Lots of bad people around ....

beware of scammers ...they come in all shapes and forms ...emails, text messages, letters, phone calls and so on ...and day after day, there were new reports about those who fall victims to these scams ...my dad was saying that, besides being unlucky, the victims are usually victimised because (i) they are too trusting and naive; (ii) greedy - coz they are thinking they are getting a fortune from a complete stranger!; (iii) are not aware of the scams despite repeated stories that make the headlines ...

I got an email a few months ago ...from someone who claimed to be a lawyer and that I was left a fortune by some rich old guy who had recently passed away ....here is the email:

crazy right? I mean who would be so willing to give you all that money if they do not know you ...and if someone believe that, you must be super duper greedy ...to accept something from stranger ...

another snapshop of how much money someone supposedly left for me :-)

 the second incident was a few days after I received the above email ...purportedly from a bank in Malaysia ...saying my account was blocked and they need me to supply fresh info to re-activate the account ...the thing is I have never ever have an account with that bank!!! This one, if i have the account, is a more believable scam that the first one  ...

I guess what I am saying is that there are a lot of crazy people out there...with bad intentions ...to rob us blindly ...guess we have to be very careful ...my dad always say, do not be greedy ..coz if it is not your money from your own hard work, the money probably does not exist ...never trust a stranger who offer you money and lots of fortune ..you might end up losing more money to them ...

Thought of the week #4

What say you???

Yes peeps!! Be firm in your own belief ....don't be afraid to do what is right, even if it means that you will be the only person doing it ... stand firm in your belief :-)

Wordless posting: lontong, anybody?

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease: Better Safe than sorry ...

The Hand Foot and Mouth disease has been going on in Sarawak for a couple of months already ...the number of cases has gone up in the recent days ..and in today's Borneo Post, the headline claimed that it has now reached an "outbreak" status ..so, that is not a good news people! Especially those with small kids (up to 10 years old) .. both of my nephews had this HFMD two years ago ...so, I know how  hard it can be on toddlers ..plus there is no specific medication for this, you'll just have to wait till it runs its course (between 1-2 weeks).

So, parents out there, please be extra careful. Don't bring your kids to crowded places ...We have banned the kids from shopping malls, airport, and other public places ...Alistair and Adik have not set foot at the malls for a month now. Throughout the one-week school holiday, Al had to stay indoor ...because our next door neighbour told us that both his kids were having HFMD ...so, as a precaution, both Al and adik had to play indoors for the last two weeks ...The only time they ventured outside was last Saturday night, coz we went for a family dinner to celebrate Jane's birthday and on Friday for adik's clinic visit ....but lucky for us, the both were totally engrossed playing indoor ..and they were not keen to go outside coz of the frequent rains and bad weather ...Thank God for small mercies!

Tips for parents (I read this in the paper today and the leaflets at the clinic):
i) being hygenic - teach the kids to be hygenic ...wash they hands all the time, use soaps or liquid soaps ...parents, who handle the kids must also be hygenic at all times.
ii) avoided crowded places ...and avoid people who had the symptoms ...
iii) dont let your kid go to school if they ae showing symptoms of flu etc ...better to let them stay at home - just to make sure that your kid wont spread it to other kids at school ...
iv) symptoms and images of blisters etc caused by HFMD from my previous entry (click here)


Hope this outbreak will end soon ...Al has already asked us why we never brought him to Giant and to McD ...

mastering the arts of procrastination

I just had a busy week ..so busy that I was the last person to leave our wing at the office in the last week and a half ...i had a lot of things to finish, and this was in addition to my teaching and preparing for class ..who would have thought that 7 simple forms could take nearly a month to complete ... As of today, i have manage to complete all 6 forms completely ..with spell check, and have been amended numerous times in this last 3 days ..they are now complete, just waiting for me to attach my passport-size photographs and to make 4 copies of each forms ...

