:00

Received this in my email recently...

To the citizens of the United States of America
from
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

(You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

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1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour', 'favour', 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

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2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English.. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted
to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'

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3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

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4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist,then you're not ready to shoot grouse..

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5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

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6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the
British sense of humour.

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7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

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8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

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9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. Australian beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

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10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

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11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

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12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will
let you face the Australians first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

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13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

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14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

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15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

PS: Only share this with friends who have a good sense of humour (NOT humor)!

Newspaper article

2008-10-03T11:21:00.002+08:00

Enjoy this article from The New York Times

September 30, 2008

French Muslims Find Haven in Catholic Schools

By KATRIN BENNHOLD

MARSEILLE, France — The bright cafeteria of St. Mauront Catholic School is conspicuously quiet: It is Ramadan, and 80 percent of the students are Muslim. When the lunch bell rings, girls and boys stream out past the crucifixes and the large wooden cross in the corridor, heading for Muslim midday prayer.

“There is respect for our religion here,” said Nadia Oualane, 14, a student of Algerian descent who wears her hair hidden under a black head scarf. “In the public school,” she added, gesturing at nearby buildings, “I would not be allowed to wear a veil.”

In France, which has only four Muslim schools, some of the country’s 8,847 Roman Catholic schools have become refuges for Muslims seeking what an overburdened, secularist public sector often lacks: spirituality, an environment in which good manners count alongside mathematics, and higher academic standards.

No national statistics are kept, but Muslim and Catholic educators estimate that Muslim students now make up more than 10 percent of the two million students in Catholic schools. In ethnically mixed neighborhoods in Marseille and the industrial north, the proportion can be more than half.

The quiet migration of Muslims to private Catholic schools highlights how hard it has become for state schools, long France’s tool for integration, to keep their promise of equal opportunity.

Traditionally, the republican school, born of the French Revolution, was the breeding ground for citizens. The shift from these schools is another indication of the challenge facing the strict form of secularism known as “laïcité.”

Following centuries of religious wars and a long period of conflict between the nascent Republic and an assertive clergy, a 1905 law granted religious freedom in predominantly Roman Catholic France and withdrew financial support and formal recognition from all faiths. Religious education and symbols were banned from public schools.

France is now home to around five million Muslims, Western Europe’s largest such community, and new fault lines have emerged. In 2004, a ban on the head scarf in state schools prompted outcry and debate about loosening the interpretation of the 1905 law.

“Laïcité has become the state’s religion, and the republican school is its temple,” said Imam Soheib Bencheikh, a former grand mufti in Marseille and founder of its Higher Institute of Islamic Studies. Imam Bencheikh’s oldest daughter attends Catholic school.

“It’s ironic,” he said, “but today the Catholic Church is more tolerant of — and knowledgeable about — Islam than the French state.”

For some, economics argue for Catholic schools, which tend to be smaller than public ones and much less expensive than private schools in other countries. In return for the schools’ teaching the national curriculum and being open to students of all faiths, the government pays teachers’ salaries and a per-student subsidy. Annual costs for parents average 1,400 euros (less than $2,050) for junior high school and 1,800 euros (about $2,630) for high school, according to the Roman Catholic educational authority.

In France’s highly centralized education system, the national curriculum proscribes religious instruction beyond general examination of religious tenets and faiths as it occurs in history lessons. Religious instruction, like Catholic catechism, is voluntary.

And Catholic schools take steps to accommodate different faiths. One school in Dijon allows Muslim students to use the chapel for Ramadan prayers.

Catholic schools are also free to allow girls to wear head scarves. Many honor the state ban, but several, like St. Mauront, tolerate a discreet covering.

The school, tucked under an overpass in the city’s northern housing projects, embodies tectonic shifts in French society over the past century.

Founded in 1905 in a former soap factory, the school initially served mainly Catholic students whose parents were French, said the headmaster, Jean Chamoux. Before World War II, Italian and some Portuguese immigrants arrived; since the 1960s, Africans from former French colonies. Today there is barely a white face among the 117 students.

Mr. Chamoux, a slow-moving, jovial man, has been here 20 years and seems to know each student by name. Under a crucifix in his cramped office, he extolled the virtues of Catholic schools. “We practice religious freedom; the public schools don’t,” he said. “We teach the national curriculum. Religious activities are entirely optional.”

“If I banned the head scarf, half the girls wouldn’t go to school at all,” he added. “I prefer to have them here, talk to them and tell them that they have a choice. Many actually take it off after a while. My goal is that by the time they graduate they have made a conscious choice, one way or the other.”

