My Half Day at NASAM Ampang

NASAM Ampang

The Strokees are having a warm-up session.

The look of the compound after everyone had left at 5 in the evening.

I met Ms. N in the month of August 2006 because I needed physiotherapy treatment at the hospital she worked in. From three times a week of treatments, it became once a week. Then, I was fully recovered and thank goodness I didn't need to go there anymore. During my treatments done by Ms. N, we had a good time chatting about what girls chat about. Believe me, the treatments were not really pleasant but I needed them. The conversations we had somehow shortened the time for every part of my treatments there. Thanks to her and not forgetting her staff then, that I have recovered fast. When the time came that I did not need the treatments anymore, Ms. N was informing me that she was leaving the place too. We exchanged numbers and we do keep in touch since then.

NASAM Ampang is her new workplace. I've heard a lot about it via phone conversations and e-mails, and during our short outings together. I listen to her stories with full interest. The reason? She treats her patients like how I treated my students in school! Or her patients' (mostly above 50s) behaviours are like the secondary students I taught in school!

Finally, I braved myself, I learnt my way to the centre. I read the map on the Internet, made short notes and remembered the route mentally too. I reached there about 12 noon after I missed the first turning on my left into Jalan Awan. I really hope the relevant authority will put up the roadsign there or am I too blind to see it today? I gave a call to Ms. N and she gave me the direction, "after Flamingo Hotel, drive a little further about 100m then turn left when you see the signboard of Pasar Kuala Ampang," for that I did an illegal U-turn...

It was 12 noon, most strokees had left after their morning session. I felt quite disappointed at first. Nevertheless, Ms. N told me that there would be another batch in the afternoon and a Christmas party on the next day... We went out for lunch somewhere nearby on foot and ta-pao-ed for Ms. C (the admin there) her lunch. Nice yet simple lunch, we had economic rice and I gave most of my meat to a stray dog there.

The Strokees for the afternoon session arrived at 2 in the afternoon. Some were pushed in by wheelchair or walked in slowly with the help from their maid or their own child/husband/wife/sister/brother/relatives. Then, they were seated in a circle. Two physio trainees took turns to conduct warm-up exercises with them, with Ms. N's supervision, of course! At this moment, I had started to help. Being my first time, I observed how the staff did their part and I tried my best to be as gentle with them as possible.

I got to know a few Strokees when I was introduced to them by Ms. N. All of them were stroke patients before of different causes and their levels of recovery also differ. Some were seen to be doing their routine without much difficulty. Some were seen struggling even to have an opened palm from a clenched fist. I felt sad the moment her tears were wiped away by her carer. I felt a bit upset when another cried out loud for she could not take the pain much more. However, it takes an experienced physiotherapist like Ms. N to know whether those were true or they were faking... They can act like small children who don't eat green vegetables served, if you know what I mean. They can fake so that they can stop the painful routine when it is the routine they need in order to reduce the pain and enable them to move about again.

For the Strokees, every move they make is a pain. However, for their loved ones, every pain they can see is a neverending agony...

With the NASAM centres formed in most of the states in Peninsular Malaysia, may they serve and live with their motto "YES! There is Life After Stroke!"

Read all about NASAM here.

When I Look Out the Window...

Disney Fun-tasy at NZX, Ara Damansara

When I look out the window

I see bright and colourful lights

I see big lanterns of Disney characters

I see parents and their children, snapping pictures away

I see friends, chatting and laughing away...

When I look out the window

I see Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse are waving at me

I see Donald Duck and Daisy Duck are smiling at me

I see Goofy and Pluto are grinning from ear to ear at me...

When I look out the window

I hear Disney songs are played again and again

I hear children's giggling and screaming in delight

I hear the sound of thunder in the sky...

When I look out the window

No more children's laughter is heard

No more people are seen

No more smiles are seen...

When I look out the window

The thunder is getting louder and louder

The rain is getting heavier and heavier

And the crowd is getting less and gone...

Come another day

Everyone will wish for the rain to go away

Posing and snapping away with all the Disney characters

To be treasured in their blogs, journals, scrapbooks, photo albums and what-so-ever!

FYI: There are also Buzz Lightyear, Simba, Bambi, High School Musical's Zac and Vanessa, Nemo etc. etc... I don't get anything to blog about this. It's what I can see from where I stay =)...

