Kindy Talk: Practical Instructional Approaches for Teaching English to Young Learners

Apparently putting up my last post on FB created an uproar coz I am hardly an FB person. They say FB are for old peeps and Tiktok are for the young 'uns. Judging how Mr Hubs likes lurking on FB, it's probably true. Hahahaha! Me, I have no presence. My presence is mostly felt when I do online shopping and that skillset did sharpen greatly during the pandemic.

Since I made a promise to self to revive my blogspot as a branding tool, (again, I wonder, are people still into reading blogs? Perhaps if I link it to FB again, who knows I may even revive blogging) I share here our most recent training with preschool educators. This was in collaboration with Persatuan Pendidik Awal Kanak-kanak Negeri Pahang, where the participants were mainly from Kuantan, Indera Mahkota, Balok, and even 2 who travelled all the way from Temerloh, Julie and Mdm Linda! 

One of our participants this time was from our first ever KTP Kindy training participants all the way back in 2015 (when Kindy Talk was still known as KTP Kindy) and this time she brought her whole crew with her from Tadika Kasih Sejati IM. Nurul Aisyah, thank you so much! We really really appreciate your support.

KTP Kindy, now rebranded as Kindy Talk started in 2015 when Assoc. Prof Dr Noor Raha Mohd Radzuan applied for a Knowledge Transfer Grant and the grant ended in 2019. We have been going on ever since. We started with 2 modules; the first focused on daily routine and instructional language, and the second focused on storytelling techniques. Then I applied for an internal grant and we came up with our Talking Posters! and then we came up with our third module, English for STEM and our latest focused on the worksheets and teacher teaching aid that comes with the worksheets. 

The programme, called "Little Learners, Big Future: Practical Instructional Approaches for Teaching English to Young Learners", was attended by 47 preschool educators and featured the ever engaging theme of animals. Which child doesn't like animals? Even if they aren't fond of them, children are still curious about them. So we have to feed that curiousity. Don't just ask them what they know, tell them what they don't know.

One crucial lesson we emphasized in the programme was the importance of providing accurate and correct language input for the children because we believe that the language the children hear and use during their early years forms the foundation for their future proficiency. The meticulously crafted teacher visual aids for  worksheets provided language input that the educators could use to interact with the children. These aids allow educators to deliver consistent language instruction at the same time reinforce vocabulary and grammatical structures in a meaningful way. Puan Siti Zubaidah Salehudin, the winning participant (we had a contest of sorts at the end of the programme) shared that access to these materials boosted her confidence in teaching English and enabled her to structure her lessons better to meet her students’ needs.

Another lesson from the workshop was that learning didn't need to be static. Rather than chalk and talk, or passive learning, children should be engaged in fun, enjoyable activities that allow them to experience learning through playing. We had one male participant, Encik Ahmad Nasharudin Al Bakri, who said that games and role plays help children retain new vocabulary and language as they were actively involved.

All in all, I would like to report that we have come a long way and after 9 years doing Kindy Talk, we are still passionate and hope to improve the standards of English from the cradle in baby steps. Here a our video link for the programme courtesy of Wan Farah and Ishafira: https://youtu.be/aV_CCYQ0nrY?si=g6DUxKqtcJEaMQsy  

Reintroducing Myself – Jumani, Your Language Enthusiast

Hello, world! It’s Jumani—your friendly neighborhood English lecturer (and occasional tea enthusiast). Some of you might know me as Jujuqtpie, a nickname I’ve carried for years. At home, I’ve always been called Juju, and the ‘qtpie’ bit was a fun touch to my email handle (because, why not?). Though people sometimes mispronounce it, I’ve always found it playful and endearing!

I’ve been teaching for years, primarily focusing on making English less of a chore and more of a fun, easy language to learn. My students range from engineering undergrads to Master’s students tackling language policy. And you know what? I love every bit of it!

Beyond teaching, I’m deeply into lifelong learning, believing that we all have the tools to help ourselves improve. I’m a strong believer in blending technology with language learning, having worked on projects like Kindy Talk, a module for early childhood educators. I’m also passionate about intercultural communication and impoliteness studies (yes, there’s such a thing!).

This blog is my space to share thoughts on language, life, and maybe a few odd rants (like how I once accidentally threw an ice chip at a smoker—long story). But more than anything, it’s a place for me to connect with like-minded people who love learning and growing.

So if you’re here to discover some language hacks, pick up tips, or just enjoy a bit of lighthearted banter, welcome back to my little corner of the internet!

Reviving my blog, breathing new life

I recently joined a course called GENACITY 2.0. I would be part of their second cohort. It is really exciting to have the opportunity to learn from these VERY HEAVY practitioners such as Dr Tazli, Prof Abd Karim Alias, Don and Chuah Kee Man.

