Entries for July, 2008
19/07/09 - This means something quite different, more like, "a person loves me to love and be spoilt" I think. Which is funny 'cause it may be true - more than the intended meaning, anyway!
So, for the hell of it, I wrote Bahasa Malaysia words together under the pretense that they are effectively so; You needn't remind me.
I think I wrote, "My precious self is precious and rotten."
I'll tell you that I don't have a big secret because if you ask I'll tell you it and I probably already did.
On Saturday, I taught Kindergarten in Bukit Pelandok. I taught Form-1 before that, but that was just a model PMR test for the company's assessment, and a little bit of invitation format tuition.
The Kindergarten on Friday was better, because the two seperate classes were small enough to need only me, and they were crazy, and out of control, much less of the time. On Saturday, the combined class was very difficult. I either need to learn some key phrases, or have another Chinese-speaking member of staff at hand to bark the occasional simple instruction: "Quiet!" "Listen!" "Stop!" "Everyone..." "Stand up" etc.
Two of the staff there at the Kindergarten took me to an Indian resturant for lunch. One, Siow Yen*, also a student of English of our's and at a school in Seremban, lent me seven - 7(!!!) - Miyazaki movies!
I was honestly and again too knackered to teach Elementary adults confidently on Saturday after teaching various kids classes earlier in the same day. Steffen has taken some of the next few lessons for me to observe his methods, as he did mine, though.
On Saturday night, we went with our friends for a barbecue on the beach South of Port Dickson. (I took no photos) That was surreal. before the miniature 'peninsula' protrusion where we partied, on the dead end road, there was a heap of flashy looking cars with their boots popped and different electronic music coming from each one... so it sounded like shit. I think, deeply, the bored looking Malays standing around the cars understand this, but apparently they were "fighting" all night. That means they were competing to play loud music the longest before needing to save their remaining petrol to go home. No, they were not demonstrating quality of music or sound equipment; those were the qualifications, respectively. We mostly kept away from those cars, I drank plenty and avoided BBQ chicken, and then Steffen and I went for a night swim to release our shockingly ripe hoard of Australian derogatory slang at a safe distance from anyone just incase they might understand; We are very careful, even when drunken in the sea. After the flashy cars had gone home, and I had played enough guitar, we got a sweet surprise of a semi-decent sound system in the back of an old Nissan. We had to dance to different kinds of Tamil-Western music... because it was good!
We went home to sleep at about 6am.
Yesterday, we got up at midday and I prepared some sourdough for later from a good, funky-smelling batter. After the rain, we rode our bikes - the push variety - most of the way to the beach before the beach we went to last week (Maybe I will write about last week, next week) via Eating point for brunch. I got a puncture when dangerously overtaking Steffen in top gear down a hill and went bump bump very fast to a stop. We were next best from hung-over and I pushed solemly to the next business block/commercial sector/row of roadside markets 'n' stuff wot aint neiva a villij nor a tahn, la! We spoke to the Austrian Austrian - not Italian Australian as Steffen and I had fantasised - who owns a pizza shop, and got gelati. Dropped the bikes off at the beach after pulling a big nail out of my tyre. I went on a search for a puncture repair kit or viable solution, neither of which existed despite the overwhelming presence of air tyre tubes in small motorbikes and swimming floaties with patches on them. Steffen continued to lie on the beach while i swam and then we were rejected by a bus with our bikes. Steffen rode home and I went to stash my bike at the pizza shop, but the Austrian guy instead insisted on driving me home as his shop would fill up with market stall stuff when it closed. On the way we witnessed a goat get hit by a car in on the road (because it should know better?), and my guts turned when I heard it's post-shock cry right into the car window. Leg looked atleast pretty broken, but those animals are tough like rubber.
I tried cooking roti Mr. Ben and failed because I don't have everything I'm accustomed to, and we got nasi goreng/fried rice from 'round the corner before I set up a movie on my laptop. Today I finished the movie and wrote an e-mail and this blog. I'll go to bed soon and, later this morning, I'll get up to prepare for my week's work. Maybe next week, I'll continue, eh?
I want to go to Ipoh on the weekend to vist my uncle/senior friend whom I met on the KTM trainline. I'll not bother to write what I expect from the weekend, but, if I go, I'll surely report.
