Baju sekolah tinggal 1

We bought 3 pairs of school uniform for Rayyan, and last night Ja was furious sebab dok rotate satu pasang je for the past 2 weeks. Nasib baik he only wears the uniform on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Tuesdays and Fridays the school allows him to wear the PE attire the whole day.

Nak kena gi cari kat sekolah dia at Lost & Found area.. we suspect dia tertinggal baju dia kat sekolah when he change into his Taekwondo attire... pastu I pun tak perasan masa nak jemput dia balik coz I told him to always put the baju sekolah back into the bag.. and he did that everytime, even when I didn't check on him. So now tetiba baju tinggal sepasang... nak kena beli lagi la ni.... pastu nak jahit badge dia, name tag dia.... Papa diala kena jahit! takpe.. suruh mama dia yang beli baju.. hehehe

KSSR

Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) is replacing the age-old, heavily scrutinised KBSR starting this year. Rayyan is in the first batch of students under the KSSR. Lucky? I hope...

Didn't get to go to Rayyan's school on "Report Card" day since I was sick.. and still am... they had this taklimat on KSSR.. they now do not rank students from #1 to #40 in class, nor do they grade the exam papers. They just mark the papers... and since each exam question is labelled with either Band 1, Band 2, up to Band 6 that signifies which level of competency they are testing the kids on, they just look at that.. and see at which Band the kids are fully competent and which one they are not.

More info on the KSSR here....

The underlying purpose is basically now, they are encouraging kids to talk and express themselves more on whatever they are learning in class.

Up to midterm, the Year 1 kids were tested up to Band 3. Alhamdulillah Rayyan achieved Band 3 for all his core subjects.. BM, English, Sains, and Matematik.

Those kids who only achieved Band 2 and below, they will be taken to another class as a group during that class period where another teacher will be there to teach them attentively..

A marked improvement to Malaysia's education system, the way I see it. Hopefully Rayyan excels in this KSSR environment :)

JB wedding trip 17-19 June

Ayla (3+), Reza (1+), Rayhana (2+)
(2nd cousins from 3 different grandparents who are brother and sisters)

Just came back from JB yesterday. A cousin of mine got married. Would love to see how his child gonna look like hehehe check this out... the baby would have Burmese, Malay, Indian, Arabic, Kadazandusun, etc blood... hehe cool..

Went to JB right after Rayyan got back from school last Friday. Ja took the day off. The nikah ceremony was held at a mosque near Pasir Gudang on Saturday morning. Left our hotel, M Suites, JB right after breakfast at 830am.

4 couples got married at the mosque that day.. so had to do sort of a "mass" nikah ceremony.. 1 khutbah, 1 doa, etc, but of course 4 akads :) It was an interesting sight as while the three couples wore white, the other couple wore red... hahaha probably ada cerita di sebalik baju merah tu.. we got bored waiting that we made our own stories.. why one of the couples the bride takde dalam masjid.... why the other couple ni wore red and not many family members were there to witness their ceremony lol!

Out of the 4 tu only our familylah yang nampak macam serious nak witness akad nikah ni..

Right after nikah, we adjourned to the bride's uncle's house for a lite snack while waiting for the bersanding ceremony (lunch) at the bride's house. Food was nice. Live kompang singing has an Indian-Islamic theme... so the beat macam bhangra pulak.. seronok si Rayhana berjoget dengan Ayla, her 2nd cousin.. tetiba je jadi best friends.. hehe dulu dok jumpa tak rapat pulak... hehe

After sanding, balik hotel.. was too tired to do anything else, so we slept... and slept somemore while Rayyan hit the pool with his "nenek kuih" haha - our aunty who makes kuih raya :)

That night ada final reception which was held at our hotel itself. The hotel could only accommodate about 260-280 pax camtu, so all kids kena pangku. Food was not so bad, entertainment was great.. live singing, family dance... they had the Jambatan Tamparuli (Kadazan song) where their whole family went to the front and danced.. pastu ada poco-poco jugak hahaha.. cool..

The next morning, we had a late breakfast, pastu, checked out, terus balik at around 11am camtu... sampai rumah around 3 something after having lunch at Seri Murni "Discovery" restaurant at Taipan USJ... food dia delicious!!! and cheap!!!

Didn't get the chance to ronda2 JB... maybe next time :)

Nak bagi duit kat orang...