Being a lecturer at UMPSA for how many donkey years, I figured I have to keep up with the times, embrace technology, particularly AI! I am all for us using AI, it really helps with productivity, shortens my thinking time and produces wonderful writing. But that's for us; we have gone through our Bachelor, Master and PhD. Even without AI, we can survive; even if the work produced wouldn't be as fast but there would be output produced by our God-given human brain. However for students, for me to say, go ahead, use AI to your heart's content, they would have to know BOTH the long way and the short cuts. How can we let them out into the world by just AI-ing everything? What is a language class if the language is generated by AI? They have to have the knowledge in their human brain so that they can fall back on their own brain coz believe me, technology has the tendency to fail at the most inopportuned times. 

Here's a FACT: Technology has failed me at several significant life events! First example, my VIVA VOCE! On the day I was to present on my PhD, the university had a major blackout. I presented in near  darkness with natural light coming in from the windows. My supervisor said, "Only you. This could happen to only you". In a way, it was a blessing in disguise. The room was hot and stuffy and the whole process finished in half an hour. Of course, credit also should be given to easy readability of my thesis, which is a proud achievement. Remember, no chatGPT yet at that time! So it's all me! Of course I wouldn't want to read through that "masterpiece" coz somehow, the eyes could catch mistakes better post submission.

Second example: I was in the middle of presenting my poster for an online Teaching and Learning Innovation Competition and suddenly I realised I was talking by myself, to myself as I was disconnected. It really killed my mojo. Even when I was reconnected, I was a bit more flustered than before.

There are other instances but these two instances are the most memorable for me. 

Blogging again...but do people still read blogs?

I cannot even remember the last time I blogged. The last baby I blogged about turns 17 today! Here is an interesting fact. FACT: I totally forgot what happened giving birth to Hana (<-- my birthday girl!). I remember how, more or less what time each child came into this world except for Hana. This was because there were too many false alarms when it was her turn that when the actual deed happened, I had no recollection!

But guess what? I documented every detail in this blog. Isn't that amazing? Here's the link if you are curious. But mostly it is for my own record: http://jujusthoughtsgalore.blogspot.com/2007/12/on-roll-again.html

Reading back my old posts, I can't believe I was so verbose. I wonder if my blogger friends are still blogging and whatever happened in their lives now. Have they abandoned ship? Or still going strong, blogging through time and space?

Perhaps this won't be my last post. Maybe this is my new beginning. Maybe...who knows. 

Churros!

This is the last of the churros that I made. I had to stop the kids from eating in order to snap this pic. This I made before Ramadan. I just want to share that churros are actually pretty easy to make and they are supposed to be dipped in hot chocolate sauce but I was not that adventurous and so I didn't make the sauce. You can get the recipe here. Remember to fry the churros for about 4 minutes. My first few churros shrank the moment they came out of the pan even though they were gorgeous in the pan. So I reduced the heat and cooked them longer and they retained their shape. I also sprinkled cinnamon onto the churros (see the brown specks). Yum. Maybe will make churros again but this time will try the recipe from this website which uses vege oil instead of butter.

Basil Chicken Wantan Soup

Assamualaikum and ramadan mubarak to all Muslims particularly my Muslim friends.

I am posting here this recipe due to to a friend's request. She says this style of cooking is not the typical wantan and it's refreshing. This is the most fuss-free wantan I have ever made and it is good for berbuka and sahur, and of course way after Ramadan.

I say fuss-free because when I made these I only had minced chicken and wantan skins. I did not even have carrots or water chestnuts or Japanese mushrooms which I would normally add to my minced chicken if I make wantans. For greens, I asked my daughter to go to the garden and pick me some Thai basil and you can also use the sweet basil. FYI, it's very easy to grow basil, I bought some from the night market and planted the basil stalks in soil and watered them every day. The same goes for mint leaves and daun kesom. However, mint leaves always die on me. In the end I bought a pot from the nursery. They seem to be surviving. So now I have mint leaves in my garden as well.

Okay, enough digressing.

I marinated the chicken with olive oil, light soya sauce and oyster sauce, pepper, a little ginger powder (optional) and corn flour.

To make the soup, I simply boiled water, enough to cover the number of wantans I'd like to eat.

While the water is boiling, I took a fat pinch of chicken, placed it in the middle of the wantan skin, added a basil leave and pushed the skin inward to close. I made about 9 fat ones and kept the rest for next time. Then I just dump the chicken wantans into the boiling water. And some basil leaves. I seasoned the soup with a little oyster sauce, fish sauce and pepper. The moment the meat is cooked (you can see the white through the wantan skin), turn off the heat and serve. Super easy and super fuss-free.

Finally the recipe!

