4th Putrajaya International Balloon Festival; 15-18 March 2012

4^th Putrajaya International Balloon Festival; 15-18 March 2012 

The Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta is a home grown event that seems to have gained interest from the public and media. The uniqueness of the event draws everyone from all around Malaysia and neighboring countries for the past 3 years. 

The event is a good one as it encourages family togetherness by having fun with variety of activities for all ages. This was also a good opportunity to have family over and giving them a break from the hectic daily life. I love such getaways and I applaud Putrajaya for having this event for another year running. Keep it coming.

Surprise Services

-          My write up piece here is due to the experience I received on my latest travel to Penang. This is a story on service above and beyond the call of duty and from the most unlikely of sources. I write this piece with a good feeling. The sort of feeling that you feel when you don’t expect to receive something but an amazing feeling to have none the less.

-          The two examples I am quoting here are from the Subaidah Mamak Store & The newspaper vendor near the house in Penang.

-          Story 1: Subaidah Mamak Store

The mamak store scene has developed leaps and bounds with the modernisation of technology. Long story short, the waiter just had to ‘key in’ a few codes into his little tablet (replacing the paper scribbles and shouting across the shop) and the ‘chef’ straight away receives the order chit and produces the order in a flash straight to where I was waiting in approximately 2 minutes. Pretty impressive.

 

-          Story 2: The newspaper vendor near my house

A routine newspaper run gave me some perspective in doing work. As my car approaches the newspaper man offered me The Star newspaper in a very warm and kind manner and in perfect English. However I took The New Straits Times instead. Lesson from this was that:

i)                    Public Relations makes a difference in making new customers and keeping loyal ones

ii)                   Taking pride in your job is evident on your faces

iii)                 Assumption/Predicting in advance is a powerful tool of efficiency

iv)                 It gives an impression when you don’t expect service above and beyond the call of duty  

Thank You For Inspiring Us To Aspire For Better Tok Abah

Every 20^th of the month reminds me of my late tok abah (grandfather). This write-up is not in any way a boasting fest but more of a sign of respect to a man who has been such an inspiration to many including myself. Having a road after your name is not something that occurs every day but unlike any other person, tok abah was an extraordinary man. Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng in his speech on 14 Mac 2012 at the officiating ceremony sums it up with the following:

“Tun Haji Hamdan bin Sheikh Tahir dikenali umum bukan saja sebagai Tuan Yang Terutama Gabenor Pulau Pinang tetapi juga sebagai seorang tokoh pendidik dan pegawai pendidikan yang terkemuka serta sebagai Naib Canselor kedua USM. Dilahirkan pada 27 April 1921 di Pulau Pinang dan mendapat pendidikan awal di Madrasah Haji Taib, Parit Jamil, Muar, Johor. Pada tahun 1939, beliau mendapat biasiswa untuk melanjutkan pelajaran ke Raffle’s College.

Para hadiri sekalian,

Sumbangan khidmat beliau dalam bidang pendidikan terus melebar bila dilantik untuk berkhidmat sebagai Canselor Universiti Sains Malaysia yang kedua dari tahun 1976 hingga 1982. Dalam tempoh perkhidmatan tersebut banyak sumbangan dan perubahan yang beliau telah lakukan termasuk mempelopori penubuhan Pusat Pengajian Sains Perubatan dan penubuhan Kampus Cawangan Kelantan. Pada tahun 1983 hingga 1985 beliau berkhidmat sebagai Wakil Tetap dan Duta Malaysia ke UNESCO di Paris. Ketokohan beliau yang terserlah dalam bidang pentadbiran membawa kepada pelantikan sebagai Tuan Yang Terutama Yang di-Pertua Negeri Pulau Pinang pada 1 Mei 1989. Sumbangan beliau yang luas dalam dunia pendidikan mendapat penghargaan dan pengiktirafan di peringkat nasional dan antarabangsa.

Para Hadirin Sekalian,

Bekas T.Y.T. Yang Dipertua Negeri Pulau Pinang ini telah menabur begitu banyak sumbangan dan bakti bagi memastikan kualiti pendidikan rakyat Malaysia dan Pulau Pinang terjamin.

