Category Archives: malaysia

DPM: Don’t burden teachers with irrelevant jobs

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DPM’s speech regarding teachers’ bunrnout: read here

    As a Mignonne in this education world, I am delighted to see this article published in DPM’s facebook note.

For your information, we have pretty rough time juggling school errands and playing other roles as well.

    As a human, we deserve a conducive working environment. We deserve to be treated equally. We need some time to de-stress and recharge my energy so that I can work as optimum as I can the next day. I have to be honest here. My weakness of unable to handle my stress have resulted poor immune system. Hey. I want to work. Not to be sick. For a record, most of my Saturdays have been taken up and once or twice a month, I applied for MC. Such a shame. I’m supposed to contribute something to the country, innit? But due to my workload, I’m stressed.

    My creativity has been castrated due to the workload. I rarely write poetry nowadays. I didn’t go to musical or theater for 2 years. I didn’t read much book as I was used to. The only time I can read book when I was on my way back to Perak. The bus journey takes 8 hours and I benefited my time by reading. I travel back to my hometown in Perak during school holidays only. Once in a blue moon. (My mom is living alone and she is 51 years old, imagine the heartache I have when we are far). Recently, the Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri announced “NILAM” for teachers. What is it about? Courses and seminars aim to equip teachers with decent and updated knowledge about teaching profession. However, as we all know, too much funding goes to the Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi, millions go to overseas students, and not to mention the national mega projects. Hence, no more fund can be allocated for teacher’s professional development. Come to think of it, when do we have time to read?

    Here’s my routine:

    • 5.00/5.30 Wakes up
    • 6.00 Bath, subuh, make coffee for husband, iron tudung(have to do all these in a rush)
    • 6.30 Goes to school
    • 7.00 reach school, starts EW20 program or Citra Bahasa or Radio Sekolah
    • 7.20 Assembly
    • 7.30 Class started
    • 9.00/9.30 Breakfast or else there will be no other time to eat. Need energy to teach the hyperactive class.
    • 1.00 Class ended, lunch, solat zohor.
    • 1.30 Monday-Prep for Buddy Support System, Tue-Meeting, Wed-Co-curricular, Thu- Meeting/Latihan
    • 5.30 Go back home. Usually other people can go back early beacuse they have their own transport but my hubby insist me being a car-less person, I stay at school longer than anyone else. Extra stress mark for me. Ting! Even the afternoon teachers dah tak larat nak tegur “Tak balik lagi?”
    • 6.00 /6.30 Reach home or hubby’s office, shower, asar.
    • 7.00 Prep for dinner, maghrib.
    • 8.00 Start working for paper work, need to send it A.S.A.P the next day/ book marking/ exam paper marking. *30 minutes de-stress by surfing internet.
    • 12.00/1.00 Iron baju, prep for tomorrow, laundry (leave my laundry in the auto machine, hang it out tomorrow)

    I don’t have time to go for retail therapy. I missed quite a number of good movies. I don’t go out meeting people. Becoming more depressed as hubby come home late (3/4am, sometimes 5am). I have no one to talk to. Hubby warned me because of my expensive phone bill. Sad thing I move from Perak to Johor 🙁

      Lately, there are many articles written about teacher’s workload. Fact#1 , most of insane asylum inhabitants are used to be teachers at school. Fact #2, 10 patients undergoing chemotherapy at the hospital were teachers (source: the star) . The real truth, many family members of teachers are receiving less attention and love.

      Questions:

      1. Teachers are the assets of the country. How many more will be sacrificed to asylum and cancer ward?
      2. How many more pupils’ education development will be sacrificed in class, due to teacher’s fatigue and burnout?
      3. If more smart teachers are slaughtered in teaching profession (be it career change, asylum, etc.) , what will become of our education standard?

      More reading regarding similar issue:

      1. Confession of a Cikgu
      2. The real truth about teaching by Tasneem Muhammad
      3. Bila guru luah rasa by Wahid Hashim
      4. Jealous? Come and stay here in pedalaman by Fazlin Farieza
      5. Ever wonder I get paid more than average teacher? by Ah Kam

      How do I have time writing this? I abandon my exam papers. 210 sets. 50% done but I cannot mark when I am emotional. Pity my students who are going to receive “emotional” mark from me.

      PS: Indonesia have come up with an organization to study about teacher’s workload years ago. Maybe we can learn something from them.

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    My husband inspired me to blog about this. When we were on our way home, we saw an orange stall.

    Him: Eh, dah ada Mat Salai eh kat sini.
    Me: A’ah! Yeay! Tak payah la abang nak pergi jauh² lagi nak cari Mat Salai. I like it better than prosperity burger.
    Him: Ha’ah. Yeay! Great food is near. Hmm, why don’t you block about this.
    Me: (Aku yang kurang pendengaran akibat ekzos kereta Omar yang bising itu) Huh? Block ke blog?
    Him: Blog la. Grr.