Ja was picking up Rayhana from nursery when one of the teachers returned the change Ja paid for the fees the day before. Rayhana took the money and said that "Nana nak bagi orang!"

Nak bagi orang? Bagi sapa?

"Nana nak tengok tv besar, ada Kungfu Panda, and pop corn, pastu bagi duit kat orang.."

I guess now's the time to introduce the word "beli" and "buy" to her.. and oh.. "wayang" and "cinema" ..

:)

Primary school reunion after 25 years!!

May 28th, 2011 was the date where me and few of my primary schoolmates got together at Bora Asmara for a reunion after 25 years! We have had meetings before, but this time our some of our friends and teachers flew from every corner of the world just to meet up after 25 years!

That's Mrs Anne who came earlier than the rest.. my dearest teacher who was responsible for each of 52 students in her class to get 5A's in the Std 5 peniliaian exam. She flew in from Perth, with her own collection of photos.

I was one of the members of the committee who organized the event. It was a great success. It's not so much about the food, venue, etc... meething these people back after 25 years was awesome!

I had a really great 6 years of primary school. Lots of things I learned, joined, and played, but at the same time we excelled in our studies!

Just for the record, I played badminton, ping-pong, handball, netball.. hehe, batu seremban, lompat getah, bottle caps, blowing (and decorating) ice-cream sticks, paper race cars (similar concept to the ice-cream sticks), chopping, etc.

It was also there that I was introduced to Happy Family, Snap, Old Maid, Chinese Chess (which I was really good at), Cluedo, Risk, Scrabble, those "eight jet engines with afterburner" playcards, Figurine Panini sticker books, Kalkitos..

I also joined the tarian group, masuk tilawah competition, pertandingan bercerita (which I won for the whole of Std 6 in my session), was picked by the teacher to be the person who recited the Rukunegara for 2 years (std 5 & 6) instead of the head prefect doing it, etc.

I actively participating in school sports day, representing my Serigala (red) house in 100m, 200m, 4x100m (which we won gold!) and long jump (hehe macam Carl Lewis pulak.. hehe), etc..

Didn't get to become prefect (although I always wanted to), but finally became class monitor in Std 6. I was a librarian as well, the pioneer batch, where I had to act reading a book when the late Tunku Abdul Rahman came to officiate the library.

And I still remember clearly how I got 494/500 for the total score of all 5 subjects in Std 2 and still got number 8 in class, hence 3 strokes of rotan from my dad (for getting 3 numbers above the agreed benchmark).

We had fun in SRK Kampung Tunku :)

My current obsession...

Playing this Trade Nations game on the iPad. Also available on iPhone and Facebook :)

What do you do? Build your village, give jobs to your people, make money, build shops, trade your products at the market, trade with other players all over the world, collect points that can be exchanged for really cool stuff for your village and also go up to the next level... cool!

One of the cool things is that each of your people have their own name! I've got Colin Thomas who works at the "Quarry" getting the rocks to be cut by Eric Scott at the "Stone Cutter", and Avery Martin that brings the cut stones to the storage before it gets picked up by "Sculptor Shop" to make beautiful sculptures to be exchanged for points and gold coins. :)

I've also got Elizabeth Green who weaves wool into clothes at one of my "Looms" and Owen Hall who hauls the clothes to the stockpile. I chose to just buy the wool from the market now, instead of having your own pens of sheep where you get the wool from :)

I'm at level 39 at 427, 950 points now, out of 592,000 points to get to level 40. That should take another day or so :)

Langkawi Trip May 15th - May 17th, 2011

Just got back from Langkawi yesterday... photos with story-like captions on FB :)

Now semuorang sakit kaki.. lots of panjat tangga and turun tangga, from Tasik Dayang Bunting, to up on the Cable Car platforms... but it was fun!

We LOVE Langkawi!

Blasted from the Past!!

Someone posted this photo in my primary school batch FB group just recently. 1984, when I was in std 4 at SRK Kampung Tunku I was involved in "tarian".. the school tradsitional dance team. We made it quite big, really, was selected by the panel of judges who came to our school to perform at Dewan Sivik PJ (now known as the Dewan MBPJ - tempat AF concert dulu). So sebelum budak2 AF tu perform kat situ, I have already stamped my mark on that stage ages ago.. lol!

