Mind What You Say

I think most parents forgot that what ever they say or do, their children are watching and look up to them. They are the people that children believed and trusted the most. Most parents still do not realize that those words coming from their mouth are extremely powerful and their children are listening.

I teach Maths (tuition) at night to secondary school students aged between 13 to 17. Recently, one of my 16 year old male student told me that he got zero for History. I could not believed my ears. I asked if he wrote anything on the paper, he said no. He just wrote his name and went to sleep till the whole exam was over and passed up the blank piece of paper. Asked if his parents know about it yet. His replied shocked me, "My parents said History is of no use, we won't be needing it when we work in the future."

I used to teach English and Bahasa Malaysia to primary school children few years back. I remembered there was this mother who was very concern about her son's studies. She would checked with me her son's progress every now and then. Every time when I chat with her, in the presence of her son, she always said, "As long as he knows a bit of English and Bahasa Malaysia, just enough to be able to fill up forms when applying for loans etc, it is good enough."

So no matter how I teach him, even my other students had improved, he remains the same and his mum still do not understand why. Well, most parents would blamed it on the school or tuition teachers and never on themselves.

To me, able to study is an attitude. Something that the parents have to coach since young, just like potty training, manners etc. If they start with the right mind set, studying is not a problem. You can employ the best professor to teach your child but without the right attitude about learning, you are wasting your money.

Thanks for reading and hope your child loves learning. Make it fun and tell them it is as easy as learning a new on-line game.

School Days Crush (joke)

I was sitting in the waiting room for my first appointment with a new dentist. I noticed his diploma which bore his full name. Suddenly, I remembered a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name had been in my class some 40-odd years before.

Could he be the same guy that I had a secret crush on, way back then? Upon seeing him, however, I quickly discarded any such thought. This balding, grey-haired man with the deeply-lined face was way too old to have been my classmate.

After he examined my teeth, I asked him if he had attended Garden school in Penang. "Yes. Yes, I did," He gleamed with pride. "When did you graduate?" I asked. He answered, "In 1959, Why do you ask?"

"You were in my class!" I exclaimed. He looked at me closely. Then, that ugly, old, bald, wrinkled, fat, grey-haired, decrepit idiot asked, "What did you teach?"

Just for laughs! Enjoy!

Cheesy Squid

I love seafood. Learned this from t.v. Clean the squids, cut it to bite size and score the back criss cross so that when cooked, it would curl up like tiny squids. Pat dry the squids and marinated it with salt and pepper and a bit of corn flour.

Heat pan with a bit of cooking oil. Saute chopped garlic till brown. Add in squids. Once it curl up, add in cheese. I used a few slices of those sandwich cheese. Stir till all the cheese melted. Make sure dish is not too watery. The squid to release some water while cooking. So if it is too watery you can add more cheese or cornflour mix in water, to thicken it.

Thanks for reading and give this a try. It is simple yet yummy. I am drooling already.

Penny Wise Pound Foolish

I was watching this Korean channel (with English sub-title of course) recently and the documentary was about price hike in food. It shows how vegetables prices had increase by more than double. Some housewife would go marketing with a camera, snap a photo of the price and the vegetable and paste it in their facebook or blog. Other housewife would then compare prices and know where to buy what.

Would you do that? Very often others would ask me how much is a kg of meat etc cost and seriously, after turning into a housewife for about six years now and I had never memorized those prices. I would go to the market every weekend and buy what ever I felt like eating that week and shop till I am out of cash and I would go home. During the week I would cook what ever I could find in my fridge. So I do not really compare prices nor know how much it really cost per kg.

I go by how much I am willing to spend on food for that week and not going round town shopping for the cheapest meat, vegetables etc. I have neighbors who would buy chicken from market "A", fish from market "B" and fruits and vegetables from market "C". If the three markets are quite a distant from each other, the fuel going there would have cost more than buying everything from one place.

You could say I am the lazy type but to me I wouldn't want to stress out on a simple task like marketing for food for the family. Why go through the hassle comparing prices, taking notes and keeping an eye on food prices like watching the share market on CNN.

Thanks for reading my point of view. Life's too short to stress out on small stuffs like this. Happy marketing and cooking to you.

Jokes On Relationship

Out Of Africa

Young son : Is it true dad, that in some parts of Africa, a man does not know his wife until he marries her?

Dad : That happens in every country, son.

Wonder Why

When a newly married couple smiles, everyone knows why. When a ten-year married couple smiles, everyone wonders why?

Phuket Vacation

On our first day at a resort in Phuket, my wife and I went down to the beach. Later when I went back to our room to get something to drink, one of the hotel maids was making our bed. I opened my cooler and was on my way back out when I stopped at the door and asked, "Can we drink beer on the beach?"

"Sure," the maid replied. "Let me finish the rest of the rooms first!"

Just for laugh! Can't remember if I had posted the above before but is still funny when I read it again and again. Have a nice weekend to all.

Anyone Reading My Crap

I do read blogs from Linkreferral etc and most new bloggers express their fear that no one would read their post. Some even said that most just visit blog sites just to reach target and not really reading. I too have those thoughts in my head "what if no one reads my crap", " what if I do not get any follower", "what if I end up with nothing to write anymore" .......

Like the saying goes, when you do something you are passionate about the money will follows and in bloggers case, readers and followers will follow. I once introduced blogging to a friend and he said he doesn't have so much to talk about. Really? So is it just me or because I was born a chatter box.

I find writing and reading fascinating. It nurtured the creative part of me. Even at night when in bed before I fall asleep, words just pop up in my head telling me what to write in my next post. It just come naturally but now a days had been quite busy so had kept all those thoughts bottled up at one of the corner of my brain.

Someone once told me that I have to have a good command in English before I write. Really? To me, as long as my English ain't that broken and my message did went across to who ever is reading, it is fine with me.

Once in a while have to act like a kid again, do without thinking, speak without fearing of being judges, play deaf and pretend I live on an island alone, free to say and do what ever I like, but then again this can't happen all the time. I have two teenage boys to set a good example to.

So to me blogging is when I could released that child in me and feel free. No worries about wrong grammer, bad English and the thoughts of sharing my experiences and knowing that someone out there could have or are going through the same, would feel that they are not alone.

That's all the time I have for this post, till the next post, thank you for those who are following my site and those who often visits and leave comments, appreciate you guys / gals very much. Thanks to the internet too, for allowing me to reach so far out to the world. Happy reading and blogging to you all

My Butterfly

I would normally leave the car doors open an hour prior driving, for health sake. I was told it is really bad for health to enter a hot car, turn on the air-cond and drive. So normally I would air it out first and this is what I found. The is the second butterfly that landed on the car dashboard and died there. Guess it is must had been too hot.

So happened I had an empty photo frame, a perfect one for my butterfly. I gently lift it and place it in the frame and sealed it without any preservative etc. This butterfly in the frame had been with me for more than 5 years now and the butterfly still look good. I always thought that I would need some sort of chemical to preserved the colour and shape of the butterfly but mine still look good after so long. Guess if I open the frame now the butterfly might go into pieces.

This is the second butterfly that I found in the car and so happen someone gave us a photo frame as a gift and the butterfly fit in it perfectly. Wonder if there will be anymore dead butterfly in the future. So far not many know that the butterfly in the frame were real and not just a picture of it.

Well that's me, the creative Aries that could not see stuffs like these go to waste. Love it when I could turn junk into art, at least to my eyes they were art.

Thanks for reading and wish you have a fun and creative day too.