gone to soon

 

friend. father. husband. batchmate. 

when music theory seems complicated

i think none of my kids inherited the musical side of me. i've always wanted to have a piano in my own home (organ != piano), to be able get my kids to learn how to play (and discover the beauty of music), but you know how it is - time went by, excuses of nanti lah and later lah came next, then covid happened and by then a piano wasn't a priority anymore.

don't get me wrong, i stopped classes when i was in Grade 6, but i wasn't a Beethoven prodigy either. i hated practicing my piano pieces, i got frustrated when the music piece had too many sharps and flats involved, i hated creating my own melodies (it was a theory requirement); most of the time i'd randomly doodle notes onto the score sheet without even bothering to find out if the notes made sense bahahahhahaha. so long as the number of notes per bar corresponded with the meter, aite? 

aunty Musalma would be smacking her forehead right about now should she read what i just wrote. oops.

but i still enjoyed playing, assuming the music notes were in front of me (i wish i had Gesty's talent!). and that's why i joined gamelan during my uni years - they didn't have the orchestra back then, so gamelan was the next best thing. my friends used to be amazed at how i was able to play the music without the notes. every note on the instruments were numbered; you just needed to remember which ones to hit. lol

5 - 5 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 3 - 5 (inside joke bersama mama Ju)

anywayyy, my daughter came home with very atrocious marks for her Music paper recently. i was totally horrified when she texted her marks to me. and when i got to hold the paper in my hands, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets; i actually wanted to laugh just looking at the subjective part of her paper - she totally bombed on the scales and triads. since when was music complicated like History?! however, i didn't learn music in malay, mind you (i was on the ABRSM curriculum), so her paper was practically foreign language to me. the whole paper was in Malay! and it seemed that my daughter does not have the gift of 'ting tiong tiang', haha (i used to know people who hentam the answers to their objective papers yet still managed to get a decent score). i can go on and on on how appalled/mystified/baffled/confounded i am at the results of her music paper... but oh well, pasrah je lah.

that's it. i'm going to enroll one of my kids in music class after thisssss.

for reference (because my brain has gone all rustic on music theory), here are some of the notes i have managed to scrape together with regards to the questions in her exam paper.

Piano Scales that need to be remembered:

• C Major
• F Major: B♭
  
• D Minor: B♭
  
• G Major: F#
• A Minor: G#
• E Minor: F#
• D Major: F#, C#

Relative Minor: take the 6th note from the scale, e.g

• relative minor for C Major: A Minor
• relative minor for G Major: E Minor

Relative Major: take the 3rd note from the scale, e.g

• relative major for A Minor: C Major
• relative major for E Minor: G Major

Scale Degree Notes (To See More Sheep Don't Say Lunch)

• 1 - tonic
• 2 - supertonic
• 3 - mediant
• 4 - subdominant
• 5 - dominant
• 6 - submediant
• 7 - leading note

Formula of the Major scale: T T S T T T S

• T - tone
• S - semitone

i could go on about the harmonic and melodic minor scale (which i'm still confused about), but then i'd be crying blood tears at how much i just realized i've forgotten the theory of music. it's been a while since i've rambled on random subjects, and this is one of those posts. so if you managed to read my post until this line, i apologize because think i kinda wasted your time reading all this crap i wrote, haha.

did you know i wanted to learn the violin? i did. i almost purchased a violin back when i was in uni, but i didn't; i don't really remember why. i'm now worried my kids will end up tone deaf like the husband, haha.

badan beruniform, sukan dan kelab

why i think the way schools handle KOKURIKULUM - Badan Beruniform, Sukan/Permainan & Kelab/Persatuan suck big time.

in one of the many messaging groups i am in, i came across a parent's inquiry on how do students get sorted into extra-curriculum activities for schools..

