Yup... just got a new maid. Another Malaysian from the same agency 'coz we've already paid RM2k for the previous one that lasted only for a couple of months.... so they owed us a replacement.
Got her yesterday. So far, as always, looks rosy.. dunnola.. couldn't be bothered if this one lasts or not. But she had worked with her previous employer for 4 years before the couple had to pursue studies overseas. That's a good sign.. working for 4 years... She's married, husband died in an accident 3 years ago, 2 children 16 and 11, staying with her mom in Parit, Perak.
Lots of things happened yesterday...
Ja went for her thyroid checkup.. got to do a blood test to see of her hormones are alright. Results will be back in a week to show whether she needs supplements or not for hormone balancing.. sort of..
Ja brought Rayhana to the hospital too coz that girl has yet to receive the 12 month jab. She got the "3 serangkai" jab. Dr Musa postponed the chicken pox jab and her last dose of Pneumococcal jab till she is 15 mths old, which is in a couple of weeks.
Both of them went to the hospital in my dad's car. Nazri (my dad's staff) drove them there. I was suppose to pick them up later together with Rayyan for lunch and the Sri KDU trip.
On the way to pick them up, my car almost broke down. Felt like there were 100 guys inside the car.. berat/slow nak mampus.. tekan minyak pun bergegar-gegar je.. tak pick up speed.. alhamdulillah sempat sampai kat Proton service centre kat Petronas D'sara Jaya along the LDP tu.
It so happened that I went there to get the car serviced for our KB trip haritu. I told them that there was this problem, but not as bad the last time. They said banyak sangat carbon clogged.. dunno where.. I know nuts about cars.. I just drive them. So they unclogged the carbon, and it turned out okay.. drove all the way to KB and back without problems.
Semalam pulak buat hal.. similar problems, lagi teruk!
It turned out that they had to change the spark plugs and the spark plug cable! Somehow the spark does not connect thru the cable for the car to move... (yer ker?) haha
Got that changed and just got back the car today....
So, bila dah letak keta tu kat situ, I had to get Nazri pick me & Rayyan up from the Petronas and get Ja & Rayhana at the hospital, drove back home and switch into Ja's Kelisa and off we went to get Burger King drive-thru at Mutiara D'sara and makan dalam keta on the way to Sri KDU.
Sri KDU visit details in the next entry... :)
Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
New Year, New Maid, etc...
Monday, December 28, 2009
Just got back from Kota Bharu
Thursday
Went to Kota Bharu last Thursday, Dec 24th. Wanted to start the journey at 9am, we ended up leaving the house at close to 11.15am.
Stopped by at Genting Sempah's McD for a drive-thru brunch and continued our way, with a brief diaper change stop at Gua Musang R&R before finally reaching Mek & Cek's house just before 7pm.
Friday
The next day, Ja's brother's wedding. Nothing fancy. Just ajak orang makan and that's it. No pelamin whatsoever.
The morning, as early as 7.30am, I was already at the front of the house, potong daging.. lots of daging... there were 7 or 8 of us there potong daging (fresh baru sembelih kat tempat lain right after subuh) until everything is done about 2 hours later.
Pastu, tolong2 jaga api masak gulai kawah, etc. Pas gi sembahyang Jumaat, balik tolong2 sikit, and then by 5pm dah terbongkang kat tengah2 hall... tido sampai Maghrib.
Saturday
Wanted to have an early morning trip to the beach at Pantai Cahaya Bulan. Tak jadi, coz the morning was wet, after a heavy rain just hours before. PLUS, I WAS POISONNED!! Food poisoning. Went to the toilet 11 times to splurge 98% water and 2% of crap.. haha.. drank teh pekat.. Ja went nuts and put 2 sachet into 1 glass.. GILA pekat!
Didn't dare to eat anything for breakfast, so we eventually went out to the Pasar at KB first, and got the safest thing to eat for lunch - McDonald's! Yeah, yeah, you're not supposed to eat burgers, fries, and that BERRY OREO FLURRIES... but what the heck... needed them, and I didn't go to the toilet again until later that night splurging 100% of only crap.
After pasar, we drove to PCB, sebab Rayyan dah siap pack barang2 sand castle dia since our home.. so kesianla tak bawak dia pulak gi beach kat Kelantan ni..
