PPSMI and State of English in Malaysia

"Currently, out of the more than 30,000 English teachers nationwide, the prime minister said only eight per cent were confident enough to carry out the PPSMI." - PM Najib Razak as qouted in the Malaysian Insider.

Fact:

1) Most textbooks in science and math are written in English. In fact, all formulas being used in Science and Match are based on English.

2) Only 2,400 teacher are confident in teaching Match and Science in English.

Does that tell you more about the quality of the teachers and their own grasp in English rather than the failure of the program?

"Najib, however, said that the fact that the government is considering making English a compulsory pass subject reflects its seriousness in the matter."

What's the point if they are going to make it so damm easy so that the weaker ones can also pass? Even when I was in school then, the standard between the good and the mediocore were so great, and we were in an urban school, and we still had good teachers, in fact, in my town one of the best schools.

"We can achieve the same objectives if we increase contact hours in English teaching so that students can become confident in other subjects," he said, adding that the government is considering increasing English teaching time in schools soon.

I think it is more wise to increase the English contact time for the teachers while they are in Uni or Teachers Training College than to stuff it into the kids.

Give the kids a break, if you get good Teachers, you get Good Students.

And while they are revamping the program, why not insist the world of science and match speak in Bahasa Melayu.

Shout Out!

Adventures in Daddlyland: day 21

I spent more of the day in JB for a business meeting.

I managed to send J1 to school and then got down to work before headng out to JB.

So the kids have gotten into a routine that it's pretty much manageable now.

When I got home, I found J1 doing her homework and J3 lying on the couch.

J2 was down in the pool for her swimming class and going through her swim test routine still together with the rest of the kids.

Later J3 came down to join us in the pool and played well with the other kids.

We watched amazing race, the episode where the 2 basketball sisters were involved in a pushing match with the mother and son team, and had to explain what "bitch" meant!

Well be thankful it wasn't anything more sinister.

Adventures in Daddyland: Days 16 - 20

Due to my current hectic schedule, I am unable to update daily. As Murphy's Law would dictate, life would get more complicated as the travel date draws closer.

Day 16:

Yesterday, towards the evening was walking around like a zombie due to a whole day of meetings and running around town, and even had a second cuppa at 6 pm, to no avail. It was pretty much on the go from 6 am onwards till about 940 pm when I finally got into the floor.

I had a series of meetings, in between which I had to make a detour back to Clementi to pick up the car. Another reason why I let you drive, but I do bitch about having to get wet and walk under the hot sun.

J1 thought she had her wushu test, but turned out to be a false alarm for her, but some of the other kids did have their exams. I think it's because she just signed up and the rest may have been from last year.

J3 for once, did not cry when she went to take her bath and to school. My mom thinks its because she got a "new" dress to wear yesterday. We'll see her in action today to see if it's a once off or the tide is turning.

j2 was OK as usual, and I took both J1 and J2 out to cycle in the evening before I realized that she had her speech and drama, so that was cut short, and also the 2 of them argued. I think more J1 took offense to something J2 did and took off running, and then J2 came and ask where was J1 oblivious to fact that J1 was upset.

Anyways by the time her class time, I was really shagged, and when I took her home, she started to whine about not bringing her milk. But she has learnt not to whine when I am tired.

Also another issue cropped up. J2's school will be having a mother's day outing, and with the mom not around, I wonder how J2 will react. I think I am just being overprotective, but we will see how the drama pans out.

We got home in time to do a story, and J1 was waiting on the computer for you to call, but had to set her right that you are working and that you'd call on the weekend. So this weekend, you better wait for us to get back from our swimming tests and talk to them.

Day 17:

Just sent J1 to school and I think this is the earliest we have ever left for school 635 am. So when we got there, none of her buddies were there yet, and I sat with her until Esther came by and then I left both of them alone, since I'll be like the lamp-post. No problems in the morning, and the same lately.

Also she scored 3 x 100 and 1 x 98 for her ting xie, so she has put in her hard work and I think deserves a small treat. Mrs lee also called to say that she has passed the syllabus and worksheet from the time we are away. Additional stuff will be provided by Kah Yuen. Also J1 may get to sit for her SA1 together with everyone else as the exams were slated to happen the week of our departure. So we will see and keep her on her toes.

