Those days in College - YMCA Jewell House

During our college days, we were put up in YMCA hostel, 11 floor with 200 rooms, 9th & 10th Floor were catered for the female student with strict rules for security concerned.

Single room for each of us with basic facilities like desk, bed, fan, heater & wardrobe, common sharing areas were bathroom, pantry, TV room & laundry.

Busy traffic flow happened in the morning, bathrooms were specially packed, girls were seen walking with their toiletries bag and a bottle of white liquid, white stuff are Dettol mix to wipe on toilet bowl before sitting on it. Each and everyone were busy brushing up at the long stretch of sinks, some took long time cleaning, rubbing & massaging their face, some were like split of lightning zoom in and zoom out, some walk around with white mask on their face, some with white pimples cream dotted on their face, some with mourning face and frizzy hair. (some said woman most prettier time is in the morning, this had proven wrong)

Showers were separated by cubicles, some ‘book’ or reserve the bathroom by letting the shower running with their clothes in it, while they were doing their brushing. During winter time, it was difficult to undress where the cold breeze will some how flow in from nowhere, the fabulous idea was to let the shower running much much more earlier to allow the hot steam warm and fill the whole bathroom for undressing made easy.

The pantry consisted of dining tables, chairs, refrigerator, stove and cooking utensil, all of us were allow to store food stuffs in the refrigerator, but scenario of missing items played repeatedly without catching the ‘rat’, getting annoyed and frustrated, some came out with brilliant idea of labelling ‘POISON !! Do not eat’, ‘Stolen from …(name)’ to deter the act. Exam was the time that everyone had amnesia or temporary lost memory, causing the disgusting worms growing and nested in the fridge and at the he sink.

No hand wash and our laundries were done with washing machine & dryer, I shrunk my cardigan and track bottom 2 sizes smaller with paid dryer, where back home offer free sun for drying and size guarantee.

Watching TV for leisure, you need to group up a few to convince others that majority win, you then can pick your likable channel.

In general, it was not that easy to live under the same roof with difference culture and multi races from Singapore, HongKong, Malaysia, Japan, Brunai, Australia & Thailand, tolerance & compromise are the key words that tie all of us together without hair pulling drama.

Those days in College

Back in ages ago, I am one of the very few Asian in the girls’ college, I was surrounded by the gigantic female Aussie classmate. I muted most of the time with only return smile to acknowledge my agreement or disagreement, maybe I am shy & introvert then, or maybe over shocked on the difference culture, I love to observe the girls around me, they are pretty, young at 16, 17, 18 or so. To them I may look like the malnutrition girl from the Somalia or Ethiopian, small & short.

At the class, some dressed well with make up, perfume, scarf, accessories, they looked professional and 10 years mature, some were just simply simple, faded cardigan top with flare skirt, they don’t even mind their torn pantyhose, and rubber bands were used to tie up the holes to mend the ugliness, so, you can imagine each leg with a few rubber bands sticking out like some kind of seeds hanging from her legs.

The girls smoked before & after class, chewing gum was to freshen their breath, they often disposed by sticking it under the desks, I used to peep under before settling down. Some desks looked like Tangyuan (Glutinous rice) ball sticking on it, with variety of colors and there were hundreds of it.

Unlike the quiet shy Asian, they were actively participated in all the Q & A posted by teacher, when a question raised, 90% of my classmate will raised hands, some stand up with hand waiving in the air to get attention, some calling the teacher, some were closed to shout. But the naughty teacher love to pick Asian L. I can see their disappointment for not being picked.

On top of school bag, they have a makeup bag to keep cosmetics, skin care, cigarettes, lighter, condom, pills and lot more expected & unexpected stuff in it, after school, they zoomed into toilet for freshen up before they adjourned to somewhere else.

Despite the differences in culture, I found them nice, honest, no faking, naïve, playful and possessed happy go lucky characters.

Girl who lost her way

My daughter W was in cross road after getting her SPM (Form 5) result, she doesn’t know what she wants to study to be in line with her future career.

The effort had been made from my side by providing vast info and full support, with the hope to help her gained a clearer picture of what suit her on what she want. She attended numerous talks, spending hours with the lecturers finding out, seek advised from school councillor, exchange view with teachers & headmaster, and finally all my unfortunate friends and relatives were forced to chip in and help.