The tarian group selection process started when I was in Std 3. I still remember gawking at the Std 5 and Std 6 girls dancing to "Hey Mickey" during their practice breaks :) And how I was assisted by Chinese seniors who taught me how to work on my Malay tarian steps. It was soo 1Malaysia then :)

I still have the certificate of participation at the Pesta Muzik Selangor in 1984 where that photo was taken. I would have never thought of seeing this photo ever in my life since I don't have any, and have not known anyone who had taken the photos then... my parents were not there to see me dance, so when this photo came up, it was really a pleasant surprise.. hehe

I'm the smallest in the photo. I also remember that I was kidnapped by either the Sri Aman or the Assunta school's dance team to take a photo with them... so if anyone who knows anyone from these school who had photos of the Pesta Muzik Selangor 1984 with a tiny cute kid, let me know lol!

There was quite a drama put up by my dad when we were in the final stages of preparation for the Pesta Muzik Selangor. As soon that he got to know I was involved in it, he went straight to the headmistress asking her to drop me from the team. Hjh Jessimah, the HM actually consulted the dance teacher and had actually came back to my dad saying it was almost impossible to drop me from the team. Aku ni terror kot... hahaha probably because it was too late to find a replacement for my spot (actually I remember they had 2 standbys to replace anyone of us).

The tarian activity was put to a halt when we were in Std 5, and somehow revived again when we were in Std 6, but I had by then lost interest in it. It's a pity 'coz that was the year when the dance team made it to the "Selamat Hari Raya" morning program where tons of people watch as they come back from the sembahyang raya and enjoying their ketupat and rendang breakfast. The new dance teacher went all the way to convince me to join them, but ntah.. dah tak minat... and obviously with no support from my parents to send and pick me up from after school practices, the interest died.

The dance we did was Wau Bulan. Great response from the audience as soon as we finished our routine. Great memories.

Birth of a new family member

April 29th, 2011, at about 9pm, the four of us welcomed the birth of a new family member.

At the same time we had to say goodbye to an old family member as well... the white replaced the black, so hopefully all is well with the new member of the family...

Sharing is Caring :)

Tgh sebok2 pasal bookfair ni saje nak bercerita... hehe pasal how we share our finances laki bini... nak kata pelik, memang, bin ajaib! hahaha..

Rumah:
Nama atas laki bini, so senang masing2 nak keluarkan duit EPF :), but yang membayar bank bulan2 tu, sayalah sebagai pemberi nafkah tempat tinggal chewah.... tapi, bab maintenance nak bagi kat management condo ni, terpaksalah diserahkan kepada isteri saya yang membayarnya... SEBAB? Company dia sponsor half of the interest loan rumah tu tiap2 bulan.... so tiap2 bulan duit free je dia dapat... so kena la share the burden bila dah dapat duit free tu kan... hehe

Kereta:
Kereta saya Kelisa je... itu saya bayar, termasuklah roadtax and insuran. Tapi saya tak pakai kereta tu. Isteri yang pakai. And disebabkan dia yang pakai, segala kos maintenance, nak tukar tayar, keta rosak ke apa ke, semuanya si tukang pakailah kena bayar...

Saya pakai kereta Wira. Isteri saya bayar kereta tu. Tapi rosak ke apa ke semua seperti biasa si tukang pakailah kena bayar...

Insuran:
Sayalah tanggung untuk diri saya dan anak2. Isteri saya punya insuran dia bayar sendiri. Dia pun memang dah ada insuran company dia cover untuk dia and anak2... company tak cover suami, so suami boycott la, bayar utk diri sendiri and anak2 je...

Groceries:
Ini di luar bidang scope saya, sebab mak saya ni memang best friend isteri saya bab2 membeli groceries (since kita makan benda yang sama most of the time - dah rumah sebelah menyebelah). Saya tak terlayan.. so bagilah orang perempuan yang melayan kehendak masing2... kalau setakat tiap2 kali gi Giant kena beli Glo 3 botol, Softlan 3 botol... aku surrender!! Bab makanan, belila apa je... masak la apa je.. apa ada atas meja, saya makan... kalau takde benda atas meja, saya cari dalam peti ais... kalau takde benda, McD ada... hehe biskut cicah air teh pun ok..

Tapi kalau selalu family makan luar, saya yang bayar... kengkadang je kalau fulus tak cukup helai, kena mintakla si isteri tanggung sikit...

