A funny day - sort of

Why is it a funny day? Someone made me laugh a lot today. I did not laugh out loud much but I still had a lot of laughs. I was flattered and I was given a boost in my self-esteem. Yes I am fully aware of what was happening, but I was, nevertheless, flattered and had a good day of just basking in unnecessary flattery.
Most of all, the whole thing made me wonder. I am a middle-aged woman who has been happily married for close to 14 years. No, life has not been a total bliss. There have been problems and issues that we have had to sort out. There have been incidents which were less than desirable. In short we are a very normal family with our ups and downs. We are also a very "Asian" family most of the time. Outward affections are usually reserved for parent-child relationship. But we do show our love to one another. The only problem is that we hardly ever praise one another enough. I guess I am learning that when I don't praise my other half enough, it doesn't do any good for his self-esteem, just as not getting any praises from him does that to me. *Note to self : show him my appreciation more, and praise him from time to time.*
So ... when I was bombarded with attention by a certain someone, I was flattered. I know it is just playing with words and nothing more than that. But .... it made me realise how much I need the same kind of attention and, yes, flattery, from my other half. I was dragged out of the mundane life into a more "interesting" situation. This is something I have never thought I would experience and feel.
The feeling has pretty much subsided now. I am back to my usual self. And I am slowly theorizing about what it was all about. I think it is an Oedipus thing. I am convinced it is. For it cannot be anything else. I think I have that effect on people, esp younger people. Somehow. And I recall that years ago, I drew that kind of attention from some people. Perhaps they feel safe with me. Or they feel they can trust me, so they talk to me. They share with me things they don't feel comfortable sharing about with other people. Even when I was in my early teens, people used to confide in me very serious things.
Yes that is my theory. I will stick to that. Why? Just because it is a safe theory. And it satisfies my curiosity. And because I don't want it to be any other reason. I value my sanity too much.

Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka's "The Lion and the Jewel"

I am teaching the play "The Lion and the Jewel" by Wole Soyinka to my Form 4 students. So far we have had one 2 hour lesson. I enjoyed the play. The students are also enjoying it. They find it very different from the usual kind of stories that read about and watch on TV. The culture is different and everything else is different. The only similarity is human nature.
Although we are not going to stage the play proper, I hope to get the girls to act out scenes of the play and perhaps video-tape them doing that. It should be fun. The girls are also having fun with some of the word play and certain connotations in the play. It is very adult in nature and one has to be very mature in ordert to understand and appreciate the plot and themes.
One of the things I might want to do, if it is possible, is to make a trip with the girls to the Nigerian High Commissioners and see for ourselves all things Nigerian and try to understand the Nigerian way of life, etc.
Well, whatever happens, I am glad I chose this play, and that I was patient enough to wait for the book to arrive via post.

The book cover

Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1986

Glasses or spectacles

Just as a rose by any other name is still a rose, whether we call them glasses, or spectacles, or cermin mata, or just plain MATA, what it indicates to me is that I am in dire need of them. To read. I have a pair of reading glasses. I don't wear them very often but increasingly I find that I need them.
Not this kind of old-fashioned glasses, of course. Slightly better looking than the one above. I cannot afford to splurge on a nice beautiful pair of glasses, especially since I am only using them to read.
Of course it would be wonderful if I could buy a pair like the ones above. Nice .... but I bet they are expensive.
I have managed to lose my pair of reading glasses. Can't find it anywhere. I will give it another few days, to show grow legs and show up in front of me. If I still cannot find it, I have no choice but to get another pair done. And this time I will get a pair that is stylish and do a bifocal and wear it all the time! I think. If I can bear with it.