Since young, W had limited access to TV program, allowing her to watch Disney, Animal planet & Discovery channel, she loved the show of late Steve Irwin – “The Crocodile Hunter", where she developed the passion on animals, then, her ambition was to become Veterinarian.

During her long break waiting for SPM result, she was free to watch any program to kill her 100 days boredom, she landed up watching soap drama related to the legend of Lawyer, she changed her mind to pick Law for study.

With all her intended ambitions made me busy during the 100 days, for her choice of Veterinarian, I had brought her to pet shops, shown her the reality of work, able to tolerate the stink odour, the messiness, the dirt and the not so discipline pets.

Follow by Magistrate court to witness court procedures, she adored seeing lawyers dressed up smartly in black, but, when the session began, she had instant disappointment on the lawyer presentation, soft and monotonous tone, where was the excitement and thrill as shown in the TV ??

I witnessed some ‘katak’ (frog) teenagers jumping around, jump from science to art stream, from A-level to form 6, from medicine to fashion, from accounts to chef. I am kind of worry she will get the deadly virus of katak.

Finally, she picked sixth form to continue her study, allowing her another 2 more years to firm up her ambition. During which, I will help her to explore further on her liking in Psychology, Physiotherapy, Ecologist & more, I presume ?

Office Life

My good friend Liz pops into my house last week, she blows out her trumpet, loud enough to cause my neighbour misunderstood that we are having some kind of quarrel, letting go the pressure from the long cook cooker, out pouring her unhappiness at work.

All her arrows sharply pointed at her boss for misbehaving at work, sleeping in the office at the broad day light, nod off in the meeting, building castle in the sky during discussion, doing personal thing in the office, making suspicious call, shows no concern on the decending business trend, and she went on and on non stop without giving me a chance to raise my voice, and all I could catch on her last breath with high pitch tone that sounded abruptly with “He is not carrying out his duty to lead the company, he is just like a wounded worrier that loses the battle !!” Liz cried loudly.

I spring up immediately to make her a cup of Hor Yen Hor tea to bring down her temperature. I can understand Liz' feeling, for which she has worked for 10 years, growing and surfing with the company together, she treat the company like her own, devoted all her passion and interest at work.

Sigh, as friend, I was not able to sooth and help her, lending both my ears is the best comfort to her.

When we actually love our company, we tend to comment and complaint with the hope of improvement from the management, but for Liz scenario, how to tell her boss that he needs to buck up ? he needs to improve ? he needs to lead ? he needs to change ? He needs to behave ?

I supposed it is hard, unless she back stab him to escalate further up.

Ah Mah and ‘Ang Kong’

My mother in law is a staunch believer of Taoist, she pray everyday. In front of all the deities & ancestors, she would seek for guidance, ask to ‘po pi’ (blessing) for health, safety, wealth, or something that seem impossible to us.

My daughter W depends on Ah Mah (mother in law) whenever she sits for examination like UPSR, PMR & SPM. All Ah Mah did was to light up the oil lamp & a pair of electric candles, 3 joss sticks for each deity, she will chant with reasonably voice & tone, loud enough for us to hear, ‘Ang Kong (God), Ang Kong! po pi po pi my grand daughter who will sit for SPM tomorrow, let her have good result, if she request for A, you grand her with A, or better still fulfill her wish by giving whatever she ask for’, I like this po pi request, Ah Mah sounded very much in power and authoritative. Putting her hands together she prays and finally places the joss sticks on the urn carefully. With this prayer, W will have invisible protection with less stress and less panic during her examination.

Just weeks ago, W jumping with joy for scoring SPM with flying colors, forgetting not to thanks the support and blessing from ‘Ang Kong‘, we were asked to prepare some fruits offering to thanks them, Ah Mah did all the usual pai Ang Kong procedure and starts thanking, ‘Ang Kong, Ang Kong, now that W had got the good results, can you ‘po pi’ her to get scholarship and enter into good school, or better still let her get what she wish for, kam sia che che, kam sia che che (thank you very much). I grinned beside, thank you with another request.

Ah Mah playing important roles for everyone at home, she is just like the bridge between us and Ang Kong. In return, Ang Kong will have regular joystick burning, ornament paper, fruits and big feast that comes in steam chicken, duck, roast meat, mix vegetable, rice, noodle, tea, wine and more.