Credit card:
Sapa belanja pakai credit card masing2, masing2la bayar. Dah sendiri pandai cari hutang, sendiri tanggungla! Hehehe... Kalau sesapa nak beli barang2 yang dia suka, pakai duit sendirila... tak payah mintak permission.. tapi kitorang sebelum beli benda mahal2, memang bagi hint2 dulu sebelum beli... so ada chan la masing2 nak bagi kata dua masing2 kot.. tapi basically, duit sendiri, apa salah, ye tak? beli je la... janji tak kacau commitment yang nak kena bayar bulan2 tu...

Utility bills:
Semua utility bill rumah (letrik, internet, phone), saya yang bayar... except bil air sebab dia cover sekali dgn maintenance rumah yang isteri saya bayar...

Handphone bill:
Sukacitanya saya ingin beritahu semua bill handphone saya, isteri saya yang bayarkan... hehe sebab lagi ekonomikal... dia pakai banyak for her work, so plan Maxis tu menguntungkan kalau mobile phone saya tu jadi supplementary kepada dia punya... so dia bayarlah, sikit je pun, unless saya ke luar negara yang mana bill boleh mencecah nak dekat seribu ringgit pasal roaming and what not... itu saya bayarla.. kesianla kat dia... :)

Maid:
Dah rumah saya bagi, bill- bill rumah semua saya bayar, si isteri kenala jaga rumah supaya keadaan sempurna. So kalau tak larat, diala kena bayar part-time maid untuk tolong dia.. hehehe

Kid's Education/Nursery/Susu/Pampers, etc:
Rayyan, saya tanggung. Rayhana, isteri saya tanggung. Itulah sebabnya 2 anak je.. kalau lagi satu nak tambah, hmmm... garu kepala jugak nak pikir sapa nak tanggung.. hehe

Dulu semangat baru2 kawin bukak joint account... ingat nak share duit semua... tapi for us, with the way we spend, not practicallah... biarla duit yang sendiri cari tu, sendiri punya. Ada jugak kengkadang tak cukup, so masing2 pinjam antara satu sama lain, and dibayar balik duit yang dipinjam tu dalam masa terdekat. Alhamdulillah, dah nak masuk 8 tahun kawin, tiada hutang tertunggak... hehe.. yela kalau pinjam pun setakat RM50, RM100, camtu je... senang nak cover balik..

Okay, sambung kerja.. besok big day at the KL Book Fair. The writers for the book I published is going to be interviewed on stage at the book fair, courtesy of Utusan Publications & Distributors, who distributes my books during the fair.

Luck Lucky Lucky!

Alhamdulillah...

Went to Malaysia Book Publishers Association (MABOPA) dinner last Saturday night and guess what? I won a lucky draw prize. Although it's the 19th prize out of 20, it's still something, ye tak? hehe

The 20th prize was won by A. Samad Said, Sasterawan Negara tu.. who would've thought? His number was announced first, then, it was #361, my lucky ticket number :)

I won a Pioneer DVD player. This one is kinda cool coz it has a USB port so I could actually connect my external hard disk to it and watch all the stuff I downloaded on TV yang kat bilik tu.. since the TV does not have a USB port, susah gila, coz I had to always pasang laptop kat sebelah and connect the external disk to it and from the laptop, guna HDMI cable to the TV. Kelakar TV ni.. HDMI slot ada 2, USB port takde.. I actually just bought on ebay a small media adapter/player that cost me about RM100, which is still making its way to my house from the UK.

The device is smaller than the size of tapak tangan, tiny gadget that allows a "USB device" to connect to a HDMI slot, and plays all kinds of video formats.

The lucky DVD player tu can only play certain formats.. so banyak movie yang tak appear when you browse on the TV screen..

Oklah.. citer takat ni je.. break kejap.. now super duper busy coz the KL International Book Fair starts Friday, and I've got lots to prepare.

Lamanya tak update...

Hahaha... rasa lama pulak tak update.. it has been quite some time... lots happened, among others..

1. Rayyan demam panas sampai 5 hari. Tested -ve for dengue and H1N1. Kesian dia, dah lama tak kena demam... 4 days out of school, came back to school just in time for his 1st monthly exams... just got back some of the results.. nice to see he is piling up the hundreds in his exams... altho ada some yang tak hundred hehe (will reserve that for another entry, as I felt that he should have gotten hundreds based on what he knows and not from what he understands from the questions.. hehe)

2. Rayhana got HFM disease... seminggu tak gi nursery... sapa lagi jaga dia kat rumah? Bapak dia la.. hehe.. Her mouth was full of blisters on her palate.. habih lelangit dia berbijik2, her tongue was full of blisters.. tu je truk.. tangan dengan kaki takde sangat blister dia.. sikit2 je... but her thigh was like measles here and there, almost like the early stages of chicken pox.. kesian dia.. nak makan pun sakit.. got to know from my cousin that he tried gamat "gamogen" on his son who got HFM and it worked well.. so we tried on Rayhana... within 2 days, all the blisters in the mouth disappeared!! Almost like a miracle! Alhamdulillah...

