It is all about power.

I am sitting in my office waiting for a student to do her quiz. Feeling lethargic coz' its Saturday. Just read the papers and felt disgusted again about the goings in our beloved country. The "who dunnit episodes" are all over the news again.

We had a great election. People from all over the world congratulated us for being able to up hold democracy. Now the sodomy, anal sex and murder is all over our news paper. Why? My answer is about people who are so power crazy. It is about spoilt "kids" who just want more. Gimme, gimme, gimme! Those who have power want to hold on to it and those without just want it at any cost.

We have a beautiful and lovely country. We have enough to eat and we sleep well at night. We do not want trouble. We need to tell our politician to get on with their work. They are elected to work for us! Not to ruin us.


I pray that tomorrow will be a great and peaceful Sunday. I like to have peace and quiet on my Sundays. I want to have my roti canai and read my Sunday papers and just lepak. I am sure many of you want this too.

The last time we met was in 1974!

An old friend from primary school dropped a comment in my blog.(Via Mr. Manager, thanks Vernon!) Dr Zulhisham Ghazali. Managed to track him down and we spoke. He was warm and friendly. He is a GP in Melaka. It was so nice of him to remember me all these years. We were close friends from standard 2 till standard 6 in King Edward Vll 2 primary school. He saw me on TV in AF5. People from Taiping are so nice la....

We plan to meet soon. We would probably need a few days to catch up! I am so grateful to modern technology. How did we ever survive without Internet?

I am back!

I have been so involved with my academic work that I did not have time to write. There were invigilating exams, marking exam scripts, confirming results and special exams. Am I complaining? NOPE. I am sooo enjoying my work. I am now teaching the short semester. Packed for 7 weeks but fun.

I invited my dear friend Cikgu Fati (AF 6.....) to talk to my students on the importance of learning English. She was mobbed by the students. They asked for autographs, took her picture,and asked about her famous daughters. I had to drag her to the car to send her home. I am so glad my students spoke English with her. It is so nice to have celebs as friends! She was so accommodating.
Thank you Kak Fati.

For Malaysian Lit. class I am so fortunate to be able to have a long time friend, Liew Suet Fun, to talk about her book, "Gilding the Lily". She spoke for a solid 3 hours. The students were stuck to their chairs. Another great lesson! Thanks so much Suet.
The book is sold at MPH for RM99. Get it! I have an autographed copy. It is a book about Malaysian women. A great coffee table book.

An old friend left comments on my blog today. So touched. Hope to meet up Dr. Zulhisham Ghazali!

Will write about my students in my next blog.

Thanks to Chedd (aka Sukardi), I managed to catch P. Ramlee the Musical for the second time. Had a great time! Went with my buddy Ramdhan and met up with Mila, Shawal and Rizal of AF5. Really enjoyed ourselves. Mila looked great and happy after winning in Bulgaria. Shawal looked healthy and muscular, funny as ever. Rizal was as usual, sweet and respectful. So proud of my students.

Those of you who have not seen the musical, do go, its a world class production. Datin Seri Tiara, you are a maestro! Keep up the good work.

Liza Hanim was Saloma reincarnated. You will hate Melisa Saila as Norizan, the ultimate b***h!. Musly was so hauntingly P. Ramlee. Atilia was so enchanting. Miss Sean Ghazi and Datuk Siti though.I may go again!

I met up with Legends, Stars and Celebs at a Diva's wedding!

I truly believe that dreams do come true! When I was at Ning's wedding, my dreams of wanting to meet all my favourite stars came true. I felt I was in a fantasy land. Enjoy the photos!

Jewish Mothers

Prof William Nicoll from Florida Atlantic University,USA, came to give a talk at our language centre. He is an expert in counseling and his two hour talk was both entertaining and inspiring. He taught us about how students can be so manipulative. Very often, we lecturers get sucked in to their schemes.

However, what I remembered most about him was his story about Jewish mothers. A typical Jewish mother would buy for her son two identical white shirts. She would tell him to wear one of them the next time he visits. So like any good Jewish son, he wore one of the identical white shirts when he visited her next. What did she do? She looked up and said, "What is wrong with the other shirt? You don't like it?"

Sounds familiar?

My two 'cucus'

My two 'cucus' came for tea last Sunday. Dhania is 2 plus and Dalilah is 9 months old. Their father Dzul was my foster son who lived with me throughout his college years till he started working. He (finally) moved out when he got married.
The whole family will visit me once or twice a month. When they come, my living room will be a playground. They usually come for tea, (goreng pisang and putu piring, Dzul's favourite) and will stay for dinner. We usually have dinner outside. While eating, Dzul, Nurul (the mother) and I will take turns taking care of the two girls. Dhania now, will be happy if you give her something to draw. She will keep her self busy drawing. I always have some crayons stashed at home.
They will be moving to their new house soon at Denai Alam. I am so proud of Dzul. When he first came to live with me me, he was a typical rebelious young boy who worshiped Kurt Corbain. We had our problems. One of our biggest disagreement was about music. He was into grunge music and I am a Sharifah Aini and Uji Rashid fanatic. When I played my songs in the car during our travels he would hang his head outside the window. When he played his song, I got instant migraine. Some how or rather we managed, he got his degree and went on to do his MBA. Now he is an Asst. manager at Hei Tech Padu in charge of CRM. For an alumni of SM Jalan Cochcrane, he has done well. He is also a great father to the two girls.

My Boss

The first time we spoke, it was over the phone. I was looking for a part-time job, and she was the Dean of the Language Centre. She was business like and polite.

She told me that I was a couple of weeks late as she had already hired some part-timers. Still she asked me to e-mail her my resume. A few days later she called to ask if I would consider a full time position in the coming semester. I said that it would be wonderful.

I never thought that this invitation would lead me back to my former career, which is teaching English in a university.

Lynne Norazit was born in England but moved to Australia at the age of sixteen. She married the Late Professor Norazit and made Malaysia her home. She is smart, warm, hospitable, and can be very funny at times. Her English upbringing comes across clearly when she works. She is precise, clear and upfront about matters. But she is the brassy Australian and the hospitable Malaysian when she is off her work mode and invites you for tea in her office. Her infectious laughter resonates clearly at the office in early evenings when she is winding down from her hectic schedule.

Having a conversation with her is almost like hearing the Reader’s Digest stories. She has vivid memories of her growing up days in England which include Cliff Richard and devouring scones by the beach in Brighton. Now she enjoys afternoon tea but with ‘karipap’ and ‘seri muka’. Next she will mesmerize you with stories of her late father in the Australian navy. Her mother ,who lives in Melbourne, Australia, is the focus of her life and Adam, her first grandson or “cucu” is the love of her life. She surprised me initially when she used Malay words like “songlap” and “ngorat”. She has acclimatized to the local jargons, thanks to her two sons.

As an academician, she is trained as a linguist. Linguistic is her forte and her passion. When she discusses this subject, you will know that she knows her stuff well. As an administrator, she is very considerate. One of her administrative staff, who is a new mother, commented that she is such an understanding superior. It is so good to have a woman as a boss because she understands the stress and demand of a professional woman who is also a wife and a mother. She went through it herself in her early days working in University Malaya.

Associate Professor Lynne Norazit is the Director of the Centre for Languages and General Studies at UNITAR. She is now my boss.