Over'n'huaili-out, Bench Today
{ book } The Last Continent, Terry Pratchett
{ mood } exhausted
Written by choben at 03:12 AM.
Today, I want to show my Form-1 English class my weblog.
We can discuss the usefulness of blogging.
We can also brainstorm ideas for our weblog.
Each of us will draft a personal profile to attach to the blog.
We can browse other blogs and discuss their purposes.
We can investigate different features and discuss their purposes.
Say hello at,
vl-form1.tabulas.com
Ciao,
Ben, Teacher
Written by choben at 03:45 PM.
No worries, I finally made something, similar to the pan bread we cook at home in Oz, this morning.
"Roti du Mr. Ben"
A sourdough batter, maybe halfway between the thickness of a typical pancake batter and dough, and with no egg, poured and spread onto a frypan. At home I used to use spelt flour. Here, I only had typical white flour. When preparing the batter, I added some of the "light soy sauce" that was left in our fridge, as I'm aware that sourdough thrives with some salt. Before cooking, I mixed in some rapiadura (evaporated cane juice) sugar to help feed the culture.
Even though I had trouble to make it rise the first attempts, I remembered later that it's often better to use a thick batter rather than dough.
I had evaporated some coconut milk to obtain the coconut oil for frying.
Steffen generally doesn't like sourdough, but we observed that the idea of my pan bread is similar to the Indian style tosei that you can buy from the Mamak stall down the street. A frothy batter is poured onto the hot plate with a round-edge-bottomed cup, which is used to spread the batter outwards in circles. After the one side is fried, oil is dashed on top so that the tosei can be folded without sticking. I'm curious to know if there's a different base to wheat flour in there... saya suka tosei, satu ringgit atau 35 sent australia (I like tosei, only 1 ringgit or 35 australian cents) - I can't count in Malaysian yet. Mine is different because it turns out a bit thicker than tosei, and usually it's good, if moist in comparison, although with white flour, so far, I've found it a bit doughy. Maybe the culture needs yet longer to develop.
I also realised my original method to roll dough out for the pan is like the typical roti style, but they don't roll it, they stretch it very thin. Thus, the basic form is called "roti tisyu" like, "tissue bread." I would be interested exeriment with this kind. Steffen suggested I ask Ali to show me how to make it when he's not busy in the morning.
So, today I had roti du Mr. Ben for brekkie, and tosei from "Ali Early's" Mamak stall down the street for supper. I call him Ali Early 'cause he tells us he will open around 08:30, and we are usually lucky to see him before 11!
We postponed the 100km bicycle ride to Malacca until Monday, 'cause it was raining today and since, we have arranged to meet friends tomorrow. It's supposed to be cheaper in Malacca compared to here, so if there's nothing special there (on the topic of food here), I'll consider durian. It's expensive here; up to 13rm/kilo or $5au. That's very significant on local wages!
Written by choben at 02:48 AM.
New Note 66
Genting Highland...
Was fun, and kind-of boring;
Was interesting, and kind-of not;
Was expensive - the bus there was cheap;
Is refreshingly cool, cold, and miserable;
Has a theme park that closes in the rain, but we still made an adventure of it.
=D
I'd been to theme parks but, not this self-contained style with a hotel, that seemed primarily a public resort. A friend suggested I compare it to a Malaysian Disney Land. Must be about right.
The food there cost about three-to-four times what it costs me here. They sold everything I can find in my immediate imagination: Thai food, "Western food" (burgers and fr- fries), noodles, soups, noodle soups, sup mee, Indian... The food from the curry house was the cheapest, costing about three times what it would cost 'round here but, thanks to my unbelievable (and non-believed) super-power, I could taste all the MSG in their curry.
Actually, there was nothing to learn about food there, so I needn't discuss it anymore. Now this entry gets a category.
On Friday, I got up about 10-30 and rode into town to get tools for bicycle maintenance - I might use them today la. The guy in the second of three generic bicycle shops along one street is very helpful, and seems the youngest of the three shop-owners. He had bought the tools for me that I wanted, and after I reminded him, he found them, with the receipt, and I paid him rm25. The pliers themselves probably would have cost au$25 in Australia, being nice Japanese ones. By the time I get home, I'll be a man of many pliers.
