Muffins .... ;-0))

I needed to bring something for pot luck on Teacher's Day celebration in school. I was into baking muffins of late. Just wanted to try something new. I tried the cheese muffins and it was nice. I had willing guinea pigs aka food testers in school. A colleague, Tan, said he would eat anything if I brought it. He would guarantee its taste  .... hmmm ... such faith. I also tried the banana walnut muffins which both Noor and Ikram loved. The walnut brought out the banana in the muffins.

I tried these muffins when Ikram was home last month. All I needed was a block of cheddar cheese, plain yoghurt, fresh milk,  one egg, a spoonful of sugar, a pinch of salt, flour, baking powder and half cup melted butter. Mix everything and scooped it into its muffin tray and baked it for 20 minutes. Easy, simple but yummy and cheesy.

The ingredients

The muffins mixture with grated cheese topping

The freshly baked cheese muffins - simple, yummy and filling ... ;-))

Here's what the banana walnut muffins look like .... much heavier in taste and very filling. Crunchy and yummy.

Banana Walnut Muffins

One bite becomes two ... ;-)) thus one muffin becomes two...three..

So, this is a new experiment with muffins. I am tired of baking cakes although I definitely want to try the red velvet cake again. Hopefully it will become red in colour as intended. Maybe for Father's Day ... insyaAllah ... ;-))

Final Teachers' Day ????

For all I know, this could be my last and final celebration of Teachers' Day, insyaAllah. God willing. As was the trend of celebrating this auspicious day to celebrate and appreciate teachers .... it was a muted, low-keyed celebration due to exams in progress but put on hold for one day, the STPM second semester exam would be on the next day and I had another ULKCP meeting at 1:00pm on that day ;-{{.  I had just returned from Penang last week for a two-day meeting on ULKCP too. The week before I was out to check the ULBS files. I may be on the way to retiring but my work and commitment with the LPM and JPN Testing and Evaluation Sector were still on.

There was the usual assembly, speeches and shows. There was no special lunch or any class party. There was just a pot luck party organised by the Staff to appreciate ourselves. .... oh well .... I did not think I would miss out on anything when I left ...

Anyway, there was the usual presents and gifts of appreciation from the students. The one that really stood out this year was this hand-made card from one of the boys .... he painstakingly and lovingly drew each card for every one of his subject teachers, cut a photo from an old school magazine and copied the poem as dedication to his teachers. My son was impressed and saluted this young man's dedicated effort. I appreciated it so much that I put it up at my table notice board ... look at the lovely card attached ... ;-0))

He hand-drawn all the design and added the "pantun" - so classic and thoughtful

He cut out an old photograph from an old school magazine as a personal dedication 

The words were beautiful ....

Thank you, Azrul, for making my day. Where others just bought something, you were an original with so full of love and care .... was it worth being a teacher? Definitely even if the rewards did not justify with everything that a teacher had given with all his/her heart and soul ...

Happy Teachers' Day to all who had touched my life and made me what I am today - Mak, Bapak, brothers, sisters, friends, colleagues, all the people that I had met all my life and especially to the thousands of students that I had taught .... thank you because all of them had taught me too, in their own insignificant way. Alhamdulillah ...

Everyday Is A Bonus

I read this article by Soo Ewe Jin, a regular Sunday Star columnist. Everyday is a day to be grateful for. Every meeting with friends or family might be the last one. Especially for me as I live up north while the others are centralised in Melaka or KL.

Hamdan, an ex-colleague, went out with his family of 4 teenage kids and wife, for an outing to town. Just for window shopping or eating out as a family unit. Six went out but only five returned home. It was a tragic loss. While Hamdan, his wife and youngest daughter were at the fourth floor of the shopping complex browsing books at the book store, the other three siblings asked for permission to check out the sixth floor where there was a Youth Centre. The other two siblings could not comprehend what actually happened. Hadi, the second son (19 years old), suddenly dashed out and ran after something that the other two could not see. They ran after the brother but he had jumped over the waist-high wall and fell into a heap onto the second floor. They took him to the hospital where he was in a coma for one night and died without gaining consciousness. I taught him when he was in Form Three. He was studying at UniMap, Perlis. It was accidental and sudden death. There was just no explanation why he did it. Imagine the other two siblings who had to live with the fact that they witnessed his jumping for apparently no reason but could not stop him. The guilt, the helplessness, the futile calling out to stop him .... I cannot imagine the nightmares. Imagine the parents blaming themselves for letting them go up to the sixth floor. An innocent outing but a tragic outcome....

Rosli, another colleague used to be jovial, funny and always teasing everybody with his dry humour. He went out with his two sons to the mosque for Isya' prayers. He parked the car opposite the mosque. The second son was fourteen years old. Of course he would not want to take his father's hand to cross the road. Anyway, Rosli crossed and assumed his son was behind him. He turned back to check out his son and found him lying on the road, hit by a car. Imagine his feelings, shock and disbelief. When he came back to the school, he changed into a quiet, withdrawn guy. Once, when I had time alone with him, he asked me if he was crazy as he went to "talk" to his son's grave everyday since his burial. I assured him that it was normal because I did that for two years when my father passed away. He smiled and thanked me as I believed that he was not going crazy. He said that among his four children, this son was the most loved and he was also in a tahfiz school instead of the feeder school.

Everyday is not promised. It is to be appreciated. No sense of hating or feeling resentful. Take one day at a time ....

You will never stop grieving. If I watched any drama or movies with a suffering or dying parents, I would cry as if I was back in the years of losing my father. I finally learned to let go of him when I understood what it meant by "he's alive in my heart". He never actually left me ....

We have read so many stories and some were actually about people whom we knew. Thus, my fellow reviewers of this blog .... take everyday as a bonus. Take everyone as if it is the last goodbye .... if we meet again, Alhamdulillah ....

To my friends - Hamdan and Rosli ... take all the time you both need to grief. Appreciate and be grateful. Take one day at a time .... ;-(