Scrabulous

The only application I like in Facebook is Scrabulous. You can play with others or you can play with the computer in practice mode. It is so addictive. I have 4 games going and while waiting for my turn (which can take days) I play against the computer. The computer is a tough opponent. Seriously, who knew that APPUIED is a word. Seriously! and the computer received 76 points for this first move. Do you know what this word means? I, for one, was aghast that such a word exists. It is not fair, the computer has logic, mathematical formulaic strategy and an entire dictionary in its 'brain'.

Anyway, after much practice against the computer (which resulted in demoralizing defeats on my side) I, Zarinah Binte Ali, am very satisfied and happy to say, I WON! Yes, I won against the computer. 346 me, 322 computer. Hah! The computer lost! Wooo Hoooo! My faith in humanity and our ability to out-think a computer has been restored.

Hah hah, yeah, I am a Scrabble addict. I love Scrabble. And no, people, it is not an English teacher's thing. In fact Scrabble has nothing to do with the English Language. It is all about strategy, logic and Maths. Plus, one must have good vocabulary, preferably a sound knowledge of 2 and 3 letter words, like QI, LI, EF, ENE and so on. Ahh...Scrabulous, the one and only good thing in Facebook (so far).

Fishball Soup ikan tenggiri

Another of my favourite dish. Home made fishball soup. Today being a holiday I decided to take over the kitchen and cooked for my family, with the aid of instructions from mummy of course. Anyway, I woke up late on the account of temporary insomnia last night and so my mummy prepared the potatoes and bawang and stuff. ("Aku kasi kau tidur puas puas dulu. Lagipun nak tunggu kau bangun, bila nak start masak?" heh heh) Anyway, she has seen me peel potatoes, garlic and shallots, so she has faith that I can do that part well and need no more practice. heh heh. So she left the hardest part to me: to clean the fish and scrape the flesh of the skin and bones and to make the fishballs and soup.

Here are the ingredients:

• I ikan tenggiri besar ( I have no idea what this is in English)
• 3 potatoes, cut into chunky pieces
• 2 1/2 big onions
• 10 garlic
• halia 2 batang (sepanjang jari) - (in english is this galaghal?)
• 1 biji buah pala
• 3 bunga cengkir
• 1 stick of cinnamon/kayu manis
• 4 biji buah pelaga
• 3 bunga pe'kak/star anise
• 1 teaspoon of white pepper
• Salt to taste

Prepare the fish by cleaning away the guts and sliced it through the middle, so you get 3 very long slices. Usually the fishmonger will do this for you. So you bring home 3 very long slices. One of the slices has the bones on it. Scrape carefully making sure every tiny bit of flesh is scraped off, even in between the bones. You should only have the skin and bones left after the procedure.

Chop 2 onions and garlic thinly. Place them in a big pot. Halia just squash them a bit (titik kan) and place in a big pot. Break the cinnomon and buah pala in 2. Potatoes, half of the buah pala and both cinnamon sticks plus the star anise, buah pelaga and bunga cengkir should be placed in the pot too. Fill half the pot with water. Boil the mixture.

While the soup is being boiled, prepare the fishballs. The flesh that you have scraped off from the fish can now be rolled into balls. 1 fish could make 80-100 balls depending on the size of fishballs you make. Some people pound the flesh or use a tool to flatten and mix the flash together. This is optional. You can do so if you think there are a lot of bones in the fish. By punding and flattening the flesh you are squeezing out skin and bones. If you are confident that there are no or very few bones, then this step can be eliminated.

Tip: Wet fingers and palms constantly when making the balls so that the flesh won't stick to your hands.

Next: take half of the buah pala, half a big onion, 2 pieces of garlic, a small piece of halia and white pepper and pound till you have a paste. Heat up a small pan and use a little bit of oil. Pour in the paste and stir until it has turned brown and crispy (my mum described it as garing - I can't find a better word to descrbe). Pour into the boiling pot of soup.

By this time, the potatoes should be cooked and fishballs should be placed into the soup one by one. It is better to put in the fishballs individually because if you put them together, they will stick to each other. Put one tablespoon of salt into soup. Once you see the fishballs turn white and float, you can turn off the fire and eat!

Okie, this is a very simple dish. The most troublesome part is the fish and that is the main ingredient. So it takes around 1 1/2 hours to prepare.

