Coleslaw and Carnivorous Me.

I love eating (who doesn't?) and I am a passable cook myself. Usually I prepare food for myself and seldom cook for others. This is because I hate to listen people criticizing my dishes. My friends who had the fortune to taste my food know to keep the comments to themselves (I am infamous for being brutal to unwanted critics). Hey, I never said I am an amazing chef! That's why humbly I admit I am only passable. 

Maybe because I am more interested in easy food preparations. Can't understand why we need to slave hours at the stove and oven. It's hot over there!

 I cannot say I love western food that much. But once in a while I made coleslaw out of scratch. The one in KFC is rather good and I was inspired to make it better by adding more stuff that I like. White cabbage, carrots and mayo might be the usual ingredients, but I added bellpepper, cherry tomatoes and onion. I also substituted the regular mayo with the Japanese one (Japanese soy sauce and mayo taste a lot better than regular, try them).

So that's why my coleslaw looks way more colourful. Once I tried purple cabbage, and found out while the stuff is more expensive, the taste remains the same. So why bother? 

 I love meat. I could have it with everything (except cakes, that would be silly). Beef, veal, mutton, lamb, buffalo, yum! (I don't do pork or any of its derivatives because I am a Muslim). 

Every month I'd buy a huge hunk of meat from Tesco, and sometimes snatch some bargained portions too, and these usually would be cooked the same day. I'd cut the huge piece of meat into portions that I can cook later and freeze them. 

Slowcook, soup, stirfry, with veges, with pasta, in chilli, (Not roasted though, because amazingly I don't have an oven) I put meat in anything I fancy. I do love my meat to be a bit raw, because that's the second point I like about meat, other than the taste - its texture. (So I am so perplexed WHY people overcooked their meat till the meat falls off the bone / butter-soft / fork-tender?!! Why don't you just put it in the blender and obliterate it to mush instead?)

I love my carbs to be overcooked though.

Anyway, the pieces of meat above were drenched in lime juice. I read it somewhere that this is a way to preserve without refrigeration, and tenderize the meat a bit. Before cooking, I have to wash the pieces of meat or they will taste bitter. [Anyway, it does work. The acidity in the lime stop microorganisms dead] 

And this artery clogging meal above is actually a rarity. I had some lamb in the freezer and decided to have a fry up. I added some sliced raw onion and a huge dollop of the coleslaw I made. From the crusts in the pan, I made some gravy with black pepper. 

Notice the black steak knife. I have it for several years and even bring it whenever I try steaks outside. (I was never satisfied with the knives provided, they are either dull or just flimsy. Once I got a butter knife to eat my steak with! Steaks are still new in the food scene here).

p.s. - I am not very adventurous with my food, and prefer to stick to the same dishes, even when ordering in restaurants. Maybe because most of the time when I tried something new, I was a bit disappointed with the taste. Yes, i am judgemental, and i don't want people to judge my food too. Hahahahaha!

Discipline and A Hair Cut

Being a discipline teacher means you must be extra vigilant and more fierce than the rest of the teachers. Who ever heard of a KIND and LOVING discipline teacher? I strongly believe discipline and academic success go side by side. A trained mind can achieve almost anything it focuses on.

Before this, I taught at a regular secondary school some 20 km away from my house. There, the students came from all walks of life and the near distance of the school to town made many students rowdier than most. It was quite hard to uphold the law when lawlessness was an easier and more fun. 

(Un)fortunately I was born evil. And my deepest desire is always to dominate, to control people, making they obey and accept their station. You can call me ultra bossy. But the thing is... I don't like being the boss, I just like to control people.

And that made me a VERY good discipline teacher. I enjoy the mind games with these convicts, I mean students. I use negative reinforcement strategy to cause fear, and psychology is so much fun! 

Yes, that may sound disturbing for parents. But nobody ever said teaching and working with people is easy. I came from a boarding school with iron rules. I obeyed them and I acknowledged its results. Spare the rod, and we shall expect you to have a spawn of hell soon (in many cases I witnessed). Cancer must be nipped at its bud etc etc.

