So Quiet it's Disturbing

Hi,

It's that time of year again...yeah.....holiday time, the end of the year when school is out and parents take annual leave and whole families flood the airports in a great exodus to their various meccas.

My daughter and her two children have flown off for their holidays and my spouse and I are alone at home.

Somehow it feels so different; a home without the young children is so quiet that you can hear a pin drop. It's almost disturbing so I've acquired the habit of putting the radio on, once I come downstairs. At least the voices of the DJs chirping away and the music they play cut the silence.

So there are less clothes to wash, there's no necessity to cook ( to cook for two is just too much of a hassle, especially Chinese cooking )and apart from gardening and watering the plants and housekeeping on the computer,there's little else to do.

My tv soapbox comes on only at 9:30pm so before that I try to learn a few things on the computer by going through the videos that I've downloaded ( at a cost, of course ). This is when time flies and I wish I have 3 heads (!!!) to cope with the amount of knowledge that I want to absorb. I know some people think I'm crazy...

My daughter's family are now on holiday on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Their holiday was a bit delayed because my grandson had an extra two weeks' school although the school had already closed officially. All the Chinese primary schools here insist that year 5 children going to year 6 in Jan 2010 remain in school for an extra two weeks to prepare them for the following year when they will have to sit for their UPSR examination ( a national examination ). Schools these days are very competitive. 0.01% difference in a mark could mean a ranking way down the ladder.
The year 1 pupils (ie year 1 in 2010) also had to come in for a 2-week orientation.

So you could see all the anxious guardians and parents milling around the school grounds and carpark waiting for the school bell to ring. Then it's hell let loose when the cars try to leave as quickly as possible, having picked up their little charges.

I thought those days were long over when my children were grown up but the cycle is repeating as my grandchildren live with me. We are truly blessed with their company at this stage of our lives and we get the joy of seeing them grow, right before our eyes, their ups, their downs, their development as they grow older.

Yes, we are missing them but the little ones are on Facebook, thank goodness, so communication is there. Facebook makes a difference to people's lives, I daresay. You can contact friends and family and catch up with the latest on their happenings.

The Christmas tree is up, the children having put it up before they left, so when they return, albeit after Christmas, their presents will be all there, piled under the tree.

The whirring of the fans, the 80's music on the radio (Lite FM ), the sound of the wind from the sea, the occasional boom of a plane landing, my spouse at the children's computer across the room, my fingers tapping away at my computer keys....these are the facts of life right now.

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Time is fleeting by

Hi,

I hadn't realised that it has been some time since my last post! Time has gone by so quickly that days merge into nights and nights fade into the dawn of more days.

What have I been up to?

Well, apart from household chores, I've been frantically trying to understand how internet marketing works. This is by no means an easy thing to grasp, for me that is.

Perhaps it's because the grey matter has curdled to an extent that it is no longer easy to understand concepts and to apply whatever one reads.

I've been reading and making copious notes, getting a bit of insight here and there. However I've yet to put it into the bigger picture to make some sense of it. To me it's like fitting pieces of jigsaw together and when the pieces don't fit, it can get frustrating.

I'm stymied at the moment and just realised that I haven't been posting in my blogs.

This weekend is a busy one, with tomorrow taken up with our bi-annual standardisation of IELTS examiners. Then Sat and Sun will be spent at the Oldies' Computer Camp.

This is an annual event sponsored by the state government to give the seniors an opportunity to get hands-on experience with the computers. So I hope to learn a bit more over the weekend.

Learning is a continuous process; it doesn't stop at all. Yet I see there are some people who are quite happy in their own world, not bothering to update themselves in this IT era. To each his own, I guess.

Do please visit my website http://www.peggy-chan.com and I would love to have your comments. This would help me in my learning process. So a big thank you to you.

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Do you know your ABC?

Hi,

Do you know what ABC stands for?

No, it's not the alphabet that you learn when you begin your schooling, neither is it the Air Batu Campur or Ice Kacang, the delightful dessert that can cool even the hottest temper.

I learnt it a short while ago while attending a short course on internet marketing.

It stands for Attitude, Behaviour and Character.

I learnt that your success in whatever you do, depends on your ABC.

If you have a lackadaisical attitude, you will never achieve your goals. That is true because success depends on how you committed you are, how focussed and how consistent.

One's behaviour also affects one's image. First impressions are lasting and if your behaviour is less than what is perceived to be acceptable, then this could affect your relationships whether in business or social circles.

Character is very important. One can put on a front but not for long. You can fool someone but you can't fool everyone all the time. Somehow your true colours will come out. If you are caught in a dicey situation, how you behave reflects on your character.

Some people have said that they can tell one's character by looking at one's face. I have my doubts about the accuracy of this but in a general way, you can tell if a person is up to no good by his behaviour, the look in his eyes and the way he talks.

I guess experience has a lot to do with it. I remember my granny telling me that she has eaten more salt than I have eaten rice and so it is advisable for me to heed her advice. She was very good at summing up a person's character.

That was why I always introduced my boyfriends to her. She was one astute lady.

So if you have wise grandmas, do listen to what they have to say. They may be old and out-moded but they have racked up more experience than we have. Just be alert to the pearls that come out of their mouths!

Please visit my website at http://www.peggy-chan.comDo go there to get your freebies.

Thank you.

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Growing Up

The pains of growing up today and the yesteryears are quite different.

In the past, adolescents used to respect their teachers and elders a lot more than the present generation. Teachers were highly respected and if you were to get a bad report from your teacher, rest assured that your parents would give you a hard time over it.

However these days, youngsters do not really hold their teachers in high regard, for whatever reasons best known to themselves. They post nasty comments on the internet. In the past there was no internet; at most we would just whisper among ourselves. Last year, some secondary school students posted on the internet the sordid details of their school principal's private life. Where did respect come into this?

In my experience as a teacher and principal, I have come across cases of students and parents having fist fights!! It wa
s certainly a sorry state of affairs. I also had parents calmly telling me that they shared their cigarettes with their young sons. We were having an anti-smoking campaign in school and a couple of boys had been caught smoking. So their parents were called in and that was the answer we were given.

Doesn't it make you wonder what these parents thought about their responsibilities towards their children?

It is no surprise though that some children are having a harder time of growing up and adjusting to the changes going on, not only in their bodies and minds but also in the world around them. They are exposed to so many unsavoury things and even with some degree of parental guidance, the rites of passage are not easy for them.

Mentors who are caring and patient can help them, especially if they can build a relationship of trust between them and their mentees. For some this would be a godsend especially if they come from dysfunctional homes where parents are too busy or unable to communicate with them.

Somehow,they have to cross the divide or build a bridge if parents are not to lose further ground with their erstwhile offspring. Perhaps it should begin right from the first years of a child's life. Gone is the time when a parent demands respect. Now he has to earn it. A relationship fostered in love and understanding coupled with a lot of patience combined with firmness, will see the bond of friendship between parent and child. I believe that this friendship bond is very important so that any issues that arise can be settled without any unneccessary pain. The two-way communication is very important and only love and understanding can bring this about.

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