I only had to revise, refine and re-write one more form ..i.e. The one dealing with the proposal ..that was where I got stuck ..it seems that, the more I read, the more confuse I become ...coz new issues emerge, new thinking and then new possibilities ... And that really frustrates me...and how do i deal with that? Well, i sort of procrastinate ..in fact, I mastered th arts of procrastination, to the point that i completely ignored the proposal part ...i came to my senses two days ago ..i realised that if my proposal is equivalent to a rubbish scrible and rambling of a mad woman, then my reputation would be affected ..and the whole sponsorship will be affected ..and my future, may to some extend, be compromised ...

So, with a clear head, i decided to seek help ...make an attempt to crack the bains of my friends and mentors ..they were really helpful, i think i know what i am suppose to do now ...i need a clear conceptual framework ..and i must stay on the path at all time, other issues may crop up but the path will remain ...hahaha in other words, don't change the goalpost!!!

one thing I will remember most about my conversation with Dr M is that he said, and i quote "being confused is good coz it means you are thinking ...you will be very confused for the first one and a half year of your study ...and if you are not confused, there must be something wrong somewhere ..and that is dangeous coz you may have missed some important aspects that you should be looking for..." ...and he just laughed at me coz i felt my jaw dropped when i heard that!

Thought of the week #3

So damn true! Everything happens for a reason ...it's our fate ...looking back on my life now, and all the doors that have been closed behind me (trust me, there has been a lot!), i know that when you fail at something, it wasn't meant to be ..and new opportunities will crop up ...they may not be immediate, may take months or years to get it...but it is an open door nonetheless ...you may not see it at the time, you may be inconsolable ...not believing in the the future ...crying for the lost opportunities ..going over the lost over and over again ..but God works in mysterious way ...have faith ...

There was a time when I felt the whole world is against me ...i was humiliated ..i was suddenly thrown out of my comfort zone ...i thought i had it all, but i was wrong ..i did not want to admit my failure, but was forced to do so ..i uprooted myself ...left my comfortable job in a foreign country ...left my friends ...left a life that was so comfortable to me ...to come home ...with tails between my legs so to speak ...with no job ..no future ...it was different from when i used to have a job ..have friends ...and a home ...but as time goes by, things started to get better ...and better ...and better ...so, i guess there are always opportunities out there after every closed door ...just have faith ..the path may not be smooth ...but it is there :-)

Feeding the fish @Tasik UNIMAS

One day, a long long longggggggggg time ago (must be late last year!), i joinned Haslina and Iris on their 'feeding the fish" adventure ...it was fun ...and we didn't have to go far for that ...just went to the man-made lake in front of our office ....the lake where they did their kayak competition ...and the fish there are huge ....lots of them ..i remembered my cousin Bobby told me that he and his colleague from the Fisheries Dept were invited to release some fish into the lake when the campus was completed a few years ago ....and they (the fish) are still there ...but bigger!!

with Princess Iris ..such an adorable girl

It is quite fun ..feeding the fish, entertaining Iris's antics ...and just relaxing there ....a nice way to de-stress actually.There were a lot of fish ...and the bread crumbs thrown at them were gone in seconds! very thereaputic hehehehe

Have been thinking of taking the boys to feed the fish here but been thinking twice about it ..namely coz of the safety issues ...the place where we went (the grand stand along the lake) may not be a safe place for kids ...must be carefully monitored ...and to be honest, taking two kids to feed the fish means i have to be very careful ...and very alert ...so, in the end, i always postpone our planned fish feeding trip ....i am not prepared to take the risks ...maybe when they are a little older ....

 isn't she sweet?

Thought of the week #2

What do you think?

whatever the situation you are in - be it sunshine or rain - they have their own specialities ....their own uniqueness ...just take whatever life throws at you and make the best of the situation ...

Fishing ....