Anyway, I single-handedly reduced the number of discipline cases by more than half when I was there, even though I was not even a discipline teacher  (the actual discipline teacher was an attention seeking woman who held the position just because of the title).

So here I am now, after more than a year in a better school (the crime rate was so low, I was a bit bored because of no challenge). These photos was taken yesterday during an inspection of the students hair. There were about 20 students with hair a bit longer than the approved length and I snipped their hair with a pair of scissors.

The woman next to me is the school counselor and we do have a lot of talk regarding how to improve the overall discipline of the students.  

If you ask if a bit of hair is enough? You haven't seen what I did to the extremely long ones, I actually shaved parts of their head only! A school is a place to study, if they wanna do high fashion they can join any modelling agency.

p.s. - I was brutal, even to a discipline teacher standard. But many teachers are still surprised that students flocked around me during free time. Maybe the love oozed through? I can only assume they are attracted to the fascination which is me :P

I Don't Feel Like Chicken Tonight.

 I went out with a friend today to accompany him on an errand. He wanted to have dinner at the near KFC, and was very adamant about it, even when I showed some resistance to the idea. It's not that I have anything against the food chain, I just don't feel like chicken tonight.

But I relented when he promised that he will find something less chicken-sy on the menu and he pays for the meal too.

(I took this pictures 20 minutes since he started to queue. I just hate lining up. No matter how good the food, I will not waste time like this, UNLESS somebody else does it for me)

We also went to some mobile phone stores to gawk at the products. Samsung and the Apple stores were the most busy, unsurprisingly (because their oh so in-your-face advertisement on most media). That makes people with fully capable mobile phones wanna buy a new Samsung or iPhone. 

Advertisement is an investment that pays. 

And onwards to some amateur photography...

 This is a row of shophouses in the middle of my hometown. The row was built in 1938, way before Independence. The second floor houses the occupants and the shop is downstairs obviously.

The District painted anew the row once every few years for aesthetics. 

The other half of the row.

The main row was empty because it was still very early in the morning.

What was I doing there? Looking for breakfast of course.

I rarely cook my breakfast.

The Teacher Has Kitties in His House, Yay!

By popular demand, I am including some pictures of my cats, currently residing together in the store cum catroom. I had several species of pets before this, yet cats seems to last way longer than the rest.

 Above is Artemis Kikuraides II or 'Kiki'. Yes, there WAS an Artemis Kikuraides before her, but he was male (Artemis is an ambiguous name). The first Artemis (a big, ginger tomcat) was killed by stray dogs several years ago....and I did exact my revenge by sling-shooting them with ball bearings.

I found Kiki a few months later, in a small petstore in the city. She was fluffy and very very affectionate (and still is!). You can see Kiki as a kitten in this video.  and also this video. Kiki is now almost 7 years old.

Kiki is a domestic long haired cat. Tricoloured, or calico. Her colouring is considered very lucky in the Orient, thus giving fuel to the rise of maneki nekos, the popular waving cats of Japan / China.  

Kiki is mild mannered, and always seek attention. She will come to me everytime I call her name.  

 This black cat is not really mine, even though I pay for her kibbles and litter. She belongs to my housemate, who suddenly thinks he need a pet cat.

This cat has no fancy name, and is called Tamtam (or for you English speaking people 'Tum-tum'). Her name simply describes her colour. Like we call a cat 'Blackie'. Tamtam is less than a year old, and is very very very very active. She also screams and yowl at unholy hours, making me scream back in reply to shut her up.  

Some people considered black cats to be unlucky.... but heck, I don't care. Although Tamtam is extra loud and hyper, I love her as well.

(This is the catroom, my housemate cleans it every week).

And this picture explains their behavior. See older Kiki lounging on the carpet watching her much much younger sister, Tamtam playing by herself.

The two pics above is of younger Kiki.She had a collar with bells then. Tamtam is almost impossible to take a decent picture of because she is constantly moving!

p.s. - I also had two females I gave away as presents to friends. I don't know why, but I always liked and got female cats....