      We discovered this burger kiosk at Bandar Uda. So, we went out late at night, eating this yummy oblong beefy burger when our stomach was vibrating of hunger. And damn, it was so delicious. I prefer Mat Salai than Prosperity because:
    • It’s halalan thoiyyiban. Halalan, because the beef and chicken source is confirmed.
    • I support local economy. We shouldn’t be dengki with our people’s success but instead, we should be more supportive. Go Malaysia!!
    • The beef patty is beefy. The taste isn’t overcome with flour and other flavour.
    • They put delicious serunding.
    • The black pepper sauce is not over poured, and too spicy.

    The new Mat Salai stall is set up in front of the mosque, at Jalan Perwira 8, Taman Ungku Tun Aminah. Oh, oh. They even have Facebook page. Whaaa~

    So, have you ever eaten this burger?

    Sedap baa…

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    • Semalam kami meronda pasar malam di Sabah. Husband cari seluar, aku pula belikan anak saudara gelang mutiara. Comel sangat. Sesuai untuk baby. RM3 saja. Omar jumpa set jewellery untuk mak dia. Rantai labuh, bracelet, kerongsang kecil dan besar, cincin, semuanya RM45. Siap bagi free gift (kerongsang) lagi. Kedai makcik tu dekat area public toilet. Sebelah la. Bukan dekat sangat. Tak berbau pun. Memang best la makcik tu. Yang lain semua takmau turun dari RM55. Yang ni dia siap bagi pilihan mix and match lagi. Bagus betul. Mudahan murah rezeki dia lepas ni. Continue reading →

    Review #Tunehotels.com

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    We decided to stay at Tune Hotel for a night and here’s my review.This might help you to decide whether to stay or not.

    • Bathroom: Not that spacious but not that crammed. There’s a power shower with central heat. You have to be bit clever when controlling the heat because at first, the water take some time to be heated. After you stay at the same lever for couple of minutes, you’re going to find the water is extremely hot. So,  you have to play with the shower lever in order to get the ideal water temperature.
    • Addon:  Tune hotels works like Air Asia flight. In order to have extra perks, you need to pay a little bit of this and that. So we decided to take 12 hours air-condition, wifi and towel facilities. You have to add more money to your bill in order to have those. They should have come with complete package because we were tired travellers and we walk in, just to check  in like normal but tiba-tiba kena berbincang  which addon to take or to opt out. Haih. Ok. The towel package comes with conditioning shampoo, shower gel and a small bar of soap. The towel has deposit value of RM5. You will get back your RM5 back when you return the towel when you’re checking out from the hotel. Smart kan. Tak payah diaorang nak kutip lagi towel. Boleh terus masuk bilik laundry. Allright, we shouldn’t have bought the air condition addon because we arrived late in the evening and malam memang tidur tak pakai air-cond. Mistake. There’s a fan in the room. A big KDK fan. Air-cond is too much for a very small room. There’s another addon that I didn’t take, which is the TV. We’re on holiday so we don’t spend much time looking at the TV. I feel lucky we didn’t choose TV addon because it’s only a small TV. The size is same as my brother in law’s computer monitor. It’s Aquos but it’s small. You know. And the TV position is not that apt as well. Kalau baring kat katil tu nampak kaki lebih daripada TV. Get it?
    • Space: The bed is queen size. Other than that, the space is just big enough to walk to your bed. Even nak solat pun my husband kena keluar bilik. Cari other place because no one can pray in this tiny room. No space at all. They play with mirrors to make the room looks larger. They don’t even have wardrobe. They just put a small stainless-steel bar cloth hanger. No wardrobe.
    • I think that’s basically it. Nothing much. Very basic. If you want to budget, this is the place but make sure you book your room earlier. Like my case, we had to fork out extra because we did walk-in and to be honest, walk-in is never cheaper than online. If we were to stay at the same place, I’d opt out the air-cond (because I can’t stand the extreme dryness of my skin+selsema) and I’d bring extra stuff.
    • I’m quite surprised because I’m comparing this hotel with Seri Malaysia (SM). SM has almost everything that you need and it makes you feel like home. Got water jug, TV, 2 towels, toilet basics, a coffee table and 2 chairs, spacious room, wardrobe, sejadah, and so forth. And I paid RM100 only. But for TuneHotel, I paid RM100++ but I get less. So, experience is a priceless lesson. Anyways, travel safe, travel wise. Have fun and carpe diem.

    Pizza Pending Complaint

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    Last month I ordered my favourite pizza and asked it to be delivered to my husband’s office.  It was his birthday. I was at his office and obviously it’s not a place to cook and stuff. Thus, pizza is a way to treat my husband during his lucky day. I tried the new dough called Puff Crust.Basically, it’s like eating pastry but on top of it, there are pizza toppings. Continue reading →

    Ujian HIV 2

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    My fiance had gone to almost ALL hospitals and Klinik Kesihatan in JB. He is running around to see his clients, meeting errands, not having time to do all these long-time procedures and he finally had his HIV test on Friday. He started his Amazing Race to-get-HIV-test-for-the-sake-of-marrying-me on Monday (28th September 2009) until Friday October 3rd. Pity him. I feel guilty taking his whole Sunday, doing shopping in Singapore. Huu (T_T)

    Yesterday, when I went to Hospital Sultanah Aminah to get follow up treatment, and he wants to get HIV test (killing two birds with one stone), the staff said “All the test kit for HIV test in JB is out”.