 

"untuk koko badan beruniform & sukan memang pilihan dibuat oleh guru-guru ya? tanpa pilihan minat anak-anak sendiri?

anak saya tak minat langsung dengan catur tapi diletakkan dalam group catur. bila suruh tukar apa yg dia minat, cikgu pesan terima sahaja pilihan yang guru tetapkan.

bagi pendapat saya, sekurang-kurangnya anak murid berhak untuk memilih 3 pilihan yg mereka minat dan selebihnya guru tentukan dalam 3 pilihan tadi.

mudahkan urusan guru, tapi anak-anak terus ditentukan tanpa pilihan anak-anak sendiri."

sad to say, my kids have this problem too. the school gives out a list of all available clubs, badan beruniform and sports but when students don't get into the clubs that they want to join - with the school's excuse that their chosen clubs are full - they're forced to join clubs that are of little interest to them. 

first of all, these kids should be allowed to join clubs that they are interested in, isn't that the whole point of joining them in the first place?

i still remember the day my daughter told me that she was supposed to sign up for extra-curriculum. she was interested in joining the cooking club; she used to tell me she wanted to be a chef one day (not to be a wet rag, but i don't think that ambition of hers will last, but at least she had ambition, yes? =D). anyway, on the day they were supposed to choose, she called later to tell me she didn't get to join any of the clubs and badan beruniform that she initially wanted. 

just imagine, there were about 150 students in Form 1 who wanted to register for extra-curriculum activities for the first time, so what are the odds that most of them would want to join the same club?

- the Cooking Club apparently had limited spots available, so of course my daughter didn't get to join. she tried for English next, but that one was full too. finally decided to join BM just because that club wasn't full yet;

- Tunas Puteri / Puteri Islam was filling up fast too, but they prioritized students that already bought the uniform, as well as former members, so she was pushed aside and had to settle for TKRS;

- Badminton was the only one she chose and managed to get in. haha. 

just so you know, these days she's slowly starting to lose interest in the kitchen, which is a bit saddening to me. i wonder if she did happen to get into the club she wanted, she'd still offer to help me out in the kitchen once in a while. i may just never find out. drama kan. haha.

she sends her younger sister to help me instead. CHIS.

i haven't even begin to elaborate on student favoritism. and let's not start on situations where the student was one of the earliest to sign up for her preferred club, but was transferred into another club instead because there weren't enough people in the other clubs (they supposedly had to even out the quota). ironically, a friend of hers signed up much later but managed to get into the club, so where's the fairness in that? 

and why do you even limit the number of students in one club anyway? nak jaga quota la konon. it's a free country, what's wrong with letting them belong in a club they enjoy and actually want to be in, apa susah? imagine you have a judo club with only 3 members. takkan la you nak force students into the club just for the sake of evening out the quota? well okay, statistically 2 or 3 students might get smitten by judo, but what about the others? then what? be stuck in a club they're not interested in until they graduate? kids can try something and not like it the same way adults do. 

the excuse "kita nak beri pendedahan semua jenis sukan kepada murid-murid" defeats the purpose of allowing the students to choose in the first place. you might as well just decide for them who gets into what, am i right? tak payah bagi harapan palsu kat students if you won't even let them join the clubs of their liking.

another daughter of mine was put into chess club (i have no idea how she winded up in that club haha) but until today she has no idea how to play chess T___T. tu pun satu. isn't the club supposed to teach her how? i'm sorry, but why again do we have clubs and persatuan if she has no idea what she's doing in the club in the first place? pendedahan, what?

you can't force hobbies / interests onto kids. you can introduce them to, sure. but that's not the reason schools have all these curriculum in the first place, yes? you join clubs to gain knowledge, skills and experience in regards to the club of choice. and it's also the best way to expand your circle of friends. these school clubs are supposed to be fun and exciting for the students, BUT when they get thrown into random clubs to 'even out the clubs' member count (which is such a lame excuse, mind you), you're just simply forcing a kid to do something they have very little interest in and suck all the fun out of it. and that's just sad.

i don't think i'm the only parent that feels this way, but nothing much can be done about the system anyway. now that everyone's stuck at home and everything is conducted online, i can't fathom why they don't just let students join anything they want to. i'd want to leave school with happy memories, and extra-curriculum is an important aspect to make that happen, trust me.