The Bored Teacher Posted Some Pictures...

Did I tell you the monsoon season is here again? This is taken right at my doorstep. The monsoon rain is usually heavy and long lasting. Heck, sometimes it rained the entire day. This may cause floods somewhere, but my housing estate is right on top of a hill.

I love the cold. I love the rain!

(Oh, there was a landslide at the highway to the east, nobody died though)

This is my living room. Initially it was almost bare, only filled with the sofa and dining table set. But as the years gone by, I bought many stuff that I don't usually need, and the house is rather crowded with items. I have an entire room converted to be a store.

Notice the teddy bear. It was given to me.

(This was taken in the afternoon, a week ago)

 Another shot of my living room. See how messy the table is now, complete with a flypaper. (I just hate flies!) The opening to the left lead to the kitchen, and the right to two rooms, including my master bedroom. The door you see is the storeroom I mentioned. My cats are in there too.

(This was taken this very evening).

 One of the restaurants near my house I go to if I am in no mood to cook. Usually if the place is too crowded, I would leave, but I make an exception during the rain. I would order from the least crowded stall, something very easy to prepare, and then enjoy my meal while watching the other patrons waiting (sometimes) for an hour for their food.

Oh, and I never gi out alone dining at restaurants. Usually I am with friends or housemates.

 This is taken earlier this week, during an examination. The boy, which is unfortunately, a student of mine slept after 10 minutes into the exam. My students RARELY show this lack of moral in front of me, knowing how I enjoy to retaliate this. But this boy is something special. The kind who takes warning as suggestion, and a scolding as noises in the wind.

I woke him up and made him to sweep the entire class during the entire examination.

The class was spotless after two hours of solo cleaning :)

 And this was taken scant hours ago. I accompanied a friend who wanted to have his hair cut. This barber shop opens early and closes at 1030 pm. This is a boon for people who are busy working during the day (or too lazy to wake up early in the weekends), like me.

p.s. - I take all photos using my HTC Desire 816. If you find the pictures to be dark and gloomy, now you know my favourite theme :) Bright and sunshine are great to see with and enjoy from the dark side. I like to stay in the shadows (literally. Heck, I even teach in dark, poorly lit classrooms).

I am a School Warden, and Hear Me Roar

I am just back from looking after some 300+ students in the school hostel. Its only babysitting the students, making sure they do stuff on schedule and hoping nothing bad happens during my time on duty.

What are the bad things that may happen you asked? Children are still children. Accidents during sports. They might fall off the stairs. Brawling rarely happens, but its a possibility. Some students may have high fever in the middle of the night. They might got food poisoning. Unauthorized personals invading the hostels. Or the students decided they wanted to go out of the hostel grounds without permission. The list can be quite long....

There are 7 wardens, all of us are also teachers, three men and four women. Only me and a fellow male teacher live outside the school compound. (I love my house anyway, and do not wish to stay apart long with it). Close proximity to the students will be BAD for a warden's health. There'll be constant knocking on the door, and endless stream of questions from both students and parents during the weekend. From 'when can we go out' to 'can I bring my child out for her grandma's wedding'.

Every wardens has his / her own style. And mine is 'in your face' approach.

If I don't like a student (behavior) I will tell the rest that I hate that particular human being and his associates will also feel the heat. I don't usually sugarcoat my words because I always believe honesty is the best policy.

Some may wonder in shock, WTH are you posing as a teacher then? From my 14 years experience, my observation of human (student) nature is; they will never change in school. A good student may improve, but an average or the bad ones may continue being so for the rest of the year. I am talking in behavioral terms, not academic. A tardy boy will continue being late, and a hardworking girl will continue creating great diagrams in her homework.

So what kind of children do you have?

The best way to change children's mind for the better is by telling them why they must do so, making them UNDERSTAND what will happen if they fail. Yes, talk to them to nail in the facts, properly.

This may prove very hard because usually peer pressure will destroy this holy task of yours.

