Nature's Royal Show ...

Just because it is near the mini palaces of the Sultan Kedah's immediate family, does not mean the road should also be paved royal yellow in colour, does it?

The park where I usually go for my evening walk is thickly carpeted with the small, bright yellow little flowers. I had posted before how the trees shed their leaves during the hot, dry season and a month later flourish with new green leaves. This year, maybe, the tree has matured and maybe too, due the the extreme hot and dry spell, they blossomed and flourish with the little yellow flowers. Normally the flowers would just leave a trail of yellow carpet on the road. But this time around, they thickly carpeted the road and pavement bright yellow. It was just spectacular and beautiful to look at ... :-))

The trees that lined the park blooming with the small, bright yellow flowers ..

The parking lot along the park, the pavement and parts of the park thickly carpeted with the yellow flowers ..

I enjoyed this show of nature. After the "autumn" where the trees shed their leaves, the sprouting of fresh green leaves on the bare branches, the blooming yellow flowers and finally the flowers fall off whenever the wind blows .... all over the road .... gracefully, gently, direction-less and settle layers upon layers naturally, without planning or with intentional design everywhere .... thus, we can see the thick layers of carpeted yellow road .... magnificent and spectacular natural work of art.

Alas.... the bane of the poor road sweepers again - after the "tecoma" flowers, now it is this yellow flower's turn to be swept and cleaned up .... all in a day's work ... :-))

Ramblings ....;-}

Rambling 1

 After almost two months of the scorching, blazing hot weather .... we finally got rain !!!! Its been raining for three days albeit in the late afternoon. Yesterday I had classes until 3:30pm. It was pouring at about that time which caused all of us to be stranded in school instead of leaving for home. I was tired yet so joyful because it rained cats and dogs. Instead of waiting for the rain to subside, I took off my shoes, clutched my bags and walked happily in the heavy rain towards my car. Yes, I was wet but it sort of washed off the stress that I had been under for weeks .... By the time I arrived home, the rain had subsided and stopped completely. The lovely weather (I love after-rain weather) motivated me to go for my evening walk. It was cooling and refreshing. The skies were still dark and as soon as I completed my second round, big drops of rain started to fall again. Laughing to myself, I made a dash for the car and safely got in it before the rain started to pour. The snag was - it was a long traffic crawl home as I had to pass through the town to reach home ..... anyway, it was a fantastic day !!!! The next day it would be so hot that you could hardly open your eyes and so humid that you are sweating even though all you did was sat down .... I have always loved the rain ...
"Hujan yang turun,
  Bersama air mata,
  Bersama pedih bersama rindu ...
  Kau datang dan kau pergi jua...
  Rindu lagi ... "
    -Sudirman's "Hujan"-

The heavy rain from the porch of my house ... 

Rambling 2 

School had been hectic and stressful since it reopened with a new boss and her way of getting things done. I would say it was a transformation process in progress. She took over the school in a condition where it really needed a firm hand and person. I felt that there was no time for anything. So much paper work and running around getting things done ASAP .... ad hoc .... like you had no time to sit and eat or read the papers ... by the end of the day I was so exhausted. It is now April ... slowly we got used to her way of doing things. I needed to get away .... I was so exhausted after six periods of classes plus extra class that when an old friend send me an mms of a part of my hometown - the place where I grew up, lived, studied, fell in love, lost my father, lost our one and only aunty, celebrated Abang, Abang Omar, Naim, Kak Leha, Kak Ti and Kak Hajar weddings, welcoming Nadia's birth and finally left .... it caused me to suddenly long for my sisters, parents' graves, food, pampering, love, sense of being protected and secure. I had not gone back since last Eid ul-Adha. My sisters were wondering and calling to know if I was returning for the term break but I had the SAL project going. That bridge was just opposite near my old home - 4078-C, Peringgit, Melaka. Of course it was no longer there after my father's demise. Hmmm ... so nostalgic. Is it due to being more than half a century old that you began to look for little things that used to be pushed deep into the recesses of the mind that now meant so much ...??? As this old friend said - "every time he passed by this stretch of road, he would reminisce the past..." . Yeah ... I guess so. Everything started here - where we grew up and learned about our young lives. One day, as like now, it would just be a blur memory .....