A Quote for All the Teachers in the World

"The biggest enemy of learning is a talking teacher."

~ John Holt

I learnt about the quote above when I attended "SMART TEACHING & LEARNING SEMINAR" at Bestari Hall in University Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur yesterday (1st December 2008). The presenter, Mdm. M., who introduced this quote is a PhD scholar with UM with her interest in developing 21st century Learning Spaces using Socil-Cultural Instructional Design for secondary schools. Oh boy, aren't the words a mouthful (?) but the outcome is bountiful!

What I like about her presentation is the way she presented in a limited time given by the organizer and how her Powerpoint slides made my eyes glued to the screen. She is always straight to her points, being simple and sweet. Furthermore, her words, her utterances made the audience think! How I wished she has more than 15 minutes to present what she had to say. Her research is something awesome which I haven't seen from day one I attended school until today.

Back to the quote above, in my opinion, the similar idea is also shared by the key note speaker of the seminar for the day. He has posted a few questions to all the educators present, especially lecturers the following questions:

• Are we still lecturing?
• Are students still copying notes?
• Are students scrambling for articles and books? and
• Are students still photocopying?

If the answer to all the above questions is a 'YES', then, the students are not learning at all. They are spoonfed, or I should use my favourite phrase, since these students are of higher learning institutions, senduk-fed . They need to be fed using a ladle which is able to carry more quantity at a time. The keynote speaker has also introduced another term, which is 'Active Learning'. Students or non-students should all practise active learning and it can be done if only the teachers of today doing less talking. Teachers are recommended to set tasks to students by putting them into groups or the way Mdm. M. puts it as "Mini Learning Organization" (Oh, even the words she uses have oomph!).

With that quote in mind, I guess I'll add a new point to my resolution for year 2009... which is to do less talking and provide the opportunity to my students to experience 'Active Learning'. I hope I can start the ball rolling in order to have teachers to cut down on the time they use to talk by posting this blog. One joke which I got from the internet to share with you before I end this chapter...

Teacher : What do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?

Pupil : A teacher.

Special thanks to Mdm. NMK for giving me the opportunity to attend this seminar.

Fried Spagetti ala Naz

Fried Spagetti

The ingredients for Fried Spagetti ala Naz

250g Spagetti (of course!), one egg, prawns, tomato (sliced and diced), chopped garlic, sliced onions and shallots, tomato sauce, dark soya sauce, oyster sauce, and a bit of salt.

It has been quite some time that I didn't post anything on my blog. What I've prepared for dinner tonight has truly provided the inspiration for me to continue blogging... about food, that is.

Today, I'm going to share with you a simple recipe on how to prepare Fried Spagetti ala Naz. Why ala Naz? You may ask... Well, Naz is a good pal of mine and she shared the recipe with me when she was preparing it for her children's lunch as well as chatting with me on MSN (she's a real multi-tasker - an incurable juggler!), all at the same time.

I managed to take note of everything she managed to type on her MSN to me.

"senang saja.... tumis bawang putih, bawang merahpour in the ketchup (heinz or whatever la).... bila naik minyak, you add the garam and some chicken cube/stock.... then add in spaghetti bila dah sebati.... pecah telur and turn down the heat.... kacau until telur salut all the spaghetti.... i think it is best when it is kering.... ketchup you can adjust sendiri. but i think the more the better, then you can reduce salt...."

At this moment, I haven't really tasted the spagetti that I fried one hour ago. My hubby has not come home from work yet. However, looking at the big plate of fried spagetti, I am salivating already, two of the reasons are I'm a big fan of tomato ketchup (!) and... well, I'm hungry as well...

Yup, you can imagine whenever there is a choice of tomato ketchup and chilli sauce, I feel myself like a seven-year-old, snatching the bottle of tomato ketchup first. Then, there will be people who will tease me, you are a Malaysian and you don't like chillies?!? I won't bother about what they say so much as long as the food plus tomato ketchup taste good in my mouth...

Naz, please forgive me that I can't send you a tupperware of the fried spagetti but a picture of it. It is seafood flavoured because I added prawns and oyster sauce! Hope you will like it =) Thanks again for sharing, Naz!