So I always turns to BLACKMAILING instead. The next best thing.

You don't do what I ask, I will never look at your face again. You will make 5 copy of this correction paper if you fail my test. You will stand the entire hour in my class if you are late. You will acknowledge yourself as an idiot if you fail to answer me, even after I told you to read. You will sit in the middle of the corridor if you fail to hand in your work etc etc.

Harsh. (Not very) brutal. But it works. I don't do much shouting anymore when I found out that the results will be much the same without any screaming. Now I aim for their ego.

Anyway, picture time!

I used my younger prefects to set up the hall for yesterday's ceremony. These students work directly under me and know what will happen if I don't get my way. So everything went fast and smoothly. If I use the average students instead, sharp and abusive words may have to be expressed to have the job done. (They will play... oh how they play....)
Oh and this was about 930 in the evening....

The next day, when all of them are in school prefects uniform. I didn't have to tell them twice (now that's a teacher's wet dream). You girls sweep and you boys pick up the pigeons' feathers (our school is infested with these flying vermin). Observe and Obey, my personal motto.

You just cannot win the war by playing nice. The Dark Side of the Force can have things done too :)

Pictures - 14 February :)

These are my clay pots (I have three but one is still at my mom's). The new Korean clay pot is on the right. I twisted some green wire to create a handle for the Chinese pot because it was hard to pick up the lid when hot. Both are quite heavy.

View from above. The fish motif is so popular on clay pots. That or vegetables. Each clay pot should be soaked in water for 24 hours before first use. These are the biggest clay pots available, for porridge or slow cooking.

  My books. And action figures @ robots. I haven't bought a book for ages. Yet thank God for the iPad, I'm downloading free books like crazy (only finished reading 5% of them). Downloading even more (frantically, as SOPA and PIPA had already made some sites disappear)

These are the school prefects under me. We took this picture after the assembly this morning :)

We will have more new prefects at the end of March.

Hello There People, I am Back!!

It is good to be back and thanks for your kind words in the previous post. :)  I am well, and feel a lot better after spending some quality time with my friends and pets these few days :party  :mj

Me and one of the very few best friends I have. I visit the beach now and then, just because I love a windy place to go people watching :) Don't let the purple shirt misguide you, he is actually a very nice guy. I always persuade him to throw away the offending piece of clothing but he refused - it attracts attention, he says :v

The Stars of the show - my mega ferrets!! Big, cuddly and ferociously searching for affection. Now I am able to bring BOTH ferrets to the beach when I finally got another harness, second hand it was. Kaos and Disco has very different temperament each, but still they attract huge amount of onlookers. If the kiddies got to close, we just let the harness slack so my ferrets can chase them away :P The sight of my ferrets baring their teeth and running towards them always make children run - but for ferrets owners, that is NOT aggressive behavior, the ferrets are actually SMILING and wanna play with you! [sadly, the lack of knowledge builds great walls against understanding]

This is an experimental shot taken with my digital camera. I call this pic 'Turn Left, Turn Right', after a romantic movie with the same tittle. My friend Firdaus has a snapshot camera, and he took some nice Lomography pictures with it. I was a model in some of them :) and gosh, I do LOOK GOOD! ha ha ha! :k I will try to scan some of his pics soon with his permission here.

And this last picture I took at our school's field is for you readers to think about.... Two workers were diligently cutting grass using petrol-consuming machines in the afternoon heat. And they took forever!! [FYI, they finished it in 2 days]. Where I was studying in 1990's, our school got THREE HUGE fields (not counting the netball courts) and only one gardener to do the job. So he rode a motorized lawn mower and finish the job in less than 2 hours! (Really, I was watching him, as I was sitting idly by the fields one afternoon a long long time ago).
The moral of the story; Bad economics at work here. The job can be done faster, cheaper and with fewer manpower with a bit of investment. But why it cannot be done? Because for the sake of HUMANITY. Let's give some luckless people jobs, the poor poor sods.
I call this an IMMENSE waste of time, energy and money. And also an insult to the thinking mind.
Do please tell if you disagree. :angel  

Rest In Peace Rosy

Rosy during a molt a few months ago

My female Chilean Rose Tarantula died yesterday. She was in the middle of a molt, and I do not know what went wrong, but she never finished emerging from her old carapace. :`(

A tarantula spider is a great pet. It never made any noise, and never ask for your attention. You can forget to feed it for almost a month and it still lives (we hope). It prefers to be left alone in her box / container / terrarium etc. Bloody difficult and expensive to get one...