So this is the outcome. Eat with rice, bread or by itself. It tastes great. Remember always get the fish fresh because you want the fish to crumble and melt in the mouth and not have the springy texture. You can add spring onions to your own bowl of soup. For me I prefer to eat it with rice together with sambal lonteh. Power!

It is time....

....I learn to cook. heh heh. Today I learnt from my mummy how to cook Sotong Masak Hitam. Yumm! One of my favourite dishes - cholesterol laden seafood goodness. This is how it turned out:

In the pot

I made everything myself with no help from mummy. Just directions from her. Very simple to cook. I cleaned the sotong myself and took the bits of ink. I actually liked doing it. The difference I suppose is I wanted to cook as opposed to being forced to learn to cook. Anyway, it tastes great, not in the least bit different from my mummy's cooking. And the sotong has EGGS! Oh super tasty! I love sotong eggs.

Sotong and rice.

See the sotong egg peeping out of the sotong on the left? Yummm...yumm. Ate it with sambal lonteh. Super good. heh heh. As of right now, when I am writing this, no one else have eaten it except the girls' maid and myself. The maid said it is good! My parents are fasting so must wait for reviews at maghrib. As for myself, I can't wait to cook more simple good food like this. I am well on my way to be a super wife! Heh heh.

Bulan Ramadhan

Sometimes, the challenges of Ramadhan seems overwhelming yeah. Frustrations at work, accidents, deaths, distractions and so on. I was feeling a little bit blue especially since I just read on someone's entry that a fellow teacher died due to a hit and run. How sad. Then I spied a blue umbrella I brought to school and i remembered some nice things that happened to me, all in one day. So the story goes like this....

It was a wet, very stormy morning. It rained in the early morning. Rained very very very heavily. So I called a cab and did not take an umbrella with me because I don't like to bring umbrellas. In the afternoon after school, it was all sunny and I went to Bedok interchange to look at paint and other things. And you know what, I got stuck in the rain! It started to be stormy again, with thunder and lightning and I was at the block next to the interchange and no shelter whatsoever from that block to the interchange. So I decided to walk along the block looking for shops that might sell umbrellas. To my dimay there was none. Then this old man who was standing at the lift landing and observing for some time approached me as I passed him by and said "Would you like some bubur masjid?" I was so surprised and I initially declined but I gratefully took the packet of bubur masjid from him. It was still hot and smelled so delicious. How kind of that man. A stranger, no less. But that did not solve the storm problem. So I walked to the edge of the block contemplating to brave the rain and make a dash for it. I was standing just beside a barber shop steeling my mind for the mad dash when the owner of the shop came out and said "Kak, you have no umbrella? I will lend you one." Wow. He told me I can return him the umbrella any time when I am free. I felt so touched after that.

So nice right? 2 strangers who are so kind to me. May Allah bless them for their kind acts. Eh, don't be like a certain someone I know who says that they are only nice to me cos got ulterior macho motive. You know macho men helping helpless young lady....

A prank

This is what we did to oyr colleagues desk the day before his birthday after he has left school.

Decorated and wrapped

Ha hah. The decoration, tiny pots of flowers were a teachers' day gift from the company that supplies the cleaning staff. Each teacher got 1. And teh bubble wrap were found in teh boxes the flowers came in. How hilarious. We went around asking people if they wanted their flowers and most do not so we happily decorated his table with them.

We wrapped all of his computer stuff too:

That's the mouse, mousepad and laptop. But the phone is the cutest. Don't you think? But we are nice enough to buy him a cake too.

Delicious! Yumm!

Vanity and frivolousness

So what do you do when you have to go to a dinner at a posh country club but you have no time to go home and change? So what would you do to solve this problem?

Would you

(a) Go in whatever you are wearing.

(b) Just go home and change, it's ok to be late.

(c) Don't go.

(d) Buy new clothes and wear them on the spot.

What would your answer be?

