Household Sewer...

On a Saturday morning, supposedly our day when we go places and do things together... Other Half and I had made plans to go for lunch in Tanjung Dawai, see the beach. But since our gal had tuition, we decided to cook our breakfast of Maggi Mee with fried egg and salami. Trouble started while we were washing up. The sink got stuck and while I was using the plunger to unstuck it, water started coming out from the sink behind.

Being the handyman Other Half is, he got out his tools and tried to open up the drain trap for the sink. That didn't work. Water from the sink gushed out from the trap. Then we opened up our grease sewer trap. And to our horror, staring right at us was this mucky and thick stuff almost covering the overflow outlet which was supposed to drain into the sewer. Water couldn't flow out into the grease trap cos the muck had blocked the pipe. So, it had to back flow! Other Half took a stick and prodded the muck. The marker on it indicated that we were staring at almost 2 feet of emulsified muck. We were at a loss cos both of our kitchen sinks were all stuck! At that time we didn't know where the sinks' exit pipe into the trap was. A house without the use of its kitchen sinks is a crippled house!

So we did the next thing we could think of; which was to call our contractor. It was kind of him to come even though he was tied up somewhere. When he came, he said we needed to dig out the muck... So that was we did for half the morning - scooping up the gooey and caked solidified oil muck with all its foul stench. Pale roaches were going crazy in the sunlight too... and also the insect spray which we had applied. I was stepping on so many of them. My lil one, of course was squealing (in half horror) at the sight of them. Kids these days are so soft.... they forget that they're godzillon times bigger than the roaches. And with it came the usual foul smell from the sewer belly.... it must have stank into my neighbour's house.

The next thing was to cart all those mucky stuff to the dump.... All those fat, that had emulsified over the years. We must have scooped up about 400 litres worth of emulsified greasy muck. The task was made more difficult because we had to do it with more care so as not to leave too much mess in the yard. I think this is the closest to being night soil 'engineer' for the both of us. We scooped up almost everything from the grease trap... might as well, since we had already opened up the sewer and was already into the unpleasant task.

While doing this, I remembered the wisdom of my mom from years ago when we were still kids. Us, kids would always have to catch the rain water from the gutter pipe of our house and pour buckets of those rain water down our toilet bowl. It was a task assigned to us almost without fail each time there is a heavy downpour. Her reasoning was to keep flushing the sewer so that it doesn't get clogged. True enough our house never did get clogged up all those years we were there to pour the rain water.. even when Indah Water came and inspected, they were surprised by how clean our sewer was. I am going to try pouring water more often into my sink to get my muck flowing....

And a little lesson out of this too... in life we need some diluting sometimes too, to dilute our bad habits so that they don't emulsified and clog up everything else. Cos when it does, everything tends to overflow and create a mess. We need friends to dilute our wrongs, the bad habits, etc, etc. But people can dilute just the opposite way too... you always get 2 sides to a coin. 8) Just as in our contractor... who came and showed us the way before he left. Sometimes, we need those people to point us to the right actions.... who would imagine that my sewer experience can be so 'profound.'. LOL!!! And also my kids... I wonder too whether they can get their hands dirty without being paralyzed by squeamishness.

And of course, we made sure we had a good scrub down after that. 8) My bathing time must have been at least 3 times longer than my usual quick shower. I usually can force myself to be keyed-up about difficult and dirty tasks. But this surely is one which I would never imagine myself doing. But I've also learned that when there is no one else left to do it, we can rise above it if we can overcome ourselves (though of course, sometimes, there are limitations)... today, it was the thought of the gooeyness and stench.... but I am glad that we can still get down on our knees and get our hands dirty.... though I'd prefer not to.

As for the Tanjung Dawai trip.... we decided to give it a miss... dealing with emulsified muck is a tiring affair. And what else did I learned? The workings of the sewer grease trap... Plus,your chemosensory senses can be duped into bearing with the foul stench after prolonged exposure! In other words, we can be dulled into all sorts of conditions! LOL!

PPSMI to stay???

... 2 medium of instructions. For two days in a row, I've been reading from the papers that the gahmen is considering allowing 2 medium of instructions for Math and Science. I, for one would be most happy if Math and Science continue to be taught in English, simply because most of the good references are in English.

Why now, at the 11th hour after such a long time of adamant insistence that we switch back to BM? Is it out of genuine realization that we need to or could it be that the gahmen does not have enough resources to switch over? New books to print, teachers to be sent for retraining, new teaching aids, etc, etc.... all these cost a bomb, given our current penchant of paying more to selected vendors.

Maths and Science in English... I still feel that it benefits the students more. As it is, English is still on the slide. Results in the recent SPM may indicate that all is well but I think many in the system will acknowledge that all is not as well as it seems. Many feel that the passing marks are ridiculously low. Some of us even question the A+ score too. Cos students apt to make glaring grammar errors can score A+ where English is concerned.

However, deep down in us, and because we know our students well enough, I think some of us are honest enough to admit that there may be other forces at play here; forces out of our control.

