Mimboros Kadazan-Dusun

One of my wish list this year is to learn how to literally speak the kadazan-dusun language. My level of understanding is not bad at all. I could say I can understand conversations happening in KD within my family but I have a hard time understanding news, announcements, formal letter, etc. Another big handicap is I could not utter and pronounce KD words correctly. A perfect sentence in KD would turn out so wrong whenever I try to utter them as a sentence and the melody that comes with this beautiful language just gets off pitch whenever I say something in KD. It's a big shame really to have that 50% of Kadazan-Dusun blood but can't really utter anything right!

So to begin with, I'm going to learn this beautiful song-- Adaa. Hopefully by the end of this year, I can sing this song without anyone noticing any glitches but purrfecctionn!

Fish Hinava

I was in the appetite for the fish hinava yesterday and forgot all about kershaw scallion. The fish hinava is actually a kadazan-dusun form of sushi which is authentic to the culture and it was one of the first few KD dishes I actually know how to prepare when I first learned my cooking skills from my parents' kitchen many moons ago. The ingredients are accessible and the preparation is hassle free as well that I actually sent two friends the recipe of it. One things you have to remember after the fix is that you have to store it inside the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours so the lime juice would be absorbed by the fillets. Because I was hungry and couldn't wait, the minute food was ready, I dug into the bowl of hinava. Ahh...Tasted so good and refreshing! I owe dad for teaching me how to! :)

Jan 22 Day Trip

Thank you school for filling in my Sunday (today) with a surprise. Thank you for letting me know 'soon' enough that I have to change all my weekend plans. You're just 'awesome'.

So yesterday Hobbit and I went for our day trip which really supposed to be a full weekend trip if School didn't have to make us come today. We left home at 7:30am and reached Muak Lek at about 9:30am and drove around the area to look at sun flowers and several nice places. We haven't been around Muak Lek for quite some time and many changes indeed had taken place. While waiting for D, D and D to finish with church, we got hungry and went to Muak Lek town to fill our tummies. Muak Lek surely changed a lot compared to how I remember it 11 years ago.

After brunch, we went to pick Dee & Dollie and drove to what they call the green noodles place. I wish I wasn't full from brunch because the green noodle I tried from Dee's bowl tasted so good. I must go back and have my own bowl this time. The coco ice drink was good too! The minute we were done, we left for Dairy Home ice-cream. Anytime for ice-cream and free cups! I had honey raisins and wine lychee. Tasted good. Dollie, Deanna and Hobbit had cool flavors as well. It was 3:45pm and we drove to Daron's house to see him. Daron was checking out my iPad and we had a good laugh with Talking Tom and voice recording. That was fun. Not to mention I almost drop my tablet too! Guess I need safety gloves!

We said 4:30pm, then 5pm then 6:30pm but only really left Muak Lek at 6:45pm because we stop at Muak Lek's open air food stalls and got our soy milk & beef noodle cravings entertained! :) Will come back next month...

Bluebird

I remember an uncle who had a remove tattoo. I was curious as to why his right arm had a very funny shape that almost looked like a bird but it has some extra design besides it. After 5 years of curiosity, one day I had a chance to sit with him and had a nice chat. I asked him what the tattoo on his right arm was and he simply mentioned "bluebird". Bluebird? So I asked what were the extra design? They were letters. The letters made up one significant word that meant so much to him when the day he got the tattoo done. As we sat there and he revealed about the story behind his tattoo, I remembered that the only thing I felt that time was crying.

Today, I stumbled on Charles Bukowski's touching poem called Bluebird and it reminded me of the above incident many years ago. Is there a bluebird in your heart?? This poem suddenly became special because it is as though written especially for my uncle. I am definitely sharing this with my honor class students.

The Bluebird by Charles Bukowski

from The Last Night of the Earth Poems

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be sad.

then I put him back,
but he’s still singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?