J2 as usual had little problems. Seems to be eating better. She's still wet at night, so I guess we will have to bring with us her diapers. 

J3 in the morning was fine, but I think she has regressed again. Last afternoon, again she didn't want to take her cat nap and was energetic, so we went for a walk and J2 and J3 wanted to go swim (my mom had also gone for her exercise as no kids around) , so left J1 at Jasmine's and took 2 and 3 down. All were ok, until we got up when 3's adrenaline wore out and she was a terror all night long. Nearly gave her one good smack. This morning, more of the same as she's yelling for poh poh.

Day 18:

Thankfully Friday did not have much problems. 

J1 went to school early and did not have any problems waking up as did J2 and J3.

Today being the last day of the school week, decided to be more relaxed with the kids and took them down for a quick walk and run, but most off all to keep them off the pool in preparation of the nassa test tomorrow.

J2 is still a bit apprehensive on her bronze test, and I have told her it was a practice session in a new pool with other students, and she seemed to calm down a bit after that.

Day 19:

This is the big day, J1 is sitting for her Silver medallion (at 7+ years old) and J2 for her bronze (at 5 yo)

Morning was relaxed and did some packing for the big trip in a months time. And got the kids to eat their lunch early and then got prepped to go to Queenstown for the test. The swimming coach, uncle saw took a ride with us, which was good as it made the girls a bit more relaxed.

As j1 got ready for her silver, I spoke with Mr saw that J2 was a bit apprehensive, and being the experienced coach that he is, he took J2 down to the pool to get her to warm up and just get relaxed with the pool and water. THis worked out great as she didn't want to get up after that.

J1 as usualy breezed through her silver although she kept muddling with her cap as it was threatening to slide off, so that slowed her down, but overall, she was great.

Now for the biggie and J2 was quite excited to get it going and get it over and done. She was the shortest of the group, which is unusual because she's the tallest in her age group, and this goes to show that she was indeed the youngest of the bunch.

As expected she didn't swim the fastest and had a bit of trouble with the float making part, but mr saw went to give her encouragement and she got it done.

In fact, I am so proud of her as part of the exam was to dive to the bottom of the pool and the examiner pick her as an example to 2 older boys on how it should be done.

I had a series of videos taken from my phone and this was quickly uploaded to youtube for the mom to see. the mom had a running commentary on skype/fring so she was virtually in the thick of things as well.. almost like live blogging.

Day 20:

Was a bad day as I had a lot of trouble sleeping.

So through the day I was in a bad mood, and the kids got to skype with the mom.

Worked a bit more on the holiday itinerary, but that is all about what I want to say about sunday.

Adventures in Daddlyland: Day 15

The kids were good yesterday, as took all 3 of them down for a swim. J1 and J2 to practice for the sat medallion exams and J3 becos she wanted to tag along. Su was down as well to look after J3 while I swam/exercised.

J1 came up with a blocked ear and no matter what we did, she said her ear still blocked, including this morning and said that when she yawned, her ears hurt. Any advice for her? I've tried looking via the digger flashlight, but I don't really know what to look for. Her wax is gone so nothing else there and am afraid to dig any deeper.

Mr Saw said J2 is ready for the exam and she was quite excited about it. It wasn't so when we first got into the pool as she wanted to play with J3, but after some encouragement from Uncle Saw, she went into the pool and did her drills.

J3 didn't sleep until 9pm. Amazing so she was awake most of the day. In the morning, as usualy, was bad. She now doesn't want to take off her PJs, so my mom had to shower her in her PJs. I had a shout at her and that piped her down somewhat, and since I was the big bad wolf, she was more than happy to leave the house to go school, only to cry again when she got there.

But when she got home, it was as if, nothing had happened.

Adventures in Daddlyland: Day 13 and 14

Over the weekend, the kids went down for their pool session and to practice for their medallion exams in the coming week.

it was surprising that J2 had wanted to take part in it, since she's quite young, and the coach said she had no problems.