plants and rocks

image source: Google

the solar system : i've never really bothered to know much about this subject mainly because i didn't have to take Science for UPSR. back then subject was called 'Alam dan Manusia'; that's how old i am. the closest thing i knew about planets back then was when my classes were named after planets. i was a Musytarian since Standard One until Four (or was it Three? i forgot already), then i got bumped into Zuhal for the remaining years.

yup, that's all i know. hahaha. until recently when my kids need to learn about planets in school. during my days Pluto was still considered a part of the solar system (and also shares a name with Mickey Mouse's loyal pet dog), until it got downgraded into a dwarf planet in 2006. it still feels weird to know that there's only eight planets in the solar system; my mindset still has it set to nine. haha.

and i learnt all my subjects in school in Malay (ami-laa-se liur, bahahhahahahha), so for the life of me i keep forgetting their translated names correctly. i mean like how on earth did Jupiter get translated into Musytari???

so i got to learn that my daughter has a formula to remember the names of the planets in order: 

"My Very Educated Mommy Just Served Us Noodles".

LOL LOL. 

My - Mercury / Utarid

Very - Venus / Zuhrah (the hottest planet)

Educated - Earth / Bumi

Mommy - Mars / Marikh

Just - Jupiter / Musytari (the biggest planet)

Served - Saturn / Zuhal (planet with the most rings)

Us - Uranus / Uranus

Noodles - Neptune / Neptun

Potatoes - Pluto

pretty cool huh. my Standard One kid has already memorized it. but for a very educated Mother, why does she serve noodles? i'd have chosen Nutella. or Nachos. or Nuggets, my kids absolutely love those hahahhahaha

now moving on to... rocks!

ok now this one i seriously don't even remember learning about it, unless you have a genuine interest in the subject. kids these days have it easy, everything you can just Google. our version of Google was to ask our Mom or Dad, or take a trip to the local library, assuming they have books related to whatever it is you are looking up on. and then head to the foodcourt to eat mee ayam because you're hungry. and then find a public phone afterwards to call your mom to pick you up, because you haven't figured out how the bus system works.

anyway, i googled those rock terms, just because one of my daughter's questions in her Science paper asked about the rock sequence as it enters the earth's atmosphere. and the terms all sound so similar to each other, it's like Molly Bolly Jolly, so who comes first? haha. 

but first let's define the terms.

Asteroid

a small rocky body orbiting the sun. large numbers of these are found between orbits of Mars and Jupiter <- this i also did not know. another one of the questions asked in my daughter's paper. she can consider a career as an astronomer after this.

Meteoroid

a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. meteoroids are significantly smaller than asteroids, and ranges in size.

Meteor

when meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or shooting stars are called Meteors.

Meteorite

when a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it's called a Meteorite.

i'm guessing this is what you call those solid rocks that people see on displays in museums, no?

here's a very good video to differentiate everything:

ok i'm done rambling about this subject. my kids have learnt the existence of this blog so they find it amusing to read my ramblings, especially when most of my older posts are about them. LOL

today's my anniversary, and here i am wiriting about planets and finishing up my pending test documents yg never ending T_T.

my birthday surprise

remember the birthday prank i played on my deskmate earlier this year? well my friends decided to continue the tradition even though we're in lockdown and stuck working from home.

their initial plan was to sabotage my car, or something like that. but nah, that ain't happening, office tutup. lucky for me, too bad for them.

BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

they got creative and decided to send the surprise to my house instead. no one is safeeeeeee

birthday surprise - the kids were the happiest to see thissss

thanks guys!

you know that mco joke where they say now's a good time to go kutip hutang, coz confirm everyone will be at home? yeah well... that's how it was more or less.  

funny thing was, they had to send the surprise one day before my actual birthday, only because the courier service is closed on Sunday hahahha. so i received alot of early birthday wishes this year. i seriously did not expect this. i was just told to make sure i was around on Saturday. and in my total surprise (i was stunned i tell you, STUNNEDDDDD), i did not realize the mascot was a cat, and not a mouse. 

cat or mouse?

bongok tak. kene bahan lagiii *smacks forehead* i'm just glad they didn't catch me in my pajamas, hahahahhahah.

