Rage Against Bullying

This is my support for "Rage Against Bullying" campaign. 

Say "NO" to bullies! Say "NO" to bullying"  

STOP the BULLY & STOP the BULLYING!

The lighter side of Graduation Day.....

Attention all suitable applicants! Kindly follow the queue and talk to my Ah John & Ku Mah for your application forms.
Thanks! No need to rush ! Plenty of forms available! As I was saying, I want to thank my mom, my dad , my grandma, .... 

Yeah,man! Our days of terrorisng the teachers are over! Hey, who's that pretty chick out there?
OMG! It's mom!

Shah Rukh Khan or Rajinikanth , move aside, I've got the moves lar....

Hey! The teachers promised us sand , water waves, drinks and Mc Donalds,ok? 

Opa Gangnam bees????

You mean we are to sing the Barney song again?!!! O man!

Where's my milk for crying out loud? One confused and deranged bunch of butterflies and bees! 

The "bee that cried the most!!

You are as confused as I am, aren't you?
What shampoo did you use on your hair? So silky and soft looking!

Graduating terrors!

Young terrors!!!!!

The previous Sunday, my family and I attended our beloved nephew's graduation day celebrations. Though it had been awfully tight lately due to work constraints and bible studies and so on, but we wouldn't want to miss our nephew's graduation no matter what! Rain, shine, thunderstorm, hail stones or whatever, they are not going to stop us from seeing our nephew graduate from his tadika-lar....

However, when we are told that they would performing during the graduation ceremony of Tadika Oasis Harmoni, we wouldn't miss it for the world. Though we could not imagine that he has all grown up, we knew that this day would come and he would be looking out for new challenges ahead next year.

Yup! Darlie tootpaste does the trick...always!

As we only got in on Saturday night, we could only play with Ryan & Ashley for a while before they were off to bed as they had a full day ahead the following morning. I was exhausted as earlier in the day, I had sent SLing to her professional course in Masjid Tanah, studied for bible class exams, took the exams before fleeing down to meet up the two young buddies of mine. Despite the tiredness and all that, it was good to see these two tiny tots! Always a delight with their rich, quick and humorous quip, they can be quite pleasurable to play with. Always are heartwarmers and smile easy children, you can only enjoy yourself with them and allow them to have a good time with you.

The intro performance

Early Sunday, morning, they were awake early and soon, they were waking us up to get ready for their concert. As usual, we "whacked' our breakfast nicely at One Top Curry House in Seremban town - a combo of rawa thosai, roti canai, capati and putu mayam. We were quite stuffed by the time we reached the graduation hall. Then it was the performances by the 3 year olds, 4 year olds, 5 year olds and 6 year olds! What an episode of fun. I've never had so much to laugh and to marvel at especially these young ones! They were so cute and adorable! As I sat at my chair, taking pictures, laughing and enjoying myself, I realised how nervous their parents were and how excited they were watching their children's performances. yup, these children were awfully cute and adorable and it is no wonder the support they get  were truly tremendous. They were.........innocent, delightful and direct.They say the darnest thing ever and they don't give a two hoots of what they say! So innocent and so true indeed.

Ashley with her percussion friends

There was one performance whereby one of the bee boys cried from the opening number right up to the end number of their performances and it was really funny indeed. I laughed my head off looking at that poor staged-fright boy but who was I kidding, the poor boy was just 3 years old-lar.....So, I laughed less harder but laughed anyway! Poor parents must be embarrassed by it all but to me, it took real courage to come out to the stage and do his performance eventhough it was crying only , though!

As I looked back at the performances of my nephew and niece, I must say, they are like "kayu" lar but at least, they tried their best to do their dances, expressive singing and tried their hands at musical instruments plus traditional dances. I think, the most important of all, they themselves enjoyed their performances. I just pitied their teachers who could have worked so hard and tirelessly to make this graduation day performances to be as good as they can be. It's all good though.

Ryan in his Sumazau Dance

Proud , proud day indeed!

Then it was the beaming and stage limelight time - Presentation of the graduating scroll. Wah! Such a grandeur experience-lar.....You could see the beaming and pridefully happy parents seeing their children receiving the graduating scroll from the tadika Principal. What I liked was that they asked each child to say something to their parents and I guess, I must say that Ryan outshone the rest of his graduating class members with his own rendition of thanks to Jade & Wei & grandma that day! Miraculously, grandma seemed to grow a few inches taller that day, I think! I could have sworn that she did indeed grew a bit taller that day!

To me, OMG! Ryan had graduated from his class of tiny terrors! He's a big boy now! Anyway, application forms for his hand of marriage in late years of his life will be distributed in 2014 with a non-returnable processing fee of RM 1,888.88 ( feeling lucky- mah! ) from his Ah John and Ku Mah! BTW, first come , first serve basis only! No cutting queue , no recommendation fees allowed and no under-table processing fees allowed though ang pows of goodwill are always welcomed! Applicants will be dealt with strictest confidentiality! How about that! Hahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa.................

Yup! Graduated in style indeed! 

Pictorial art works in Penang.....

Yeah! Let's dance!

Metal art work

Moussey musician friend

Cannon Street - Reaching out for the bird's nest, I guess!~

Chulia Street metal art work. (here's to my friend, Santokh Singh! )

Boy reaching out for something.

Armenian Street metal art works.

Lion head bursting through

Cultural mural of fun

Children of bicycle

Boy with his pet dinosaur.

Boy of m/cycle

Children playing basketball

Artful Penang...