We also did more worksheets for J1 in keeping up with her studies from school and to train her up for the time when we will be in Italy.

Saturday was quite unproductive as kept the kids occupied and skyping with the mom.

Sunday, we took a heavy breakfast and had a late lunch as esmirada, hoping to slowly pu J3 into the mood for eating western. She ended up eating bread (from the fabulous garlic bread they served).

THen when we came back, got the kids to go to the pool again and then, later in the night, to skype with their mom.

Adventures in Daddyland: Day 12

This was good friday, and the kids had the day off.

An outing with J1 and J2's friends were planned for the Henderson Wave, for a bit of an outdoorsy outing.

The plan went to schedule (slightly behind) and the kids were enthusiastic about seeing their friends again. When the other family arrived, we had to do a 3 way exchange. J2 went with her buddy, G in her parents car. Jboy, came into our car to sit with J1, so J1 had to relocate from the front to the third row of the car.

The kids started with a burst of energy, but sadly about 20 minutes into the walk J2 was pining to be carried, but persevered on up until we reached the summit which was the Jewel Box and the cable car station to Sentosa. Surprisingly, j3 took it slow and easy so she had a better time compared to J2.

Had a rest, and some snacks before making our way down again, and this time J3 was too tired to walk so had to be carried by Su. J2 was really going off the rocker with her whining, so in the end had to encourage her to walk a bit by bit.

So we came back after about 2 hours, and that was it for the rest of the day. They managed to skype with their mom, while I attended to some other activities.

Later that evening we had wanted to go to an indoor gym. it was pouring rain, but we went ahead just the same. I made an agreement that if it was still pouring when we got to the gym, we will head home. So as luck would have it, the rain tapered to a drizzle, so we got into the gym only to find out it was closed for a party! Murphy's Law!

So drove home, and dropped J3 off, and brought the 2 older ones to get their DS in preparation of the trip to Rome, as I have found out that the Thai plane from BKK to FCO will not have the personal entertainment system like what we've come to expect from SIA.

So we will have 11 hours of nothing except eat and sleep and hopefully the DS wil keep them occupied.

So the kids are not acquanting themselves with the DS and so am I.

Adventures in Daddyland: Day 11

yesterday was a bit of a challenge. J1 came home early due to ear pains, so luckily we managed to get her mom on skype so kinda sorted the problem out. We dug up 7 years of ear wax from both her ears, and boy, I was shocked! I hate to imagine how much ear wax I have in my own ears.

J1 was quite open to the whole solution thing and the water spray which she said was ticklish rather than painful. And then my mom spotted some parts of her brain wanting to come out, and plus my bro had given my dad one of those scoops (plastic this time) attached to a light bulb (LED to be exact) so it can shine into the canal, and part of the brain was jussst about to come out.

So ended digging it out plus a bit more. And then asked whether she wanted to treat the other side, and since she had quite a good experience, she said OK. So that was from both ears. She still said it hurt, but more towards the outside of the ear rather than the canal itself.

And yes, no more bringing this up with J2, but I will bring the solution with me since I have a brand new one, JIC.

J1 was good in waking up. Our alarms go off almost simultaneously now, so not really a problem plus she now eats her own breaky while I do my morning business.

Oh update, Uncle saw has passed the bronze and silver medallion forms to J1. The test is on April 18, which is 10 days away. I think J1 can do it, but will need to seek the counsel of Uncle Saw to see if J2 is ready. She can do it, just takes a bit longer than the others. So worried that she might be a bit freaked out if she's the last, plus you know how competitive she is.

The night before was a bit restless as before that, J1 complained it was too cold, so ended with my shuffling between 25 and 26 the entire night, and a lot of restlessness with the kids. So had a chat and asked if they'd prefer it cold or hot? Luckily both came back as cold (as opposed to the usual because you say this, i must say that). So last night, settled back to 25, and no problems.

