The power of visualisation

My 6 year old niece likes Barbie and Princess and the colour pink. But she also loves dinosaurs, dragons, snakes, crocodiles and alligators. That's her yin and yang.

A few days ago she was playing with her three toy dinosaurs. Not the purple plush Barney kind of thing, but a realistically looking Brontosaurus, T-Rex and Pterodactyl. You know the ones made of hard plastic and painted either green, brown or black. She was in her element, acting out the parts of the three dinosaurs herself, using three different voices.

-Aina tengah main apa tu?
-Main dengan toys Aina.
-Oh. Best tak main dengan dinosaur?
-They are not dinosaurs. They are fairies.
-But they look like dinosaurs.
-No. They are pink fairies with white wings. YOU think they look like dinosaurs. Cuba Mak Long tengok betul-betul.
-Haaa OK OK. Betul lah fairies.

Who am I to argue? After all, it's her own little world of imagination!

Sopan la sikit wei

Bro gua tak heran lu nak revv kuat-kuat depan kereta gua. Kalau lu rasa lu terer buat wheelie buat wikang gua takde hal.

Gua tak angkat pot pun kalau lu nak tunjuk aksi superman atas moto Lagenda tu sambil terjerit terlolong.

Cuma satu benda je gua nak kasi sound sama lu bro. Lain kali lu boleh tak jangan pakai kain pelikat masa buat superman tu. 3 malam gua mimpi ngeri.


N.B Kejadian benar ini telah berlaku beberapa malam yang lalu di Bangi.

Cultural interference in learning a language

The meaning of the word culture as used in this context: It denotes a characteristic way of perceiving things or relationships between things. Every person has a tendency to see the relationships between things in one way, not in the other.

Example (this happened in my class once):

-Okay students let's look at the sentence that your friend just wrote on the board.

En France, les gens parlent français.

(It means: In France, people speak French.)

-All right then, can I have someone read it out loud?

-Madame, can I try?

-Of course. Go ahead.

-Encik France, les gens parlent français.

But that's not fair!

When I was a little girl I was once scolded by my Mum because I forgot to switch off the fan in my room. It was on the whole day. I had wasted electricity and of course, money. I felt very angry for getting scolded at. So I decided on an act of rebellion. Just for revenge.

The next day at the end of school I took a blue chalk from the classroom blackboard. I had this idea of doing some graffiti of my own at home, just to annoy my Mum the way she had done so to me. When I got home I acted normal, had my lunch, did my homework and packed my bag for the next day. Then when nobody was looking, I quietly went to the front porch to do some damage on the wall. I had friends who came over to the house to play with me at that time, so it would be difficult for my Mom to pinpoint who the culprit was. They were all upstairs by the way.

I scribbled on the wall in big capital letters. Then I took a step back, admired my handiwork and threw the chalk into the rubbish bin. I washed my hands, went back into the house and sat in front of the TV like a good little kid.

When my Mom came out and saw what I had done, she went ballistic and scolded me even more. I got angrier at the injustice of it all. Why did she have to accuse me? There were so many other kids in the house at the time the crime was committed!

Nevertheless it took me nearly two hours of scrubbing with soapy water and a bristle brush to get the graffiti off the wall. I was sobbing all the way through, regretting the fact that I didn't plan well enough, resulting in an outcome that was the most undesired. It was a good thing she didn't even smack my bum as well.

I had written in capital letters (at least 6 inches in height) the name NURHAYATI.

Bila hujan lebat di malam hari memang banyak kejadian aneh

Malam itu saya memandu pulang seperti biasa selepas kerja. Hujan turun lebat diselangi kilat sabung-menyabung. Terasa agak penat setelah selesai mengadakan 6 jam kelas. Dan apabila penat kita akan memandu di dalam keadaan separa automatik kerana ia hanyalah rutin yang sudah lama dilakukan. Sudah hampir 15 tahun saya menggunakan laluan ini. Sampai saya hafal kedudukan semua papan tanda iklan dan berapa banyak pintu tol yang ada di lebuhraya.

Setelah melepasi tol PLUS saya menerima panggilan dari seorang kenalan yang meminta saya datang ke rumahnya untuk mengambil barang yang dipesan. Niat dihati ingin saya tangguhkan sahaja memandangkan keadaan cuaca buruk yang semacam tidak mengizinkan langsung saya berada di mana-mana tempat lain kecuali di hadapan televisyen, sambil menonton siri kegemaran dan ditemani kucing-kucing montel kesayangan saya. Nak melihat jalan pun susah dek tempias hujan. Muka dah sampai melepasi steering wheel punya la nak bagi line clear sikit.

Tetapi apakan daya tugas dan tanggugngjawab memanggil. Jadi saya gagahkan juga. Cadangannya adalah seperti berikut: saya berjumpa rakan saya di sebuah kedai makan, ambil barang pesanan, bayar dan hantar dia pulang ke rumahnya.

Masalah timbul apabila saya tersilap mengambil simpang masuk untuk ke kawasan perumahan di mana kawan saya tinggal. Saya tiba di satu kawasan yang gelap dan berbelukar. Jalannya kecil sahaja. Lampu jalan agak malap. Saya berhentikan kereta. Saya keluarkan kedua-dua telefon bimbit yang saya ada untuk menelefon bertanya jalan ke tempat pertemuan. Si Nokia baterinya hampir mati. Si Sony Ericsson pula kehabisan kredit panggilan. Leceh betul!