PCB memang tak boleh mandi. Beach sucks. And the waves were wild too. So the next best thing, we gatecrashed Perdana Resort at PCB, parked at their parking lot, and walked to their beach. Their beach sucked too... tak boleh main sand castle safely... so we lepak kat area beach volleyball dia.. adala pasir sikit2.. so we got a pail of water from the laut, poured on to the sand, and Rayyan had his time... si Rayhana pun sebok nak main pasir.. occasionally putting seashells into her mouth.. habisla mulut budak tu dengan pasir2....
Sunday
Planned to balik around 8.30-9.00am. Managed to start driving at 9.30am. Long story short, we reached home at close to 9pm. Ramai giler orang balik KL haritu. And we also had to make a stop at Putrajaya.
Monday
PENAT SIOT!!
Friday, December 18, 2009
The Sri KDU Call...
Okay.. here goes..
The DAMAGE list:
1. RM500 - one-time registration fees/booking fees to be included in the Sri KDU system.
2. RM100 - one-time assessments for Std 1 prospects: English, BM, Math. Passing mark - 70.
The assessment is compulsory as they only take in kids who have had kindergarten experience or those yang tak masuk kindy, they should at least pass to see that they are ready to accept Sri KDU learning process.
Kalau tak pass, you can opt for a re-assessment FOC. Or, you can just consider other schools (RM500 will be refunded only if the kid fails).
3. RM3500+ one-time deposit. This will be returned once the kid has completed Form 5, OR if you decide to stop sending him to Sri KDU, a written notice 6 mths in advance is needed to get back this money.
4. RM14,300+ for a full-year in Standard 1. This includes the compulsory curriculum and compulsory extra-curriculum activities, LUNCH, facilities, etc. Class hours are from 8.00am to 3.20pm on M-Th, Fri 8am -12.30pm. Payments should be made every term/semester (RM7000+ sekali bayar).
5. RM85 per set of uniform.
6. RM300+ on textbooks/ learning materials for the whole year.
Each kid will be assigned to a homeroom teacher (if you guys have experienced MRSM, this should be familiar). Homeroom teachers are not the main class teacher. They are like the father/mother of the child at school, taking care of the academic performance and personal/social issues of that child. Each homeroom teacher only handles a few students.
Here's a paste from the website:
As as part of our effort to provide your child with the best educational experience, Sekolah Sri KDU® constantly implements new initiatives. Your child will experience our programme which is driven by our tagline 'Malaysia Hearts, Global Minds' The four Key Components are:
Structured Performing Arts
The SPA programme is part of the school curriculum for students from Primary 1 to Secondary 3. It covers 4 key areas:-
1) Speech & Drama
2) Dance
3) Choral Singing
4) Musical Instruments
Classes are conducted by instructors from established performing arts schools and studios. The curriculum is non-graded, with flexibility to cater to students of different abilities. The focus of the SPA programme is on exposure and appreciation rather than specialization.
Character Building
The school’s Character Building programme aims to
• develop a positive culture in school and beyond
• create Awareness of and Participation in Charity Projects
• create Awareness of and Participation in Community Projects
• develop Mental and Physical Endurance through Expeditions and Outdoor Pursuits
• activate a Relief Disaster Programme
• develop Talents and Values through participation in Paramount Championships
Interactive Learning
The school will pursue its mission to develop independent learners to prepare them for success beyond secondary school by deliberately moving away from teacher-centred teaching to student-centred learning
International Perspectives within Curriculum
To teach students to look at issues from a global viewpoint, teachers will inject international perspectives into the national curriculum where applicable, through
• Comparative approach to global themes in the classroom
• Awareness of Global events
Pastoral Care
The school works on the belief that students grow and respond better when they know and see that they are cared for.
All I can say is that their marketing people did one helluva great job in coming up with what you just read up there! :)
MANDARIN is a COMPULSORY subject at Sri KDU for all students. Agama is also included. While the Muslims learn Agama, the nons learn Moral studies. SWIMMING is part of their Physical Education class. Bertukangla, memasakla, menjahitla, techie stuffla, and lots of other things that provide an array of interest areas to be exposed to your kids so that they will know which areas interest them most so they would focus on that for their career perhaps?
Sri KDU follows MOE's standard curriculum, but they teach beyond that, using textbooks from Singapore, UK, etc.
So... what do I think of all these??? Is the RM15k worth it? Well, if I have the money, then it's sooo worth it. If I don't? hmm... tu yang kena pikir gila2 ni... how would I pay for it?