Steffen and I got ready to leave for Bukit Pelandok after take-away Nasi Lemak. Nasi Lemak is a Malay breakfast, and translates to 'greasy rice'. It is rice, cooked in coconut milk, with sambal (an oily chili sauce), peanuts, tiny fried fish, and egg (either fried or boiled). It's simple, cheap, and I like it a-lot. I just eat it without the egg.
The bicycle ride to BKT (Bukit Pelandok) was nice, and shorter and easier than I expected. PD (Port Dickson) to BKT is about the same distance as My mother's place to town (Mullumbimby). The difference is that my mother's place is a few hundred metres above sea level, but the road to BKT undulates only slightly. This was almost inappropriate, as only the lowest gear on my forward shifter is working 'til I get round to fixing it. We stopped at a row of shops so I could ask mechanics for a spanner which they didn't have, and got a drink and a Chinese steamed-bun-thing each before confirming that we'd missed the turn for BKT...
At many Chinese restaurants, there is a 'pie warmer' at the front for convenience. Inside, are white buns with a small space filled with meat, a sweet red bean paste, peanut, or another filling. I imagine they are steamed, because there is no crust, but they are externally dry, not sticky. They are also quite dry to eat but not bad. I don't remember what I drank there but Steffen and I often take a limau ais (iced lime drink). I also like teh O' limau panas (hot lime tea), but often get confused and end up ordering teh O' limau ais. Tea from many places around here is usually way too sweet, unless its Chinese tea which normally isn't served sweet.
We stopped at a shop on the way because it belongs to the family of a teacher at VL. We just sort of said, "Hi. Where's Maggie?" and not much else, and we couldn't help from being loaded up with dragon fruits, cake slices and 100Plus soft drinks. 100Plus is an 'isotonic' energy drink that tastes like sweetened and carbonated water, but more bitter and not as nice as tonic water. I can't agree with their claims but here are a couple of the company's weird descriptions of this popular stuff:
http://www.100plus.com.my/ver_06/isotonic/flav.html
http://www.100plus.com.my/ver_06/100plus_aqtiv/index.html
"Thanks, xie xie ni," "Bye," and we rode to BKT for lunch in a Chinese restaurant.
We met our friend with her younger brother, and her fluffy dog, Jornie, at the Basketball court. Although I'm about three times as tall, her younger brother is probably three times better than me at basketball. They live just across the lane, so they brought out their old Raleigh bike which is so beautiful. It still moves so smoothly on the one gear, and the light and dynamo are still attached. In the evening, we and the family checked out the weekly night markets; The wee one said, "You want to go to the basar malam?" many times. The night bazaars are not really exciting, but good for some fried snacks or drinks, or probably to socialise. In many of the special sweet drinks, weird balls which I think are made of sago are included. It's occupying to try to chew them after sucking them up the straw. The straw and the sago balls are bigger than what I'm used to in Australia. Jornie is a bit tubby, and very sweet, but a bit cheeky; quite keen to play more but doesn't know when to stop la!
My buddy from another muddy and I talked all night, so I got about an hour's sleep before getting up to go to Genting Highland.
We got dropped off at the bus stop in another town. While we were waiting, I bought some bananas across the road, then a woman set up her nasi lemak stall. Steffen and I got nasi lemak and mee, bungkus (takeaway), each. Then we ate it there.
We changed buses near Chinatown in KL (Kuala Lumpur), so we walked through it to a restaurant for massive drinks. On the way, I was trying to check out some nice looking backpacks because I still think I might have a use for one while I'm travelling (la!). The seller was trying to haggle with me and because I didn't want to spend even those reasonable prices, I just said, "I'll come back." and walked off. He chased me down the street and offered me the bag for 20, so I came back to find out he meant US dollars. When I walked off again, he chased me and asked for only rm20, which was another steep decrease, so I came back for the opportunity, after a hesitation, to a wave of his hand. He told me I don't want to pay so he doesn't want to sell to me. Fair enough, after I protested once and he was going to start a scene, I walked off and we had a laugh at my naive method of passive haggling. At the bus stop, I had to to pay 30sent to use the toilet, so I went in the men's side, and left through the other side when I was finished. When I checked, I saw that both sides are men's sides.