We are thankful for Ah Mah’s effort. Without her, we maybe need to sail thru the turbulence sea. Ah Mah, kam sia che che, kam sia che che…

Extra Classes to Excel

There are plenty of tuition centers near my area to cater for primary & secondary student, almost 95% of the student attended at least 2 or more classes per week. Those do well in academy without tuition are classified as eccentric, extraordinary or genius.

Traffic jam and air pollution are normal scene near tuition centre. Teachers’ supplementary income rise from 4-digits to 5-digits, high tech gadget such as notebook, overhead projector, wireless microphone are used to cater big classes of more than 100 students.

Catching up 2 or 3 tuition lessons after school is a norm, kids are picked up from school and send from one to another tuition class, to save time, eating & changing clothes in the car are made possible.

Competition is rife, tuition centers are all ways out to lull and recruiting more students, advertisement banners of all sizes and colors are in race along the road, flyers are distributed much often to add weight in selling together with newspaper. To maintain good reputation, some centers prefer to pick top performance students, gradually sift out or disqualify the non performance student.

I happened to bump into a reputable tuition center for secondary school. To amaze me that the responsible principal actually acted like a discipline teacher with a long cane in her hand, auditing classes from time to time. She will hop into noisy class, exercises her cane by smacking on the table to wake up or frighten the student, punishing the chatter box by separating their sitting position, confiscating handphone if found any, lastly wind up with 10 mins long winded preaching causing the student to yawn.

Hmmm..... student at the age of 13 ~ 17 yrs is old enough, wondering the appearing of cane will do any help to deter wrong doing? I believe lots of parent welcomes this act, to ensure that their kids are under close supervision. How the student feel being treated like small kid ? I ended up in deep deep puzzle & pondering. Readers, appreciate if you could share your view for enlightenment.

We were put on Chopping Board

Don't know what went wrong to the world? The good old days had gone, leaving us now is the economy crisis.

Here in Penang, we change our usual greeting of 'lu chiak par bey?' (Taken your meal?) to 'Lu eh kong si ho bor ?' or literally translated 'How is your company?' 'Got order ?' ( refers to production volume or sales revenue) 'got shut down?' 'Got lay off?'.

The dark evil dirty blanket had covered up the sky, everyone was living in fear, fearing that they might be affected by pay cut, lay off, factory close down & others measurement to counter the economy turmoil.

My company sales order came sharply down like bungee-jump, the management sharpens its cleaver, place us on the chopping board, chopping us like mince meat.

1st chopped was the employees benefits, e.g. chop annual dinner, chop birthday gift, chop company trip, chop festive gift, chop gathering fund, chop service award, chop car loan & chop attendance bonus.

2nd Chop was the salary, we were forced to take 4 days leave in a month to weather the huge burden of workforce. Meaning that we will eventually have pay cut upon use up of our annual leave.

3rd Chop was the abundance headcount. Out of sudden, we found disappearing operators, technicians, engineers and managers. It was quietly done.

My nightmare will be seeing my boss holding a bloody cleaver in his hand, grapping hair of a chopped head in another hand, telling me, ‘Choo, you will be next !’ I will surely drama myself by kneeing down begging, ‘boss, I need to care for my 100 yrs old granny, 75 yrs old father, 3 of my own children, 5 of my friend's dogs, 15 gold fishes, 5 chicken, 20 lizards, they all need me, just like I need my job.’

This nightmare scene is scary enough, I need to create more work value to avoid being place on the chopping board.

Little Woman works on Time Saving

I always rush against time, time management become crucial to me, I would save my time by doing 2 things simultaneously, I will have my important breakfast on the journey to work, reading in the traffic crawl, reading in the bank, reading in the restaurant, and hard to kick off the bad habit of reading in the toilet. A book will always intact whenever I am out, wasting not even a single second.

I found shopping to be time consuming, to save time and for conveniences, buying 2 difference colors for the same design save at least half an hour on sourcing for 2nd design, I go for personal items like shoes, skirts, blouses & bags.

As years go by, and I grow to be greedy, the buying 2 has increased to 3 or sometimes 4, it works well for presents & gifts. Extra present will be stored for the 'just in case' occasion. I felt satisfied for my brilliant ideas, and I truly believed that I am more than qualified to conduct time management course for the public.

Just two weeks ago, I discovered that I had bought 7 difference colors vests and 6 hair bands with the same design, not for giving away, but all for myself. My colleague Boon told me that I have turned into a collector. Her comment has triggered and alarmed me on my unusual spendthrift behavior.