RM15k is like the cost of having a new baby in the family. Looking at that, then maybe it is okay since that's about the amount we spent for Rayhana anyways.
BUT, RM15k every year, is like having a new baby every single year!! Now that is something else!! hahahaha... that would mean, being able to fork out RM1,250 per month every month for the next 11 years per child! (I bet it's going to be more with the inflation and what not)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......
Considering the car payment is going be over at about the same time Rayyan gonna start school, so that's a bonus.. that's roughly RM500 per mth. I will no longer be paying for Rayyan's Genius Aulad, so that's RM250/mth... Getting rid of the local maid... that's another RM800 per mth...
AHAH!!!! There you go... RM1550 per mth at our disposal!! hehe
But would I spend so much on Rayyan's education when there are MUCH MUCH cheaper alternatives around?
Clearly what they are teaching at Sri KDU is something that you can't get at govt schools.
So? Should I go for it?? Only time will tell..
So far 60 Std 1 places are already taken up for the 2011 session (that's about 3 classes already filled up). They only will open 7 classes for Std 1.
Will decide later. Now I'm planning to schedule a visit there to see the place and get to know more about their system.
http://www.srikdu.edu.my
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The Public School Dilemma
Hmm... being in the education line I know how good a school is, not just the school, the students' demographics, the teachers' attitude towards the learning process, and even the headmasters/headmistress' true perangai... especially having witnessed them many times during their training/meeting sessions..
The problem with Malaysian education is not the policy, it's not the blueprint of the idea, but it's in the attitude of those at the schools. If you've got good people with the right attitude, you've got great schools. If you've got good people with not so right attitude or not so good people with the right attitude, you've got just an average school, if you've got bad people and bad attitude... haaaa.. kesian la bebudak kat sekolah tu..
To burden the government in providing the best education for our kids is fair for us as they control the education system and we need to seek for the best for our kids coz in return, these kids will help propel the country to greater heights.
To blame the government for non-performing teachers, schools and kids... that is not fair at all, especially when the root cause of the problem is not what the government has planned and implemented. The problem is in the "IMPLEMENTEES".
To monitor the implementees from deviating from what should be implemented, susah giler.. there are more than 10,000 schools in the country and hundreds of thousands of teachers altogether. Whenever they come for checks, the teachers will always terkial-kial planning for a good show for the MOE people. Kenapa pulak tak terkial-kial for the everyday teaching?
Of course, not all implementees are bad. Many are really good. The ultra good ones are even recognized by the MOE people. MOE knows who are the good teachers. And they would ask these teachers to give training to other teachers...
Implementees will work hard to implement the best for the school when they are challenged. One of the best challenges for them is to position their schools to be the top school in the state or in the country. This works well if the schools are already in the top 10% in the state or national ranking. What if the schools are in the 50th percentile of the performance curve? Would the implementees have the same motivation to work as hard?
Those good people with the right attitude would. Others would be more concerned of their allowance etc for working extra hours. They will not be working as hard as there are no MOE people to be hissing at the back of their head everyday.
That is why people are shying away from the public school (Sekolah Kebangsaan) and go for alternatives like the national type schools (SJKC, SJKT) just out of disgust with those implementees. SJKC and SJKT has better monitoring system. But I wouldn't say the same for what the system produces.
From my observation, the SJKC, especially, are so kiasu! haha.. berlagak nak mampus, just because they pride themselves of having a "better" education system, when all I can say is that they are just "better" beacuse of a better implementation monitoring system, and of course, more money at their disposal to provide better learning environment.
Unfortunately, the SJKC lacks the "human touch" in the learning process. It is just a generalization, not to say that all are like that, but generally, students who are from the SJKC would tend to be more "robotic" in the way they do their work.
Robotic is good, as they listen to instructions well, but if all of us are products of the SJKC, we would only be followers.. damn good followers, and no innovative and forward thinking leaders to lead our future generations.
Just to illustrate an example, from one of my many discussions/ debates with the MOE officers of different pangkats and darjats, it is a fact that SJKC students perform better at answering direct straight forward questions.. like what is 2536475 x 1538593 or something like that... hehe.. (malas nak think of examples.. but you get the point). But it is also a fact that they perform worse than the SK students in questions involving reasoning. So in short, they can do a damn excellent job but they would not know what good that is to them for them to manipulate the knowledge that they learn to good use. If they can do an excellent job from what they were taught to do, they will definitely be excellent followers.