The bridge across the road to my old house ... old friend, old house, old memories ...

The SAL Centre Project

During the one-week mid-term break I was involved in the setting up of the SAL Centre in my school. The old one was demolished along with the whole building to give way to a new four-storey block. Thus, when the old library and resource centre moved to the new building, the old resource room was left redundant. So, the Principal asked the English panel to set up the SAL Centre.

 We had extra classes during the holidays. After the extra classes, I came with the assistance of the five form four students whom I elected as the committee members of the room, to set it up slowly and from scratch. There was no budget for the room. It was personal budget with some aid from the Senior Subject Teacher for Languages. I volunteered to be the coordinator as I could set up my own room here. Besides, my classes were all on this block i.e. on first and third floor. If this is my last year of my teaching career, I wanted to leave this room as a legacy to the English unit.

Hence, I had fun and enjoyed setting up this room. I roped in all the help I could. When Zin came for a visit, he also came to help out with the carpentering and repairing whatever was necessary in that room. My students helped to move the books from the GK's room and we rearranged them on the shelves. I was given permission to use whatever I needed from the old library next to it. Thus, I fully utilised whatever I could use from the old library. Tables, shelves, book stands, TV, chairs .... and finally, after a week of hard work, sweat and money  .... here was what we had achieved ...

The front part of the room - the white board was put up by Zin - the pink door is my room :-))

The back part of the room

The left side at the back of the room

Since I like quotes, I added them as motivation and reading material

The coordinator's room - ME !!! :-)) - the door separated the old library

The dedicated and willing students who spent their holidays with me ... 

The Red That Was Just Not Red Enough .... hmmmm

More purplish brown than red, as it was supposed to be .... hmmm ...

When Ikram was home for his semester break last February, we tried to bake the red velvet cake. I found this recipe through the internet ... as usual. The cake that we bought was really quite plain and flat. The recipe which I found for this cake was quite nice. We tried it and it was delicious with the extra thick cheese frosting. The guys licked and scraped the cheese frosting clean ..... :-0))

The only slack was the colour. The problem was I used the liquid colouring that I usually used to do my home-made syrup. Guess it was not red enough. It was quite brownish. When we posted the photo of the cake to Akmal via facebook messenger, he said it was purplish red. The tinge of red was there but the cocoa powder and coffee made it darkened.

Oh yes, I would certainly try this cake again. However, I must remember to buy the correct type of colouring from the cake ingredient store. Maybe when Ikram is home again in June ... or for Hari Raya since June is fasting month....

Seafood Curry Mee - Fusion

This term break, we had some guests as usual who came for tea. I was bored of cooking their favourite curry mee which used chicken as its main stock. Thus, I substituted chicken for seafood. To make it tastier, I twisted the original nyonya recipe and fusioned it with a Malay taste.

I blended the local herbs of daun kunyit, daun limau purut, lengkuas, halia, serai plus scallops, large onions, garlic, fresh red chillies and fresh tumeric and turned them into a paste as the base for my gravy. Then, I cooked the curry gravy as usual adding blended dried chillies and a spoonful of curry powder. I poured in the coconut milk. When it was boiling, I added the salt and sugar to taste. Finally, I added large prawns, squids, fish ball, tau foo and brought it to a boil.I substituted long beans for mustard leaves. Hmmm .... the aromatic smell of the fresh local herbs and sea food .... Not bad. Well, the guests ate it and scooped the gravy to its last drop .... I was glad I could still make my guests left with contented stomachs and happy faces ....

The fusion seafood curry mee - for photo shoot purposes, the gravy was not added to the bowl's brim ..