Funny How Life Is

Its really funny how life is, one minute the person is alive and suddenly for no reason just passes away like that.  Just a few weeks back was e passing of my uncle whose my father's brother and today one of my favourite cousins.  He was still young, less than 50 I guess. May his soul rest in peace.  Tday is the last day of the year .

Today went studying with Ahmad my classmate after meeting up with an irritating person.  Omg I feltlike it was really awkard cause I just didn't feel like talking and she was like seriously irritating. Her son chose aerospace engineering so I wish him the best of luck cause its not going to be easy.  It's like beter that we don't meet with each other cause I always feel irritated around her.  Its pretty late already and I made hot choco for my gal cause she gets hungry every night before she sleeps.  Guess that is growing children.  Alfie, my gal n I went like crazy after bringing Alfie for his walk, we started taking photos together. It was a good walk cause we got to talk and well had fun taking photos.

Today my friend's sister was so sweet.  She gave me little presents which made me smile.  Her mom was also really sweet and actually her whole family is.  I hope through my methods she will be able to understand her work better.  Her improvement in her results would be good enough to make my day.  AllI I want is to see her happy and have a great future ahead of her.

Childrens Innocence

Children are little sweet angels although at times they do make you angry but most of the time they make you smile alot and that actually makes your day.  I was at a friend's place to see how I can help with her little sister with her studies and all she needs is some guidance and more encouragement.  She just lacks confidence in herself.  Although i did say that I would come out of teaching line permanently but there's still like always a part of me that wants to help other children do their best.  Like I told her mom that I do have confidence that this girl can pass and improve.  She's a very sweet little angel.  As for my gal, she's forever my little baby princess and her happiness is really important to me.  I feel sad when she's sad.  Both her and my friend's sister made a special friend at make a bear outlet today and I pray that both these friend's will  cheer them on and be their best friend in life.  No matter how travel sickness I felt or how tired I was, seeing them happy was all the strength that I needed to keep my day moving on.  I'm so happy to see my gal happy and that she's really grown to be a pretty teenager.   Through the years I could tell that as time goes on, she was always going to be prettier each time.  I'll always be there for her and will protect & ensure that she would not get discouraged or hurt to the best I can although i know that my health day by day is deterioting.  Life will not end here but will go on & on.

Grandma & me

Been sometime  since I was last able to go out with my grandma. Eversince school started this year, was really crazy with the examinations  & studies. Its been a long long time & well I kinda of miss her sometimes although she can be boring at times. Thankgod she's still vy patient with me cause I stress my nagging out when frustrated & she will always be a good listening ear. she's been taking care of me since I was a baby & somehow always has been there for me no matter what.

Lunch At Marche

Its like time really flies by so fast in the blink of an eye. Results going to be in a few days time guess most of us would be very nervous.  I'm starting to prepare for next years topics cause its like really alot of new stuff to know.  My hubby has gone back to work and well I'm starting to miss him when he's not around.  Its true what they say when they say that you need not have sex in a relationship to just have true love.  Love is base on many things like trust, caring, being there for each other and much more.  You love and cry in a relationship but those special moments will never fade if u hold on to them tightly.  As for friendship, I've made alot of friends in this 1 year, good ones, fun ones, wild ones and some that I may not like that much. I've like have a few that I can click with and have fun with.  In this past 1 year, alot of things have happened in my life.  There were good times and bad times.  I hope the following year would be a good year.

2nd day of holidays for Jan 2012

Great to know that we made it to year 2 but as to how well we perform for the exams isanother thing. Yesterday wasn't really a good day for me.  My hub is not well now.  I hopehe recovers soon. Ahmad met up with me earlier to get Nyssa'sbirthday thing done and wow I like feel he's going to make a great boyfriend.  Haven't seen one like in a long long time that goes out all the way just to make the girlfriend happy.  

Just Another Day

It was a fun day today at school. We had a team bonding event. We had alot of fun. Nursing can be really stressful n fun. Will update blog later

Just another day at school

Today was a day where goldfish actually went crazy again.  She wasn't in the best of moods I guess.  Actually am very irritated with her.  Just sits there like a spoilt brat that just doesn't want to participate in the project and she is in the team.  Seriously attitude problem.  Guess I must be pretty piss off with her.  Just woke up not long from my sleep.  I was like really tired but now I have to sacrifice my time for my studies.  Well that's life for u........