3. Optimized Unifi to the max! Lol! I was one of the few who NEVER watched an episode of "Lost". Downloaded the whole 6 seasons, within a couple of days and in 1 week managed to watch all 5 seasons and now am on my 6th. How I managed it? Slept at 4am every night, and send Rayhana late to the nursery to catch at least 1 or 2 episodes first thing in the morning.. hehe with the new TV Ja bought, it's very convenient as I just need to plug the USB cable on my external hard disk to the TV and I get full HD view of the series... bila nak tido, cabut yang kat TV tu, bawak masuk bilik, sambung kat laptop, and then from laptop sambung kat TV pakai HDMI cable.. hehe every night the laptop was on till tetiba je whenever I woke up in the morning TV and laptop tu dah sentiasa tertutup dek Ja who goes out early in the morning to send Rayyan to school. Another thing, since with Unifi, all phone calls to TM land lines are free nationwide, I've decided that it is high time to do "fax" marketing for all my products and services.. hehe free fax maaa.... so lagi selalula I would just work from home.. :)

4. Published 2 books this month. The first two books for this year. Am looking forward to produce at least about 10 more this year, so I can look forward to this year's Frankfurt Book Fair in October.

5. Organizing the primary school reunion. Had two meetings so far, and another one this weekend. Great stuff planned, it's gonna be featured in the local papers too... :)

6. Went to Matta Fair and bought tickets to Langkawi, 3D/2N hotel stay and return flights at RM1100 total for 5 pax. Ja sampai amik cuti to go to the fair on Friday. Went there with Felishia & Afnan who bought a Singapore package.

7. Toying the idea with Ja nak gi USA probably end of next year... even surveyed accommodations and the factory outlets.... hehe banyaknya duit nak pakai.. seronok rasa tak terhingga for both of us, but memandangkan beribu riban duit nak pakai, camnala nak pergi... the cost is definitely reduced kalau gi reramai.. so tengah meracuni kengkawan and sedara mara to plan along.. nak gi USA ni kena gi reramai baru enjoy :). The place we plan to go.. ORLANDO.. 10 days should be perfect. Boleh gi Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, and probably can make a short trip to NASA Space center, and the Miami beach.. hehe been there done that, well except for Sea World I didn't manage to visit while I was studying in the states dulu... but imagine what fun the kids will have... especially for Rayyan.. which makes us rethink.. lagi seronok bila Rayhana dah besar macam Rayyan now, and Rayyan is 4 years older than her... lagi enjoy! Aaaah... one can only dream for now... at this stage, kita memain jela dengan idea ni :)

Me in 1986

That's the class photo of the boys in my class. We had about 50 of us in the class so kena ambik gambar asing2 for the boys and girls. This was I believe the last day of Std 6. I have not been in touch with most of them until just recently, again, thanks to FACEBOOK!

Many have migrated to Australia, while some have just went on to different schools, went separate ways, living in other countries, and jumpa balik kat FB. In fact, yesterday, we managed to track our class teacher (the lady in pink in the background) in FB. Thanks, to one of our classmates.

We are planning to have a really big alumni reunion bash just our Std 6 in '86 batch as it's gonna be 25 years since we left SRK Kampung Tunku.

Looking forward to that!

MISC Walkathon 2011 @ Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside

Last Saturday was the day MISC and its subsidiaries held their Walkathon at Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside. We woke up as early as 5.30am, got ready, and by 6.45am camtu we were already on the road...

The weather was perfect. Ada banyak category walkathon tu.. we joined the "Family Fun" category where 15 winners were chosen based on how creative their family members were..

We were not creative enough... in fact we did not even get to the finish line.. hehe nak tau kenapa? Sapa la suruh letak cotton candy and pop corn stalls on the way to the finish line? Ja and Rayhana stopped to queue for the free cotton candy while me & Rayyan was queueing at the face painting tent... hehehe so tak dapatla sijil penyertaan... hehe but kudos to Rayyan for completing the walk up to that point without a single stop! That's close to 2km of walking! Rayhana ada 2 occasions asked Ja to dukung dia,, mengada-ngada.. hehe taknak pulak duduk dalam stroller dia..