Chicken Posole
This Mexican soup can be an entire meal by itself. I had bowls of it when my friend, Carmen aka Siti Khatijah served it when we went to her house for a Mary Kay party. It was muy delicioso that when I had some friends coming over, I practically begged her for the recipe and it's really easy to make. The recipe below has been slightly adapted from the original recipe but it still tastes similar to the original. Have fun making it!

1 whole chicken put in pot, put in water enough to cover all the chicken. Boil with one whole clove
garlic. Take chicken out once it’s cooked. Shred the meat when cooled and return bones to the stock.

In a frying pan, put in 1 tbsp olive oil and fry one medium sized big onion, thinly sliced until golden brown with some salt and black pepper. Once the onion is done, pour into your soup stock.

Put in one chicken cube, 1 can of stewed tomato (you can use Del Monte) pulped, 1 box of tomato puree, 1 tin of Leggo's tomato puree, 2 tins of Kimball chickpeas, 1 bottle of mixed vegetables (I normally get this from Carrefour and it costs around 7.90-9.90 (or you can substitute with cubed carrots, green peas, French beans, radish). Add 1 ½ tbsp coarse chilli powder to the stock. Put in some of your shredded chicken.

If you have the powdered version, you don't need to grind jintan manis/ cumin , and ketumbar/ coriander, add to paprika powder and black pepper. (1tbsp of each to 3 bowls of water). Season with salt and sugar.

Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, shredded chicken, lettuce sliced thinly, cucumber julienned, onion sliced thinly, mint, tomato deseeded and cubed. Serve with tobasco sauce and lime wedges for extra heat and sourness.

Chicken Posole

Haha, thanks Lin, for taking such a nice pix of my favourite soup in the world. Leave it to me, there won't be a picture at all; just the recipe. Now we have the pix, no recipe. Will do that in due time.

Burmese Briyani or Danpauk

This was a recipe I stumbled upon. I had one and a half big tubs of yogurt and went into Jamie Oliver's website. I found this: Cucumber yogurt. I had cucumber, I had yogurt, I had cilantro. But no salmon for the tikka recipe. It didn't matter coz I was only interested in the cucumber salad recipe. Here goes:

Peel and halve your cucumber lengthways, then use a spoon to scoop out and discard the seeds
• Roughly chop the cucumber and put most of it into a bowl
• Halve your lemon and squeeze the juice from one half into the bowl
• Add the yoghurt, a pinch of salt and pepper and half the chopped chilli
• Pick the coriander leaves and put to one side

Then I googled for Burmese Briyani. I thought the cucumber salad would be a nice accompaniment for that. So why Burmese Briyani? When my Burmese friend got married many many years ago, we had a very memorable briyani but it was different from the usual kind we eat at weddings. It had loads of caramelized onions that gave the rice an extra but natural sweetness. And it was so nice that even though I wasn't a big fan of briyani that I had two helpings and resisted a third helping. Here's the recipe: Danpauk
Ingredients:
300g Basmati rice (2 cups Ecobrown brown rice/ Jati Basmati brown rice)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
4 tbsp margarine (1 tbsp and 2 tbsp canola/ sunflower/ vege oil)
250ml plain yogurt
1 tsp salt
900g chicken, chopped into large pieces (1 whole chicken, a bit larger than bite sized pieces, marinated with salt, paprika powder, a bit of pepper, a bit of oil)
80ml cooking oil (canola oil)
2 tbsp ghee (1 tbsp margarine/ butter)
5cm cinnamon stick, lightly smashed to break up

(A)
4 slices ginger
10 shallots, thinly sliced
3/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder

(B)
5 cloves garlic
1 star anise
5 cardamoms, lightly smashed
1 tsp ground fennel
1 tsp poppy seeds

Garnishing
10–15 cashew nuts, deep-fried
50g raisins
1–2 tbsp shallots crisps

Method:

1. Wash and soak Basmati rice in water mixed with turmeric powder for 30–35 minutes. Drain rice in a colander. (yup, I did this first too. How much water to cook? At the bag of the rice packet, it says for every one cup add two cups water. So it should be 4 cups water, except some I substituted with the "gravy?" from the chicken and also added a chicken cube. Anyway, while the rice is soaking, I'd prepare the chicken coz I wanted to use the excess gravy as stock to cook the rice. So if I had 1 1/2 cup of chicken gravy, I'd top up with 2 1/12 cup of water, so it becomes 4 cups water.)
2. Heat margarine and fry ingredients (A) until fragrant. Add 2 tablespoons yogurt and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix in (B) and chicken. Fry well, then add in another 2 tablespoons yogurt and remaining salt. Continue to fry until chicken is tender. (You will realise at this point that you have loads of gravy from the chicken, later you'd only be putting the chicken in, so the gravy seems wasted, so I decided to pour out the excess gravy and use it as stock. Continue to fry chicken till the chicken browns.) Leave aside till it's time to put it into the about-to-cook rice.