Entah macamana di dalam kekalutan sesat di tempat yang tidak diketahui lokasinya, ditambah pula hujan lebat membuatkan saya tidak sedar yang saya terlupa untuk mengisi minyak. Dan kealpaan saya telah menambahkan lagi kepada senarai masalah yang begitu panjang yang sedang saya hadapi pada waktu itu, sepanjang ayat ini yang saya pun tidak tahu bilakah akan muncul titik noktahnya. Ah itupun dia (titik noktah tersebut). Kerana di saat itu jugalah saya gagal menghidupkan semula enjin kereta. Saya terkedu di dalam gelap malam sunyi. Hujan di luar masih turun mencurah-curah. Nak telefon ibubapa tak boleh. Saya terperangkap di dalam kotak keluli tidak bernyawa!

Mahu tidak mahu saya terpaksa keluar juga dari kereta untuk mencari pertolongan. Nasib baik ada payung free. Itulah gunanya membeli insuran dengan kawan sendiri. Dapat payung dan kalendar meja. Oi susahnya nak keluar kereta dan membuka payung di dalam angin kuat seperti malam itu. Sejuknya hingga menggigit tulang.

Saya menapak perlahan-lahan menyusuri jalan kecil yang gelap itu. Pelik juga. Macamana boleh ada kawasan sunyi seperti ini di tengah-tengah kotaraya?

Syukur alhamdulillah setelah berjalan beberapa meter ke hadapan (walapun dirasakan berbatu-batu jauhnya jika digandakan dengan faktor ketakutan yang semakin menebal di dalam hati saya yang semakin menikus ini) saya nampak kelibat sebuah van sekolah. Bergerak perlahan-lahan menuju ke arah saya. Fuh lega. Saya bergegas menghampiri van tersebut. Alamak. Ada satu benda yang tak kena ni. Van sedang bergerak. Lampu di dalamnya menyala. Tapi tiada pemandu!

Lantas saya teringat akan semua artikel-artikel yang saya pernah baca di dalam majalah Mastika yang bapa saya langgani setiap bulan. Saya mula membayangkan segala rupa makhluk misteri yang sering disensasikan di dalam cerita-cerita mistik itu. Jikalau saya terselamat dari bencana ini, saya perlu meyakinkan bapa saya untuk menukar selera membaca. Dari Mastika ke majalah Mangga!

Namun tiada apa yang boleh saya buat pada waktu itu kecuali berhadapan sahaja dengan segala kemungkinan yang bakal tiba. Saya berbisik di dalam hati: "Wahai makhluk halus, jikalau kau nak muncul di depan aku sekarang, kalau boleh kau hensem lah macam Hans Isaac. Kalau setakat macam Sarjan dalam Gerak Khas tu aku tak rela."

Van masih bergerak perlahan. Degup jantung semakin laju. Hujan kian lebat. Bunyi tiupan angin semakin kuat. Dan saya seakan-akan seperti terdengar bunyi suara kecil berkata-kata.

Saya cekalkan hati. Apa nak jadi, jadilah!

Tiba-tiba tersembul sebuah kepala botak dari belakang van. Sepasang mata yang merah terbuntang merenung saya.

"Kak, mintak tolong sikit boleh? Van saya rosak. Saya kena tolak sorang ni. Akak boleh tolong telefon tow truck tak? Saya bagi nombor. Kredit saya habis!"

Semoga mendapat sedikit pencerahan

Here are some questions that I always ask myself but never bothered looking for the answers:

1. Who are the people who started A&W? Are they Malaysian? Ahmad & Wong?
2. When a fish is thirsty, does it just open its mouth and gulp the water?
3. Do fish get seasick for that matter?
   
4. Why is the word saga in Proton Saga not pronounced the same way as the saga in biji saga?
5. Why do my students tell me traffic jam causes them to be late to class when the distance from their house to the university is less than 5 kilometres?
6. If the Incredible Hulk marries Catwoman and have a baby, will their offspring be a Hulkbaby with whiskers and a tail or a green Catbaby wearing little torn trousers ("Don't make me angry, I'll be too cute for you when I'm angry'')?
7. Does anyone remember how the axe logo looks like on the minyak cap kapak bottle?
   

Sakit pinggang

For the past two days I have been lying horizontal most of the time in bed because of a lower back pain. It started last Friday. I suddenly had this feeling of discomfort at the lower back area during class. I thought it was just some muscle fatigue. Standing in class for at least 3 hours straight every day can sometimes take a toll on your body.

And the drive back home that day after work was the longest one ever! Suddenly everything out there was working against you. I was aware of every pothole and bump on the tarmac. And why did the whole of Klang Valley have to go back at the same time and cause this massive traffic jam? Excuse me, I have a back pain. I need to get to my bed pronto!

At home I tried everything to relieve the pain and discomfort. Semuanya serba tak kena. Nak jalan susah. Nak duduk sakit. Nak tidur pun perlu berhati-hati. God bless everyone who tried to help by sms-ing me all the tried and tested remedies. I tried everything. Minyak panas, tiger balm, sleeping with my back propped up with pillows for support, lying down with my feet higher up. And not to mention the use of hot water bottles (in the form of two grumbling and less-than-eager-to-help cats). Oh yes. Salonpas patches and Yoko Yoko. I can safely say that I now smell like a sinseh shop. I also did some yoga poses: the cat pose, the happy baby pose, the crocodile pose. They are supposed to help relax the spinal cord.

So I guess by tomorrow if things still don't look any better I may have to go visit the doctor.