This is what I did. I chose option (d). I am so vain and frivolous, I can't believe I did it. It just so happen that I had my Teachers' Day dinner tonight at 7pm. However, I had a job interview from 2-6pm. That left me 1 hour to transform myself. I know that I can't make it home by 7 or even 730 cos of terrible traffic conditions, In a whim I decided I could do better. I could still wear glamourous stuff. I went to TKC, went to the Jelita shop and told them of my predicament. Oh, they were so nice and friendly. They picked out a pretty white top for me to match with my white pants. And a fuschia scarf that matches my sandals. They steamed the clothes and tudong for me and the lady even offered to put my makeup on and she pinned my scarf so beautifully. She even asked if I want to wear her perfume! I came out feeling so sexy and stylish. Heh heh.

I am very impressed by their service. Very examplary. First class. I salute them. I always shop at Jelita and XQZT and although their clothes are similar and pricy, I laways love going back there cos of their friendliness and willingness to serve.

Gado-Gado Party

There is too much gado-gado leftovers. The teachers from the English and Humanities department had our Gado-Gado party today. The other teachers are green with envy. We each brought an item to make the gado-gado. I brought 4 packets of lontong. Apparently we all brought too much of each item. Heh heh.

Ahhhh...such bliss to be eating good food again. The new canteen vendor, her food is just passable. I miss Mr. Ban and his food.

Live Earth

It is important to save the earth. It is good that celebrities are involved. I am very happy that governments are looking into measures to slow down the global warming process. However, Live Earth concert, to me, really defeats the purpose. I did not catch 99% of it, just glimpses when I switch channel. Tell me, how much power was consumed in that overly long concert? The rubbish in the aftermath? And tell me did the concert goers actually get the message? I bet they are mostly teeny boppers who want a fun time at the concert. And where do the funds go to...Al Gore's charity...hmm...glorifying him?

Anyway, it just doesn't seem logical. To use up energy in order to save energy. To not be green in order to go green. It is like the GST hike to 7% so that more money can be distributed to the lower income group. It is ridiculous. Are we in the age of ironies now? I am sure there are better environmentally friendly ways to promote 'going green' rather than a concert.

caught in between...

There is no food in my school canteen. reason being that the muslim stall owner's husband had a stroke and died during the school hols. The tragedy is that the lady also suffered a heart attack and she did not manage to see him on his dying bed. So sad....

Anyway, being the token Muslim in SWC, I was asked to look for temporary measures and have food delivered for the Muslim people in the school. So, got a contact from Nadz, Mr Ban's nasi padang. He delivers to school. He drives a Nissan Murano....So all was well, the food was not too bad, not fantastic but not bad either, it was smooth going for me as I take the orders from colleagues, call them up at around 10 and they deliver before 12. Little did I know, i was going to be caught in a dramatic play....

Whenever Mr Ban delivers, I ask him to send to the general office and he will get his payment there too. This is because I have lessons when he arrives so I can't meet him personally. Also, my school promised support from the EAS staff and so my VP is ok with the arrangement. So one day this week, the EAS staff of my school complained to me saying that Mr Ban is rude because he refused to help her bring the food up for her. Sometimes when the food is a lot, she has to go 2 trips up the staircase to the 2nd floor. She asked me if I could find someone else to help me. I was at a lost...who else can help? Called my VP, she promised to send someone else.

Then, yesterday Mr Ban talked to me...he said the EAS staff was rude to him. She threw money at him. Astaghfirullah... I was shocked. He said that he can't help her because he has a lot of deliveries to make. He accused me of only listening to my EAS staff colleague and not listening to his side of the story. I assured him if I had believed her wholly, I would have not patronised him anymore. I just did not want to make the matter worse, that is why I did not pursue the matter. Anyway, what am I supposed to ask him...hey, Mr Ban, why were you rude? Not likely....

How? I am baffled. This is why I hate delegating jobs to people....because I am not responsible for their actions and yet I am held accountable. What am I to do? There are a lot of things I left out in the story...all the bad remarks that were made about the other party and so on. I don't think they are fit to be mentioned here. All I know was that i feel sad that such things happened. Worse is that all parties involved are Muslims.

Phantom of the Opera

It was a great production. A must watch if you have not watched it. But, of course you must be willing to part with lots of your mullah. Heh heh. Really, the theatrics and props and all are fantastic. I love the way they created the misty lake and how the boat glides over water. The boat really glides! And the songs are lovely. My fave "All I ask of you"...so sweet and I wish I can sing that song and someone responds the same way too. Sigh...I cried a little at the end. Even though I know the plot and the songs pretty well before I went, it was still worth all of my $147.

