Reflection on last year's life experiences

For the last one year, I have not been productive in terms of writing posts for readers' perusal. I hope to be able to write more things in 2014 - Year of the Horse.

My preoccupation of last year was to look for ways to live a healthy life. I have learnt of quite a lot of food to avoid and the ones that are of benefit to me. It seems that simple vegetables such as sweet potato leaves, amaranth and 'hong tay chai' or king's vegetables contain goodness for our health. One of these has been picked as '10 top anti-oxidant food'. Sweet potato leaves belong to this group. Hence you should cook more dishes with sweet potato leaves. However, excessive consumption of this vegetable can be too 'cooling' for the elderly and they may suffer from weak knee.

I also engaged myself in the world of languages, learning from Tamil to Japanese. My very purpose is to sharpen my mind and prevent my brains from dementia. Jawi writing also took up some of my time. If you are left-handed, writing Jawi will be very much easier for you.

Applying force on acupuncture points to promote health also interested me  for the last one year. I marvelled at the wisdom of ancient Chinese who had discovered acupuncture.

Being religious, I still listen to dharma talks by monks. I like every talk of  Rev Suvano. The late monk delivered his talk in Hokkien and there are always interesting stories related to Buddhism that he included in his dharma talk.

So much for my reflection on last year's life experinces.

Xin Nian is around the corner

I was unable to get into the editor to do my posting for several times. I was lucky today for I managed to come here to do my first post of the year.

The Chinese New Year or Xin Nian is just 7 days away and everywhere at the market places you can see vendor selling Xin Nian decorations and Nian Gao or the the typical glutinous rice dumpling offered to the Kitchen Deity tomorrow the 24th day of the 12th moon according to the lunar calendar. Legend has it that the dumpling is made sweet so that He will only report the good things to the Jade Emperor of the household he resides in. He will return to the Earth on the 4th day of 1st month, that is the 4th day of Xin Nian to reside in every devotee's house.

Human beings are really funny. We only want to hear good things about us and detest the mention of anything back about us. In real life situation, words pleasing to the ear really make others happy and the very utterance of hurt-causing words will send streams of anger and sadness down one's throat. Hence, why not say only good things about others and forget about their bad things whatever they are.

For this Xin Nian, let us start the year by saying good things to brighten up life.

Watching the London Olympic Games 2012

I am sure most of us will watch the 4-year-once Olympic Games. For this year, the venue is in London. I am very happy to be able to watch the games through my computer. The International Olympic Council has done a good job by asking Youtube to show the video clips to the world. Because of this arrangement, we can go to the following website to watch the games:
www.youtube.com/olympic

There are also video clips of past events which you might have missed. You can click them and let the Samsung Galaxy S3's ads disturb you for 30 seconds. Then the video clips will start to play. If you like the clips and would like to watch them again later on, you can right click the url of the video clips and download with Free Youtube Downloader so that you can watch them offline and delete them when you don't want them anymore.

Go to the site and start watching the games at real time now.

Happy New Year 2012

First of all, let me wish all readers a very Happy New Year.

Today is the first day of 2012. As usual, people will start to make New Year Resolutions only to find that they can't do what have planned to initially. I did the same and was not able to carry out some of them.

For this year, I hope to write something every day. Last year I was not regular in writing my posts and hopefully I will be more regular this year.

Looking back at my posts I wrote more posts on English and Malay than other topics. I tend to write something which I think will be of interest to readers before I start to pen my post.

Sometimes laziness sets in and I do surfing the Internet rather than writing my post. Once you get lazy, it spreads to the next day and the next day. If I can form the habit of writing something daily, then it will be a routine and I won't miss writing the post meant for the day.

Once again, a very Happy New Year to all.

Bahasa Baku and my blogs

Now I am writing 3 blogs. This blog is general in nature. One of the other two called 'Learn the Correct Bahasa Melayu (http://bmcorner.blogspot.com) is about Standard Malay and general mistakes put right. It is written in English. My new blog 'Halaman Bahasa Melayu Cikgu Yeoh" (http://halaman-bahasamelayu.blogspot.com) is teaching Malay (Bahasa Melayu) to beginners and those interested in mastering Bahasa Baku and it is written entirely in Bahasa Melayu (Malay),

I can't be writing daily for three blogs as my tuition schedules are quite tight. Hopefully I will pen one of the blogs per day so as to keep the readers coming. Sometimes, I can't decide what to write but after pressing the 'New Post' button, ideas seem to keep coming.