PPSMI to stay... such a sad thing that we're still flip-flopping over it. Why did we switch to it in the first place? Because we knew that we were lagging, that our poor command of English was making us lose our place in the 'persada dunia'. So switch we did. Then the about turn after that; after billions of RM spent. And now this. I wonder how come we're not smart enough to separate education from politics. National language politicized, feelings stirred and siege mentality ensues. For every two steps we take forward, we 'go-stan' (reverse) another one.

Minus the English skills, we minus ourselves and kids from a lot. We deprive them of the ability to learn from beyond. I was reading an Education related article when I stumbled onto this site.... The Khan Academy. It's like tuition online. The best part is it's free!! 8) The person behind it, Salman Khan, has 3 degrees from MIT and a Harvard MBA. It's a site filled with instructional videos for Maths and Science, no bells and whistles but very easy to understand. One can keep replaying the same thing till they get crystal clear understanding. We lack such kinds of innovators among our teaching fraternity here.

Sites such as The Khan Academy benefit our kids too even though we are on the other side of the world. They take learning beyond the walls of the classrooms. But we need to understand the language used in the instruction. That unfortunately for now is English... cry as much as the nationalists want to about preserving our national language. We still need to master English.... in order to leap forward. But then again, we have built our own little tempurung(s) to prevent those who want to leap forward, leap. I hope the government makes a wise decision on this... one that benefits our children.

This blog...

... has served as a reminder, of good times, events, food, books, rants, places, the cycles that perpetuate or repeat themselves... in my more reflective moments, it reminds me of this same with a little altered sequence that most of us seem to follow. From the birth of a life to the closing chapters of death, the events that dot my timeline; this blog has served as a reminder of sorts to me.

I recently discovered an old letter to my sis which I never did post. As I read through, it reminded me of some of the things that dotted my life. Little things that I had forgotten. That's what this blog has been... that sort of reminder of my forgotten details.

I sometimes read through the old posts... It reminds me to stay consistent. It reminds me to be the things that I sometimes feel not like doing. It reminds me to count my blessings. To apply the Eucharisteo in my life. To rise above my emo-ness.

And the friends and visitors who dropped by; the comments left behind. Those are like little footprints, left by them. Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they encouraged, yet at other times there are those who rant and scold... to the point of being rude. But they remind me of life with its roses and thorns. We can never find everyone to agree with us. Nor for everyone who will treat us fair. We might even get a few stabs from those whom we care deeply about too.

When I started blogging, I didn't know how long I'd last. When I first began, writing out a piece took more time. These days, they take much less. And in writing I find myself thinking and consolidating. I find myself thinking through many more things. I find the expression of words in writing helping me process my thoughts. A processed thought might end up differently after the the writing process cos I have to put my thoughts down in organized words.... it helps somehow. It doubles appreciation, it reduces anger....

I think writing is a form of training the mind to be critical; which our kids do so little of these days. Many of us plagiarize these days.... A study on American undergrads show that the writing skill is on the decline. My own experience as an educator tells me that there are less who can write now, even among my own colleagues.

I don't know how long I'll be able to keep at this.... life is a cycle. After a while maybe everything will feel so same that I might just stop. I don't know. But for now, whenever the itch comes....

D for Deadbeat... by Sue Grafton

I'm still ploughing through Grafton's alphabet series.

A drunkard mows down 5 people. He comes out from jail with 30 grand, which he cheated from a fellow jail mate. He blew 5 on himself and decides to leave the balance to the kid whose parents he killed. That's where Kinsey comes in. She is hired to locate the boy, now 15, to give him the cashier's check. He pays her also in check her services but the cheque bounces. She should have just dropped the case.

But Kinsey was hooked after some intrigues here and there. The guy who actually gave her a false name turns out dead; death by drowning. Then she gets hired by the deceased's daughter. Police classified it as accidental death but she feels otherwise. More nosing around and it is soon suspected that he had been murdered. The guy's 'good' buddy then turns out dead too as he got too close to the truth. It's easy to suspect many as the 5 DUI deaths came from 3 families. Turns out his death was not accidental.

The murderer turns out to be the least likely suspect of all in the end.

Book 13, I did it in 2 days cos I was in the mood to read.

R for Revengeful...

Back to my alphabet series... 8) and the letter today is R. The word of my choice is Revengeful.

Revenge is sweet... so goes the old idiom.

All of us have this trait in us.... it's only how much room you allow it to take over your life that makes the difference.

A revengeful person is a more often than never a bitter person; bitterness makes us rabid and rancid. Revengeful people are unhappy people, mostly with the way how their own lives turn out. That beh-kam-buan feeling never goes away. You turn your bitterness on other people because you cannot have that fleeting happiness. So if you cannot be happy, others also cannot be happy. Happy people are seldom revengeful, I notice.

Anyway, Confucius said... "before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." One thing though, we often fail to take note that revenge kills us eventually too.... the second grave (which is ours) is a sure destination for the person executing revenge. Cos the reason is plain and simple. For every 'sweet' revenge we plot, we lose a bit of ourselves. For the continuous revengeful desires that we continue to nurture, our soul we sell too.... to the grave! to the grave!