The silly SIngaporean within me

Okies, I did a silly Singaporean thing. I queued for donuts at the Donut Factory yesterday. 2 hours for 2 dozens of donuts - 6 to 8 pm. For someone who scoffed at people who queue for Hello Kitty and Harry Potter and what ever nots, I joined the queue.

Was it worth it? I choose to think so. I shared donuts with colleagues this morning. They loved the donuts (but nothing beats Krispy Kremes - the nearest one is at Jakarta and it is halal) and making people happy cos they have a sugar rush in the morning makes my day too. Heh heh.

I love the peanut chocolate and double chocolate. I want to try the cheese ones but they were sold out. That being said, I don't think I would do this silly thing, at least not for a very long time, at least. I plan that the next time I crave for such donuts I must be there during office hours where I heard that the queue is shorter and I have more variety. Or....go to Jakarta over the weekend and buy loads of Krispy Kremes. Hmm....my mouth is watering at the thought of Krispy Kremes. They are genius! Anyone wants to go Jakarta with me?

Night at the Carousel

A good place to eat. Even on a weekday night it is crowded. Make reservations if you want to go. I was so excited about eating there that anything I ate over the weekend seems to be tasteless. Heh heh.

It was the highlight of the day to me since I spent the entire morning on a Learning Journey at the Civics District. I did enjoy the LJ but I was in pain since someone told me that I have to look presentable and wear working clothes to enter the Supreme Court. That person was very insistent about it. Funny that I actually took that person advice even though my HOD said I can wear jeans, t-shirt and sandals. Anyway, I decided to wear heels only to realise that we have to tour St Andrew's Cathedral, walk pass City Hall and Old Supreme Court and to the Arts House where the Old Parliament was. I wasn't exactly in pain but I could be much more comfortable in my Birk's, right?

Anyway, back to the Carousel. Cos my colleagues and I make a large group they put us in the State Room. So there was only us in that room and we made such a ruckus. If you sit outside on the main dining area, it is actually very noisy and the seats are too near to each other. The ambiance in the State Room was just right and the food was great. Indeed, they offer a large spread of buffet from sushi and shashimi to roast chicken and pasta. Of course not everything tastes good to me but majority of the food was delicious. I loved the roast chicken, lamb shank, make your own pasta dish and some others that I can't remember. We started dinner at 7.30 and we ate non-stop till 9pm. Then, we slowed down but continued eating until 10 then we attacked the desserts. All kinds of cakes, puddings and fondue! Actually the dessert tray was the first thing we all saw when we came in and the spread looked so pretty and enticing that we wanted to start dessert first. It took all our will power to not eat dessert until 10pm. Yumm...I want to go again.

Oh gazillions of calories in me and I skipped netball training too for the dinner. But I did play badminton in the afternoon after my LJ. So the walking around town and exercising cancels off the extra fats and calories right? But, don't care lah. Good food, good service and good company, that counts more.  

My Cats

About 3 weeks back, I got 2 new kittens. 1 black and 1 white. They are siblings. Then on Monday, we got the 3rd sibling. She is white with bits of orange and black. This time, I told my parents that we are not naming them after their colour or length of tail, like all our past cats (hitam putih, mat, minah, belang, kontot, tompok, merah) - We have to give them proper cat names. So the black is Wan, the white is Lia and we can't figure out what to call the last one so we call her Neng, which is actually short form for Kuning. But we often refer the black one as Hitam, the white one as Putih and Neng as the Yang Lagi Satu (the other one). hahahha. We can't get pass the colours.

They are so adorable when they play together. Wan is  a male and the others are females, so we have a few months before we decided to neuter them or not. They are almost 3 months old and they get bigger everyday. Neng sleeps with me on the bed every night since day 1 cos she can't get along with her siblings as she was separated from them for so long. So she gets special treatment from me. I suspect that eventually all of them will end up on my bed soon or at least when they are properly toilet trained.

This is Hitam putih (black and white). he is our cat who is not our cat. He comes and goes as he pleases and he comes back when he wants to eat and sleep. And he is allowed to sleep anywhere he likes in the flat. He was recently hospitalised for kidney disease and he hates to share. Cos he was sick he could not really chase the kittens and slap them about. So he is quite fed up and is resigned to share the flat with the kittens. He is sulking away and has not come home yesterday. But no worries, he will come back.

