Meeting up with ex-students

An ex-student invited us over for a buffet dinner at his place. So I went with another teacher and some of my St John members, too. It turned out to be his birthday party. Luckily we didn't go empty-handed. We bought him a hamper with Chinese New Year stuff. Haha! Since CNY is around the corner, I guess its OK to bring a hamper from all of us. Dunno whether he'd prefer a birthday gift, instead. Anyway it was nice meeting many ex-students there. Some of them left school 10 years ago! Having served in the school for 18 years and being St John advisor for the last 17 years, I guess there are lots and lots ex-students of mine. Its good to meet them again.

Holidays

It's school holiday time now and yet I have not been updating. So it's actually not the work that's keeping us from updating our blogs. If you really want to do it, somehow you'll find the time to do it. So how has the holiday been so far? Many people I meet ask me whether I'm going anywhere for holiday and I told them I'll be holidaying at home. I don't think they see my point because most people usually think you have to go somewhere to holiday. For me, staying at home without having to think about work, without having to follow schedules and spending time with my loved ones is already holiday. Anyway, after spending a fortune for a week's holiday in Australia during CNY this year, I don't think I should go overseas anymore this year. Better save up for next year's trip. Actually I wasn't staying at home all the time this holidays. I have made 2 trips to KL and there'll be one more trip at the end of the month. This is the time when the girls are having their semester breaks, so it's the time for the family to get together. With the girls away for studies for most of the year, the best time to spend the holidays would be to be home together. Anyway, they missed their favorite Penang food so it's time to enjoy it now. With more people eating it will be more worthwhile to cook more elaborate dishes. With only two of us eating, it is usually some simple food (and healthy of course). On the way back from KL, we made a trip up Cameron Highlands. This is my first trip there. We were told the "new" road is less winding, so I decided to give it a try. The trip up is still winding so I can imagine how the "old" road is! Anyway, coming down wasn't that bad. Maybe I expected too much when I went up. The place is nice and the weather is cool. There isn't much to do there except visit farms and buying fruits and vegetables. Luckily I only booked a night's stay. A friend recommended the Restoran Tringkap. The food was cheap and good. The owners did not try to fleece the tourists. In fact the bill was half the amount I estimated. We went there the next day for steam-boat and the boss even suggest we order for three pax even though there were four of us. Luckily we folowed her advice, the four of us could hardly finish the food meant for three.

Hey, I'm still alive !!!

Oh my! I know it's been a looooooooooong time since I posted anything but I didn't realize it's nearly 5 months. How time flies. Any visitor would have given up coming here. I often wonder how people can find the time to update their blogs everyday. I know everyone's busy and yet they can find time to do it. I guess if you really want to do it you can. But then sometimes you also need to find your privacy to write. I have given up trying to do it in my place of work, even though I'm using my 'free' time. Once in a while somebody will pop in and ask what you're doing. When I told somebody I was updating my blog, she said be careful, somebody got arrested! I really don't know what to answer! To some people blog = politics. I guess they heard about blogs but never really visited any.
You can't write anything if somebody is peering over your shoulder. Even though it's for public viewing, it's no fun when somebody stands behind and reads what you write, correcting your mistakes, suggesting alternatives and so on. But somehow I will find a chance to write . First I must think of what I want to write. Haha. This update is to tell everybody I'm alive and kicking, just plain lazy..........

Winter Sonata

Pictures from my Korea trip back in 2005

My Place of Work

This is where I work.

Some more activities.

Retirement Age

Visitors to this blog would have probably given up checking for new postings. I don't blame them. The last post was 38 days ago! What a lousy blogger I am. I marvel at those who can sustain the momentum of updating daily or so often. Where do they find the time? The last time I tried to update during my free time at work, I had to exit without publishing anything because I had to attend to something that cropped up. Somehow there are other things to look for when I'm online at home that I usually forget I have a blog to update!
This post is about the option for the government servants to choose whether to extend the retirement age from 56 to 58. From the responses we hear, one thing is for sure. All the men I know of have indicated quickly their decision of extending to 58. The women, however, are still thinking and undecided. Some women have declared without hesitation their firm decision of not extending. In conclusion, most men will work until 58 and many women will stop at 56. Any of you know the reason? Do post your comments, especially the women, and let us know why women are reluctant to work till 58 but the men are so eager.
I remember when the announcement was made by the PM on 10th May 2008, my friend quickly sent the news to my phone, knowing I'll be delighted to hear the news. Soon the news spread quickly and it was inspiring to hear my colleagues telling me they heard the news and there're happy that I will still be with them after next year. Some of my subordinates actually expressed relief I'll still be manning the reins.They didn't even ask me if I'll extend or not. They just know I'll extend and they say they are happy we'll still be working together. I hope they mean what they say because it's good to know your service and work is being appreciated and people are actually happy you'll still be around. On the other hand, they could just be trying to be polite and said some nice things. I don't really know what's in their hearts but I choose to believe what I hear.

Decisions

Making decisions is part of life. From trivial decisions like deciding what to wear, what to eat, which channel to watch, which route to take to save time and petrol to major decisions which affect our lifes, we are given choices everyday and we have to make decisions. My colleague lamented to me of the decision he has to make. Why must they give me the choices? Now I'll have a hard time choosing, he said. People sometimes do not want choices because it's not easy to choose especially if the choice is going to have a great impact on you or your loved ones. But sometimes we feel lucky that we have choices to make rather than being forced to take up something without alternatives.
But whatever decisions we make, we must learn to look forward and not keep looking back and wondering whether we made the right choice. We will probably never know the outcome of the other choice. So it's not good to keep thinking what if I had made the other choice. We should instead make the best out of the choice that we have decided on and go ahead to make it work.