To cook rice:
3. Heat oil and ghee (I use margarine) in a clean wok. Put in cinnamon stick and fry until fragrant. Add the remaining yogurt to mix. Toss in rice to mix, then transfer the well-mixed ingredients into a rice cooker.
4. Add sufficient water to a level that is 2cm above the rice (As mentioned, I substituted some water with the chicken gravy and added a chicken cube, add salt and a bit of sugar to taste). Cook rice for 20 minutes.
5. Open the rice cooker and add in the precooked chicken and continue to cook until rice is done.
Remember I said the wedding briyani I ate had caramelised big onions? Anyway, I browned some thinly sliced onions and put them in when i put in the chicken. I fried this separately.)
Add garnishing before serving.

I have made this 3 times now. It's nice...Really!

Corn Muffins Update!

They were so delicious! Not exactly like Kenny Rogers but much better than the 1st recipe I shared. I think I should delete that now that I have found something better. Will put a note there or something or try to improve it. So if you come across corn meal, go buy it so that you can make these lovely muffins. I reduced the sugar content to 1/3 cup but not the honey. If you still think that's still a little too sweet for your liking, I'd suggest you reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup.

Found another Corn Muffin Recipe

This time I went for the obvious. Who knows, Kenny Rogers might share his recipe on the world wide web. I searched for "Kenny Rogers Muffins recipe" and lo and behold, stumbled upon this site where the top secret recipe is shared. It really does use cornmeal. Will try this tonight with Inez. She'll be pleased.

Ingredients [ View Metric ]
1/2 c Butter
2/3 c Sugar
1/4 c Honey
2 Eggs
1/2 ts Salt
1 1/2 c All-purpose flour
3/4 c Yellow cornmeal
1/2 ts Baking powder
1/2 c Milk
3/4 c Frozen yellow corn
Preparation

He knows when to hold em, and he knows when to fold em. He also knows how to make awesome corn muffins that come with the meals served at his chain of fire-roasted chicken restaurants. When Kenny Rogers isnt singing "Ruby," hes out promoting his fast-growing chicken chain. And its working out pretty good. Already there are 203 stores in the chain, and when Kenny cant do the promotion himself, the chaps over at the TV show Seinfeld help out by featuring the restaurant in one of their popular episodes. Now, with the help of this Top Secret Recipe, you can make some sweet corn muffins of your own that taste just like Kennys. 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 2. Cream together butter, sugar, honey, eggs and salt in a large bowl. 3. Add flour, cornmeal and baking powder and blend thoroughly. Add milk while mixing. 4. Add corn to mixture and combine by hand until corn is worked in. 5. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan and fill each cup with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins begin to turn brown on top. Makes 12 muffins. (http://www.topsecretrecipes.com) Posted to recipelu-digest Volume 01 Number 438 by eyesopen@ix.netcom.com (linda /tennessee) on Jan 03, 1998

Am planning to reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup. And put in the same amount of honey required. Let's see how it goes.

Corn Muffins-One thumb Up

It's nearing the school holidays and Inez has been pestering me to make cookies or cake. Of course, cake! Cookies are much more work. The kids are on holiday. I am not. Anyway, out shopping one day, I found a packet of cornmeal and bought it. RM13.50 a pack. I was thinking cornbread but a friend said Kenny Roger's muffins were made from cornmeal. Really? That'd be cool!

I went on the net and googled "cornmeal muffins easy". And below is the recipe I tried. Normally the first time I make something, I'd reduce the sugar but this recipe didn't use much sugar. Only a quarter cup for 3/4 cup cornmeal and 1 cup flour. The only ingredient I doubted was the baking powder. Cautiously I used 3 tsp but not exactly level teaspoons. I made 12 tiny muffins and a loaf. The tin was kinda big, plus I'd use some batter for the muffins, so it didn't really rise that high. The result was okay, definitely not too sweet, the way I like it but not as soft as Kenny Roger's, which would have been better. Maybe those weren't made from cornmeal. I have some more cornmeal. Will experiment some more. In the meantime, try these. They are really quick to make.

Corn Muffins

3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 cups milk
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil (used canola oil)
1 cup flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn kernels (Didn't use this)

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Let cornmeal and milk stand while you get the other ingredients together. Add the egg and oil to the cornmeal mixture.

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and corn kernels. Stir to mix. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and combine just enough to incorporate.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full (do not use paper). Bake for approximately 10 to 12 minutes.

Recipe taken from http://www.cookingnook.com/corn-muffins.html

This is such an old song but still beautiful!