 

Wan and Lia. they are always together. Wan is more curious and willing to venture out to smell and touch things. Lia is reserved but she has a way of cocking her head to one side that makes her so irresistible. Lia is often bullied by Wan cos she is younger and smaller and when they have their meals, Wan will always ensure that he gets the lion's share and he eats first. Their favourite hangout is the sofa. That is their playground and sleeping area.

Neng aka Yang Lagi Satu. Cos she just arrived, she is not use to the environment and is shy. She hides under the sofa most of the time and would sometimes come out to play with her siblings. But she will run away when she sees us. She is very feisty and will hiss and growl when she is unhappy.

National Anthem

Someone need to teach Singaporeans the importance of singing our National Anthem correctly and with reverence.

Firstly, I was annoyed when I heard how Singaporeans sing the anthem. Sure, it was loud. Only because it was a great moment and one should sing it loud. But, it was awful. Wrong note aside, I can hear people deliberately not singing it properly. So much for proud moment. Then, how could people forget that you have to sing it twice? I saw the re-telecast of it on Sunday morning and it is so distinctive that Singaporeans have no idea how to sing the anthem. Then did you hear how the lions sang it on TV for Sunday's match? Yuckkks! Someone should teach them how to sing properly!

Already the gamen decided to "improve" on the anthem. They say to make it more singable. Then, we still can't sing it properly. What? Can't even stand straight and sing in a normal voice without the mockery? Must need to Anglicise our anthem to sing properly, meh? Please la, even the Malays don't sing with pride. Stop the excuses, sit down and just learn the words and sing it right!

This is not a school marm thing, I am just embarrassed how Singaporeans behave. Listen to the Thais on both matches, they sang beautifully. They stood with pride and even during our anthem they stood silently. We at the stadium did not even have the thought to do so. Constant cheering and jeering. How uncouth we all are and the gamen so proud we are more developed than our neighbours. Puuiiii ah!

When I was in KL and we watched a play, the Malaysian national anthem was sung before the play started. And they sang with pride. I was bowled over. Singaporeans sing really loud and maybe with pride only at soccer matches and National Day Parades. Other days? forget it. Even in school, students hardly open their mouths to sing the anthem. Aren't u proud of our National Anthem? I am. When was the last time u thought about what it means? The composer really had vision when he wrote it. Do you know who he is?  

When the aunts start to talk

Visited Nadz's mom at the hospital yesterday. She had a lot of visitors, mostly her schoolmates of yore. These aunties are all grandmothers today but listening to their stories, one could tell they had such fun when they were younger. Anyway, they talked animatedly and well, let's just say even without diplomas or degrees they certainly do have a wealth of knowledge. It was very interesting listening in to their conversations. Also, amusing...

There was this one point of their conversation that really puzzled us. They were talking about diseases and illnesses such as cancer and how some people overcome them. Here is an excerpt:

"yeah, her illness very strange. It attacked her eyes and she is sensitive to light now. She can't see. But, someone told her to chew kancing butang (buttonhole) and put them on her eyes. It worked, her eyes are much better now." said Aunt A.

Aunt B interjected "This kancing butang, all you need is to chew it?"

Nadz, yati and myself exchanged puzzled looks. How does one chew a button hole?

Aunt C said "Yes, just chew it and spit it out again."

"Is it like the misai kucing (cat's whiskers)?" asks Aunt B again

"Yes, they are all related." Aunt D replied.

"oh, there is another one good for cancer and your knees. The tujuh jarum (7 needles)."

"How do you use it? We have never heard of it." asks several aunts in unison.

"Oh you just pluck the leaf and eat it." "Oh, is it the one with the red flower?"

Oh yes, they are all talking about plants and herbal medicine. Kancing butang, misai kucing and tujuh jarum are all names of plants. We finally understood what they were talking about. You see, these aunts really have a wealth of knowledge. While it is amusing to listen to them. I do hope that I will one day achieve "auntyhood" like them in my old age. I didn't see old ladies in front of me. I saw honourable and respectable people who have done much in their lives just being daughters, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, wives, girlfriends and so much more. I admire these women, their knowledge, their kindness and their solidarity. I went home and I saw my mother and I appreciated her that much more.  