I am slowly trying to psycho J3 into going Wee Care, but I think after the initial apprehension, she will be OK. I spoke with her, which tumbling about in bed with J2 as well, and the first thing she said was that she didn't want to go wee care because the teachers would scold her. So I don't think that shouting teacher at EB does not help make her want to go school more. So I think the lovey dovey environment at WC would suit her nicely, and also plus they emphasize learning thru play (emphasizing on play!)

But the long term problem is another J1 problem once she graduates to primary school.

Oh, I also met the teacher from j2 speech and drama, and he spoke to me to remind me about the fees, and explained the whole lot to him, but he's no in charge anwyays. But he said that J2 is making an effort to learn and participate, which is good. I said I couldn't speak, but too old to join his class.

It's been quite an experience having all 3 at the same time, and luckily my mom is handling J3 since she's the most tempermental. 

Adventures in Daddyland: Day 10

A bit of excitement today for all the wrong reasons. Italy (where the mom is) was hit by an earthquake. When I spoke with the missus, there was no problem on her side of town, but then was buzzed by a cuz who said there were fatalities. So called my ma-in-law to convey that she was OK, only for the comm to be mis-comm as I mentioned "she's sorta OK", which the ma-in-law took as NOT OK.

I think the kids have gotten into the routine. J1 was happy (surprise surprise) coming back from school. She did well for her ting xie. The new one she got 95, and the repeat, she obtained 100. So congratulated her on her effort. She also did some of the math CA1 (which had just passed), but didn't wanna push her as she had her Mandarin class shortly after.

Then went down to swim with j1 and j2. Had j1 do 6 laps before allowing her to go play with saki. Saki had her fins down, so she tried on for 2 laps. She swims faster than me now. J2 had a good 6 laps around the pool (as opposed to to and fro, Saw got them to swim round the perimeter of the pool). Mostly all of them did the froggy, which I must say should be her fav style as she could swim as fast a P3 girl in the same class. 

THen they did the survival test, and must say that J2 has a bit of problem tying the ends of the pants tog (which is normal as her fine motor skills not all there yet), but she persevered until she got it done. So gotta get her to practice tying at home when possible.

J3 came down with my mom for a dip, but didn't wanna go into the big pool. So by that time, J1 and Saki were playing with her, but they game play still is not quite compatible with J3, so after awhile, she played on her own and asked to go home.

I check with thai, and sadly will be on the old plane there and back, meaning to tv screen in front and all share the same tv screen. so will be on my pc and ipod a lot while the kids are on their ds. so a ds now is definitely a must buy.

THis morning, no more 530 wakeup call. J1 again had no problems getting up, and was rewarded with a chance meeting with her best friend this morning, although we got to school at 7.

J2 woke up on her own and was dry. she didn't get her night milk and got her to pu before sleeping.

J3... nothing new to report, except she finally pm this morning, and agan asking for my mom. I think she's reacting to you being away by sticking like a leech to my mom. But otherwise, she is ok.

So anyways, as written, it will be a short call this morning as my meetings from yeterday got bumped to today. so back to back from 1 pm to 6 pm. Also will do maiolini's check later as the euro had gone to 2.012 so better grab the chance fore it goes away again. also will change another euro 1 k for us.

Adventures in Daddyland: Days 8 and 9

THis marks the first week of me shouldering more of the family responsibilities in view of the absence of my wife, who is away for 6 months for her advanced training.

Days 8 and 9 were relatively uneventful, in the bad sense.

Day 8: 

It was the day of shuttling the kids to their ballet and stuff.

THe only unfortunate incident was with J1's extra work, as trying to put her through her paces in time for the SA1 exams. She seems to be having problems with the 5 tens and 50 tens and the like, and the other weakness is the x is 12 less than y sort of questions. So we got into a heated argument as she was not even trying to get through the questions.

Felt bad afterwards, and will need to make her more questions for her to try out.

We all went for a swim later, and patched things up with J1.

The kids knocked off around 930 pm and J2 got up on her own in the morning, and went to the toilet and did stuff on her own. sadly she wasn't dry, you gotta give her credit for being independent.

I brushed their teeth for the morning, and then got J1 to do her english paper. She did reasonably well, but still with some mistakes, while the other 2 kids were playing outside.