There were lots of activities and lots of food! We were given 4 coupons for Ramly Burger, 4 coupons for Kenny Rogers lunch set, free flow of nasi lemak and teh tarik for breakfast, free flow of cotton candy, pop corn, 100 Plus, mineral water, and durian! We didn't get to the durian sebab dah tengahari.. we just waited for the Kenny Rogers at 11.30am and then balik...

But guess who we met there?

Hanin!!! Haritula baru kitorang tau Hanin's father is actually the VP of HR at MISC, the parent company.. hehe



Yang gambar atas ni, Ja onm the right, and Hanin's parents on the left.. at the "beach" kat lake tu..

The kids had fun.. running and jumping around... Rayhana pun..

Rayhana slept while Ja was queing for the Kenny Rogers and me and Rayyan was getting the car. Balik rumah semuorang terbongkang sampai pukul 6 petang, and quickly had to get ready for Felishia's sister-in-law's engagement/ Maulud Nabi kenduri.

And oh, my Unifi just got fixed today. It was hardware punya masalah. If you black modem's serial number starts with letters instead of numbers, you gotta have that changed. They've replaced that, and I'm on Unifi now.. uploading the above videos took me seconds :)

Unifi-ed! (Part Deux)

Hatin' it! Hatin'it! Hatin' it!

;(

Unifi-ed!!

Lovin' it! Lovin' it! Lovin' it!

:)

Kisah Satu Ringgit

Last Monday, when I went to pick up Rayyan from school, I noticed he was holding and eating a small packet of french fries that costs RM1 from the school canteen.

I wondered where he got the money to buy the fries since we never gave him duit belanja for school at all. He said that his friend, Hanin gave the money to him so he could buy the fries.

Dah berkali2 dah we told him not to accept any money from people. Apparently this was not the first time that it happened. Ada sekali tu ada this one girl gave him RM1 to buy the "Ice Cool" drink. Pas tu ada lagi orang bagi duit suruh beli benda lain for Rayyan. Muka anak aku ni muka mintak sedekah ke or memang muka murah rezeki? hehehe

Anyways, I bombarded him with questions at school trying to get to the bottom of things. He said that tetiba je Hanin gave him the money to buy the fries.

I just told Ja about it today, asking her to contact Faridah (Hanin's mom). Ja apologized to Faridah that Rayyan used Hanin's money for the fries. Faridah also terkejut. Where did Hanin get the money from? Mak bapak dia pun memang tak bagi duit belanja! Hehehe.. I just got to know that many parents of the Year 1 kids at that school yang memang tak bagi duit belanja kat anak2 diorang... hehe so we are not the only one... hehe

So Faridah went to do her own investigation by asking Hanin. Then she messaged Ja and told her about the money was actually belong to someone else. That girl had 2 50 sen coins and gave it to Hanin. Hanin shared the coins with Rayyan so they can buy something from the canteen. Each of them gets 50 sen. Hanin went to the canteen with her 50 sen to see what she could buy with it... nothing! So she gave the 50 sen to Rayyan so Rayyan gets RM1 just enough to buy the fries...

Ni malam ni, baru je tadi dok tanya Rayyan whose money actually was it. He said it was their classmate, Sofea. So now tomorrow Faridah will give Hanin 50 sen, Ja will give Rayyan 50 sen, and both of the kids will go to Sofea and return her money... hehehe

Itulah ceritanya kisah satu ringgit...... now back to my editing work! Embracing yet another all-nighter :(

February Madness

After all this chaos with the workload etc, we're still in February??!! This must have been the most hectic month I ever experienced since working in my own "Sendirian Sdn Bhd" hehe..

Early next month, I'll be publishing 4 books, each of them has 224 pages. 2 books in Malay, and another 2 books which are the translated version in English. The 2 books in Malay tu pun, it's the same book... one in hardcover, another in soft cover. In the publishing world, they are treated as 2 separated books, each with its own ISBN. The total publishing and printing cost = RM90,000! Of course, none of that is my money.. hehe, that's the reason I've agreed to take up this task, and that is also the reason why February is as hectic as it has been...