Amigos Para Todos os Momentos

I don't understand this song but I love the music and the voices! :)

More Prayer, More Power

I was sitting next to a friend named N in one of my lunch break. She will have a baby soon but the only fear she has right now is how to increase breast milk production. She said she has seen many of her friends went through painful experiences giving out milk and what's disheartening is when the breast won't give enough milk to the baby. Since I'm considered inexperienced with things like this, I simply told her that I will pray for her.

As I entered the office the next day,she told me that something happened to her. This morning, a student's parent suddenly brought her a book entitled "Increasing your Breastmilk" and gave it to her as a gift. She was surprised. How could this parent know about what knowledge she needed the most at that time of the day? Then I told her...Didn't I say I would pray for you?? :)

Remorse but No Desire for Punishments

My first attempt blogging from my classroom. I'm all by myself right now, too lazy to go out, one more class to finish until I can call it a day. I have tests to make and papers to grade but still...too lazy! Several of my students from my Honor class were discussing about the terrible accident that happened earlier this year. You can read the full news here. To me, it's one of the most gruesome accident *shivers*. Well, apparently one of my students know her but never heard from her again since the accident happened. According to news, the honda civic belonged to her friend but some say there is no such thing as a friend and the car belonged to her/her family. Well whatever it is, good it's covered by insurance unless she has a cheap car insurance which I think impossible. So my students and I were discussing as to what type of punishment suits this teenage girl driving illegally on the road. There were several answers which to some I thought is nonsense because they put themselves in her shoe and they literally didn't want to get punished but just wanted to show remorse. Speaking of teenagers nowadays...

Tablet Nightmare

I was reading my Sabbath lesson on my iPad last night while lying down in bed last night and all of a sudden I dozed off without realizing. I was holding the tablet still and all of a sudden >>BAMM!!!<< That silly tablet fell and hit hard on my nasal bridge and I was awaken immediately! Dang was I in pain!! I woke up this morning only to find that my nasal bridge was swollen from last night's hit! I was so mad that I slid the tablet that it almost fell off the bed! Hey, I was grouchy haha!

So I told Hobbit about the incident the next morning and he gave me a 'good' piece of advice. I deserved it. As we were screening through the clearance laptops this evening, my heart was suddenly stolen by a tablet which carries the brand Samsung. Sleeker, smaller, and probably won't hurt my nasal bridge too hard if the above would ever happen again! ;)

One Door to Two Doors

Thank you God for a new refrigerator!

We were just fooling around with our apartment owner that if he happens to have a bigger refrigerator and that if we could replace the current one, last week. Today he knocked and towed a 2 door refrigerator with him to the front of our main door. Hobbit and I were speechless and as we closed the Sabbath together this evening, the main conversation with God was the refrigerator and the many blessings we bestowed. Indeed He answers prayer where He sees fit. Thank you Jesus!!

Now the laminate flooring in the kitchen is noticeable for the first time. In fact, I'm about to help Hobbit with the moving and rearranging work after this post. I am sure the dust under one of the kitchen closet is an inch thick!

Oh Happy Day!

I was humming this song the whole Sabbath today! Very happy, light-heartening and indeed up-lifting song. Oh Happy Day....Oh Happy Dayyyyyyy..................

Cyber Classroom Anyone??

I was too broke to go out after coming back from Malaysia. So the three days Hobbit went to school, I stayed home. Half of the day I was lost because I had too much in mind and was overwhelmed with all the teachings coming up for the 2nd Semester. As I was sitting in front of my notebook, a bright idea came buzzing. I sat in the study for 3 days before my cyber class started running online!

On the first day, I announced the idea of a cyber classroom for the whole 3rd quarter. At first I was skeptical as to how my students would respond to doing their journal and literature discussion questions online but to my surprise, their responses were overwhelming and only encouraged me to utilize the school website and use it to their advantage. So I sat with one of the IT officer who got all the grade 10 students a username and password, got each one of them to log into the school's website and only today did I manage to show them how to navigate through my class' website pages. Most of the pages are password protected from the public so they really need to log in first in order to see what's in certain pages. Otherwise, they just can't do anything with it. Nothing is taken away from class discussions and classwork,
only more work for the studentsonly additional stuff shhhhhh!!!