Where will the leaders come from then? SK lah!
I have worked with people who came from SK and those who came SJK, and if I'm an employer, I would definitely get both. The SJKC flers will be those who would do the work for me together with a few SK flers, and then I would appoint the SK flers later to be bosses in their departments to help me monitor the SJKC flers do their job.
Mind you, I'm not talking about Malays vs Chinese here. I'm talking about Chinese from SK schools vs Chinese from SJKC schools for a fair comparison.
That's why if I were to put my son in a public school, I would go for SK's that are at least at the top 10% bracket.
If I couldn't get any one of those schools, I would go for an average school, BUT I would enroll my kids to other classes (not tuitions, as I don't believe in sending kids for tuitions.. I never went to any so my kids don't need that either). Classes as in music class, drama class, art class, Mandarin class, taekwondo class, swimming class, business/engineering/science - related classes for kids, etc.
Hmm... that would put soooo much pressure on the kid.. poor thing, unless of course the govt has all these elements included in the SK system!
Which is why I am seriously considering sending Rayyan to a private school like Sri KDU.
I'll blog about the call I made to Sri KDU soon.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Papa I Love You...
As mentioned earlier the last few weeks I was busy bersengkang mata almost every night.. sometimes tido kul 3 pagi, sometimes 5 pagi, sometimes, 7 pagi.. and sometimes tak tido sampai 10 pm the next night...
On one of those nights, while I was busy at our workstation area kat rumah (which we just installed guna duit jual kuih raya aritu hehe), Rayyan came up to me with this:
I love you too, Rayyan! :)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Working Hard
Loads of stuff happening in the past few weeks. Tak sempat nak update anything here. Busy with lots of added responsibility since being included in the KL Book Fair organizing committee.. the money is not so big but satisfaction is definitely guaranteed :) I just love books and the business world around them..
At the same time with loads of work, I'm also working hard on several "passive income" projects with a hope that within 1 year, I would earn enough so Ja won't have to work at MISC so she can help me out with my work from home, while taking care of the kids...
Taknak la bagi tau sebab belum jadi lagi but as a teaser, what I did in 3 days duduk depan computer generated me about RM500. Unfortunately, I have not been able to sustain that thing that I did.. coz kalau boleh sustain, that's easy RM5000 a mth.. and potential to go more... of course you've got to go through the learning curve to do this.. I've been researching on this business for so long.. years, invested on quite an amount of time, money, sleepless nights... and it still requires constant research and modifications to the business model.. hehe the longer I talk about this, lagi merapu jadi.. haha
I have also just invested quite a sum for another business project... actually 2 projects.. Nak dekat 2 bulan gaji lah jugak dia punya amount.. but insyaAllah, will reap benefits... dah ada nampak jalan, kabus pun semakin reda, but jalan still setapak demi setapak... belum berlari lagi takut tersungkur dalam kabus... pastu takde sapa nak tolong angkat, terus blur sampai bila2...
But all I can say is that 2010 looks promosing, insyaAllah... at least I know I have taken the right path, work wise, and I know this brain of mine suits this kinda thing.. which makes it more fun working at it...
The only thing yang I don't like is that I am deprived of exercise... just sitting on the chair in front of the computer does no one any good... maybe I'll start going to the gym downstairs again.. hehe oh and will start playing wii tennis and boxing again... :)
And the maid problem definitely did not come at the right time. With loads of stuff happening and going on inside my head, I could just drop the bomb and freak out to those around me, but takpelah.. simpan jela dalam hati... kalau terlepas cakap kang ramai sakit hati, terasa and all.. biarla orang terasa hati kat kita from something that we didn't say, rather than terasa hati from something we say... so as my mantra goes... BUAT BODO jer!
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Maid Gone...
Another one... gone!
So I'm basically home-based 100% now till we get a replacement. That too, I dunnola... have been semi-home-based since this maid started work.. just to monitor how she worked..
..and just tell me how good a maid is if me, while working at home, can stop Rayhana from putting things into her mouth at least 3-5 times a day at the same time she was taking care of my daughter sorang ni...
Kalau macam tu cerita dia... what about the times when I had to go out to the office or meetings.. ntah apa benda ntah dah masuk dalam badan si kecik tu...