Bubur Cha Cha, Mango Snowie and Yam Cake

Bubur Cha Cha, Mango Snowie and Yam Cake

At 5.29 pm, after receiving a couple of SMSes, I answered a call asking which unit am I staying. And so I was identified even before I managed to reply. She came all the way to send me Lemon Panna Cotta on my door step (gee... sorry there is no picture of the Lemon Panna Cotta to share here). At the same time, she even mentioned that she was hungry. Oh boy, it has been some time for me to have a girls' day out, a tea break. It could be just a short one, but I don't mind...

Together we walked to Niu Ze Xui in Ara Damansara. We looked around to find a pleasant looking cafe. We had decided on Starbucks but changed our minds to try a cafe called Cottage Cafe. There were not many people at that moment and the ambience was just right. We ordered the food mentioned above and our conversation started until the last mouthful of our food.

I believe we had a good time there, talking and laughing over a few sensitive issues, women and household issues particularly. Time flew when we were enjoying ourselves there. I hope we would have more tea breaks in future.

Hey, Yoga mate, when is our next meal together? I still owe you one!

Take care and all the best!

Keropok Lekor Nipis

Kerepok Lekor Nipis

Finally, the stall is open for business again. I missed the food prepared by the stall operators for more than a month. The reason is they have closed for business during the fasting month. Let me share with you the food that they sell, one of them is pictured above Kerepok Lekor Nipis, other than that, they have Kerepok Lekor Tebal, Pisang Goreng, Cokodok Pisang, Ubi Goreng, and sometimes Cempedak Goreng too! They also sell some drinks which I don't fancy. The price is quite reasonable for the food, for RM2 I can get 8 pieces of Kerepok Lekor Nipis and 4 to 5 pieces of Goreng Pisang.

My personal favourite? Nope, not the Lekor family, but Pisang Goreng. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the Pisang Goreng to share with you as I have finished them before I turned off my engine. They have managed to fry the flour coated bananas crispy and the best part is the bananas that they use are so sweet. No wonder I have been looking at the spot of their stall almost everyday I drive by. I dislike Pisang Goreng that tastes like Ubi Goreng, plain and tasteless!

You don't believe what I've shared? Fine. Do go to this stall whenever it is convenient to you preferably during the late afternoons on weekdays. It is situated next to the Yayasan Bola Sepak Selangor football field in Kelana Jaya. There are a few stalls there selling Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng Rempah and also Goreng Pisang too. To get the right stall, make sure that it is the one nearest to the T-junction where you turn right to reach Taman Emas, Taman Megah Mas, NZX and D'aman Ria etc.

Try them and post some comments to me =)
FYI, they don't give me free Pisang Goreng or Keropok Lekor to blog on their business...

My 36 Coloured Pencils

Guess how old is this box of 36 coloured pencils...

Call me a stationery freak. My life does relate to stationery. Without them, I don't know how to work and play. Seeing Puteri Saadong shares about her first box of coloured pencils, I can't help it but to share mine too.

The biggest box of coloured pencils that I owned contained 24 pencils. The box of coloured pencils pictured above is my biggest. It has 36 colours but sadly, when I checked in the box just now, one of its members has gone missing and I could not recall what the colour was.

I was and still is an average student. Whenever I've done well in my public exams, my parents would reward me with things that I'm in need the most. I couldn't remember what I got from them when I got 3As and 1B for my UPSR. However, for my PMR's 6As and 1B results, my parents gave me the latest edition of Kamus Dewan (blue cover) that year. My achievement that year had reached my (the late) aunt's ears. She was the one who presented me the box of coloured pencils pictured above. Therefore, you can start doing your math now... 2008 minus 1993 (the year I got the gift from her and still keeping till today) equals to FIFTEEN!

This is the last gift from her before she left to join my grandpa in 1997. When I use the box of coloured pencils every now and then, I would remember her. However, as I am typing, I could feel my eyes welled with tears. She loved me and always encouraged me to do well in my studies. It was her that motivated me to study hard. I felt bad when I did not do well in my SPM, but her death had made me realised that I could not afford not to do well in my STPM. I bring the box of coloured pencils with me wherever I go and whenever I use them I think about her a lot...

Auntie Hong, if you are happened to read this blog of mine somewhere out there, do rest in peace. I'll always remember you and will do my best in all my future undertakings!