The twins have a new obsession — Little Einsteins. Day and night, they’d ask for it. And failure to get their daily dose of Little Einsteins often lead to crying bouts and temper tantrums.
For those who don’t have kids and have no idea who or what I’m talking about, Little Einsteins is an animated television series on Playhouse Disney. It features four kids — Leo, June, Quincy, and Annie — who go on a different adventure or ‘mission’ during each episode, together with their intelligent and transformable space/air/water-craft, “Rocket”.
What makes the show different is the use of snippets of classical music from the likes of Ludwig Van Beethoven and Edvard Grieg, but using lyrics like “My silly sock has pizza, bananas and a little fish” to the tune of one of Schubert’s symphonies. Silly, true, but they make the song stick to your head like super glue!
The show also often manages to include art works as backdrops or key elements in the story, mostly paintings from the Masters, such as Van Gogh’s ‘Almond Blossom‘ and Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa‘.
And in the tradition of Blue’s Clues and Dora The Explorer, the show encourages interaction from its viewers — stuff like asking the kids to pat their laps to make Rocket start moving or wave their hands in the air to make Rocket go “super fast” (imagine the twins saying “Super fast!” with an American twang!).
This is one obsession that I don’t mind indulging because it educates and stimulates while it entertains and keeps the temper tantrums at bay.
Tags: educational TV show
In a recent post, I wrote about MAHA 2008 (Malaysia Agriculture, Horticulture And Agrotourism Exhibition 2008), the region’s largest exhibition showcasing the latest Technologies and Innovations in the Agriculture, Agro-Based, Horticulture and Agrotourism Industry. The exhibition featured 950 local and international exhibitors, animal rides (elephant, pony, camel — take your pick!), a leech therapy booth (fancy getting some leeches to suck ‘bad blood’ out of you??), a display of ornamental fish, a greenhouse full of vegetables, demonstrations on horseshoe making and how police dogs sniff out illegal drugs from a row of luggage.
Naturally, where there are crowds, there are sales (or is it the other way around?). There were seeds, saplings, pineapple crowns, fertilisers, horse supplements, gardening tools and farming equipment for sale at very reasonable prices.
But the biggest crowd-puller was, of course, the rodeo, complete with genuine cowboys from Australia. The photo on the left shows one of cowboys cracking a pair of whips while walking on the rain-drenched fence, balancing precariously with his leather boots. The photo on the right shows MyEldest, OnlyGirl and RoundBoy patting a cowboy’s horse — irrefutable proof that the rodeo was, indeed, in Malaysia.
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| Crack those whips, Luke Fence-Walker! | Good horsie… nice horsie! |
This photo, meanwhile, shows a cowboy who fell off the bull that it was riding, with a cowboy clown getting ready to distract the bull so that the fallen cowboy could make his getaway.
The Yang Dipertuan Agong (Sultan of Malaysia) happened to be in the rodeo audience that day, so I assume that the cowboys must have given an extraordinary, special performance that morning.
When MAHA 2009 comes around, I’ll definitely make it a point to take the kids there again!
Ramadhan starts in Malaysia and the rest of the Muslim world today. ‘Ramadhan’ is actually the name of the month when all Muslims who have reached puberty and are in good health fast from dawn to dusk. Since Muslims follow a lunar-based calendar called ‘Hijrah’ calendar, Ramadhan can fall on any month of the Gregorian calendar.
Fasting (’sawm‘ in Arabic, ‘puasa‘ in Malay) entails abstaining from food, drink and sex from sunrise until sunset for a month. Women who have their period can’t fast and have to replace the same number of days they missed fasting anytime during the rest of the year. Pregnant or breastfeeding women may also be excused if fasting compromises their health or their babies’ health. Sick people are exempted, as well.
And even though fasting is not obligatory for children, it’s quite common for Malaysian children as young as 6 or 7 starting to fast, even if it’s just for a few hours. They practice waking up at dawn to eat ‘sahur‘, go back to sleep, go to school and play as usual, then break their fast sometime during the day when they can’t stand it anymore. You’ll be surprised at the number of young children who can actually fast for the whole day, for an entire month. Try asking your neighbours’ kids! This way, by the time they’ve reached the age of puberty and are required to fast, their systems would have already gotten used to the routine.