    What? Why? So the staff told him to get it from Hospital Abdul Samad. Hmm. I thought the Minister of Transportation said “We try to cut queues at the highway toll. Each person spends about 20 minutes waiting. If there are 1000 people, there will be 20 thousand minutes wasted”

    The Health Ministry should have done the same as well. Trying to cut queues and serve people better. But yeah, I don’t know what’s the problem. We have talented specialists, yet we are lacking behind in hygiene and furthermore, sex education.

    Gadis Melayu dan kesopanannya

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    Mengikuti Gadis Melayu di TV9 membuatkan saya terfikir “What makes a Gadis Melayu?” Semua finalis rancangan tersebut cantik-cantik belaka. Belum dicemari susuk dan kosmetik harapnya. Namun kecantikan bukanlah kayu ukuran untuk mencari Gadis Melayu yang ideal. Finalis rancangan tersebut diuji dari segi dandanan diri, pengetahuan mereka tentang adat dan resam Melayu, pembawakan diri dan pengetahuan dan cara menjawab soalan (yg sekali-sekala pedas). Tujuan rancangan ini bagus, bagi mengajar anak-anak gadis di luar sana, untuk kembali kepada keayuan dan kesopanan. TV9 menetapkan ciri-ciri berikut agar seseorang boleh dipilih untuk mengikuti rancangan Gadis Melayu:

    1. Memelihara ciri-ciri, sifat-sifat dan adat resam yang dapat menyerlahkan kehalusan serta keistimewaan gadis Melayu
    2. Mempertahankan jati diri dalam arus kemodenan.

    Namun, di sini saya ada persoalan utama, sejauh manakah gadis-gadis Melayu ini menepati ciri-ciri Gadis Melayu yang ideal?

    Continue reading →

    Telekung fashion

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    Ramadhan has come back. Ahlan wa sahlan (welcome). So does telekung. One can see women wearing it usually after dawn. They will wear it to go to mosque for isya’ and tarawih prayer.  I used to have cotton telekung but nowadays, textile technology has produced sunwashed fabric, which is much lighter, easy to clean and pretty opaque (when I used cotton telekung, I have to wear something inside or the telekung must be layered).

    During the pilgrimage (hajj) season hajj pilgrimage , telekung is the garment that sets Asia Pacific women apart from the other women. It’s almost similar to Afghan’s burqa, but different in terms of its cut and design. Telekung comes in white, carries the angelic, purity and obedience image.

    model_telekung

    It can also be a gift from the groom to the bride (hantaran) which symbolically send the message, “be a good servant of Allah and a faithful wife”. It is usually chosen as a gift because it is easily decorated and at times, it can be creatively made into the shape of a flower, or a hand-held fan.
    hantaran_telekung

    For online telekung store, visit telekungonline.blogspot.com

    Feel free to share your picture in telekung, here.

    sizzling stonegrill restaurant

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    If you’re a person who always complaint how your steak is done (too raw/bloody/overcooked/burnt), this is the restaurant where you can’t do so because you are your own chef 😉

    We were eating at sizzling stone grill and I was so happy because it was worth it. Economically and gastronomically. We need to queue for about 10 minutes before we can get our own table. Imagine how packed it was. But yeah, good food is worthwhile to be waited.

    from te tree
    sesak

    the concept is easy. You were given your stone and you cook your meat according to your liking. The idea comes from New Zealand where the stone will be heated to 400 degrees and it uses ‘dry cooking’. So, no oil, less fat and healthy eating.

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    what we ate

    Stonegrill dining enables patrons to enjoy a meal freshly grilled to personal taste, whether it be rare, medium or well done. When a Stonegrill meal is presented at the table, diners simply turn over their Stonegrill selection, then cut and side-lay a portion or two, allowing these to sear and cook to their liking. Their meal remains hot and enjoyable, as the natural volcanic stone retains a “prime” cooking temperature for 30 minutes, allowing diners to eat at leisure, with every bite as hot and delicious as the first.

    The absence of oils or fats and the quick searing of the product at a specific temperature, ensures a delicious and healthier meal, which is lower in calories than traditional cooking methods.

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    nom nom 😛

    So the concept is from New Zealand but the volcanic stone is from Australia. Isn’t it unique? It offers ostrich meal and being super hungry I was, I took menu that offers variety and quantity. So we chose mixed grill (chicken, lamb and sirloin), fried rice (I like it better actually, haha!), mango juice and fruit punch. Total to be paid is RM50.20. Not so bad I reckon. In addition, I like the ambience and it’s interior. They build a platform which looks like tree house platform and underneath is children’s play area. It maximise the space and creates natural effect. So leave the kids while you’re having dinner with your loved ones. Haha.

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     From the top tree platform.