Lyrics to A Is For Allah :
A is for Allah, nothing but Allah;
Ba is the beginning of Bismillah;
Ta is for Taqwa, bewaring of Allah;and Tha is for Thawab, a reward;
Ja is for Janna, the Garden of Paradise;
Ha is for Hajj, the blessed pilgrimage;
Kha is for Khaatem, the seal of the prophethood given to the Prophet, Muhammed (SAW);
Da is for Deen, Al-Islam, religion with Allah since time began;
Dha is for dhikr, remembering Allah;
And Ra is for the month of Ramadhan, ohh Ramadhan;
Za is for Zakat to pure our greed, when we give our money to those in need;
Sa is for Salamu alaikum, peace be with you wa'alaikum assalam;
Sha is for shams, the shining sun, which Allah placed for everyone;
And Sua is for salat, for when we pray facing him, everyday, facing him, till we meet our lord;

Allah there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;

Dua is for duha, the morning light, the sun has turned from red to white;
Tua is for tareeq, the path to walk upon;
And Dhua is for dhil, a shadow;
And Aa is for ilm, the thing to know, to make our knowledge grow, in Islam;
Gha is for ghaib, a world unseen and that we know is not a dream;
Fa is for, the Opening, Al-Fatiha;
And Qua for the Qur'an, the book of God;
And Ka is for kalima, a word we're taught to teach us what is good and what is not;a
Nd La is for the beginning of La ilaha illa'allah;
Ma is for the Messenger Muhammed-ur-Rasoolillah.

La ilaha illa'allah, Muhammed-ur-Rasulilllah;
Allah, there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, la ilaha illa'allah;

Na is for nawm, the sleep God gave to give us rest after the day;
Ha is for the Hijra, the journey that, the Prophet made;
And Wa for wudu before we pray to help us wash our sins away;
And Ya for Yawm-mid-Deen;

Allah, there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Jesus was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Moses was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Abraham was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Noah was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and he created Adam, and we are the children of Adam.
Allah,La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah.
[ A Is For Allah Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

Blogging again...but for how long?

I know I haven't been blogging. And what I've posted is mainly just sharing. We really should be careful. People are getting more creative when they want to get their hands on your money, and property OR people can just do things behind your back.

Anyway, it's been a really hectic year. So much so, as I was updating my resume, I didn't have much recollection of the things I did. I was like, was that this year or was it last year? But despite the ups and downs, it's been a great year! I hope once I'm done with everything on my plate, I get to sit down and start writing again and sharing recipes. I'm really excited about brown rice at the moment. I've been experimenting. It's so euwwww cooked the normal way but as risotto or briyani, it can actually taste quite good. In fact, it's so good you want to eat a second helping.

Well, gtg. Will blog again soon, I hope. Ta ta!

Shocking video footage: Maid abusing child

The video makes me so sad to see a child picking herself in pain only to be kicked at, stepped and stomped on by a crazy maid who seemed possesed. Apparently parents put in a hidden camera when child kept crying when they got home, complaining of stomach pains. So now we can see the shocking truth. The maid was sentenced to two years' jail for assaulting the child.

I shudder at the thought of having my children abused like that. God forbid! Working Mom's maid used to hit on the head so there wouldn't be any apparent bruises. It's no wonder the child refused to follow the maid whenever the parents were around, even to get water. So beware, if you leave your maid unsupervised, read all the signs. Don't ignore them.

Here's link you can go to for more info about the above video.
http://forums.cozycot.com/cafe-talks/28577-maid-abuse-baby-video.html

Something Worth Passing On In My Mailbox

Subject: BEWARE - Police warning when driving.!!

This is happening now!
Sad, especially if you are inclined to 'help' people...

While driving on a rural end of the roadway on Thursday morning, I saw an infant car seat on the side of the road with a blanket draped over it. For whatever reason, I did not stop, even though I had all kinds of thoughts running through my head. But when I got to my destination, I called the Police and they were going to check it out. But, this is what the Police advised even before they went out there to check.... "There are several things to be aware of ... gangs and thieves are now plotting different ways to get a person (mostly women)to stop their vehicle and get out of the car. "There is a gang initiation reported by the local Police where gangs are placing a car seat by the road...with a fake baby in it...waiting for a woman, of course, to stop and check on the abandoned baby. "Note that the location of this car seat is usually beside a wooded or grassy (field) area and the person -- woman -- will be dragged into the woods, beaten and raped, and usually left for dead. If it's a man, they're usually beaten and robbed and maybe left for dead, too. DO NOT STOP FOR ANY REASON!!!

DIAL 999
AND REPORT WHAT YOU SAW, BUT DON'T EVEN SLOW DOWN.

