Belated entry: FIRST REUNION of TESL Batch 1999

2 months from now....
in August.....that would be our 11th year of
separation.....
but thank God to technolgy - specifically
Facebook, we are mostly connected again....
and the long-talk-about reunion finally came to reality.

We had Hi-tea in Eastin Hotel on 19th June 2010.
It was a very huha day for all of us...

Arrivals trickling in slowly....

Dz, Shidah, Tess & Syah were the first to arrive...

Then, Chin & i followed by Azmu...

Then Ijan and Lina and Dida and Linda...

Then Imah, Sarena, Nyot and BK

and finally Mona....

who came at nearly 4 pm....

she just dropped by as she was busy with something else...

The one who brought spouses were Ijan, Lina, Linda and I.

It was as if the almost 11 years of

separation did not exist...

the moment we met....

we just clicked and started chatting non-stop...

But iguess... that's the way English teachers are....

They talk non-stop....hahahaha....

Anyway...it was an enjoyable reunion....

good food at reasonable price....

good company.....good topics to talk about....

Sitting there...observing my friends.....

mostly have grown horizontally....

but some still maintain the same as before.....

some becomes fairer...some darker....

some look more like pengetua than teachers...

some walk with the gait that marks them as 'officers'

and no longer teachers....

but no matter how or what it was....

we still felt happy to be together again....

Chin and I were the earliest to leave as we had

a house warming party to attend...

but the rest chatted until 5 pm....

they continued in the lobby....

Invasion of privacy? Facebook? Nah....

My sis-in-law kids always think that they are wiser and better
than their parents....
and that their parents are outdated people
who, well, to put it bluntly,
are there solely as the financial provider and nothing else.

Their opinions do not count...
and to keep tab on them is a no no...
So, it's kinda funny when her eldest son actually
made the statement that to include his
mom in his facebook fren's list is an invasion to his privacy.

What privacy may i ask you?
Yes, we may limit people from making comments or read things
about us or any updates about us,
but how save do you think this is?
The average Joe may not be able to access the info
but i bet there are many techno savvy people
out there who have the know-how to access
information no matter how private it is.

He has a blog site....the way that i do.
He writes what he thinks in his blog...
mind you....things from his point of view...
but he expects privacy....
If he wants privacy he might as well
buy an old fashion diary with triple lock so no one can read
his private thoughts.

And to feel that having his mom in his fb is invasion of
privacy.
What rubbish.....

What he fails to see is that his mom has every right
to keep tab on him....
to see what he does online
and to keep him in line when he is out of line...
He is after all still under his parents care.
And yes....he may express his opinion but the final say of
good and bad and the basic morality
still lies with his parents....
So, the way i see it, whether he likes it or not,
he has to comply.
Wise or not wise...
clever or not clever.....

Unless if he is earning his own fare and
supporting every single expenses on his own,
then he is his own person.....
but well, as long as he is still under his parents' care
and support, he has to respect his parents' wishes.

He said he couldn't live without his laptop....
how fickle can that be....
We are human being who can think for ourselves...
we are in control of our lives....
We are not some robots which are controlled by
some tools created by human being themselves...
So to me, this statement is merely a show off-y kinda stuff....
like translating: Hey...look at me....i'm so tech savvy
that i can't live without my high tech stuff.
Another rubbish statement which is
created in-flexible people as excuses to not having a normal life.
My life is on my laptop....yadayadayada....

The funny thing is:
His mother was the one who gave him the money
to buy the laptop
which later control his entire life.
And frankly, without his mother,
he couldn't even own one....
let alone being controlled by it.

So, if the provider of the tools for you to
be online wants an access into your facebook,
do you fully have the right to say no?
It's a case of biting the hands of the person who feeds you.
Totally ungrateful and disrespectful.

And he totally believe that there can never be mutual respect
between him and his mother.
That his mother would purposely embarrassed him in front
of his friends.
From my point of view, he is ashamed of having his mother
around his friends....
which is totally childish.
Why?
Because as a mature person, we should be able to accept a person
the way that they are....
and be proud of them....
These are the people who will put their lives on line
for you at a moment's notice.
People who will accept you despite all your flaws
and LOVE you UNCONDITIONALLY.
And yet, you are ashamed of them.
Tsk...tsk..tsk...very teen-like.
Oh well...what do i expect from a 19-year-old boy
except childishness.

I would respect his opinion if he could defend it with
hard cold facts
but alas....
he was unable to do so.

Mr Chin would say - such close mindedness....to think
that he's studying in tertiary level...
unbelievable.

Pressure Cooker experiment on 7th June

Everyone has bought something that they do not know
how to use or operate and ended up keeping it
for years and years....

My eldest sis, Josephine, has done something like that...
Only thing is, she kept it for almost 20 years....
it is a pressure cooker...
I remember she brought it back once...
when i was younger...
most prolly in my teen, a few years
after she bought it...
She bought it on a whim....
because it is a cooker that is....
Anyway...we didn't know how to use it....
so she brought it home again and kept it
away....
until that day when i got back from Seremban...
We went to her house for dinner on the
day we arrived....
and she wanted to cook bone stew....
but it was quite late already and the stew will at least
take 30-40 minutes to be done...
so we were looking through her stuff and suddenly i remembered her
pressure cooker...
she found it...all covered in spider web...
I told her the story of my colleague,
Kak Ngah, who bought a similar cooker for such
a long time and only recently learnt how to
use it...
so i did ask for some tips...to use it.

So, we struggled to open the lid, Helen and I.
Pressed the red button and turn the lid but nothing happened...
So, i called Kak Ngah but she didn't answer.
Suddenly an idea struck me...
wallah...the internet....
so i switched on the laptop, plugged
in the broadband and search for
how to open a pressure cooker lid...
and wallah....within seconds we did it....
since the instruction was vague on how to use
it, we decided to risk it...
i remembered what Kak Ngah said...
so we poured everything in, closed the lid and put it
on the stove.
A moment later, Kak Ngah called.
I told her the cooker is on the stove and she said to
wait for it to release a whistling sound...
it it's bones, wait for it to whistling 3 times.

So we waited for the sound....
but lo and behold...
it is not whistling....
more like high pressured gas being released
slowly...
we were not sure...since you can't count it as
1, 2, 3 or 4...
we waited for 3 minutes before killing the fire.
Then, my sister used a knife to pushed the jiggle top to the
side to release the pressure...
We shooed away all the children from the kitchen
in case of any untowards incident...
you know...explosion and stuff...lol...
Chin came in to check since he was wondering why all the
children suddenly ran out of the kitchen
when the sound started...
Helen stood far away from the cooker and
i hid behind her.....while Josephine...
being the eldest, and bravest and of course, the owner
of the cooker, brave herself to push the
jiggly....
Once all the pressure was released, we opened the lid....
and wallah.....the soup.....
Chin became the tester.....
and magically....the meat was soft....
and it only took 10 minutes to cook.
Success!!!!
Yay....

The conclusion: When you buy a pressure cooker,
you'll have to keep it for a long, long, long, long time
before u use it....
Wakakakakakaka....