For today, it is general talk about my blogs and how I intend to do about them.

Yesterday, I did attempt to back link 'Learn the Correct Bahasa Melayu' blog and found a few schools linking it under 'Bahasa Melayu' and 'Learn Bahasa Melayu'. Thanks for using my materials for educational purposes. I am too willing to share my knowledge in bahasa Melayu with any reader for that matter. Our language is progressing and there are changes as shown in the Kamus Dewan, regarding the spelling and new entries. Tatabahasa Dewan also does a good job by standardizing grammatical aspect of the language.

I was first attracted to learn Bahasa Baku from Awang Sariyan. Nowadays, Cikgu Abdul Ghalib Yunus, the Munsyi Dewan is the 'pakar rujuk' (consultant) when it comes to using the correct bahasa Melayu. Personally I benefited a lot from both of them although I had attended two sessions of Bahasa Baku when I was teaching Bahasa Melayu in Sek Men St Theresa, Sungai Petani, Kedah.

Let us hope that one of these days, we will be all be using Bahasa Baku in all our written and printed works.

Happy Teacher's Day

Today is Teacher's Day. I would like to wish all teachers in Malaysia a very happy Teacher's Day.

As a teacher, Teacher's Day is the day I look forward to. When I was teaching in Jerantut, Pahang, teachers would be entertained to a variety show put up by the pupils. Sometimes teachers would join in the fun by playing the guitar and singing. Sometimes I was surprised to see pupils who were quiet in class showing their talent in singing and dancing.

As for my teaching days in St Theresa Secondary School in Sungai Petani, I cannot forget the sumptuous curried chicken brought to the school for the teachers from Koh Choon Hong, the son of Sek Kiang Restaurat (I hope I remember the name of the restaurant correctly) which I savoured with greed for more. The pupils in the school performed marvellous Chinese traditional dances too.

In the last school I taught in, that is Methodist Boys' School, I did enjoy watching the sketches put up by the scouts and the singing of some talented pupils. I also joined in the games with the pupils.

I did receive presents from my pupils. They were mostly pens but I like cards with sincere words poured out by the pupils. The appreciation shown really put me in the air for quite some time.

Once again, Happy Teacher's Day to all engineers of the soul.

The Internet is our teacher

Many a time, I encounter problems regarding ways to make Windows 7 work the way I like it. From past experience, the best place to look for help is the Internet. Sure enough, I have solved most of my problems through help given by the Internet.

As there are many people around the world who write on a variety of topics in their posts, they are a source of knowledge to others. Personally, I have discovered that many of my posts on English have been used to answer questions posed by Internet surfers. For example, the article on Present Participle was used wholesale to answer an Internet user's query.

I am happy to be of help to those who like to learn English. You can always go to the label 'Tips on English' to read all the articles I have written on using correct English. My experience in learning and teaching the language helps me to understand the language better and I am too willing to share the knowledge with readers all over the world.

When I say that the Internet is our teacher, I am telling the truth. I have benefitted from this vast source of knowledge, with myself contributing a bit to it.

Long live the Internet - a good source of knowledge.

Email saved my day

I was meddling with my C drive when I resized it so that I could have another drive but alas I did the wrong thing when I formatted the new drive resulting in it being unable to boot. As I did not have my rescue disk which I should have created very much earlier.

The above situation rendered my computer dead as I could not restore the system at all. Then out of desperation, I used a downloaded Windows 7 to reinstall my system. After having done that, I made a rescue disk. With this disk, I was able to restore my Windows 7 Home Premium - the preinstalled system by Dell. However, in the restoration process, it wipe out all my data in Drive G. My precious data of my lessons are gone. I had intended to back it up later but now I really regretted not doing it.

As I emailed my lessons to the tuition centre every month for publication, I was looking for a place where I might retriever. Fortunately, in the Sent folder, I could see all the files I sent earlier. Hence, I downloaded all these and kept them in two places - one in the hard disk and one in my USB drive.

Email really saved my day.

Welcome back, God of Kitchen

Today the Chinese will pray to welcome back the Zhao Shen or God of Kitchen after having left the Earth on the 24th day of first moon according to the Lunar Calendar. Hopefully He had made a good report about one's household.

Shop owners and vendors also start to do their business as is the norm. Business is really good as not all businessmen want to start working today.

I visited my usual coffee shop and was happy to note that there was no increase in the price of coffee and tea sold to regular customers like us.

Tomorrow most office-workers will start their routine again.

I hope the Rabbit Year will be a very good one for every body.