"IF YOU ARE DRIVING AT NIGHT AND EGGS ARE THROWN AT YOUR WINDSCREEN, DO NOT STOP TO CHECK THE CAR, DO NOT OPERATE THE WIPER AND DO NOT SPRAY ANY WATER BECAUSE EGGS MIXED
WITH WATER BECOME MILKY AND BLOCK YOUR VISION UP TO 92.5%, AND YOU ARE THEN FORCED TO STOP BESIDE THE ROAD AND BECOME A VICTIM OF THESE CRIMINALS.

THIS IS A NEW TECHNIQUE USED BY GANGS, SO PLEASE INFORM YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES.

THESE ARE DESPERATE TIMES AND THESE ARE UNSAVOURY INDIVIDUALS WHO WILL TAKE DESPERATE MEASURES TO GET WHAT THEY WANT."


Please talk to your loved ones about this. This is a new tactic used. Please be safe.

Get started NOW -- SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND LOVED ONES TO BE CAREFUL AND AWARE OF EVERYTHING AROUND THEM SO AS NOT TO BECOME A VICTIM.

Bandung's Kebun Binatang

This is the thing about leaving blogging sooooo long. I don't remember anymore my Bandung stories except that it's really not a good idea to bring kids unless you bring along someone who's totally not into shopping so that that person can keep an eye on the kids.

Anyway, since I've forgotten nearly everything, here's the other cool thing about Bandung besides shopping: its KEBUN BINATANG! Yea, it had the usual standard stuff but it had something else that other zoos I've come across don't have. Here goes:

Day 2 Bandung, very early in the morning, we went to the kebun binatang literally translated as animal garden a.k.a the zoo. It was something for the kids, who I think I mentioned got very excited when we passed the zoo in our van when we arrived to get to our hotel on the first day.

It was about 9 a.m. when we got there if memory serves me correctly, it was already bustling at the zoo. Peddlars were selling nuts to feed the elephants and some were selling balloons and some were selling food and there were already quite a number of people. Apparently, it was school holidays for the kids there. And we can see kids from different schools in their uniforms walking around with notebooks and pencils in their hands and busy jotting down things they see. Some were from kindergartens.

More interesting for me though was that people could have picnics in the zoo amidst the animals and the dust that hovered in the air. We were about to go back when we chanced upon a clearing in the zoo area and we saw that there was flying fox going on there but guess who were the participants? Children, younger than my kids!

What impressed me what not so much the animals in the zoo, but children, kindergarteners, were climbing up a bamboo ladder to a platform near the top of a coconut tree so that they can do the flying fox. Wow, why don't we have this in Malaysia?

At first, I thought, it’s okay, our kids are not missing out anything, after all we have roller coasters and all these extreme rides in theme parks like Sunway Lagoon and Genting Highlands but on second thought, kindergarteners are only allowed safe rides like the merry go round/ carousel and for some more slightly dangerous rides, they require parental supervision and accompaniment.

So, when I saw it I was excited. I wanted very much to get my kids on the flying fox. But my mom, who came along for the trip, said I was crazy to risk the children’s lives. Looking at the setup, I told my mom, it looked safe (there were about 6 to 7 people involved from wearing the safety harness to the one removing the safety gear) and watching the kids being harnessed up and hooked up, I was confident it was safe but only Mika was game. Inez didn’t want to climb up not even after a lot of persuasion. Only after seeing Mika do it, and that he wanted to go up again, then only she decided that she too wanted to give it a try. So we gave in to Mika's request and this time both Inez and Mika did the flying fox. It was really nice watch Inez who climbed like a monkey. Who would have thought? Just before, she was so scared, she didn't want to go up.

Among the Indonesian children, I didn’t see hesitation, I saw bravery and anticipation. There was one boy who was very young, 4 years old maybe, and kind of very plump and had rather short legs that he couldn’t climb up the rungs of the ladder that the guy who wore him the harness had to carry him up the ladder to the platform above.

Anyway, after Inez came down, she wanted to do it again. Zul was already gearing to go but we decided that since Mika did it twice, Inez should also go twice.

I was very proud of them because it is not easy for even adults to do this and again I wondered why we don’t have this in Malaysia. Why wait until we are quite old to do this (like during BTN) when this can be done when we are young, as seen here in Bandung. If you are not afraid to do this, then, you are not afraid of many things. I think if we have this for the young 'uns, they will benefit greatly as it will give them confidence, teach them not to be afraid and the importance of safety, and have fun, and not to be ‘chicken shit’.

And as much as I think it’s a lesson for the kids, I think it’s also a lesson for parents because it teaches parents to encourage their children to be brave. The same way it teaches parents not to transfer their own fears onto their children or stifle children’s curiosity but stopping them from asking questions just because they don’t have the answers or are too busy to answer the questions.