Early mid-section of this month, my family and I made a trip down to Penang. I guess, we wanted to spend some time with friends, our son, JWee and also,the artistic trails in Penang. I guess, I am quite intrigued by the artistry wall art that are displayed near Armenian Street and Chulia Street in Penang. I am very much intrigued too by the metal art works that adorned certain walls on these streets too including Indian Street. 

Yeah, I must admit that I am an art lover and I am such a sucker for rustic buildings, artifacts, art houses and even paintings. I get overwhelmed when I see rustic architecture of great buildings, cobblestones verandah or even wooden buildings. I find these structures to be fascinatingly rustic, old and wonderfully made. Some creative skills and craftsmanship like the stain glass works or even ceramic colored hand painted works had been lost as time progressed into the modern era. Today, everything is mass produced , light , composite and discardable. Whereas in those olden days, things were made with so much painstaking degree of skills and artistic ideas. 

That's why walking down Armenian Street and going into some of these olden days shops brought a lot of wonderful memories. I managed to see some stained glass pieces and some stained ceramic pieces that got my creative juices jumping with joy. I knew some of the skills for these artful pieces are long gone but being able to see one in its condition was good enough for me. I thoroughly enjoyed my walk at these arts pieces and getting to see what was in store for art pieces enthusiasts like me.

As we took the walk along Chew Jetty, this walk reminded us very much of our time spent in Kukup, Johor. Stilts houses in the sea, arid, salty , breezy and quite hot, one would get sticky real fast. Some of the houses were real small in size while others had sprung up plying as homestay accommodations as tourism industry caught up with these fisherman folks. I can imagine seeing the sunrise and the sunset off these wooden jetty construction. I would have loved that very much. 

I think, what was interesting is simply to spend time with family and friends who made us felt very welcomed. I really appreciate the strengthening of friendship, the fellowship, the laughter and the food,of course.

For me, I am most happy to have some time off for myself and reflected on so many happenings in my life lately. Suffice to say that this was quite a good break from the routine crunch of stress and deep thoughts. Life is never about the easy way out but if you could catch a breather once in a while, take it, it might safe your life as well. A good cup of good coffee wouldn't be too bad either!  

Fun with the children!

Getting comfortable to learn some good lesson about lying !

"You Shall Not Lie" - Commandment No.9 was my Sunday school topic and teaching a bunch of bananas like children can be both fun and exhausting as well. I tell you what - teaching these young ones the fundamentals of life is not only important but equally rewarding. Never mind if I look silly in the eyes of many when I lie down with them on the carpet but the most thing is the lesson they learn. Lying down on the carpet and propping myself up made me realised just how close the children were to me as they get comfortable. I know for a fact that when children are comfortable, they learn better.  I hope, it would be priceless experience for them as it was for me. I really cherished those moments as I wished I had a Sunday school teacher who was as crazy as I was then so that I could learn something good in my life. All I had was some gruffy, grumpy,old school teacher who kept teaching me "give me oil in my lamp and keep me burning burning burning" without explaining to me what it really meant!

Simple learning about bump of lies no matter how you hide them!

Anyway, what do you do when you have such lovely children on a Sunday morning waiting to hear what you've gotta say to them. I have often thought of that and that's why I took the trouble to study my materials and teach the children God's Word in the very best of my capability. I really have to thank my friend, Tan BLing for thrusting and trusting me to teach the Word to the children. I must admit that I was quite broken down, dry, grumpy and exhausted little  "soldier" when I first stepped into this place called City Community Church. But I must thank BLing for her persistency in pursuing me to help her in Sunday School in which I have no knowledge of except for my experience in the Royal Rangers Ministry. I remember telling BLing that I have no experience in Sunday School teaching but she asked me one question, " Do you love children?". I answered , " Yes, I do but they are Rangers children.". All she answered was " That'll do! Love them then. I know you can do it , Ivan." So, I've had 3 lessons with them so far and as idiotic as I may be, I do find it extremely rewarding being with the children and loving them as they are. Sure! I am one tough disciplinarian but I can be as fun as one lunatic kid when I enjoy myself with the children. I guess, children tends to bring out that "child" in your even though you can be in your 70's or even your 80's!    

Lovely, lovely children! ( David, Samuel,. Ee Xian, Shaohana, Siu Yee, Hui Yee, Marcus, Ruiz, me,Kimberly and Selina )

That's what I did with the children during my lesson. I also like blessing the children with simple gifts as I felt compelled to love them for what they are and just blessing them. My heart has always been blessing the children. So, I actually took the trouble during one of my workdays to get some gifts for the children. They don't cost much nor they may looked much of a gift but simple things mattered to the children. I got marble - big & small plus rulers, erasers and even Minions metal pencil case. Like I said, they don't cost much but the smiles on the faces of these young ones says it all, man! Yunno, it mean so much to me when a child learns the lesson for the day but when they can tell you what you have taught them over the 3 lessons, you can only be amazed with them. I felt that way yesterday. They make me feel so special indeed.  They could tell me what I have taught them over the 3 lessons and that was fun indeed.

The lesson! ( Did this doodle at 2.50am on Sunday morning ! )

My heart beamed with joy knowing that the Word has fallen to good young grounds. Hopefully as they progressed in their life, more people would water and attend to these young grounds of hope. Me? I am just another worker in the field who would toiled on and do my best each time. I used to ask myself many times if I've ever made any impact in these young children's lives, well, they make me feel proud and humbled yesterday. These lives are so so precious. I pray that more workers would impart good nurturing skills to these young ones and may they grow up to be god-fearing children of our future. Come on, people!  Step right up and help these children learn something, will ya? It will only take 2 hours of your labour time but the reward is rather resounding! That I can attest to!