The road to Genting Highland was steep and, of-course, I couldn't help chatting on the way rather than sleeping (SLEEEEEEEP) on the bus.
zzzzzZZZZZZZZZ
I dont know why, but we hadn't bought return tickets so we bought them when we got off the bus, next to the Milo cafe. We chose the latest bus, which was maybe not such a good idea. As usual, I can't say Genting Highland was much different to what I had imagined (I don't expect much), but it is smaller than I had expected. It is completely self-contained as a resort and theme park, but mostly inside one huge indoor complex except for the outdoor theme park area.
We couldn't really afford the artificial snow park, but Steffen and I each tried the indoor rock climbing once, each for the first time. I got stuck two thirds of the way up, trying to change hands and feet all over the place... What a rip-off, anyway! We got half a game of bowling in before we went to miss the bus. The girls nearly beat us, even though it was the first time for each of them.
We wandered into the hotel lobby, as if wishing to progress further. The cheapest rooms are too expensive, and the only ones available were the luxurious, on-suite, double-cheese-king-size-burger-heaven-plush-lettuce-curtains ones. While the girls sat on hard plastic seats, Steffen and I went for a couple of walks, and ended up discovering the couch collection in the hotel's 'meeting room' area. Not at all feeling excluded by the 'guests only' sign, we brought the others there and slept for a bit. I was rudely awakened, as if I should know when to wake up at the same time as everyone else, and we went to the bus terminal way too early to find any ticket counters open... So we went back to our cosy meeting room for a bit longer.
The bus drive down the side of the mountain was nuts. What I didn't realise at first was that it was a one way road with three lanes. We overtook everything on the road and the dude next to me was sick. It was pretty exciting for me in the middle of the back row on the bus; so much so that some guys in-front were to be amused by my antics.
Back in BKT, I took a power nap on our friend's balcony for about an hour, which is something I can only achieve if I'm raised by a shouting boy. Smelly and confused, but refreshed, I headed home with Steffen, us overtaking each-other continuously due to different gearing issues.
We stayed up all night playing video games, and slept all day.
Written by choben at 06:36 PM.
Cool...
My new awesome hot cocococonuts drink goes like this:
Prepare santan, coconut milk from freshly shredded coconut and heat it.
With atleast a third mug of santan, mix cocoa and rapiadura, original cane sugar. Top up the mug with boiling water and stir la.
...Just imagining more awesome variations...
This is my project for a top teacher from English class, way back in junior high school:
Melissa grew up in the Sydney suburbs with parents, a younger brother and a younger sister. She is now a 37yr old ex-punk who has been living with us for a few months. She is a friend and housemate. Her individual perception of power is that people should have power their own lives and not anybody else.
Q. 1: What do you have power over in different parts of your life?
Melissa believes she has power over everything in her own life depending on how she thinks. She doesnt believe in having power over other people, but she believes that if other people listen to her she will have an influence over them.
Q. 2: Who has power over you in your life?
At home, Melissa believes that the owner of the house can kick her out using their power of owning the property. She respects her friends so hey have an influence on her.
Q. 3: What are the consequences of acting on power in your professional/school life? Home life?
Melissa believes that you can really upset other people by acting on your own power too hastily. You can also lose power over yourself by acting on your power.
Q. 4: What do you think the advantages of power are? What advantages do you think you have?
Melissa's power with advantages, is the power over herself. She believes in thinking freely and making up her own mind, then choosing what to do.
Q. 5: What person do you think is a good role model of power, from anywhere in the world or your own community?
The Dalai-Lama, Mahat Magahndi, and Nelson Mandela are Melissa's favourite role models of power. This is because of there amazing peaceful way of freedom fighting.
Q. 6: Where in the world do you believe power is held?
Melissa believes that in most countries military power holds most power, although the media holds most power and military second. She believes it is held mostly in the USA.
Overall Melissa believes that people dont make their own decisions enough, but rely on popular media to tell them how to live their lives. She would rather have people gather more information before deciding what to do and which paths to follow.
Mon 19 May 2003 19:55:25 MYT
It's a bit messed up, but I didn't know grammar then, and I wasn't a teacher.
=P
Written by choben at 02:15 AM.