I started checking some of my students' online journal pages and some of their responses to the online forum thread. All I can say for now is that...It made work a tad easier! Now I can grade from almost everywhere without having to carry books and papers! I think I will love this semester since my regular class are starting their Introduction to Literature and my Honor class, Introduction to Poetry and Kaffir Boy. Both classes will have to do heavy readings and writings. The online website will only enhance if not lighten a whole lot of my marking burden which I yearn for since last semester. Now I can afford to have a little bit of 'me' time in school because I just welcomed two wonderful readers who will be helping with class work as well! Yay!! No more offshore injury! Thank you God.

Done CC Yet?

A friend of mine has been reading on colon cleanser lately due to its benefits towards acne and other ailments. I have been trying to convince him to go to Yan Hee Hospital to do detox so lets see if that works out. I personally have tried the detox program there after getting good encouragement from those who went. My purpose two years ago was to see if my tummy would get flatten out! LOL! Yet Hobbit and I enjoyed the whole experience. I guess we would do it again if our friend is up to it. :)

Backache Gone

My backache is gone! Pheww...

I think I get used to sleeping in semi hard mattresses. Hobbit and I went home and slept in several different places during the holiday and every morning we would wake up with the same comments and complain-- I got a backache!! Then we both would look at the bed and gave put on our funny grins! Most of the beds we slept on were either too soft or has the ability to sink in when slept on. When compared to our bed here, the mattress don't sink a bit even if it means a contestant from the Biggest Looser sleeps on it. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that our bed is the best but it's just how our bodies reacted to the beds back home. Now lets google on massage therapy program online! :)

Work From Home day 5

I winked and saw Hobbit preparing for work.
Noise.
Questions without answers.
A kiss.
Goodbye.
Sweet dreams.

After a deep sleep...10:56am!!

Yeah...The above always happens when one of us has to go to work. In this case, I sleep in and I always love to show off that I could sleep in for many more days. If I have to go to work and he stays, he has no choice. He wakes up and send me to school. I'd drive, if school has more parking space to offer.

I enjoyed a talk with God this morning. Light, yes...I need light.

I'm suppose to be working. Working on my work (pun intended), yet my fingers just can't avoid from typing "facebook". Naughty! From fb to blogs and from blogs to articles. How I love embedded links, it's like traveling from one place to another.

Then I thought of the milk Hobbit bought yesterday. Milk + Instant Oatmeal = full tummy. So I took legs to the kitchen. When legs got back to chair, Amy needed some entertainment while having brunch. So more blogs. Oh work...Nope, eat breakfast first then work. How did I end up blogging? Oh, Chrystal wanted me to get her stuff...Now I have to go out. Wishing for payday advance but that won't happen. Lets shrug off the idea of 'going out'. Now what?

WORK!

Happy New Year 2011!

Weeeeeehaaa!! I'm back to busy Bangkok. As soon as the plane did a touchdown, my head started to spin just like the city itself. All I could think of is work. How pathetic you say but eh, I'm here because of my job! :)

Flying back a day after the New Year is not advisable. We had to wait in a super crammed and long queue plus the waiting took us an hour or so. My back was hurting and all I wanted was to go home. Lots and lots of tourists and expats!!! The Thai visa section had a nice run because nobody had to queue up for long. I could see several visa officers closed their spot as they wished, as we say in malay 'sesuka hati' and it really pissed people off! Could be their break or off work time but send a replacement! Didn't they notice the mob turning crowd??

I have piles of pictures to put up but I guess some would go to my up coming post about home later. This time I was a good girl. Although I still spent like a billionaire, the reason behind me playing pauper for the next 3 weeks, I managed to spend wisely. Wise in terms of womens sandals, healthy supplements, home food and shared love.

Aight, let me spin some jazz while I board on the work plane. Once again,

Happy 2011!