So far this February, there were at least 5-6 days where I was working 24 hours without sleep, some of the days at home, some at my friend's place, and some at the office.

And since it's a Sdn Sdn Bhd, I work with a lot of freelancers and dealing with so many people, involving other people's money is not fun. So far I've only published books I wrote myself, produced, myself, and even did the whole publishing process myself, trying to save cost as much as possible, leaving no room for my freelance DTP guys to charge lebih2, coz most of the work is already been done for them. I could have gone all the way doing it myself, but some things can be done at a much faster pace by others.

So, with all these pressure, screaming pun terlebih2 kat rumah.. hehe kesianla kat bebudak.. but alhamdulillah, masa mengajikan Rayyan, I don't scream as much as he has picked up the skills faster than I expected. Just yesterday we have already started Book 4 of the Iqra' book, where they introduce the baris dua atas, bawah, and depan. So now, Rayyan can actually read any ayat Quran yang ada baris atas, bawah, depan, the tanwins, and he knows where to make it panjang, and where to make it pendek.. proud of him! (and proud of myself too... hehe)

It has been a productive 2 months since we started the Iqra' book in January, althogh there were days where we skipped mengaji sessions...

Rayyan's writing has already improved by leaps and bounds. I think with the practice at Kumon, and at school, his writing, although in his MALAS mode, is still readable! lol!

Rayhana is great. Bila abang nak ngaji, dia pun nak menyebok. Nak join sembahyang jugak... bila abang dia baca doa before nak start mengaji, to my surprise, she knows the doas (Allahummaftah.. and Rabbishrahli...) and recites together with Rayyan!! Wow, her nursery is really doing a good job! Very pleased with that! Tak sia2 Ja spend bayar so much kat tempat tu.

This month also me and Ja became "grandparents" for the second time, as my eldest sister in-law's son got his second child. And yesterday we received news that Ja's brother got his first child.

Because of all these "hecticness" I tend to splurge on stuff, especially food.. hahaha saja nak lepas tension... nak hilangkan stress pi makan banyak2.. haha sungguh tak betul... org kalau nak hilang stress pergi gym... well at least this month I went swimming 3 times.. so oklah kot.. haha

Can't wait for the last stretch of the month to just wait for another hectic month of promoting and selling the books pulak... oh yeah, I need to write another two books by June.. hmmm... one step at a time...

1st Ujian Bulanan

Rayyan will be having his first ujian bulanan next week. Am I excited? Yes. Am I gonna prep him up? No! I just wanna see how he stands among his peers in the class. Based on the results nanti then we'll consider if we should prep him up before any exams. He has enough work in his hands at the moment that he hardly watches tv now... Well compared to 10 hours a day of tv previously :)

I'm quite anxious to see actually how he'll fare in his Agama exam, and also his Arabic exam...

We'll soon find out in a month, I guess..

Math Homework

I was just assisting Rayyan with his Taman Megah math homework just now. The Math homework is from the Math Activity book provided free by the Ministry of Education, published by Dewan Bahasa.

Without assistance, I doubt Year 1 kids can complete it alone without any mistakes. The writers seem to be plucking questions out of thin air and clearly not enough thought was put in place to come up with the questions. Bengong!

"5 kurang 4 daripada _____" - That's the whole question. Expecting a kid to understand. Although grammatically correct, the sentence could be at least rewritten so kids could understand just by reading it. Aku nak menjawab pun pikir 2-3 kali jugak. Dahle anak aku ni mat salleh celup, nak baca bahasa macam tu.

That's the problem with the school academic books nowadays. They are written from a writer's perspective, trying to follow what the curriculum wants, not from a learner's perspective, who is trying to learn a new skill of working with numbers, and not a skill to decipher questions like that.

And that's why my "local" book sells well overseas... hehehe. The trick is... assume everyone is stupid. Be stupid yourselves, and then everyone who works your activity book will be smart. If they are too smart to do it, they can easily skim through it and finish the work quickly.

Another thing about the question is that... the kids were only thought 1 less and 1 more than a number.. suddenly, there is this one question "5 kurang 4 daripada ___" asked just so the word "sembilan" can be written on the cross-word puzzle. There are many ways you can get the word "sembilan" to come out from a kid that age, and not by asking that "5 kurang 4 daripada ______" question. Takde pulak nak ajar kurang 2 drp, kurang 3 drp, etc sebelum tu... just to get the number "9" for the puzzle.. tu je...