Day 9:

Just after dinner and sitting in front of the computer. Dinner was hor fun, except new stall. The old one is no more, so had to experiment again. The faux pas this time is that I didn;t know that the sour chilly was put into the noodles, so had to scramble  to clear the noodles of the chilly, but overall no drama from the chilly incident. The hor fun is OK, but the hokkien char sucks. So back to KL or another stall to get our fill.

YC's was good. Pretty much the whole wee care clan was there, and J3 had a good time playing with her future class mate casey. The older girls (including ours) were stuck playing Kate's DS as well as Maya's new toy.

It was penang food, and it seems her dad (YC's) knows the chef personally as they were chatting away like old friends. but sadly did not have my fill of food as had to take care of the kids, and often times, they were in 3 different places and 2 adults. Had a good time catching up with my bros (mainly Lawrence and TS) and also did the courtesy chat with the snooties. nicholas was there as well as was Ling, so chatted also a bit with them. Laz's sister was also there so sat with her a bit to chat since she was kinda sitting on her own. So the secret's out about the trip and everyone was asking how I was coping! And also how the girls were coping.

Then j2 and j1 went on and on the ds, and was considering going to sim lim to get it. The on second thoughts decided to do more research on the ds from sim lim and just too many stories. besides as they say, if its too good to be true, it probably is. So checked out 2 shops at clementi central and perhaps have found our outlet for purchase. the market price without bundle and in store warranty of 3 months is about 180. One shop gave a bundle of 229. So my thoughts are to get one withouth bundle and one with bundle and get them 2/3 original games. But just need to set strict ground-rules.

Also took them to the bday playground, and managed to get in on the dot 5 pm, so we left at 6 pm when they closed. I managed to do some more reading on the proposed trips, and we may decide to skip milan and go to the mountains instead where they have cable car going up the mountains. I think that would be more interesting than just seeing more churches. 

Adventures in Daddyland: day 7

yesterday was a good day where the gals were concerned. J1 has no issues in the afternoon and evening time with her homework and such, although true to her nature, it all pops up at 930 just before she goes to bed. her concern this time was her ting xie, and not the most recent one but the one where she had to repeat the exercise for getting 75. So we got up early this morning to get that done. she got slightly grumbly, but i guess it was more the combination of waking up early and anxiety.

J2 was slightly wet this morning, and she got up on her own to go poo. She had her drink at 8 pm and then nothing else to drink. I think she'll be ok in a week or 2. may not make it dry to rome, but she's getting there. Again no problems with her.

J3 as usual went to bed a 7 and woke up a short while later, but she lazed on the couch the entire evening. And as usual, don;t wanna go school. Su had to bribe her with a lollipop in the morning to get her to go.

Took the kids out for a swim yesterday, incl J3 which would be her first dip since falling sick. J1 did 6 laps, J2 4. J3 did about 1.5 laps before they all went to the small pool. I was hoping to tire J3 out so that she'd go straight to bed at 8, but the plan was not fool proof. She knocked off after dinner at 7 and then woke up at 730. Luckily for all of us, she kinda lazed around the couch and spent the whole evening nursing her drink (milk, what did you think?) and in the process got her top all wet, so had to change her top before bed. Was told by mom that she went to sleep around 11 pm.

Work as usual is busy, but like a friend said: much of the work has speculative outcomes, so perhaps a 5% chance of success. but as I repeat my mantra: gotta try, else the only answer will be a No.

Adventures in daddy land: Day 6

Yesterday there was not much problem with J1; last night or this morning. We had set her alarm as well as mine, so there's a safety net. In fact her alarm went off  before mine, but didn't wake her up until I was about ready.

And when I did wake her up, no problems. She was quite a happy camper this morning, so I think her mom's analysis about her letting off at home could be spot on. In fact, my mom has said that she's always a happy kid in school when my mom's there on weds and also after changing to her wushu clothes, she's off like a rocket.