Its past 12midnight and my birthday is over. My mom wants to cook me something nice for my birthday but I told her don't have to cause she's also in pain cause of her pelvic fracture. i really salute my mom cause despite her condition she still acts like nothing did happen to her. My uncle who is my father's brother just pass away last few days back, today is the last day to say goodbye to him. As for my dad, he's depress. Its a really been a sad week for my family, we will really miss him. He was a great & noble man like my dad. No matter how bad things got when I was small, he would always ask me to go over to his place so that he could look after me also. Ah Pek, please rest in peace, your love & care for me & my family will always remain inside us & I will never forget what you taught me always be happy and live my life to the fullest without any regrets.

Wow its been like a really long time since I last wrote my blog.  Been like really busy.  My clinical posting is over and well at first I was like really nervous about the posting but gladly it turned out well.  Started a new term 1.3 and well its been great to see all my classmates n well we hv like alot of fun everyday, lessons and lectures are like getting interesting everyday. Oh yea just a day or two before I went back to school to study, I went to USS with a few of my friends and it was really awesome. The mummy rides, other rides and especially the transformer ride was really awesome and cool.  Who ever hasn't gone yet.... You should go...... I'm like tired nw. Will try to update this blog with stuff when I can. Thanks for those comments and am glad that soe of you find my blog interesting.

National Climate Change Youth Conference 2012

Being a mom, a student and a wife can really be hectic & confusing at times.  Its all about time management and seriously I suck at it. Alot of thoughts did start to run through my mind yesterday while I was asleep.  I'm just grateful for what I have now in life. Parents that love & care for me,  a husband that loves & tries his best to provide for me & my child, last of all my sweet child who is still in the midst of growing up.  I just want her to enjoy her childhood while she's young. Enjoyed myself at the Ngee Ann Poly that day for the eco-conference whereI get to be doing it with my classmates who can be fun & serious at times.  Ahmad lost his handphone which is sad cause its only 2 months od & well during the exam period he lost his spectacles.  He's a really nice guy & actually would make the perfect boyfriend.  Ouch really got to like start my revision before I enter CP.  Seriously got to get back to studies.  Holidays like make you really tired.  Actually comparing my situation to my friend's situation, its like worlds apart.  Her situation is she has to bear all the cost except for the electrical bills with just $800/- per month with 2 teenagers and well does practically everything herself.  When I look at different situations from different aspects, I realise I am actually a very lucky girl.  Oh yea last of all, also my family are my pets, my dog & my hamster.  Just be grateful for what you have now and not be greedy for other stuff.

People have different perception of what nursing is about.  You would be like suprise on how much stuff that you have to go through during the learning stages..... My classmates and I like burned our 2 weeks over continuos just mugging over the books for the major exams, Alot of work put in. finally after the last day of exam we were freaky happy. Rested till today, another week is starting & we're beginning to prepare for CP. Hope all goes well for us.

What is happening i have no idea. I try my best to help someone and in the end it backfires on you. Helping goldfish was one of my mistakes. Most of my classmates think cause I push her hard for her studies before, its like my fault that she's stressed up now. I know that that most of them think my method is unorthodox. De..... Freak news..... It's a doggie bite doggie world out  there. I needn't even push her to make her feel stress cause she stresses herself up most of the time.  Nw also the CCA is like giving me stress. With the test and exams upcoming, I'm like zoink out.......

Term 2 of school

Just into 1 week of term 2  and well things are really getting on my nerve.  Goldfish happens to be 1 of them. She behaves like an idiot and is really a pest. Found one more like her in my CCA. So irritating, kept pestering me to add her to facebook when I was trying to download stuff into my phone.  As for my other classmates they're alright.  More tougher skills to learn though but will get through it. Goldfish was throwing her stupid idiotic tantrums and whinning so  so much in the 1st week of school...... Irritatiing right?  Bearing with it for 1 month was fine, but as time pass, found that it irritated me so so much. I wonder how is she going to cope during the attachment time with all her whinning and tantrums and so forth..... As for the rest of us, we're trying our best to cope. Time flies by so fast and very soon it will be exam time again. To be continued.......

My Valentine Guy

My sweet husband brought me for a valentine's dinner today. So sweet of him.

Finally a day every week to sit down n have a proper lunch with my hubby. Looking forward to next week Saturday.

Was so tired, just fell asleep for the whole evening. Got so irritated with this guy in school..... He's really ever so childish..... Yishhhhh....... No choice still have to face him tomorrow. Ughh how I wish I sometimes could make him disappear.