never mind. next year can balas dendam. january is comingggggggggggg hahahahhahaha

btw, the cake they sent me sedap gila. here's the number in case anyone's interested in ordering:

love desserts - 0126191548

on Sunday (my actual birthday), i had brunch with v at VCR. v's a pro at cafe hopping, so her recommendations doesn't disappoint. i found out that doughnuts and ice cream go perfectly together. 

bersama geng masuk hutan

this is v's. she forever eats clean =P

i ordered... thisssssss

am i 18 or am i 18?

donuts + ice cream = yum yum

v also had the bright idea to order from kak od her infamous salmon asam pedas and kek batik. so of cos i pun nak la menumpang sekali, heeee~~~~ huwaaaaaaaa i miss random makan-makans in the office. now to figure out how to pass all that to v. why la you live so far away from me?

asam pedas kak od!!!

ended the day with Sushi King with the family and berry pavlova from Alexis. the husband had already bought an early birthday gift for me about a week ago. my old device died on me, and as much as i'd like to revive it, it's time to move on and move to greener pastures =P. 

mini family celebration

also, a good friend of mine decided to surprise me with this slice of cake. thanks babe! love u mucho =D #plantfriend

demam norwex

so have you heard of Norwex? that kayangan cloth that advocates microfiber + water.

no, i'm not selling. just wanna jot down my opinion on this cloth because i too, am in search of the perfect absorbent microfiber cloth. most of the cloths i randomly buy in stores just doesn't do the job.

i purchased my first set from a fellow Kedahan of mine, mainly because she was one of the few people i've seen posting about this cloth on instagram (now practically everyone is selling Norwex) and her postings didn't annoy me so much unlike some others (LOL) because she focuses her posts on the cloths capability rather than 'come join me', iykwim.
 

my first norwex purchase

i got the:

- Envirocloth in Graphite

- Window cloth in Purple (hidden between the envirocloth in the photo LOL)

- Kitchen cloth in Charcoal

these cloths i purchased to be solely used by me, of course =P

the first thing i did (to test out the cloth) was to wipe all the TV screens downstairs (there's two in case you start to wonder, cakap kemain mcm ade 10 bijik kekekkeke). first wipe with a damp Enviro, then finish to shine with the Window cloth, my friend advises me. 

for a first impression - ok la, not bad. didn't have to use any of those LCD spray cleaners and yet managed to get rid of those pesky fingerprints. the screen didn't end up with more scratches either. the Envirocloth is more of a multipurpose cloth. it is made super-dense so it can be used to absorb more liquid, can effectively pick up dirt and clean larger messes effectively. i won't go into the specifics, for that you go find a Norwex consultant, k.

i don't really know how to use the Window cloth on its own; i kinda prefer to pair it with the Enviro to get that satisfactory sparkle. i haven't tried it on windows or mirrors yet, my room is currently 'under construction', i'm waiting for someone to service (clean?) my bed before i clean the whole room. my closet mirrors need sental-ling, yo. my friend swears on it for all the glass surfaces in the house - super fingerprint eliminator and unwanted streaks.

what i couldn't do was to remove a small stain on one of my older bags; i saw someone's testimonial that they only needed the Enviro to restore a bag to look almost new. i think it depends on what type of stain it is and how long the stain is as well. the longer the stain, the more effort needed to get rid of. no kidding - sometimes i penat tengok orang menyental in their videos hahahhahaha. you could get their cleaning paste, dubbed as elbow grease, to help remove those tougher stains. so don't really expect magic from this cloth k. they don't disinfect surfaces, they don't disinfect themselves after.

remember those Axion tv advertisements a long time ago? in the advert, u just need to touch the cloth to the plate and wallah, terus shiny. well, that ain't happening here, woman. hahahahahhahahah

now the kitchen cloth, oh gosh, how i love! it's thinner than the Enviro, because i think it's supposed to easily absorb grease and grime in the kitchen, and in turn makes it easier for you to clean the cloth afterwards. i use mine daily to clean my oily stove - other cloths just seem to smear the grime all over, not to mention the watermarks it leaves after it dries. with the kitchen cloth, i don't even need to use soap, only water. i practically use it to wipe most of the surfaces and appliances in the kitchen. i have yet to try to sental my cooking hood (you know how icky and grimy a cooking hood can get); my friend has tried already, the cloth works wonders ok. oh and you can use them to dry your dishes too, up to you =D 

i love wiping my hands on it as well, but mcm too kayangan to just dry hands, don't you think? LOL so... i got myself some cheap Ikea cloths to wipe my hands on.