J2 was wet again this morning, so we will try again tonight. not sure if its a push back for their mom being away, but will try again tonight with su's suggestion of drinking her milk at 8 pm, and see what happens. Last night j2 had her milk on the way back from the chinese speech and drama. speaking of that, her term is coming up ad the second term's fees are due on like 22/4. However the term starts early may and ends sometime in august, so the girl at the counter has recommended we skip term 2 and then come back for term 3. the usual teacher is not around, so will wait and inform her that we will be away from may to august, rejoin in term 3.

J3 again was crying when it came time to go to school. I think it's because of that oldish chinese teacher so shouts at the kids, so not as nurturing as WC. So sent her to school by car today and she was going the entire trip and even after i dropped her off. dared not wish her goodbye! She knocked off at 6 pm last night for a 20 min nap and didn;t go to sleep until close to midnight. my mom was trying to get her to sleep all afternoon but no luck, until 6 pm.

As for myself, I think I am sinking into a depression. All the effort, and all the high hurdles to hop through just makes me think if all the effort is worthwhile. I keep seeing potential job openings that could be a fit, but due to circumstances, I am unable to apply, which makes it doubly frustrating.

There was one today which may fit, but I worry if I'll bust my chances if they ask for a start date, and the earliest I can do is September, which is like 6 months away. Perhaps a 6 month notice period?

Anyways, life goes on.

Adventures in Daddyland: Day 5

Yesterday was an OK day. Managed to get my work done, but sometimes quite frustrating because too many preconditions before a deal goes through.

Had a long chat with a colleague in the us. Our old man is down again with health problems, so a lot of the plans has stalled. My colleague, J, also threw some ideas into the lot on how do we make our money independently on our own, and it seems that we may move into an incubator mode, which is great because i'm also putting together my thoughts on this.

So more work without promise of delivery, but at least gotta try.

The kids came back and immediately, J2 chucked out her lunch. Not sure why, but she just complained of stomach ache. She chucked in the toilet so she's able to tell and control better now (not tha it makes it any better).

J1 came back to complete her homework and by the time she finished, it was time to take J2 down to the pool and J1 wanted to follow. So they were playing with Su, and suddenly after I myself got changed, J1 was sulking on the bed, crying its not fair. So not knowing head or tail, I gave her a lecture to get off her attitude problem and if she wants to go swim get changed.

She was still sulking at the pool and so I sat with her to talk to her. Evidently multitude of problems at home and at shcool
1) She got upset with Su and J2 because they were a team, and she was alone. So I told her the mathematical truth about a 3 pax and 2 team.
2) Then it emerged that her buddies at school (namely Y, N and E) all prefer to go library during their recess and she is unable to follow because she has not finished her recess food. So then I suggested she eat faster, and also how's the other finish their recess food so quickly and she said they don't. Asked some more if J1 didn't go find them in the library, and she said she did but couldn't find them. So today's suggestion was to asked the girls where'd they be in the library so that she could join them after fnishing her food.
3) JJ is now her partner, and pokes fun at her. Marks her worksheet wrong althought she got it right, cheekily did not wan to sign when the teacher is not looking and all. So all suggestions, from fighting back to ignoring JJ will not work with our brittle princess, so I just told her off. I just told her that until she gives me a solution about what to do with her, I will not go talk to Mrs Lee because all solutions provided by her dear father does not work by her standards, and so if everyone was the problem, then she needs to decide what to do with herself.

Finally, I got sick and tired to deal with her complaints and really told her off, to the point that she can sulk thru school and uni and work, and if she thinks school's bad now, she'll really suffer during uni and work. And moreover, if she continues to sulk over the littlest of things, all her friends will not want to be her friends anymore.

I think she needs to go for positive reinforcement sessions, role play or something like that. I wonder to myself, how'd she become this way? I was never like this, and neither was her mom.

J2 had a good swim as mr saw just had her do laps. in total I think she did close to 12 - 15 laps (kiddie lap count) which was pretty good for a small fart like her.

After class, J1 (by this time had gotten over her sulk; she was swimming alone in the small pool) and J2 were playing with saki and her cuz, so a bit of happiness came back to j1.

J3 as usual cried when she got to the school. But otherwise was ok when she got home. But didn;t go swim because of her just recovered sickness. Plus she was asleep when we all went down to the pool.