Anti Vice Squad

His hands never left her waist throughout the match. Even when people stood up to jeer or cheer, they were still seated, his hands encircling her. Once in a while he would kiss her forehead and whispered to her about the intricate details of the match that she did not understand. It got cold and he took off his shirt and put it around her legs and rub her arms. Awww....so sweet. NOT! it is so disgusting because it is not appropriate behaviour. They should also put up alongside the no-smoking sign a NO PDA allowed sign. Everybody around them were uncomfortable by their presence.

So all the time they were right under our noses and PDAing, which were too sweet that it makes us cringe with disgust so we decided to be the anti-vice squad. Heh he. We used the free clappers given to us and clapped around their ears to distract them. I poked them once in a while. "Oops! Sorry!" "Oh no, Accident!" Heh hehe. When he took off the shirt to wrap it around the legs and hugged her to shield her from the cold draft, we rolled our eyes and thought "How silly! U wear a short skirt to watch a match? Duh, of course when u sit, the people in front can see everything!' We turned to one another "Eh, u need another t-shirt or not? Cold ah? U sure u don't need another t-shirt? U need a hug? cos it is quite cold." Yeah, ok, we were quite mean. But they were asking for it. And we had a ball of time giving them a hard time. The funny thing is the guy wore gold chain and bracelet and the girl has not a single piece of jewellery on her. What has the world come to?

Yupps, watching a live match is really fun and exciting. he hehe.  

Where are u? We are wearing red.

Place: National Stadium
Occassion: Singapore vs Thailand (ASEAN cup finals - 1st leg)
Situation: 55 500 Singapore suppporters most of whom wear red. Early birds 'chop' seats for friends arriving later.
Time: 7.45 pm

Overheard: Boy on the handphone "Where are u? U can't see us ah? We are down here lah. We are wearing red!"

Muaha hahahahahahha!!!!!!!!

Pretty pleased

Rather happy with the work my sec 4s did in their class presentations so far. Some of their presentations clearly exceeded my expectations. Very creative work and in depth analysis of the Principles of Governance and also some of the policies. Although I had to correct some misperceptions, it is still allright because they are only teenagers and yet they are discoursing on some issues that I would expect uni students to do. It goes to show that if one pushes them a little bit and give them room to explore, they can come up with pretty amazing things. I did not give them any specific guidelines or specific websites but I keep telling them I want to see creativity and imagination in their presentations and they did not disappoint me. I am pretty pleased with them. Video presentations, skits, poems, songs...they all take effort to do and I am very impressed. While some resort to powerpoint slides but they did in depth analysis of policies and their shortfalls. How could I not be proud of them? Moments like this gives me a warm feeling, I forget the ugly parts and I love teaching.

here is a poem 2 boys from 4A wrote. I am very proud of them. The poem is cynical (normal for the teenagers today) but cute. Enjoy. Please do not copy the poem. Ask permission if you wish to use the poem.

Education
by Edison Neo and Goh Zhong Da (AHS 4A 2007)

The long education
Of this great nation
Takes us to graduation
With a sea of competition.
Mental abrasion
End up in asylum

The weight of the pressure
Goes beyond nature
Homework from my teacher
Scolding and a lecture
Get a degree and become a doctor
Is it so easy? Are you so sure?

Tertiary, divided into three
JC, Poly, ITE
Different levels of study
Immediately judged by society
The curse of this country
Built through hardship
By our dear PM Lee

Then comes Tharman
Changed the system
Upside down our surriculum
Affecting the whole generation
But we could be wrong
Anyway it is education

state of mind

State of mind: a documentary about the people of Communist Korea. President: Kim Jung Il. If you think that Singapore's National Day parades are spectacular, precise and out of this world, you have not seen North Korea's parades. Go to You Tube and try to find North Korea's mass games and you see what I mean. just click on the link above. Watch it and be amazed. Then watch the other video clips about the mas games and be even more amazed. Watch, and you see no one is out of synch. Everything's perfect. They are all smiling and happy. They train twice a day everyday. And the best part is, they think it is an honor to be chosen as part of the regiment. They want to perform in front of their great general. To perform in the mass games is their proudest moment. That, I think is even more amazing. Go, watch.