The evolution of time saving to spendthrift to shopaholic, better get it straighten before you see me begging in the street.

We Hypnotize Chicken ??

Read some related articles on Chicken can be hypnotized (http://www.mindpowernews.com/HypnotizeChicken.htm), we try it at home and it works, look at the pictures & short clip that I have taken.





Some article explaining this wasn’t from the human brain power, it is merely that chicken are in fear of human being, for survivor, it is best to stay still in order not to get hurt.

Teacher's Predicament

My little L entered standard 1 this year, the new comer orientation was good and effective, 3 teachers were in the class to help up (compare to 1 teacher previously), all parents' worries and problem were addressed accordingly.

Among the teachers, thumb up for the junior teachers, possess the attitude of enthusiasm, joyous, humorous and gained instant liking by the student. Some senior teachers turn out otherwise, looked fierce and cold, unapproachable and unfriendly.

Little L gets the 'clam shell' (difficult to get her open mouth) teacher as his class teacher, she hardly talk, and most of the time rooted on the seat doing some paper work, long enough for the spider to weave cobweb around her, due to her ignorance, the student tend to look for fun to kill the bore. They started chatting, playing with stationary, hitting and beating each other, complaints went unnoticed from student that shouted like 'teacher, he beat me', 'teacher he take my pencil', 'teacher, he take off his shoes'.

On the 2nd day, the class remained noisy, 'clam shell' teacher started execute her power, she started to confiscate things that will make noise or arouse the noise from student, soon, her table was piled up with tumblers, erasers, pencils, rulers plus an active and talkative student sitting next to her table. With her sudden stern action the class immediately as quiet as a church.

Those parents watching or peeping through the window along the corridor, were seen discussing on the move, 'See, good for the student to get fierce teacher, they behaved.' 'Yah, much better if spare the rod' responded another mother. Not far from there, stay a group of parents objecting the move, 'Why frighten the young kids? ‘Why can't the teacher be a bit more patient, give warning first before the drastic move’. 'Should raise this issue up or complaint to the school.'

I am caught in the middle musing, at times it is pointless to complaint, as teacher will revenge and give hard time to the student for the whole year. This maybe worst and it hurts little soul and carry the unpleasant experience throughout their life. Equally bad, if we just keep silent and let the teacher behave like jail officer giving out stern order. I should say no one is perfect, we ought to teach our children how to behave and how to avoid punishment.

Hawaiian Aloha Company Annual Dinner

We had a wonderful night with music, food & lucky draw. The atmosphere was great, decorative items like coconut, coconuts trees, fruits, flowers and beach sands were present to make it more Hawaii. Some of us looked fabulous with orchid garlands, fresh flowers head gear, floral outfit, sun glasses & thongs. Lacking was coconut shell bra top with straw skirt and topless tan muscular hairy chest guy.

3-pc band with MC played the major role to keep our ear busy, loud music resulting us to talk less . Our own employees performed a few songs with the strong cheer from the floor. Among the events were Service award and best dress.

What we were actually looking forward were to win the lucky grand draw of cash $$, which can help us to tie through the 2009 recession. It's pure bliss for money craver.

The most excited moment landed, the MC announced RM500, RM800 & RM1000 cash winners, with exasperating and sharp pain we felt in our chest, none of our buddies get the grand prizes.

Envy and jealously watching the winner getting their prize, some of the winners made their way to the stage, if this were a race, even Mr Snail would beat them. Where is the ecstatic happiness & excitement ? If this is for us, we will immediately spring out from our seat, hop like a kangaroo, grin like Mr Bean, and post like Hollywood film star accepting the winning.

Double sigh from us for the disappointment, and next dinner will be a question mark and got to depend on the company 2009 performance.

QQ Chip-Chip

With the influence of Astro Animal Planet series, my kids requested to keep pet dog, alternatively anything to do with furry 4 legged animals such as cat, rabbit, hamster & mouse. I ruled out all the possibilities as I am allergy to fur & dust.

Recently read an article on benefit of children keeping pets will increase their ability to nurture and care for others, have an easier time interacting with their peers, increased emotional reciprocity and sense of responsibility.

With this scientific evidence, I tend to give in and agreed for them to keep a pair of miniature Bantam chicken (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantam_%28chicken%29).
On the next day, we were woke up abruptly by the terrible crowing noise from the rooster at 5:30 am, snoozed and repeatedly for the interval of 30 minutes and the last crow was 7 am.
We were so ashamed of the loud noise made in the mid of the quiet Taman, next, we wrap the cage with towel, hoping to let the rooster see no sun, but the rooster never failed its duty and continue to crow.