Sehubungan itu, Kerajaan Negeri amat berbesar hati memilih dan menamakan Jalan Bertam ke Jalan Kubang Menerong sepanjang 7.3 kilometer kepada Jalan Tun Hamdan Sheikh Tahir sebagai tanda penghargaan terhadap sumbangan dan bakti yang telah diberikan oleh beliau kepada rakyat Negeri Pulau Pinang. Jalan tersebut bermula dari hadapan Pejabat Pos Kepala Batas ke persimpangan Jalan Pokok Jenerih, Tasek Gelugor. Pemilihan jalan ini adalah kerana sepanjang laluan tersebut terdapat beberapa institusi pendidikan terdiri dari Malaysia Productivity Corporation, Allianze University College of Medical Sciences, Institut Latihan Perindustrian, Maktab Rendah Sains Mara, Sekolah Menengah Sains dan UiTM.

Di laluan ini juga terdapat Masjid Daerah Kepala Batas, Seberang Perai Utara. Pemilihan jalan ini adalah bertepatan dengan sumbangan dan minat Tun Hamdan Sheikh Tahir terhadap bidang pendidikan. Kerajaan Negeri berharap usaha ini sedikit sebanyak akan membangkitkan rasa kecintaan kepada tokoh terbilang anak negeri kita oleh rakyat terutamanya golongan muda yang lahir selepas zaman beliau dan seterusnya dijadikan contoh untuk memastikan kejayaan di dalam kehidupan.”

To me…he is still & forever would be my tok abah…and his memory & legacy lives on.

woman at work

it's been almost 2 months since i've started working at the uni and i still think that i have not gotten the hang of it. the novelty of the posher, more privileged ambiance of both the university and the students have faded away, but the challenge of teaching and other tasks that come with it can still make my heart beat faster, but not in that good 'yeay! i love a challenge' sort of way, more of an 'oh..............s***' way.

a few weeks ago, we had supper with a good friend who asked me how work was like. she asked if my students liked me because i was different and i teach them differently about different things and that i showed them the light and taught them to reach for the stars. i scoffed despite her genuinely glimmering eyes. because the thing is, i used to have the same romantic notions of myself if i ever were to become a teacher; i wanted to be like miss frizzle from the 'magic school bus' or miss honey from dahl's 'matilda'. how amazing would it be to be a teacher who COULD make her students learn SOMETHING, to allow them to DISCOVER their potentials and to help them become the BEST of themselves. how fulfilling and how satisfying and how gratifying to be able to live and make that type of difference in someone's life. but now, after a few years of intermittent but various teaching positions, i've discovered that it is not always possible if you don't live in a book or a movie.

Miss Frizzle, Lizzie and the Magic School bus off to an adventure in a volcano

when i taught debate to school students, i never felt that i was really making a difference in their lives; sometimes, as the weeks go by and i see no improvement, i feel disappointed with myself. but i always change my mind when i see them compete; it certainly is magical to see them perform so well under pressure. i then realize that they do learn, but they just never see the point of using what they learn or just never have the chance to when it's just between his peers and the teacher. but in situ, they often take my breath away. as cliched as it sounds, a teacher's reward is slow to obtain, but when it is, it is so completely worth it. and that is why i stuck to training school kids even if the money was pittance - that bond you build, if the stars are aligned, is magical.

but i don't think i've felt that magic in the current job. though i have yet to meet extremely rude students, they are quiet and unresponsive, no matter how i try to get them to respond to the world's simplest questions on communication or tense use. this would still be fine if they were actually responsible for their own learning, but they are not. i've probably asked them to download their own module outline (which should have been done by themselves in week 1) a million times, and it's already week 5. the blase attitudes about assignments and tutorial preparation grate my nerves. though i may not teach extremely technical subjects like business law, i do expect a basic level of preparedness before i start a class. but it seems i'm the only person in the class who thinks so. ohwellsigh.

then i think about what i am whining about and i pinch myself. because i am thinking of the students from my perspective of a teacher. i have too many expectations, i am too pedantic and i am too quick to judge. obviously, as a teacher, i have to have these qualities, but maybe i need to give myself some space and look at it from the students' point of view. 'having to start a class at 8am and learning things that i don't think are important for my life will obviously make me bored and unresponsive. or maybe, as a student, i just don't feel like speaking in a class. after all, i do not need to satisfy the teacher's need for instant gratification; i need time to absorb and understand what she's saying. '. maybe that's what the students are thinking. even if it's not, that's what i think they're thinking (because they're more likely to be thinking 'i need time to think about how to destroy melissa who is trying to steal my boyfriend and what i want to have for lunch and which bag i should wear with tomorrow's outfit'). it's the only way that i won't one day strangle them and get sued by their terribly rich parents.