Second day of Xin Nian

The second of Xin Nian is meant fora daughter-in-law to go back to her family's house. As for the first day, she and her husband will go to the hubby's house to give red packets to the parents and her husband's unmarried siblings.

For this year, the first day of Chinese New Year is not a good day to receive the God of Money but today is. The direction is North-east. Hence it is a good idea to place a bowl full of 168 0ne-cent or 10-cent coins on a table at the North-eastern corner of the house. This act will bring in luck and a lot of money to the owner of the house.

I am now enjoying myself watching variety shows over the telesion and surfing the net at the same time. This post was done while I was doing multitasking in this way.

Happy receiving the Dewa of Money today.

It is Xin Nian today

The year of the Rabbit is here today. The Chinese call their New Year, Xin Nian.

On this day, the children will be the happiest because they will be getting Hong Bao or red packet containing money from their parents and relatives who are married. Only those who are married can have the privilege to hand out hong bao.

As parents the Chinese have to part with their money in the form of hong bao to their children and offspring of their relatives. The very purpose of giving out this red packets is to wish the young a safe year. It is also called ya sui qian which means 'money for longevity'.

One of the taboos during Xin Nian are sweeping the rubbish in the house. Rubbish is thought to be money. Hence by throwing away rubbish, you are literally throwing away your dough. Another taboo is saying bad things or something not auspicious. They should greet each other 'Xin Nian Kuan Le' or 'Happy New Year', 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' or ''Congratulations for striking it rich' and so on. The Cantonese will not say 'San Nin Fai Lok' which is meant to say ' Happy New Year' because 'Fai Lok' can also mean 'Falling fast' as 'fai' is 'quick' and 'lok' is 'fall' in the Cantonese dialect.

Xin Nian Kuai Le to all Chinese readers of this blog.

The mood of CNY is in the air

You can always feel it - the approach of Chinese New Year.

The roadside stalls are selling CNY decorative items.

'Three for ten ringgit!" shouted one vendor as I passed his stall.

Ribbon cakes and arrow-head fries are already on sale although CNY only falls on 3rd February.

Soon you can see 'nian gao' - something like the Malay dodol being displayed on the stalls. This food is always offered to the Kitchen Dewa to bribe him so that he will report good things about the family.

CNY songs are also being played in some of the stalls at the market place.

I like to experience the cool breeze of the morning when the northerly wind is blowing.

Keeping the ball rolling

I regretted not being able to sustain my continuity of the posts in this blog last year and I hope to blog every day for this year except the time when I go travelling again.

Sometimes I had many things to say in this blog but at times my mind was blank and did not what to pen at all. This happened last year and I hope it won't repeat this year.

Keeping the ball rolling is to let an event such as a party continue by planning non-stop programmes. Blogging can be likened to this situation too. You need to write every day so that people will come to read something new from you.

Let us hope for the best for this year.

Happy New Year

I wish all readers of this blog a very Happy New Year.

I really hope everything you wish for goes your way throughout the year.

For me, I wish to have good health, enough money to lead a decent life and happy all the time.

Spiritually I hope to be a better human being, caring and showing concerning to the needy as well as cultivate good karma.

Taxis can educate the masses

During my tour of Yunnan I was very impressed by taxis with LCD screen attached to the tops of them. From time to time, Chinese sentences and slogans will run across the display panel. These are mostly educational in nature. The photo below shows the sentence 'Wen ming Kun Ming wen ming ren' which means 'Civilised Kun Ming means cilivised people' to remind residents to be courteous to people all the time, especially tourists so that they can be looked upon as civilised people of the world.

Other sentences I noticed were the ones asking people to be thrifty in the use of water and keeping the environment clean. I think this is a good way of educating the public who will not miss reading them especially they are trapped in traffic congestion with the taxis in front of them.

A taxi bearing running slogans on LCD display panel

Flowers, flowers everywhere

I have never really had a good look at flowers when I am in Malaysia. However, during my visit to Yunnan I seemed to be attracted to flowers. They can be seen everywhere. My camera helped me to capture some of them which I produced below. Frankly, I do not know the names of the flowers except Flowers 8.

I hope you enjoy looking at the flowers posted here.

Flowers 1

Flowers 2

Flowers 3

Flowers 4

Flowers 5

Flowers 6

Flowers 7

Flowers 8

Flowers 9

Flowers 10

Flowers 11

To score in exams you must go up Dragon Gate

On the first day of my visit to Yunnan, we stayed in Kun Ming. We reached Kun Ming at 2.00 p.m. Then we set foot on Dragon Gate - a famous site for scholars in the past. According to Mr Hu, our tourist guide, all scholars had to reach this gate to be able to score in public exams held by the royal palace.