In Malaysia, even though it is Ramadhan, restaurants and fast food joints remain open for business throughout the day. It seems almost ironical for these places to be mostly manned by Muslim staff who are, themselves, fasting. It’s quite common to see families go in, with the fasting parents feeding their small children. Oh, and in case you’re wondering how Muslim cooks manage, they are allowed to taste the food as long as they don’t swallow. Tricky, huh?When Ramadhan comes, special food bazaars sprout up like mushrooms in each township or community. As early as 4 or 4.30 pm, hawkers start selling all sorts of drinks, cakes, sweets, cookies, rice dishes, vegetables and viands. Even non-Muslims enjoy these food bazaars, as special delicacies are often sold during this time, including specialities from other states like ayam percik from Kelantan (grilled chicken, smothered in a creamy coconut cream-based sauce).
Ramadhan also means ‘buka puasa‘ buffets (’buka‘ literally means ‘open’) in hotels and restaurants all over Malaysia. Corporate bodies often take this opportunity to get together with their clients and treat them to a lavish spread of sweets, cakes, local food and Western food. The ‘buka puasa‘ buffets are open to the general public and you’ll be surprised at the number of people who’ll fork out RM45++ or more per person for a 2-hour smorgasbord.
During the month of Ramadhan, you’ll also see mosques packed more than usual at night, as Muslims flock to pray ‘tarawih‘, a special prayer that can only be prayed in this month. If you live in an area where there’s a mosque or surau, don’t be surprised at the number of cars parked on both sides of the road. But as the month progresses, you’ll notice that the number of cars slowly dwindle…
Working hours are also often altered for this month, as people rush to go home early to cook or shop for their ‘buka puasa‘. Many offices skip or shorten their lunch break and/or start half an hour earlier in the morning, to allow their staff to go home as early as 4.30 pm. So don’t be surprised to find that your local family clinic or nearby sundry shop suddenly have earlier closing times during Ramadhan.
This site has a simple yet concise explanation on why Muslims fast: http://www.sunnah.org/ibadaat/fasting/fast.html.
“Wherever you are, death will find you, even if you are in towers built up strong and high!”
Today, one of OnlyGirl’s teachers passed away today due to heart failure. One moment, she was in the river with other teachers, OnlyGirl, and some students; less than an hour later, she was gone. You know what really shook me? She was about my age and had no known history of heart disease.
“Wherever you are, death will find you”. Let us pause for a moment and reflect on these words, for there is none among us who knows when it’s our time to go.
To God we belong and to Him is our return.
Tags: death
Image from techzoogle.com
I got a major scare yesterday afternoon when a technical glitch made all my posts ‘disappear’. The header was there. So was the side bar. But no posts!
I turned hot and cold. Literally. Why oh why did I not think about backing up everything before this?
My head started to throb menacingly after I checked WordPress’ list of posts and nothing came out. My heart sank when the Dashboard said “There are 0 posts, 0 comments and 0 categories.”
Mentally berating myself, I hurriedly did a Google search on the posts that mean the most to me — ‘When Egg Was Yellow‘, ‘Introducing RoundBoy‘, ‘OnlyGirl‘, ‘Has It Really Been 10 Year Already?‘, ‘The Twins @ 2 Yrs 3 Mos‘ — and heaved a huge sigh of relief when I saw that Google cached a lot of them. I spent about an hour searching and printing them out. Just in case.
Click here to see an explanation of how Google takes snapshots of websites and stores (caches) them as a backup.
I was told that my posts didn’t really ‘disappear’ but there was some problem with the webhosting. The news calmed me down a bit, but my headache persisted, worry lingering at the back of my mind.
When I woke up this morning, naturally, the first thing I did was check my site. I let out a silent whoop (as the twins were still sleeping) when my posts finally loaded.
I shall, therefore, make it a point to back up all my posts this weekend. And if you have a site of your own, I strongly urge you to do the same!
Tags: Google cache