Children are simple. Seriously, they don’t see the benefits that we see for them. When I asked Mika why he liked it so much, he said, “I love it Mom because I can fly even though I had to hold that thing very hard and it’s fun!”

Here's the video of the the kids doing the flying fox. It's soooooo cooool! And the kids want to go back to Bandung to do it again. Maybe when they can behave themselves when the adults are shopping.

Notice the queue. Inez is in front, it's her turn next, and mika's behind her. Inez is 7 going on 8 in the video. She's very small for her age, and so is Mika. Look at the kindy kids behind them, nearly the same height and on the right hand corner you can see kids queing to put on the harness. It's about RM5 if I'm not mistaken per attempt. The guy at the ladder hooks them up and the guy on the platform monitors them and if a kid gets stuck, the guy putting on the harness will just carry the kid all the way up. But it's sooooo coool right?

On the beach again

Here, just want to have a little breather from Bandung stories. It's been ages since we went to the beach despite staying near the beach and all. One day I realised that if we were tourists, we'd be snapping photos like trigger happy Rambos, but just because the beach's so near, I've never really taken photos of the kids on the beach. So here I am sharing my poor attempts and believe me, they are mostly candid (and potentially blurry) because no yelling of mine to my kids to cooperate and look at me and smile worked.



There I was calling out, "Look at Mommy!" repeatedly and all I got was either frozen poses or the tops of their heads.

These are not recent, they are probably taken a month ago or even earlier.

Bandung Family Trip Day 1 - cont'd

So, yea, we played Stepmania. If you don't know what it is, and you've watched Transformers (the first one), you know the part when the SWAT team enters the house of the computer hacker kid, one of the characters was doing Stepmania. It's really cool and the one I have connects to the laptop, and I have 2 dancemats so that both the kids can play at the same time and challenge each other. Hana likes to join in too and it's the one game I allow my kids to play any time of the week 'coz they can only jump so much and they get tired out sooner or later, and they sleep early which leaves me to do work I bring home. Haha, yea, that's my little secret out in the open. It keeps the kids healthy, burns off their excess energy and gets them to bed early. It's also good incentive for them to get their homework done first. Though nowadays Mika's more into Hotwheels car games. And thanks to Lexi who bloghopped recently, we also discovered another cool game site called http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/. We particularly liked game called Boomshine among other games.

And now, days later, I'd like to continue where I left off...so I was saying we passed by the zoo which was one crazy busy place and there were really many people there and you can see horses and their handlers, horses and carriages, people on horse rides on the main road. I thought of getting the kids to ride the horsesor the carriages but my mom didn't think it'd be a novel experience for them coz they've been on horse rides before. Plus coz we shared the road, she felt it was a little dangerous. Anyway, half an hour later, we finally arrived at the nearby FO that would have taken us 5 to 10 minutes to walk to. I think we went to Episode first. Then Jetset. I think Jetset had better stuff the first time I was there. My mom who has also been to Bandung before, stayed at Grand Serela Hotel, somewhere near Jl Riau, have not really explored the FOs in the area we were now staying at. Anyway, we realised after going into several shops that stuff in the shops were 'seasonal'. Hmm how do I say this? For example, bags, this time we went there, there were a lot of Samsonite bags on sale, whereas during our previous visit, we didn't come across Samsonite bags. I bought Burberry stuff at Jetset and this time round, no more Burberry T-shirts. But this trip, it wasn't really for us. We've been saving up so we can get stuff for the kids especially Inez, and Mika whose clothes were getting smaller. Zul bought them all Sports shoes like Nike, and Adidas for RM60 each. That's half the price of what it costs here. Anyway, that jumping the story a bit. So after some looking and seeing, and since these shops were near the hotel, we didn't do any serious purchasing. We figured we could always go back the next day.

So we got back to the hotel and Zul checked us in already. Two rooms, two different buildings. We (and Baby Hana included) took the one that required some climbing while Mom and the bigger kids took the room at the back.

Then we went to Pasar Baru after that. Zul got bored and took Mika with him to get him out of our hair and we went cloth shopping. Hehe cloth was the only thing I wanted to get for myself this time and they all had to be the non wrinkle type coz God only knows how much I hate ironing. Which is why I don't like wearing batik sometimes, but the satin silk type is not that wrinkly. As usual I digress.

After spending like 3 hours there, Zul started reminding us that we haven't done shopping for the kids yet. Okay, okay! So we left for Sogo Paris Van Java for early dinner and hopefully some mindless shopping. Hehe (Read here for more info on PVJ and see the cool pictures of PVJ; I didn't really take many pictures this time coz we were busy chasing after the kids.)