On the 3rd day, the hen laid an egg, and it continued to have one every alternate day. After collecting of her last egg, she sit on it, the chicks hatched after 20 days, but only 3 chicks made it, the rest were rest in the heaven.

My kids learned and benefited a lot during the 1.5 months period, caring, love & responsibility made them mature.

Cute, lovely and adorable !!

‘Sahara’ Office

Our central air con was not functioning due to certain reason, in exchange was electric fan that we brought from home. The office was enclosed without window and there was no way letting outside air flow in, it was like sauna and we ought to tie through the heat, humidity & stuffiness.

With lightning speed, those ‘candles’ colleagues that melt easily grabbed their shoes and moved down to another office enjoying wearing warmer with hot coffee cup to warm their palms. Left only few of us that wish to impress boss for better bonus, singing and hamming song by Ricky Nelson “I will follow you, follow you whenever you may go, there isn't an ocean too deep, A mountain so high it can keep me away….”

When the temperature raises high at 32.4C, I felt lethargic and mellow, my eyes were getting heavy and heavier, I need to staple my eyelids to stay awake, a long ruler was used to support my chin, to prevent my head from nodding uncontrollably. Crystal salt can be seen on my skin where I collected it home for cooking.

Dressing a little less, thin or light was one of the best method to wand off the heat, the naughty hungry wolves (male colleagues) were licking saliva awaiting and welcoming to see revealing & see thru attire. (Forgotten the risk of heart attack, high blood pressure)

I saluted those working under sun light, respected them for their endurance to weather changes.

For us ? Longing to end the Sahara days in the shortest period ??

Teacher Veejay & His Student

My 6 years old little L was promoted to become teacher Veejay by my Indon helper (my son liked the name Veejay), she was very grateful that my son taught her English & Mandarin, she used a brown exercise book to pen down words and learn how to pronounce it.

Teacher Veejay arranged tuition for her on weekdays and rest on weekend. Sometimes, teacher Veejay got angry as she was absent minded and failed her spelling, she would get 10 times ear squad or 10 times correction as punishment.

On one beautiful fine day, my helper over joy and told me that there was this Malay guy proposed marriage to her. Thunder, lightning & rain showered onto my head, my face was sure longer than Prince Charles, she had breached her promised by befriended to stranger. Being high in EQ I kept the fear inside me, just cautious her to beware of naughty man who seeks for free sex.

A few days later, my helper again confessed to me that she was in love with a Ban-ga-lai (Bangladeshi) , he was very handsome, he would ride his black steel horse (bicycle) round our house during weekend. She was thankful to teacher Veejay as he had bridged both of them together by translating the English letter.

To me I consider lucky that she was frank to let me know the happening, and I had taken drastic action to stop further development. As for Teacher Veejay, he will be putting up in day care from next month onwards, as for mending the house, another mature maid was engaged.

Coffee, Panadol & Cigarette

My 20 years old young helper was with us for 10 months now, we went through chicken & duck talk, miscommunication, surprises & culture shock before we can come to the present stage of understanding.

After she had completed her routine, she would come round to tell me tales of her village, her brought up. She would pour out her true feeling towards her family, her divorced husband, relatives and her friends. I must be motherly enough for her to behave like a daughter than a helper. I am also trying to empty out her sad soul so that she can work whole heartedly & happily for two years.

At her young age, she had developed some habits that annoyed me, first was her addictions to coffee, 1 mug every 2 hourly or 8 mug in a day. Anything less will cause her to have severe headache, and panadol will be replacement of coffee. Lately, she had cut down coffee intake to 2 mugs, but the panadol increase to 8 tablets daily. Oh yes, too much coffee will cause constipation, and she need banana, papaya or medication to help in easing or ‘pang sai’.

Secondly, she was a chain smoker, there was once, she hopped in front of me, putting two palms together begging for 1 stick of cigarette, ‘Madam, please please, I just need one stick, maybe it will cure my headache, please lah, madam.’ She knee down and begged. “NO” was the stern response, she was a bit upset and said, “This is god will, Jesus disallows me to smoke, Jesus uses madam to guide me.”

Sigh… will I be able to tame her wild soul that she had suppressed for months? I doubt and started to bit my nails ….