Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! ;)


My little red Christmas tree! ;)




Mocha sends his woofy Christmas greeting too! Woof woof! ;P

My Childhood Hometown

A morning walk up Gunung Lambak...
Mini waterfall





My first primary school!


A lovely nursery in the organic park.


Dragonfruit seedlings



Organic park in Kluang.


Huge pumpkins which can be turned into carriages by the Fairy Godmother for our dear Cinderella!!!

Dragonfruit flowers

Dragonfruits




Passionfruits



Mulberries




I spotted these "queueing hearts" on a fence!

Nearing sunset...

Lovely sunset!


End of my exploration! It was a fruitful and nostalgic trip for me! ;P

Handsome Boy!

It is a rainy day... Mocha hates such gloomy weather. :(




Mocha is bored... He walks near the mirror and starts to admire himself! He realises that he is truly handsome! :)




Time to laze... He loves to sit near the bed. ;)




Mocha's magnificent pictures are taken again! Happy viewing! ;P

Mission Accomplished!

Hi! I have just completed my course. I went back to MBS yesterday. The premise is awesome! The school compound is so spacious and I love the indoor basketball court! The halls are huge! Students of MBS are truly fortunate and privileged to have such a conducive learning environment.

Recent pictures taken during a family gathering. Well, they are taken yesterday! Hot from the oven. Hehe... ;)

An Inspiring Story!

This is one of the best stories I've ever come across. Each time I read it, I would cry... Hope it touches you as much as it does to me!

The story goes like this...

As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.

Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold crosses and then putting a big 'F' at the top of his papers.

At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until the last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a shock.

Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, 'Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around.'

His second grade teacher wrote, 'Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle.'

His third grade teacher wrote, 'His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father does not show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps are not taken.'

Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, 'Teddy is withdrawn and does not show much interest in school. He does not have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class.'

By now, Mrs. Thompson realised the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful bright paper and ribbons, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume. However, she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to."

After the children left, she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children... Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her favourite pets.

A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his life.

Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honours. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favourite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.

Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his Bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favourite teacher he ever had but now his name was a little longer... The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.

The story does not end there.

You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the place that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother was wearing on their last Christmas together.

They hugged each other and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You are the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."

Wishing all teachers a Happy Teachers' Day! Have a well-deserved break today! ;)

My Dreamcatcher

Good friends are like stars...
You don't always see them,
But you know they are always there,
Especially when you need them,
Or even when you least expect them to be there...
In short, you know, they'll never let you down.




Last night, over dinner, a good friend of mine gave me this dreamcatcher. It is a lovely, pink dreamcatcher which is made of golden threads, tiny shocking pink beads, a few colourful beads and some pink feathers! He hopes that I will be able to capture all the good dreams in my life! In reality, all of us also hope earnestly that most of our dreams would come true... Let's catch our dreams with zeal!



In Ojibwa (Chippewa) culture, a dreamcatcher is a handmade object based on a willow hoop, on which is woven a loose net or web. The dreamcatcher is then decorated with personal and sacred items such as feathers and beads. The Ojibwa believe that a dreamcatcher changes a person's dreams. According to Terri J. Andrews, "Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through . . . Bad dreams would stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day." Good dreams would pass through and slide down the feathers to the sleeper. Another version was, "Good dreams pass through the center hole to the sleeping person. The bad dreams are trapped in the web where they perish in the light of dawn."