Defenders of secularism retort that such leniency could encourage other special requests, and anti-Western values like the oppression of women.

“The head scarf is a sexist sign, and discrimination between the sexes has no place in the republican school,” France’s minister of national education, Xavier Darcos, said in a telephone interview. “That is the fundamental reason why we are against it.”

Mr. Chamoux said he suspects that some pupils (“a small minority,” he said) wear the scarf because of pressure from family. He acknowledged that parents routinely demand exemptions from swimming lessons for daughters who, when denied, present a medical certificate and miss class anyway. Recently, he said, he put his foot down when students asked to remove the crucifix in a classroom they wanted for communal prayers during Ramadan, which in France ends on Tuesday.

The biology teacher at St. Mauront has been challenged on Darwin’s theory of evolution, and history class can get heated during discussions of the Crusades or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks, some Muslim students shocked the staff by showing glee, Mr. Chamoux recalled.

The school deals swiftly with offensive comments, he said, but also tries to respect Islam. It takes Muslim holidays into account for parent-teacher meetings. For two years now, it has offered optional Arabic-language instruction — in part to steer students away from Koran classes in neighborhood mosques believed to preach radical Islam.

When Zohra Hanane, the parent of a Muslim student, was asked why she chose Catholic school for her daughter, Sabrina, her answer was swift. “We share the same God,” she said.

But faith is not the only argument. Even though Ms. Hanane, who is a single mother and currently unemployed, struggles to meet the annual fee at St. Mauront of 249 euros ($364) — unusually low, because the school receives additional state subsidies and has spartan facilities — she said it was worth it because she did not want her children with “the wrong crowd” in the projects.

“It’s expensive and sometimes it’s hard, but I want my children to have a better life,” Ms. Hanane said. “Today this seems to be their best shot.”

Across town, in the gleaming compound housing the Sainte-Trinité high school in the wealthy neighborhood of Mazargues, the rules and conditions are different, but the arguments are similar. Muslim girls there do not wear head scarves.

But Imene Sahraoui, 17, a practicing Muslim and the daughter of an Algerian businessman and former diplomat, attends the school, above all to get top grades and move on to business school, preferably abroad.

“Public schools just don’t prepare you in the same way,” she said.

Fifteen of the top 20 high schools in France are Catholic schools, according to a recent ranking in the magazine L’Express. Catholic schools remain popular among Muslims even in cities where Muslim schools have sprung up: Paris, Lyon and Lille.

Muslim schools have been hampered in part by the relative poverty of the Muslim community. And only one Muslim school, the Averroës high school on one floor of the Lille mosque, has qualified for state subsidies. To survive, the other three charge significantly higher fees.

Also, as M’hamed Ed-Dyouri, headmaster of a new Muslim school just outside Paris, said, “We have to prove ourselves first.” For now, he plans to enroll his son in Catholic school.

I want to make a difference

2008-09-30T09:27:00.003+08:00

I had been enjoying blogs by other people for the past couple of months. Thought it would be a wonderful way of sharing my life. Thought it would a piece of cake. Ha! I was wrong. It's not easy to open up to the world. It was on a spur of the moment that I decided to create this blog. There was no advance planning infact. Even my blog header, Moments, it just came off the top of my head.

Had a sleepless night last night. Imagine that. Trying to decide if I should share what was in my heart and head. Would anyone be interested in what I had to say or did it matter if I did or didn't.

I want to make a difference...small as it may be but it will still be a difference...so stay tuned :) for my 2 cents worth...

Moment - phrases and idioms

2008-09-26T17:14:00.000+08:00

moment use in phrases and idioms. Idioms with moment. moment in expressions. Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary.

from one moment to the next - if things change from one moment to the next, they change quickly or frequently.

have your/its moments - to be sometimes very successful.

in the heat of the moment - if you say or do something in the heat of the moment, you say or do it without thinking because you are angry or excited.

a magic moment - a short period of time which is very special, especially because something happens which makes you very happy.

the man of the moment - a man who is popular or famous now because he has just done something interesting or important.

the moment of truth - the time when someone has to make an important decision or when you can see if something has been successful or not.

on the spur of the moment - if you do something on the spur of the moment, you do it suddenly, without planning it.

spur-of-the-moment - on the spur of the moment - if you do something on the spur of the moment, you do it suddenly, without planning it.

Share in my moments

2008-09-26T16:18:00.000+08:00

My 1st blog! Share in my moments...smile with me....