Wow, it's like been a long time since I posted my last blog...... Happy New Year To all....... Started the nursing course and well its been really tiring but fun...... I really enjoy entering the course...... I have made some good friends and well there are some queer ones at that.  My CA(Class Adminstrator-Form Teacher), Mdm Liu, my life skills teacher, my bio teacher and some other lecturers are really cool.  They really try their very best to accomodate all of us......  I really appreciate all the effort they have put in.....
Nursing is a really challenging, a great fulfilling  and fun job. If you enjoy all those that I have said, you should take up this skill.......

Just thoughts

I wonder what would going  back to school after such a long time be like..... most likely abit awkward.... Tomorrow would be the first day I start schooling........ Ermm.... Hopefully it will go well......  Definately would feel tired but it would take time to get use to it also...... Working life would be the same thing.......  Wish me luck...... nites

Are you well-prepared for your course interview?

You would be suprise that nowadays before they approve of the course that you applied for in the ITE, you would have to go through an interview.  My advice is for those that intend to pursue the course in ITE is to study the course subject.  You need to know what you are applying for.  They will ask you if you know what this course is about and whether you have screen through their website.  Also they will explain to you that you need to go for a medical check-up and so forth.  It would be good if a day or two before the interview you can google out some information from the net.  You would then be well prepared and your interview can actually proceed smoothly.

Horse/zebra Hybrid known as Zorse

No, this is not about insufficient white paint. Because this is not an incompletely painted zebra. There is no artificial coloring on the animal you see. This a female zorse: her father is a zebra, while her mother is a mare, this being the classical example of how a child receives a mix of genes from both 

progenitors.

What is more unusual in this case is that while most zebra-horse crossbreeds "wear" stripes, even if across their entire body, this specimen displays just two such patches, on its face and rear. 

Baptized Eclyse, one-year-old zorse is an accident, after her mother, Eclipse, spent a short period of time, while traveling from her German safari home park to an Italian ranch, where other horses and a number of zebras, including a male named Ulysses, were roaming freely. Eclipse's keepers were taken by surprise by the result of the pregnancy, whose mixed markings left no doubt about who the father was. 

The foal has turned into a major attraction at a safari park at Schloss Holte Stukenbrock, near the German border with Holland, where it even has its own yard. "You can tell she is a mix just by looking at her. But in temperament she can also exhibit characteristics from each parent. She is usually relatively tame like a horse but occasionally shows the fiery temperament of a zebra, leaping around like one." said Udo Richter, spokesman for the park. 

Horses and zebras are often crossbred in Africa and the hybrids are employed as trekking animals on Mount Kenya. 

Horses, donkeys, onagers (Asian wild donkeys) and zebras are closely related, belonging to the same genus, Equus, even in distinct evolutionary lineages. Horses and donkeys are crossbred for a long time: the mule is the result of a cross between a donkey and a mare, while the hybrid between a stallion and a jenny (female donkey) is called hinny. Still, donkeys and zebras are more related with each other than they are with the horses.

Ever wondered why one start creating their own blog?

Wow. Alot to absorb for nursing courses and interviews.  I hope everyone's weekend was a good one.  Ever wondered what is creating a blog is about?  To me, its like writing a diary.  You find articles in the newspaper interesting or even when you meet up with friends or relatives that share with you some stuff that you might find interesting and etc.....  One thing I like about it is one day I can look back and well reminisce the past.......  

I'm so proud of my husband this week.  This is the first time on his off day that he didn't say he wanted to go to the pub.  Normally even if he's broke, he would still want to go very badly.  A new year, a new achievement.  I hope this will last.  I applied directly to ITE for the nursing course and well I manage to get shorlisted.  I still haven't got any reply from the other two hospitals yet.  The kid I used to look after, the parents invited me for lunch today so will be leaving in awhile.  Will just continue writing the blog later then.

I feel pretty tired today cause I slept late.  Found my dad wondering around the house at 1.30am and just went out to ask him if anything was wrong.  He told me that he felt he was useless as he had to depend on others like my mom, my sis or my hubby for money.  He's suffering from senial dementia but it will become worse one day. The only thing that's preventing it from getting worse is the medication that the doctor has prescribe.  He started climbing onto a chair prop on top of another chair which was really dangerous.  He's quite weak in the legs already.  My sis from Canada ask them to go over this year for a holiday but my parents are really not sure about it cause of the last incident that took place there.  He suffered a slight stroke and came back to Singapore with a leg injury.  Although he's recovered from the injuries and almost back to normal, he's still pretty weak.  I hope he will always be in good health and stay strong.  Another problem would be my mom, she suffering from eye problem, her eyesight is abit blur now.  Still arranging for her to go for a second opinion.  As for Desiree, she's started school again and guess doing well.  I manage to apply direct and well I'm shortlisted for an interview.  It's next Tuesday......