Malaysia is an exemplary UN member - Ban Ki-Moon

Posted on 23 March 2012 - 05:33am

Ban Ki Moon praised Malaysian Peacekeeper and 'Gagasan 1 Malaysia' during an interview with BERNAMA at Bunga Raya Complex Kuala Lumpur International Airport here today.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 22, 2012): United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has described Malaysia as an exemplary and important member of the UN and that its offer to be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2015-16 term would be considered by member states when deciding on the candidacy.

"It is the member states that will decide," he said, adding that Malaysia had contributed significantly to the UN over the last five decades.

Ban hoped that other member states would appreciate its contribution in maintaining peace and security not only in the South East Asia but in other parts of the world as well.

Malaysia had sent 20,000 peacekeeping forces and 1,000 police officers in 25 UN peacekeeping missions around the world since 1960.

Ban said Malaysia had also met most of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which included eradicating extreme poverty and increasing literacy rates, set for completion by 2015 and had been actively promoting human rights.

"I hope all these good practices will be appreciated by member states," he told Bernama in an interview at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at the end of his two-day visit here.

Ban, who was wearing a 1Malaysia pin on his lapel, was all smiles when asked about it, and said,"Ah, this is Satu, Satu Malaysia!(1Malaysia)."

To be approved as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, a candidate country must receive at least two thirds of all votes cast for a seat.

The Security Council, one of the principal organs of the UN charged with the maintenance of international peace and security, has five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) and 10 non-permanent members on two-year terms.

The non-permanent members are chosen by regional groups and countries currently representing Asia are India and Pakistan.

Ban said Malaysia had been a very important regional player and was now expanding its role globally.

In terms of vision, he said Malaysia was one of the founding members of ASEAN and had demonstrated "very important leadership" in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Ban also hailed the efforts of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in his Global Movement of Moderates (GMM), which sought to create a better world for future generations through enduring and peaceful co-existence, and invited him to work closer with the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC).

UNAOC is an initiative which seeks to galvanise international action against extremism through the forging of international, intercultural and interreligious dialogue and cooperation.

Ban said there was much complementarity in both GMM and UNAOC and that Malaysia, with its multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural background, would have a lot to share with other countries.

Referring to his visit to the Malaysian Peacekeeping Training Centre in Port Dickson, he said he was impressed with its establishment and hoped that it could strengthen its capacity and standards.

He said it was also important for it to equip UN peacekeepers with knowledge on international laws, including international humanitarian laws, to enhance their peacekeeping and humanitarian roles in helping civilians in conflict areas. -- Bernama

rosey posey

ariff and i absolutely LOVE having flowers in the house! 

don't they just make you smile?

i'm sure there are more pictures around. maybe i should print them all out and turn

 them into a pin-board of sorts.

*satisfied smile*

vanilla vanilla + sprinkles!

on tuesday, in a stroke of inspiration and sugar-craving, i decided to make cupcakes for a friend's birthday. ariff and i are extreme fans of baked goods, and i have tried my hand at making quite a number of cakes, breads and other desserts in the past. my go-to recipe has always been my mother's pound cake recipe because of its reliable results. about 5 years ago, however, i discovered that there are a number of quite reliable recipes to choose from on the internet, some of which i've tried and turned out extremely well. from then on, i've put aside the pound cake recipe in favour of adventure in the sea of delicious desserts and melt-in-the-mouth morsels! (but i still go back to the pound cake recipe when i screw a new recipe up. my umbrella on a rainy day!)