Ikea hand towel on the left, nay kitchen cloth on the right

that being said, you might to spend a bit more on their cleaning paste for stubborn stains, or their special detergent to launder the cloths after heavy usage. despite claiming that you can just dampen the cloth with water to clean, water alone cannot remove stains from the cloth, so i believe you still need some form of detergent to clean your cloths thoroughly after usage. because i is stingy, i just use my own liquid soap to wash my cloths after use (but that's just how i do it, please read the disclaimers first and don't blindly follow me k, kang void warranty i is not responsible). for deep cleansing, depending on how often you use the cloths, the cloths should be immersed in hot water (not boiling k) for half hour minumum with just a bit of detergent to effectively remove all the grime.

i got myself a few more kitchen cloths (in Navy) and another Envirocloth (in Plum) because i had hoped to use one of it for the husband's bicycle. but then i started to wonder if chain grease can be removed from the cloth. we've been reusing those old white mas hand towels as multipurpose cloths in the household, and so far no matter how you wash them, those stubborn black grease marks CANNOT disappear. i mean if you need extra effort to get rid of the grease from your hands, think about the tough time you'll be having getting rid of it from your cloth. hahaha.terus tak jadi bagi, hoader forever yo.

oh just to mention, the new Envirocloth i purchased in Plum is made from 70% percent recycled materials. don't ask me what's the difference, but supposedly the performance should be the same as the normal cloth. i asked my friend about it since i just noticed the label wrote 'RECYCLED'. haha.

speaking of recycled, i also got myself some counter cloths, which are also made of 50% recycled materials. they're supposed to replace paper towels due to it's high absorbency. don't know how it differs from the kitchen cloth, but the look is different, and they're both different in size. i actually bought it because i was conned into thinking it could 100% replace the use of kitchen paper towels; i saw people using it to lapik fried food to absorb oil. word of caution - never put fried food directly from pan onto the cloth ya. someone said her cloth kinda melted due to the hot oil... yikes. you can try it for yourself if you wanna see if that's true or not. or you can get your agent to test it out for the sake of testimonial purposes, jahahahha. you can also use them to keep your fruits and vegetables fresh in the fridge, but i have yet to try that out. so many veggies, only three cloths, how lar.

kitchen cloth (the navy is gorgeous irl!), counter cloth, Enviro

so i tried out the counter cloth yesterday since the husband requested his mojos for supper (kudos to those who can still remember what they are; i don't). i'd usually put them directly onto a plate and serve but this time i moved it onto the cloth AFTER the potatoes had cooled down abit. the husband says it tasted much better than before because of that oil-absorbent cloth, but he always terpedaya liddat (like for example he takes a supplement for the first time then terus rasa sihat. hahahah. itu semua mentality ok hahahahhahahah).

mojos! the kids love them too

see all the oil it collected?

ask me later if i manage to remove all that oil from the cloth. i've already washed it, now waiting for it to dry to see the outcome.

i'm waiting for my friend Nini's testimonial on facial pads to see how effective it is compared to normal cotton pads, kekekke.

there are many more products Norwex has to offer, it's up to you what type you're looking for, and for what purpose. you can't expect one cloth to work for all; where's the business opportunity in that for Norwex? (same thing like getting a bike - you're going to have to buy the lights, the helmet, the whole outfit ensemble, and who knows what other accessories you think you need to ride a bike hahahahhaha)

i'm not getting paid to write any of this, i simply love this cloth find, wahahahha. and this is my final take on it:

1. Norwex falls into the 'nice to have' category
2. if you're hoping to make old or stubborn stains disappear easily with Norwex, guess again. you're still gonna need to put in the extra effort to tonyoh and sental all the dust and dirt away
3. cleaning is not a one-time process - Norwex will not magically make a messy household become spanking clean with just a snap of your finger (ha! wouldn't i like that)
4. for people who are exceptional house cleaners, don't put too much expectation and expect an obvious before and after because your house is already sparkling to begin with (kudos to you! now come sental my house please) 
5. you reduce the usage of cleaning agents, however you still require them when it comes to stubborn stains and heavy duty cleaning PLUS you still need some sort of detergent to clean your cloths after usage 

BUT

1. it will help you simplify the cleaning effort and effectiveness though. that's just my opinion k.

some might say that for a kain buruk, the price sure is hefty (truth be told, that was my first thought also hahahahah). i mean sure, they're made from good quality material with BacLock technology that would no doubt give you a run for your money, so why else would they have given you a warranty for a cloth if the company wasn't confident in their own product? at the very least you can try browsing through their catalogue and carefully choose what suits your cleaning style best. being able to clean without using additional cleaning agents is a plus point for me =D.

BUT bear in mind what works for one person might not work for another. like how someone wouldn't mind purchasing a RM35,000 bike while another person might think it ludicrous and would rather instead use the money to buy a second-hand car that has door, a roof and air-conditioning instead. bahahahhahahah 

if you're still unconvinced, you can always check out the many consultant's impressive videos online (thank technology for emptying my pocket in lightning record) and see for yourself. hehe.

so i'm going to admire my cloths now and use them (because you know how much of a hoarder i used to be =P). thanks for reading my rambling nonsense! #jakun

those last moments in BS

due to the rising COVID cases each day, Selangor's been decreed to go under CMCO for two weeks starting from tomorrow 14th to 27th October... BUT i reckon it will be longer though. MCO started out the same way too; they told us to stay home for 2 weeks, which ended up being > 3 months. my terrarium i left in the office R.I.P. because of that. haha.

because of this, today marks our last working day at Bangsar South office. personally i'd have chosen to continue working at this office since everything was easily accessible here, plus Operations are still based in BS (until Cyber's IT infrastucture is ready) but 16th was the last day our parking pass was valid for, so nak tak nak we had to pack up and go.

i will miss you Ah Hock (milo panas cawan besar), myNews downstairs, SanFran's coffee offers (even though i don't drink coffee haha), Ayam Penyet, Tomyam, Nasi Kukus (also known as kedai kaki ayam Rina) at Bumbung Biru, the Curry Laksa at Nyonya (they don't have any outlets nearer to me, chis) and fragrant Flower Tea at Amber, to name a few things on the top of my head that i know i would miss. 

(as i'm writing this, i am hungry, can you tell?)

at the new office, you have to literally go out to find decent food if you don't want to order food delivery service. and the new office is adopting an open seating work situation, where you no longer have a permanent desk to dump all your things - tissue box, mirror, stationeries, personal supplies, etc. save for a small cubicle to chuck your stuff. where am i going to keep my extra monitor like this? nanti orang curikkkkkk :O since CMCO happened and everyone is forced to stay home and i have yet to step foot into the new office, my office stuff are strewn all over the house. hahahahaha.

in light of everything happening, we took the opportunity to celebrate our last few weeks in BS - eat, shop, and camwhoring. not to forget plant-poaching *ahem*, but let's not elaborate on that, shall we? =P

nak pindah baru tau kewujudan tempat ni HAHA

no more shopping outings to mv with this crazy bunch

no more Ted Boy for tea time, across the office

no more reason to drive out to BS after this

no more lunch sessions with my ice cream buddy

i'm going to miss:

- my occasional ice cream sessions with Dilot

- hanging out with my other non-colleague friends who i occasionally lepak with

- getting lost in the stairwells in the basement looking for my car because parking is always full and i keep forgetting where i park my car

- ad hoc shopping for overpriced groceries at Aeon so that i don't have to stop by Tesco on my way home from work

- hopping into a Grab and heading to mv to have lunch w Mashi

- monthly banana leaf sessions with my cousin

- my favourite threading store after having banana leaf =D

- makan megi and onion-ing with my gila friends after work

- cheap food at Bumbung Biru!

but then again CMCO has gotten everyone stuck at home, so no difference la... for now.