‘Oily men’ strike fear in Malaysian village

Residents of a village in Selangor, Malaysia are on the lookout for what they say are two supernatural beings that have been terrorising their homes and families.

Known as orang minyak or “oily men”, the creatures are said to be human-shaped and sized, but are dressed only in their underwear and appear to be covered from head to toe in shiny black oil. 

The beings were first brought to light by P. Ramlee’s 1956 film entitled Sumpah Orang Minyak (The Curse of the Oily Man), and were featured again in a 2007 local production going by their namesake, but the villagers of Kampung Laksamana in Gombak, Selangor, are convinced there is truth to this phenomenon.

Malaysian newspaper The Star reported that since just before the Christmas period, villagers have told of numerous sightings of the creatures. Over the Christmas period, the paper reported that some 200 people patrolled the village streets, many of whom brandished parangs (machetes) and axes.

Residents, it reported, have also vowed to continue their nightly patrols until the two creatures are caught.

One resident who spoke to the paper, 33-year-old Aslam Khan, who claimed to have seen both theorang minyak, described one to be tall, stocky and bald, and the other to be thin and curly-haired.

“It was breathing really loudly, like a cow,” Aslam said, relating one occasion where he spotted the bald orang minyak hiding behind the water tank of a house in the wee hours of the morning. 

“It was black and shiny,” he continued. “When I shone my light on it, the thing stuck out its head to look back at me. Before I could do anything, it climbed up the roof and disappeared.”

Legend has it that orang minyak are humans who practice dark arts, either because they made deals with the devil in exchange for personal wishes or were forced into doing so after botched black magic rituals. They are supposedly required to rape anywhere between 40 and 99 virgins, whom the orang minyak are said to be able to recognise, before being liberated from their circumstances, or in order to hold up their end of the deals, depending on which story you read or movie you watch.

Another Malaysian daily, the Sinar Harian, reported that encounters with an orang minyakcompelled a family to move out of their house after being tormented by it over five days.

36-year-old Kamal Bahari Satar told the Sinar Harian that his sister-in-law saw the “apparition” inside and outside their house, adding that only female members of the family were able to see it. 

It apparently locked some of his family inside the house on Christmas eve, and he said that they saw a “black heap” beneath their kitchen table.

“When other residents poked it with a bamboo stick, we could see blood stains,” he told the daily, adding that police also found black footprints outside their house that evening.

Islamic faith healers who spoke to The Star said that orang minyak douse their bodies in oil in order to assist with camouflage and evade capture, and cannot use violence to do so, only magic.

“It also keeps on coming back to the same place to taunt the people and show off its abilities,” said Darussalam healer Ustaz Ismail Kamus, who also told the paper that they tend to take a few months to learn the magic that is involved, but an orang minyak that has mastered the black magic will be able to walk through walls and vanish into thin air.

Previous sightings of orang minyak in Malaysia, however, have turned out to have less to do with the supernatural than with human foibles. A Yahoo! Malaysia report relates how in September last year, residents in the Taman Pinggiran Batu Caves, located just two kilometres away from Kampung Laksamana, captured a man who was disguised as an orang minyak. Police later arrested the imposter, whom the report said was believed to be a black magic practitioner.

The villagers have since filed a police report and sought help from alternative healers, including abomoh, reported The Star. They also organise nightly prayer sessions seeking protection from the evil “spirits”.

They say this episode might be a blessing in disguise, however, as residents have rallied together against the creatures despite differing political differences.

Office worker K Paramisavam told The Star that he never really spoke to his neighbours before this, saying, “At the most, I would just acknowledge them (in the past). Now I actually talk and get to know them. The ‘neighbourly’ spirit has been enhanced by these happenings.”

World-first hybrid shark found off Australia

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world's first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

"It's very surprising because no one's ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination," Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

"This is evolution in action."

Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan's research from James Cook University, said initial studies suggested the hybrid species was relatively robust, with a number of generations discovered across 57 specimens.

The find was made during cataloguing work off Australia's east coast when Morgan said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.

The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.

It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

"If it hybridises with the common species it can effectively shift its range further south into cooler waters, so the effect of this hybridising is a range expansion," Morgan said.

"It's enabled a species restricted to the tropics to move into temperate waters."

Climate change and human fishing are some of the potential triggers being investigated by the team, with further genetic mapping also planned to examine whether it was an ancient process just discovered or a more recent phenomenon.