cupcakes baking in my oven. i always feel an indescribable feeling of achievement 

when i see them rising like this 

my little helper frosting the chocolate cupcakes and bikini people

in my rather limited experience of baking, i've realized that baking really IS chemistry. it's an orchestration of ingredients and their measurements, temperature, technique and passion. you cannot rely on just a good recipe to get good results. you have to cream the butter and sugar the right way, remember not to dump in all of the flour at once, make sure the eggs are beat in well and, afterwards, not to overbeat the mixture. all these steps ensure that there will be enough air in the butter and sugar mixture to lift the cake while its baking, that the gluten in the flour is not so overdeveloped that it produces a tough cake, and that the eggs emulsify in the batter as the protein coagulates while baking and helps to hold the shape of the cake. though cooking is also a chemical process that produces flavour in food, i find that baking hinges on more precise and complex use of chemical reactions to produce yummy treats. and this is precisely why sometimes i fail, quite miserably so too. 


however, on tuesday, i wanted to make sure that i didn't repeat any of my past mistakes that resulted in gritty cupcakes (because i didn't cream the butter and sugar enough, there were sugar crystals that didn't melt into the batter) or sunken cupcakes (because i was too curious. i opened the oven door too many times so the oven's temperature dropped and affected the 'baking' process of the cake batter). i diligently followed the tips provided on baking websites such as baking911 and the cupcake bakeshop, and voila! i am happy to report that they turned out rather well!

Magnolia Cupcakes (picture taken from here) 

are they not the prettiest things you've ever seen in your life?

i decided that i wanted to make the famous Magnolia Vanilla Vanilla cupcakes as i was feeling rather nostalgic about my time in new york a few years ago. magnolia bakery is famous for its cupcakes, most remembered for its reference on the tv show 'sex and the city'. i found the recipe on food network:


Ingredients for cupcakes:


1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract


the steps for making the cupcakes were so easy: sift flours together, cream butter and sugar, add eggs, alternately add flour and liquids in three parts, bake. easy! i used an electric mixer (wedding gift from my dear debate friends!) and followed the tips from the websites i referred to earlier. i made sure that the butter (not really at room temperature, but still a little firm because the electric mixer warms everything up anyway) and sugar were creamed till light and fluffy but not till the point of being oily, and that i beat the eggs well after each addition. from my past baking missions, i find that these two steps are where i screw up the most and end up with grainy or eggy cake. 

the recipe is supposed to yield 24 cupcakes, but i used a mixture of muffin and cupcake liners and ended up with about 30. they bake for 20-25 minutes at 180d celsius. a note though: i decided to use muffin liners at first because mine are a cute light blue and white polka dot pattern, but i soon discovered that baking cupcakes in muffin liners, no matter how cute they are, is not worth it because it can be rather messy. the cake shrinks away from the structured paper liner and leaves a great moat of nothingness between liner and cake, and the edges of the paper liner are usually crumb-y. all this made the icing process quite a tediously messy affair. 

get set, ready, bake!

the frosting for the cakes is actually an old-fashioned butter and icing sugar mixture:

Ingredients for frosting:


1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6-8 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

method: cream half of the sugar with everything, then add the remaining sugar until you achieve the desired consistency.


i only made half a batch as i am always skeptical about frosting recipes. but even with just 1 stick of butter and 1 cup of sugar, the frosting turned out to be extremely sweet! i had already expected this because icing sugar frostings do tend to be on the toothachingly sweet side because it relies on large amounts of sugar to achieve spreadable consistencies. basically, it's just a pile of sugar with a little butter and flavour. *yuck*. i was not at all happy with it, so i added a little lemon juice and zest which adds a little acid to cut down on the sweetness. it turned out alright, but i decided not to ice the cupcakes as i usually would i.e. piping a blob on top of it. instead i spread some with a palette knife, just enough to stick sprinkles on.


oh yes! sprinkles! i learnt that if you put some sprinkles on a plate or bowl and dip the iced tops of the cupcakes, it produces a heavenly crunchy crust! it's a colourful way to add some texture. how fun!

at the end of it though, i was very pleased with the results of the cake. the tiny smidge of frosting on top was just enough to make it, to use a friend's description, dreamy. 

vanilla vanilla + sprinkles!

i make dream cupcakes, so please, call me the sandman :) (with compliments to Magnolia Bakery of course).