The Joy of Teaching

The following are the comments and suggestions from my students from the online academic evaluation report for the Microeconomics subject I taught this trimester:

1. Thanks.

2. nice teaching. easy to understand

3. It is not that i want to flatter, I really like the way you teach. You are gentle yet stern at times.

4. Can understand more when in tutorial class..

5. for me she is good lecture.

6. i like the way u teach...

7. Nth to comments

8. no comment.

9. like the way you teaching...

10. excellent, always punctual, friendly, very professional, knows her subject well

11. omg too pro ald untill cant say anything.keep on.

12. she is good. she clear our doubt in this subject at that time.

13. teach very detail and interesting during class not boring . I hope lecturer can give more exercise to us . let us more understand .

14. I like the way lecturer teach.I understand what you are teaching.Thanks madam.

15. can understand what the lecturer trying to say and im satisfied the way she is teaching...:)

16. her teaching is easy to understand..

17. like the way you teach

18. gives good explanation. easy to understand.

19. this lecturer is very hardworking and she teaches us very well..

20. explain very detail when discuss the tutorial questions . can understand clearly.

21. Thanks.

22. Nth to comments..

23. i like the way the lecturer teaching:)

24. mdm u really deserve this bcoz u indeed a very good experienced n talented lecturer. keep it up mdm...

25. excellent.

26. very nice lecturing way so its easy to understand

27. she is a very gaad lecturer...

28. Good

29. your class is the best madam...this is one of the classes that i really enjoy attending

30. Very detail!@!

31. very good lecturer ~~

32. She's nice

Thus, the joy of teaching! :)

A New Earth

This book gave me a deep insight on certain spirituality questions that I had. And I realised that understanding spirituality lies not in the understanding of thoughts and words, but it's the feeling of the consciousness of the eternal power that created us; which lies within us. And often times when I dwell on the past or focus on the future, I realise that I lose the precious present moment in which I am in NOW - and time just slips through - no wonder we always exclaim on how time just flies.

I've always questioned the concept of religion and God; religions and worshipping acts never seemed to convince me of the conceptualization of God. Along the way, I am learning that all religions point to the same awareness and it is all ONE. I never wanted to believe in one religion and downplay other religions. Which is why I find the teachings in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam - to be kind to all sentient beings - has universal effect and it all signifies the same message - however we choose to look at it.

I learnt that I should try not to personalize anything and learn to let go of attachments and live with conscious awareness on how my actions affect not only me but others as well. Acceptance, if you have to go through it, you just have to go through it willingly - it is easier that way. And we dont need anything to define ourselves.

This is a book to read - to awaken from the dreamlike-state of humanity.

Happy Birthday to Me

October 11th, it was my birthday - a day which I look forward to every year; it fell on Saturday this year, my favoritest day of the week :) Spent the day with my family and Chin Lay. Had fun-filled laughter and joy.

Went for a scrumptious vegetarian lunch in Bonani's in Melaka Raya; it serves northern Indian cuisines and it's a beer garden as well. We ordered Saag Paneer (spinach with a type of cheese known as 'paneer') - it was just right to our taste - not too rich. Other dishes were Aloo Gobi (potato and cauliflower and other veggies cooked in North Indian style), Chapati (with carrot and other veggies grated in it), and Mango Lassi. It was a fulfilling lunch - thanks for the treat, Chin Lay :)

Mango Lassi

From left to right: Vegetable briyani rice, Saag Paneer, Aloo Gobi, and Capatti

After that we went for a movie at Dataran Pahlawan - watched Mamma Mia - totally enjoyed it from the beginning till the end - fantastic settings (amongst the islands in Greece) and the cast - I've watched it twice! and I will never get bored of it, especially the songs and the performances. Chin Lay and I had a good laugh and was totally entertained.

On the way back home, I bought myself half-dozen Big Apple donuts - just for a change to birthday cakes. The pleasure of indulgence - once in a while!

Those bites are left behind by me, just couldn't resist :) And Alfred calls me a rat

Later in the evening, we attended a 70-th Birthday party celebration in King's Hotel. Since I was vegetarian, didn't really enjoy the food. But I had great company :)

I missed Alfred, couldn't celebrate with him; I am looking forward for next year's celebrations with him :)

Quote

My favorite quote from Seal (how sweet!):

"The most important thing is that we put each other first. I always say that it goes in order of priority—it's my wife first, then the family, then my career," Seal says. "The most common hiccup is when couples get married … and then they have kids, and it [becomes] all about the kids, which is understandable because they're miraculous. But you've got to put each other first…she will always be number one for me. To have a happy life, Seal says there's only one thing a man needs…a happy wife!"

My Prince

One of the joys of having dogs – you can laugh your heart out when they do things like this - he was practically laying still with his mouth open and staring blankly - for a while I thought he was 'stoned'.

Moist Steamed Chocolate Cake

Last week during the Raya break, I developed the itch to bake again - this time I decided to be simple - no icing, no frosting - just a simple cake with simple steps and with just one bowl to wash up - it's the easiest cake I've ever baked - and turned out the effortless endeavor produced a moist-yummy-tasting-choc-cake. Everybody loved it so much - my aunt wanted the recipe for the Christmas cake. This gave me an incentive to be lazier when it comes to baking spree - but then I have a thing towards the fancy-looking cakes, anyway ;-)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 550 gm instant steamed chocolate cake flour
You just need to add the following ingredients to the instant cake flour:
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup condensed milk
- 1 cup cooking oil
- 1 cup water

Steps:
1. Just mix the eggs, condensed milk, cooking oil and water together in a bowl.
2. Add the instant steamed chocolate cake flour little by little to the wet ingredients and mix evenly.
3. Grease and sprinkle some flour on a round cake pan. Pour the mixture in the cake pan.
4. Steam for about 1 and a half hour or so.
5. Indulge!

Gy's Wedding - 14th Sept 2008

Gythiri, my ex-roomate during uni days in Cyberjaya, got married on 14th Sept - it was a great reception with live band of sitar and carnatic singer - and the food was awesome. It was great to meet up with all the jing-bang-uni-gang - Kom, Vatsie, Mel, Siva, and Shuba - my good friends during uni days - people whom I shared my joys and sorrows with - they were always there during all the memorable moments during uni days - right from the first relationship to the break-ups - and also the 'cuci-mata' activities back then (now, we have other more serious things to think about!) - and how we'd do all the crazy things that are meant to be done when you are in uni coz it'z never gonna be the same once you start working. We certainly had lotsa fun - we lived our uni days to the max, I must say. Cheers to all the good years to come for us to celebrate!

A month later

The reason of my sudden dissapearance from the blogsphere for 1 month - lots of things happened and I was busy running around. Looks like our wedding will be postponed to sometime next year - he has to undergo a few treatments and surgery for a lump near his ribcage. Right now, prayers and faith help us get through this difficult period- and I must say it brings us even closer now than ever and we realised how much we mean to each other. I love you sayang with all my heart and I pray that you get well soon - remember we've got the Mount Kinabalu waiting for us - and lots of fun in store; and our life together :)