Since my brother came back for good, he has been taking over the care and maintenance of dad's fish ponds at our village. Dom is an avid angler and, to date, has added on a variety of fish species to the pond. It used to be a pond for catfish and red tilapia only. But nowadays, he had added pacu, patin and siakap. The latter was an experiment on his part. He added them last week :-) all 100 of them ....

Dom is setting the simple canvas cover in case it suddenly rains ...while my cousin got the fire going ...

We did a few rounds of fishing ...i dont really like to fish here coz I am scared of catfish ..they are one ugly creature ..with its long mustache! but for an angler, catfish is good as it gives as good as it get when they got hooked to the bait ....i prefer the little fish compared to catfish ...but i went to fish here so that i can help to keep an eye on Al ...he was jumping up and down when daddy gave him his own fishing rod ..and surprise surprise ...he managed to catch a toman fish ...he face just light up with happiness ...hehehehehe and keep on shouting lol ....the way he sounded was like he managed to land a big white shark instead hahahahaha ....but sadly no picture, coz i was busy trying to steer him away from the edge of the pond ....and my camera was under that canvas thingy at the time

he was impatient! Daddy did not allow him to go near the water edge till the canvas was set up ..and till daddy checked all the railing are sturdy ...hehehe ...and mummy cant wait to go to the rambutan tree to get some rambutan for us

view from the other side of the pond ...this photo was taken by the little monkey :-)

Dad was saying (just the other day) that we should bring the kids for these sort of activities more often ...as kids this day and age are very much out of touch with nature ...all they are familiar with are tv, iPad, lappy, online games ...and it would be good to toughen them up ...emmmm i think he has a point there :-)

lessons learnt

The last two weeks in February was a bit of a roller coaster ride for me ..one minute I was bomboozled (to borrow a word from Friends' Joey Tribiani) with pretty unexpected stories about myself ...sort of felt like there was a huge knife stuck at my shoulder blade ...mmmmmmm, whatever .....the next, i got the news I was hoping for from abroad ....looking back, i realised i was very upset about the turn of events ...however, thinking back, it was nothing compared to the situation faced by another colleague ...her name and reputation were very much damaged by those serious allegations ... it is a matter of maruah ok! maybe this serves as a lesson to me ...never, ever trust an unconfirmed story, however juicy they maybe ...dont spread lies ..as it could badly affect the life, the name, the reputation of other people ...dont act as procecutor, as a judge who decide on the punishment ...remember, there are two sides of every story ...check your story, check your sources ...i am taking all these as a lesson for the future ....am going to forget about what had transpired but will make sure that it would not happen again in the future ...

cuti cuti Malaysia?

on to a more cheerful news, i finally received the news that I have been waiting for from NZ ...so, it is now a matter of going through various procedures to gain approval from above ....hopefully I can get the result soon ...


and another good news from abroad ...a close friend phoned me ..with an invitation to join him and his wife a a short break in June ....they are flying to Thailand for a wedding and then coming to Malaysia for a holiday ...so, I'll be joining them once they have arrived in MAlaysia ...i am hoping that the dates do not clashed with my Gawai leaves :-)

That's my wrap up for February ...and now ushering March in with a better frame of mind ..and a better perspective :-)

my cheeky monkey

sometimes they can be really handful ...really naughty ...and ignore what you are saying ...
but they are such a delight ....manage to turn the most tense and frustrating day into wonderful moment in split seconds ....it just seemed like yesterday that adik is one month old ...now he is 3 and a half and getting to be quite handful most of the times

 showing his cheeky side :-)

Today he cried loudly when he saw the grandparents left for the cottage ..he wanted to go with them ..poor boy ...he often chose to sleep with the grandparents rather than the parents ...he would rather stay at home with the grandparents than going out with the family ....he would love to go out of both nenek and aki tag along ....and now, as I am typing this post, the poor boy is already asleep ...AFTER he spoke with the grandparents on the phone :-)

I am going to miss this boy terribly when I leave ....