To go up the Dragon Gate, we had to climb up a flight of stairs whose numbers are fixed for auspicious reasons. We passed by two temples on the way up. I was attracted by the stone sculpture of a tortoise whose body was coiled by a snake. Mr Hu then told us the history of this stone carving. It seemed that one day, a tortoise and a snake went to attend the feast held by the Jade Emperor. They were not allowed to attend the function as they did not bring any present. Suddenly, an idea flashed through their minds. The tortoise allowed the snake to coil round it. The the tortoise would tell the Jade Emperor that his present is the snake and the snake would tell the Jade Emperor that his present is the tortoise. In this way, they were able to be part of the guests. The Jade Emperor the considered the 'present' as pricelss.

Then we caught sight of the stone sculputure of a cow. In front of it was a well. By the side of the well was a calf. Here again, there was a story to this scene. It was said that farmer had a cow and one day he wanted to kill the cow for meat. Upon learning this bad news, the calf quietly hid the chopper. When the farmer finally found his chopper it was with the calf. All at once, it dawned on the farmer that the calf was very filial to his mother. At that moment, he was very touched by this act of filial piety and cancelled his plan of slaugtering the cow. The two cows then started to dig the ground with their horns until water was sprouting from the ground. By this act, it saved the farmer two hours per for having to fetch water from below.

Finally we reached the renowned 'Dragon Gate'. There is a saying here which goes, 'Yi Teng Long Men, Shen Jia Bai Bei' (Once you reach the Dragon Gate your worth is many folds'.

When I looked up I could see beautiful carvings of dragons and phoenix. How could you carve things on the ceiling? Well, it was done through 'blind carving', that is the person who did this job was blindfolded while doing the carving. This art is no longer practised as no one has the skill anymore.

As with most temples, there will always be a wishing well in front of the temple. You can throw coins inside it while saying your wishes in your mind.

So much for a visit to the Dragon Gate.

Entrance at Western Hill

Souvenir Stall at Dragon Gate

Steps leading to Dragon Gate

One temple at Dragon Gate

Zhen Wu Tian Temple

A priceless 'present'

Mother cow was to be killed

Filial-cow Well (The young cow hid the chopper)

Blind carving on the ceiling

Dragon Gate at Western Hill

A wishing well outside a temple

Saying 'Do not step on the grass' in a subtle way

When I was travelling in China recently, I was attracted by the signboard by the side of land with grass. It tells the public in a subtle not to step on the grass. Look at the signboard. I shall explain what the Chinese words mean and the hidden message it tries to convey to you.

The heart-shaped signboard reads "If little legs do not simply run about, the grass will keep smiling.' Through these ten words, we know very well not to step on the grass because the grass will smile to us if we leave the grass intact and not step on it.

This is actually the play of psychology. If you ask a child not to do something, he will just do it to find why he is not allowed to do it. Hence, if you tell a child not to step on the grass, he will just do the opposite. Some adults behave like children too.

Saying pleasant words to others

How do you feel when people keep saying bad words about you? You will feel hurt.

In our lives, we should say good words to others to make him happy instead of uttering offending words to hurt others' feeling.

We seem to see the weaknesses of other people and neglect or purpose close our eyes to his strong points. As human beings we are fallable. Hence we should not be looking for the weakness of someone and start to ridicule him.

A lot of quarrels, suicides and murders would not have been committed had we been kinder to others in terms of the words we articulate.

Let us say pleasant words to everybody and he or she will reciprocate. What a wonderful it will be then.

Shifting of souls between two people

I just watched a comedy about shifting of souls between two people - a man and a girl after an accident involving their racing cars when they overturned. After this incident, the girl assumed the identity of the man in personalit and she walked like a man. On the other hand, the man who had the girl's soul behaved like a girl in demeanour. The man had a daughter and she did not know the shift and called his father whose soul now was that of the girl's. A lot of funny things happen to them after this identity mix-up.

The story ended with both man and girl getting married to have a happy ending.

The shifting of souls may not happen in real life. However, in Buddhism, one's soul will take different forms after death. For those who do good, they may go to the heavenly realms, and evil-does will end up as animals, hungry ghosts or hell-beings. Hence it is better for us to do good all the time so that we can be born in a better realm after death.