I've been wanting to go there but didn't get to the first time. We did go to Paris Van Java FO though. Hehe. My mom also hasn't been there before; so we got the driver to take us there and it's really a huge mall. Sorta remind me of when I went shopping in Maidstone and when you walk out of the main mall, there are smaller boutiques on the outside that lined the street, both left and right. And the brand Charles and Keith was there. That's like a present fave. They do have some interesting designs and they are affordable and they were having a sale! I already bought my bag (no sale though) in KL. Other brands include Billabong, Roxy. Really, the blog I linked above got everything there is to know on PVJ.

The first half of the evening was cool but around 8pm local time, and 7 pm,their time, as my mom was searching her handbag to take out her wallet to purchase something, she realised her wallet was not in her handbag. She started to panic as she realised that she has been a victim of some pickpocket. Thankfully her handphone was still in her bag and her passport was in my safekeeping. If not we would have to go to the embassy. So as it turned out, we spent our first night out at the PVJ Security Guard Post. Thankfully, all the guards muda2 and tegap2. Hahaha. Seriously, it was like nearly 12 when we got back to our hotel. Again, I digressed.

Back to when my mom discovered her missing purse, we went separate ways searching for the wallet just in case Mom dropped it somewhere, or left it at the payment counter at some shop. Thankfully, Zul was sooo nice and understanding about it and kept the kids busy while we sat down somewhere to cancel Mom's cards; and blocked her ATM card too just in case. You never know. Poor Mom, dahlah sakit belakang, the reason why she was somewhat careless in the first place. The backache was so painful she thought of cancelling at first, but we persuaded her to come anyway.

And then this happened, Mom was sooo not in the mood but Bandung anymore. We told her maybe she'd helped some really poor people. Yea, she was okay till we came back and my dad's credit card statement came and those poor pickpockets went shopping like crazy in TWO boutiques to buy stuff amounting to about 2 million rups. That's like nearly 1k our money and that got my mom soooo upset. She already lost like also 2 million rups in her wallet coz we've just arrived, we've not spent and whenever my mom wanted to spend her money to buy lunch or dinner, we told her to keep for shopping. Moral of the story, if people want to treat you, let them. Hahaha then if something like this happens, they'd lose less.

So after that, we reported it to the guard of PVJ and that was when we had to hang out in the security post. First we waited for one of the guards to go get a form because they seemed to have run out of them. That took some time. Imagine if the guards were gendut2 macam some guards in Malaysia, that'd take even longer. After some time, the guard came back, and the one who sent him out discovered that the guard took the wrong form. So he himself went off the get the right one. Tunggu lagi. So we waited and finally he came back, and he took down our details and account of what happened. Which was not easy, coz seriously, BM and Indonesian language aren't exactly the same , you know.

Some time during the report, Mika already fell asleep in the pram, followed by Inez and then Hana. Then we were advised to go the the police station to report the theft. And so we did and that really took less time than the guards and the police didn't really refer to the guard's report which made us feel that if something similar happens to anyone, just go to the police station immediately. Anyway, they were helpful.

So there ends Day 1. Later I will write about the subsequent days.

Bandung Family Trip Day 1

As mentioned, we went to Bandung again. People did ask me why we are going there again since we have been there before. I answered that this time we are bringing the kids, it's always better to bring kids to places you are familiar with. At least you already know how to go about in that place and where to go to eat and shop and so on. Hence Bandung! Plus the shopping there is great!

So okay, we got the passports ready and off we went. This was the second trip for my mom as well. This time we stayed at the Patra Jasa Hotel. We were lucky to have booked the hotel rooms two months prior to our trip, because I did recommend this hotel to my friend who went earlier and she couldn't get rooms anymore.



We arrived at 10 a.m. and it was a Sunday. Since we brought the kids, Zul thought we had better hire a van and driver, and the driver was recommended by his nephew who was just there the week before. The driver was really nice, very punctual and helpful but he doesn't really talk much. I'll update this post later and include his name and number just in case anyone is interested in using his services.

So when we arrived, the driver was already waiting for us, and he took us to the hotel, surprisingly the roads were busy and congested and we were caught in a jam. We were not, the first time we were there. But it was the school holidays and so people, including the locals flocked to Bandung. We arrived at the hotel earlier than we were supposed to, coz we were too early to check in. Anyway, we decided to have our lunch first and then go back to the hotel. We went to Simpang Raya, a restaurant we went to during our first visit. After that we went back to the hotel but the rooms weren't ready yet. So Zul said he'd wait at the hotel when my mom and I decided to check out the nearby shops but instead of walking, we took the van since it's paid by the day. Oh boy, we got caught in the jam and it took us half an hour to get to a shop which would have taken us 5 minutes walking. but we saw there was a kebun binatang. That means zoo and the kids got excited. So first thing the next day was to go to the zoo. It was holidays after all for the kids.

Kids want to play STEPMANIA. To be continued....