STEALING MY FRIENDS' FLOWER PICTURES!

Scarlet bougainvillea planted by Prof. Elizabeth's parents many years ago in the 1960s. 

A mauve display from Albert.

This is what I get up to when my garden is only GRASS and WEEDS with nothing to show off. 

Different varieties of Desert Rose 

from the Liews.

Lotus from Ah Con and her 

water lilies 

in her fish bowl, and her 

scarlet frangipani reaching to heaven.

 This rare unusual plant flowers only at NIGHT for Ms Puah Suat Moi. 

The flowers from the Epiphyllum oxypetalum or Night Queen tragically fade as dawn arrives.  

All the way from Melbourne , Australia is this Hibiscus Rio Clara  (rosa sinensis) in the Wees' garden which loves its position facing North in summer. The Wees, once Malaysians but who are now Australian citizens, are very patriotic as this species is Malaysia's national flower. More flowers 

from MelbourneI do have lilies in

 pots to show off. 

My only frangipani that bloomed once and surrendered to life as I over-watered it. 

Home-grown lilies from Australia, the pink is stunning.

Malaysians EAT WHAT, OK COOK?

       We Malaysians are a HUNGRY bunch. Twelve of us in my Mandarin class had lunch last Chinese New Year. It was a nine-course meal of (top left to right) crabmeat fake shark fin soup, fried fish, steamed glutinous rice with pork floss, steamed prawns, bean curd, broccoli with dried oysters and mushrooms, dessert, stewed pork and "yee sang."

      With a multi-racial population, our food is “rojak” (mixed and matched). Meal times can be a random of Indian curry, Malay sambal and Chinese stir-fry vegetable.

"Rojak" meals suit me real fine as I am just OK COOK. I seldom let the family know what I am dishing up cos’ it seldom tastes like what it is suppose to. Yesterday’s lunch was mee siam (spicy rice vermicelli). Gizmo Man went, “You used glass noodles. How can? Mee siam is with

mee hoon.” Savvy K exclaimed, “it’s the wrong colour, can you please learn from YouTube.” “EXCUSE ME, you two can EAT it or LEAVE it.” So they ATE it. But, not everyone is like OK COOK, many of my friends/family are Master Chef ingredients: 

Drum roll please ... coming at number one is my sister-in-law, Irene Fraude. Did you say you wanted Western,

Italian😋😋? Just ask Irene. You want M'sian "apam balik" pancakes oozing with cream sweet corn? Ask Irene 😍!

Her daughter baked this incredible masterpiece. Ha, this proves cooking genes are heritable!

  Ta-da, coming close at number two is Moo Eng, the 🐳 seafood 🐟 chef . She is equally good in the laboratory and kitchen.

 

Moo Eng even packs

 helluva gourmet work meals.  Wonder if a 😴 snooze 😴 follows such satisfying lunches? Compare this with 

my pathetic lunch. Coffee is not even on.

     My neighbour Sweeny is a patissieredisguised as a pharmacist. She bakes for her family - a good 14 b'day cakes yearly. 

 Prof. Elizabeth makes pretty decent Saturday breakfasts and salads.

Joan prepared a "nasi lemak" (coconut rice) feast which she coloured with "bunga telang," (clitoria ternatea/butterfy pea flower). The fried chicken, "sambal," fried anchovies and peanuts, eggs and "kangkong" (water spinich) complement the rice. A painstaking effort, good j👩‍🎨ob.

Malaysians use the "bunga telang" for a natural blue food colouring. It is a creeper and I have it on my back yard rails.      When any of my dishes come out real tasty, Savvy K advises, “Daddy you better enjoy it, she will never get it right again.” I am not grand on presentations, my food comes from pan to table.

Haha, when the 2 pests hassle me, OK Cook just throws everything in 😝.

     “Oh Mann ... Shhh Daddy, just eat little bit OK. Later when she watching Netflix I heat up pizza for us. Which one you want, Daddy?”

OK daddy, pizza's ready, "cepat makan" before someone eats it.

MALAYSIANS DURING "annus horribilis"

 SAMUEL ISAIAH - top ten finalist for the GOLBAL TEACHER PRIZE

Malaysians started lock down on March 18^th 2020. I faced it with anxiety plus despair. I quote Queen Elizabeth, “1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an annus horribilis.” What did two Malaysians achieve during 2020. 

Sekolah Kebangsaan Runchang, Pahang

Samuel Isaiah travelled 200km daily to and from school to reach his students. His school is in an "orang asli" (indigenous population) community in a rain forest area in Pahang.

Children in indigenous populations seldom receive the same education opportunities as those in urban areas. 

School infrastructure and computer facilities were limited. Samul set up a national crowd funding platform and gathered funds to equip the school with tablets and computers. 

      To improve his students English proficiency, he linked them by email with volunteers in Malaysia and overseas. He used the guitar and ukulele and taught English through songs.

For his efforts, the average pass rate of English jumped from 30% in 2008-2012 to 80% in 2013-2017. 

As these indigenous children were not used to sitting in classrooms to study, he took the classrooms outside under the trees. 

SAMUEL ISAIAH - YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE.

       In a different arena, our girl artistic gymnast Farah Ann Hadi got a doll created in her likeness as a Barbie role model for young girls for sports. 

  The "shero doll" wears Farah's silver studded leotard 

that our gymnast wore in her  29th SEA Games GOLD and the 2018  Commonwealth Games Silver competitions. 

In Farah's words, "You just need to remember that self-belief is your greatest weapon in achieving anything."

DATE: Tuesday February 2, 2021

Eight-time squash world champion, Malaysian Nicol David was named World Games Greatest-Athlete-of-All-Time (GOAT). Quoting The Star, "A total of 23 past and present athletes representing various sports from all editions of the World Games' 40-year history were selected for the worldwide poll."

"Nicol spent an unprecedented nine years atop the women's squash world rankings between 2006 and 2015 as well as winning 82 professional titles."

I can only admire her perseverance and discipline perfecting her sport. The zillion hours she spent indoors in the 9.75m x 6.4m space. Her mental strength during the competitions, what motivated her through the years? 

Acknowledgement to The Star for the photos and write up on Nicol David.