Learning curve

I am 41 this year. Celebrated my birthday a little over a week ago. What I have discovered is truly that there is no end to learning. And there is no end to the work that I have to do.
I had 2 weeks to enjoy as we had a one week mid-semester break and another week for Hari Raya. The first week was rather relaxing, mainly resting and enjoying the family.
The second week was, however, a tiring week and it was filled with work. In June, I took a few girls to a state level competition for the entrepreneurship thing that was organised by the cooperative society people. We won first prize and are therefore, the representative for Selangor for the national level competition.
However, we were not told when the competition would be and I had been making calls to the organisers or people in the know about it and enquired, to no avail. All I got was ... we don't know the dates and venue yet ... you will receive a letter when the time comes. Typical of disorganised people. So we waited. And on 7th Sept, I got a call asking if I would be submitting the report and all on 9th. I almost fainted! I told them no I could not submit. Firstly, the report was not done, and there was no guide on what was to be done. Secondly, it was 3 days before Hari Raya and everyone was on holiday. So I asked for extension until the following week. So I rested those few days of Hari Raya and then I got down to work to do the report. I know, it's not my work per se. But what to do? The girls would never understand the work involved and it would be inpossible to get them to do it on time.
So I got down to work. Day time was near impossible to do anything with the report as the children would be taking up my time. So I would start doing work around midnight and get to sleep only at 5am. That went on a few days and eventually I thought I had finished about 90% of the work. I was stuck with some accounting details which I did not understand. So I called up some people and asked others who were online for ideas and help.
Thankfully, the twins, Boh & Kuan, offered to help. They turned up at my house and spent the whole Saturday afternoon doing the accounts section with me. I think we spent more than half the time arguing and thrashing about the details to include and leace out. But we managed to do most of it. By Sunday they emailed me a few more details they thought I should include, which I did.
Monday was a hectic day. School had reopened and that was the day I was going to hand deliver the report to the organisers, in KL. I spent the morning printing copies of the report, getting them bound and verified. Then PDing and I drove to KL and submitted the report.
The whole thing with this project report was a learning process for me. I am no accountant and I am no businesswoman. But I was compiling the report like one and writing the report like an accountant of sorts. It was not easy but I learned. It was a steep learning curve for me but ... I think I am grateful for the opportunity, although I complain about the work.
Well, the Lord never gives us more than what we can bear. I take comfort in that.

One week down, another week to go

Time surely flies when you're having fun, or at least when you're not having a tough time. I have been enjoying myself, not doing anything in particular. I have been catching up on my sleep. I have almost forgotten what it is like to sleep in until I am ready to climb out of bed.

I have also been spending some quality time with my kids. It was good being able to take them out and just not be bothered about other things, like chores and whatever is waiting at home. Hubby and I spent a weekend in KL, staying in KL Plaza for 2 nights, and went round a fair bit in KL. No we didn't do a lot of the things I wanted to do, which was a disappointment. But the kids enjoyed themselves, and that was important. We managed to go to Lot 10 to eat, KL Convention Centre for the Book Fest and Yamaha Piano sale, KLCC for window shopping and to catch a movie, Cats and Dogs, walked through Pavillion a bit, drove around aimlessly and even ate at Soo Kee.

I also managed to meet up with an author, Robert Raymer, whose short story Neighbours we are studying in English Literature class. I took Jon and Jeremy to the Book Fest and met up with Sib and family, and also some of our Lit girls to meet Mr Raymer. We spent about half an hour or so with him, asking him questions and also getting to know this author and his works. Of course, the girls were going ga-ga over his son, Zaini. That is to be expected. Looks like our little meeting might be reported in a newspaper. We'll see. Read about it here.

At the Book Fest, Jon and Jeremy had a great time browsing through the books and reading some while waiting for me. We also bought quite a fair number of books, and bags, and stationery items too. They were going cheap, so, why not?

I have bought Mr Raymer's two books and have started reading one. Well, I am about two thirds done. What have I discovered is that I could probably write something like what he has done too. I have written before, albeit for examination purposed and workbooks. But I know, I can write. I guess I am just too lazy. I realise I am just too lazy to actually notice things and jot them down somewhere. Otherwise, I would probably have written a collection of short stories. I dare not say a novel, but who knows! Am I inspired to write? Well, I HAVE been writing, although only in my blog. Perhaps I will continue to write in my blog and be a bit more serious about it. Then perhaps, I can be like Marina Mahathir, and publish a collection of my thoughts and musings. Well, I can dream, can't I?

Yes, I have one more week to go. I cannot rest too much. I actually have work to do. And I cannot believe I have let the entire week slip by when I could have done some work. I know I will feel guilty ... tomorrow. Well, I am not going to feel guilty now as I just want to be able to rest and relax and not worry about work for another day.