But if one has to be revengeful, I think there's a better way..... forgiveness. Forgiveness is probably the sweetest revenge. LOL! After all the purpose of revenge is to cause us frustrations... in other words, make us feel like the revengeful person. What does it mean to forgive? Sometimes I think it's difficult to just pretend nothing has happened, the path which many of us are likely to take. For me, I won't continue to pick an issue at it or try to even get back. I think it's easier to just walk away from it all..... The issue is no longer you, it's the other person. And I think it's best to leave the person to deal with whatever issues herself.

The Bible says love conquers all, to put it simply. I think it's true.

But if allowed to eat into us, I guess at the end of this road of revenge is probably another R word - Ruin. A ruined eternity.

Weissbrau... Straits Quay

Another makan outing... this time at Weissbrau, another German Bistro & Bar at Straits Quay. It was rather quiet when we got there.

After a few visits there, many of the outlets are beginning to feel the same. Anyway, we wanted to try what was available. I'd have gone for Asian food but Other Half and Daughter were more keen on the sausages....

Pork knuckles fried crispy. The skin is crispy and nice on the outside and the meat succulent inside. This order came with roesti or shredded potatoes with herbs fried in butter. First few bites were nice but one can only take that much 'oily' food before the stomach gets full.

I opted for this... and because it is not fried, it was easier on the stomach. This is Alsatian Sauerkrat. Sausages, braised pork belly and loin were the main dish. For the side dishes I chose their garlic mashed potato which I simply loved. It was creamy with a tinge of butter taste and small bits of garlic. Of all I think I like the mashed potato the most. The sausages were tender and moist but I am not much of a sausage coinnoisseur. The sauerkrat went missing cos I forgot and ordered their market vegetables.

Our Lil One had this... Farmer's Garlic Pork Sausage... with potato salad as one of the side dishes. It's okay-lah. But our gal finished the sausage!

I think I've had enough of Western food for a while... at the end of the day, I still crave for something Asian cos it's lighter on the stomach. One more thing, maybe I'll go to the hawkers' for a change. Service and government taxes at such establishments can easily get one a couple of bowls of hawker fare, easy!

We dropped by Gurney Plaza to shop after lunch; second last day of sales this round. It was a pleasant surprise to see these sensors at work in the parking bays. They made it so much easier to locate the empty lots, rather than waste time looking for one in a perpetually full car park! Just look up onto the ceiling for the green light and you know there's a parking lot available.

As for the shopping, we got ourselves our yearly ration of shoes! LOL! And books! It was nice to spend some time at MPH... went on a small book spree there! 8)

There was a Canon Fair going on and they had this what I think, is part of a 24-season Chinese drum show as part of the Fair attraction... from the USM Kungfu Club (I think). Quite nice...

Nineteen Minutes... by Jodi Piccoult

Why is it so easy for people to point a finger at someone else? This book takes a cue from Dunblane, Columbine and countless other shootings at educational institutions.

When a kid goes on a murderous rampage and leaves a trail of dead bodies behind, it's only automatic that after the dust settled, the questioning begins and the finger pointing follows.

In this book, a couple loses one every-parent's-dream kind of son to a DUI to be followed a year later by the 'loss' of a second son, turned into a cold-blooded murderer who leaves a trail of 10 dead bodies and countless scarred lives. He was apprehended and given a trial.

Peter, the teenage killer goes on a murderous rampage. For years he was a victim of bully and ridicule, even from his own brother. There are lots about the teenager that can be explosive. I guess maybe there's good in the ancient system where as soon as you are able to work, you do just that. Busyness and tiredness keep you from going astray. Josie, the other main character is the daughter of Alex, the judge whose dilemma was whether to preside over the proceedings of the case or excuse herself since her daughter was a witness to the shootings, already fragile from the experience of being a 'victim' herself. Nineteen minutes was all that was needed for the killing rampage, for so many lives to changed or snuffed out.

Bullying is a norm in schools. There are the popular kids and the ones who get pushed around. Every kid wants to be in the former but it's an exclusive group. It's hard to be the unpopular one. It's even harder to be unpopular and picked on. But then again, the same kind of 'behaviour' is found even among adults; though we no longer call it 'bullying' at that stage. Bullying is for kids. In the adult world, I think that's flexing the muscles... imposing will by use of might and power or perhaps even persuasion using the strings of the higher power. Church leaders, mosque leaders, politicians.... you can draw parallel comparison. You include your followers into the select group when there is compliance. At the end of the day, it's about feeling 'chosen' or selected, marked as the trend setters, leaders, etc, etc...

Finger pointing. In real life too, we look for a direction where we can point our finger. It's an easier way out; to look outward to a probable cause is way easier than to look inwardly to see how we've contributed to an act. The book ends on a sad yet hopeful note. But this is a nice read.

Book 12 on April Fools' Day. Reading was slow last month... failing eyesight and bogged down by more to do everywhere and also distraction from the e-mags.