I shall miss you Rosy, you were a wonderful pet (and show piece). And I will not get another arachnid to replace you. :(  [I'll get a snake instead]

p.s. - I took Rosy's body and unceremoniously tossed it into my mom's fish pond in front of the house. The huge catfishs fought each other just to take a bite.    

The Future Is In Your Own Hands

Tomorrow is the end of the exam week... and then we have another two weeks before the school holidays (Yippeee!)

I didn't like exams when I was a student. But I NEVER sleep in any like this student of mine did. He started sleeping on the first 25 minutes of the Mathematics paper. 

Do not judge me harshly by saying I was an irresponsible teacher for allowing students to sleep during exam. I DID warn him not to. Twice.

So what if he ignores me (the student is rather impolite and have a high opinion of himself), he is not my son anyway. As a teacher, IT IS my job pointing to the right path. But if some individuals are so keen to destroy their own future, I just let them be.

Youngsters nowadays are so stuck up with themselves. Some think fate will rearrange itself to accommodate them. I'd LOVE to see when that happen...

Betta Wars!! - You Ask For It Tenchi!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eat your heart out and look at my bi-colour metallic betta, Tenchi.

Special effects? Nope. The fish is in pristine freshwater, in a very 'zen'-like environment.

Somebody gave me this aquarium. I am definitely happy with it because it looks so classy.

This entry was prompted by Mr Tenchi who said through text-message to look at his new betta. I hope he cries tears of blood looking at the above pictures... :B

Real Living Metal.

I bought another betta (again?). This one is silver and red. When he moves, the metallic iridescence is spectacular. In this picture, the betta is blowing some bubbles on the water surface. Bloody hard to take a proper picture of a fish...

My bettas are not show quality specimens. Thus they are not mind-bogglingly expensive. I choose my fish according to the colors I like. My ol friend, the esteemed Tenchi had a few pics of some expensive betta in his blog just to amuse me.

p.s. - My mom asked why I didn't get the females. I told her I am not going to start a betta farm (yet). She also said she haven't seen one for a long time, since the days she lived near the paddy fields.

Hooray for the 200th Entry @ New Fishy Passion

My 200th entry at last! Hip hip hooray! And to celebrate this auspicious number, I went out and bought another betta @ fighting fish for my collection (already have two) and another glass aquarium (already have three glass aquariums and several plastics).

I love these fish. When in fighting mode, the male fish's fins opened up like sails! Colourful and beautiful in motion.

This red betta swims with a blue betta in the same plastic aquarium (with a divider between them). I amuse myself by putting a mirror next to him, and he'll puff up regally.

The new betta. Five times more expensive then the red above. Personally I do not know why he cost a lot more, but he is beautiful. So he got to live in the new glass aquarium alone.

My other goldies. Dwarf goldfishes together with hybrids. I love these small goldfishes! I stole the corals from my sister (who had stolen my Pikachu).

p.s. - eat your heart out Tuck Wai. :P

The Little Things That Made Me Happy :)

I bought this at the supermarket yesterday. It is one of that solar powered cute stuff that people put at their dashboard, so they can amuse themselves while waiting in a traffic jam (maybe). I saw many flower-like plastics waving on many dashboards, so I told myself, I gotta find one of my own. But never a flower. Unless it's a sunflower.

So I got myself an Ultraman, who nods while reading a pink book on a plastic wooden log. He nods his head like crazy in the sun. I put a crystal key chain with my name on his left foot.