If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species -- a literal survival of the fittest -- Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors.

"We don't know whether that's the case here, but certainly we know that they are viable, they reproduce and that there are multiple generations of hybrids now that we can see from the genetic roadmap that we've generated from these animals," he said.

"Certainly it appears that they are fairly fit individuals."

The hybrids were extraorindarily abundant, accounting for up to 20 percent of black-tip populations in some areas, but Morgan said that didn't appear to be at the expense of their single-breed parents, adding to the mystery.

Simpfendorfer said the study, published late last month in Conservation Genetics, could challenge traditional ideas of how sharks had and were continuing to evolve.

"We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don't fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate," he said.

"And in fact, this may be happening in more species than these two."

Education, Stress....... What would the phychological impact on our future genration be

'Sorry, your child is not bright enough' Some parents and observers are questioning the motivation for entry tests for enrichment centres by Tan Weizhen 04:46 AM Jan 03, 2012 SINGAPORE - As the tuition landscape here evolves - with a burgeoning market for helping children who are strong academically to become even better - the practice of some enrichment centres of holding entry tests for children as young as six has raised hackles among some parents. But centres which hold such tests defend it as a way to screen prospective students and understand their abilities better. Even so, observers Today spoke to said that these tests could add more pressure on parents and affect a child's confidence at an early stage. Finance manager V Ang's six-year-old son recently failed an entry test at a popular enrichment centre and is preparing to take another test at a different centre. The 33-year-old said: "The screening is quite ridiculous ... when I sent my son to enrol, they even required information such as which primary school he will be going to. It is quite stressful, as it is not only difficult to get in but expensive too." Another parent, Ms Serene Tan, said her son, who is in Kindergarten 2, was unable to get a place at the Learning Point after he could not pass the entry test in November. The investment consultant, who is her mid-30s, questioned the motivation of enrichment centres that are solely focused on helping students who are already strong academically to do better. She added: "I find it very odd that they have such comprehensive entry tests even for children at that age. The centre said that my son didn't do well in his spelling and grammar, but he is only in K2." Enrichment centres here conduct entry tests for children in kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools. The duration of these tests are usually between 30 minutes and one-and-a-half hours. An English test for a K2 pupil, for instance, can include grammar, composition, spelling and reading segments. When contacted, several enrichment centres, which hold entry tests, reiterated the need for the entry tests and pointed to the results they have achieved in helping children who have the aptitude for accelerated learning. The Learning Lab, for instance, said that each year, 70 per cent of its students see their grades improve by 10 percentage points. It added that 297 of its students scored 260 and above in last year's Primary School Leaving Examination. Enrolment requirements vary across the enrichment centres: The Learning Point, for example, will not accept students who fail its entry test, although it allows them to take a re-test six months later. For Just Education, it conducts these tests for students whose results in school are below its criteria. The Learning Lab said its entry tests are used to assess the ability of the students, so that they can be grouped together with others of similar calibre. Apart from entry tests, the centre also conducts pre-enrolment interviews "to appraise the student's drive and desire to improve, and fit with our school's learning ethos". Its spokesperson Ling Cheah told Today: "We want to ensure that when we admit a student, we can indeed add value, we can indeed help him improve on his personal best." Creative Horizons, which offers English as well as creative writing courses, pointed out that its students should have a minimum standard of English before attempting creative writing, for instance. The centre's director Faeza Sirajudin stressed that "no child is at the place where they don't need any more help". Nevertheless, she said parents should not "hothouse" their children to try to push them beyond what they can achieve. She said that it was unhealthy for parents to send their children to enrichment centres at an increasingly young age, when they should be given time to play. Mountbatten Member of Parliament Lim Biow Chuan, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, dismissed the practice of having entry tests as '"marketing gimmicks". Said Mr Lim: "Some centres obviously just want bragging rights. If top students come in, they obviously would be good to begin with. Such practices drive up the pressure unnecessarily." Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Intan Mokhtar, who also lectures at the National Institute of Education (NIE), added that these enrichment centres play on parents' fears that their children would lose out if they are not stretched from a young age. She said: "I guess with the current state where there's a lot of competition to enter university, parents take extra precaution - if the child is good, he can be even better." Noting the psychological impact on children who fail the entry tests, she added: "It would instil in the child a sense of belief that everything boils down to (getting) the 'A's, when learning really isn't just about that." enlarge this photo Students have to take entry tests at some enrichment centres. TODAY FILE PHOTO