So I amuse myself...

"Am I so bloody good looking?" And he nods a yes.

"Do I turn left right now at the junction?" And he nods again.

"Should I go watch a movie this weekend?" Yeah, he nods.

"Must you agree with everything I say?" And the nodding goes on...

p.s. - Used to have a solar powered Pikachu (an original from Japan) on my dashboard, but the cute yellow stuff was kidnapped by my younger sister. And she denied it! Below is Blackout the evil Decepticon (in helicopter mode) on my notebook keyboard this evening.

I Was A Rabbit.

This is me with my mom, a long long time ago, in our kampung house, where we used to live before we moved to town. I think I was too young for kindergarten in this picture. And as the first son, I got to have all the cool toys my younger siblings never had. And all of those adequately destroyed before my younger siblings ever got a chance to touch them. I was not a loving big brother.

My mom told me that when we were very young, many people considered us as 'fluffy' and 'white' as rabbits, especially when we were playing together in the vast lawn of the house. Usually we played paper planes and kites. Don't believe me? Click on for the bigger picture and witness the Child of Light, (who 'repented' and become of Darkness much later in life). Mwa ha ha ha!

I am still the fairest male teacher in school. :)

p.s. - notice the Damien-style hair cut. I have proof at last to show youse people.

The Omen - Be afraid of the bowl haircut.

We Got Paddy Fields Still?

Water lilies!!! These are thriving in the waterway next to the paddy fields. Beautiful.

Wide, quiet and green. Not a soul in sight. To spend an evening here just walking with a friend or loved ones should be nice.

My friend waiting in the car.

I should have posted these pictures last week, but I got lazy after the Eid (maybe because too much eating rich food), so forgive me. We visited a friend who lives near the border of Melaka-Johore, a rural village with spectacular views. Enjoy.

p.s. Personally I thought the paddy fields in Melaka are all already extinct. I am happy that I was wrong. I'd come back to visit this place again next year.

Get Ready For Overwhelming Cuteness!!

My Sable ferrets (Mes furets sable); Kaos and Pingu doing a cheographed 'lookit there!'

Newest addition to My Mini Zoo; Pingu, 2 months old.

Of Facemasks and Poor Innocent Pigs

I should've touched this topic a long time ago.... but you know what? YOU guys made me do this. NONE of you (at least that I am aware of) had touched about the H1N1 devastation in your blogs. So as a morbid explorer of things not-very-nice, here we go again...

Months ago when the first outbreak of the virus in Mexico, the rest of the world was in total indifference, including truly yours. "Oh, it is so far away. Good luck for you Mexicans and serve you right for eating pork."

And now, H1N1 has came knocking on the front door, with a few fatalities so very near to my workplace!! The horror! The dread! The revulsion! (not)

And as usual, during a crisis, some people are so quick to make a few extra bucks. The price of facemasks sky-rockets to 500%. I say this is one of the evil in capitalism. I never wear a facemask myself, because (*snigger*) it make people look like invading amateur ninjas. And I loaded up myself with vitamins and garlic to avoid getting sick. And successfull for now at least.

The new urban legend; You eat pork, you get the virus. Even if it starts with the pigs, the H1N1 virus does not widely spread with our porchine friends. People spread the virus - I taught all my students, so don't blame the pigs. People got into aeroplanes and buses and irresponsibly sneezed / coughed in public, spreading the virus at an alarming rate. So imagine the travel plans for the virus, from Mexico to your very own neighbourhood... It's very global minded :)

And why oh why when I see people from abroad in tv, most are still not wearing facemasks? Are Caucasians (excuse me if I am wrong) immune to the said virus? This I-don't-care-attitude is the main ingredient for the world wide spread.

And come to think of it, the spread of the virus reminds me of the RESIDENT EVIL series (in films and games) where people turns to zombies by a virus. It's Umbrella Corporation fault again :)

p.s. - and this pic is of some female teachers in school wearing masks. They are not going to thank me doing this, but hell, they never monitor my blog anyway. :)