Dinner was quite painless as J2 was famished as was J1 (is she ever not??). We watched the chopped version of HSM3 after dinner and then mom decided to skype but had to cut short the skype to send the kids off to bed by 9. The water was nice, so shooed my mom down for her exercise. She got back after the kids were changed, so J3 was with me in bed with J1 and J2 for a bit of bed time reading.

Set the temp at 26, so the kids were quite comfortable. THen in the middle of the night, J1 had her nightmare. And I was too tired to bother, so told her to say a prayer and go to sleep. I dunno how long she stayed awake, but I know I went to sleep. Then my alarm was either not switched off or had accidently been switched off, so woke up only at 645. Then the usual lah. J1 waslike didn't want to get up, and when I told her I was late, she then went into why are you late, i want to go to school by 7 mode. There's just no winning with this girl!

*J3 is outside now throwing a mega tantrum about going to school* let's hope she gets out of this funk by primary school or we'll have 2x trouble.

Hopefully today will look cheerier!

Adventures indaddy land: day 4

Happy to note that j3 continues to improve and should be able to go scholl tomorrow after a week of being sick. With the mom 's advice, i called to cancel her appointment with her paed as it's just a waste of the prof's time to see a kid who's on the mend.

j1 had trouble waking up for school not as much as lack of sleep but having boy trouble at school. Ahem, not what you think, but she's got a couple of boys who keeps giving her a hard time and she, being the princess that she is, is unable to cope with the attention.

J2 is her usual self but did not make it to her swimming as it was threatening to rain with thunder and lightning. But true to form, the second she got to the apartment, there were no morw thunder and lightning!

And i have some work that requires my attention in the coming days so will be kep busy with that.

And this is turning out to be an uneventful day.

Sent from my Nokia phone

adventures in daddy land: day 3

Day 3, a sunday turned out to be quite nice.

j3's fever had subsided, and she's back to her cheeky old self. She only needed a dose of fhamol all day, but her sniffles and cough are still quite bad.

J1 finally got down to doing some of her homework and in addition we gave her some additional work to do in english and math. We have found that her math linguistic skills are not up to par and she has some trouble undertanding written questions.

J2 was being her usual self. She had helped make breakfast of scrambleb eggs and toast. She also did some drawing though bot so much work sheets. Need to give her more work sheets to do to encourage her to be diligent in her work.

We stayed at home, more for j3's fever and the kids got out to play by the lobby instead og going down to the playground.

There was a will smith show on tonight but decided to reward the kids by allowing them to watch high school musical during dinner time. As a plan we will be watching high school musical 2 tomorrow after dinner, if they behaved themselves.

J3 hadn't slept all day, so she took a short nap at 7 pm only to wake up in a bout of cough. J2 also did not nap was asleep by 9 pm and j1 should be going to sleep soon.

mommy was on skype with them for 2+ hours, so they had mommy there with them. J2 is still suffering from mommy withdrawal although she seems to be adjusting nicely.

All in all a good day, and plus i managed to get some work done as well!

Till tomorrow, the journal continues.

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Adventures in daddyland: day 2

Surpringly quiet. j3 was still running a temp for most of the day but the good part is that she's getting her cheekiness back.

The girls skyped with the mom, and naturally j2 was all tears and having a really shitty time being apart from her mom. The other 2 was just taking it in their stride.

Then the sleep monster overcame me and i crashed for a couple of hours, waking in time to take j1 to her swimming lesson and then off to Lizzie's wedding.

I got a call from home asking to feed j3 her brufen as her temp had by 8 pm soared back to upper 38, so told my mom to go ahead to do that and then it was quiet for the rest of the night.

I had a ball catching up with ex-colleagues and the food was good (kudos to Lizzie's ma-in-law).

By the time i got back was close to midnight and the girls were all asleep, and so ended day 2 of my adventure and thankfully not as manic as day 1.

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Adventures in daddyland: day 1

Yesterday marked the 1st day i was a dad at home with 3 kids as the mom is away for her work training for 6 months.

Of course, i am not completely home alone but with the benefits of a 3 generation family under one roof with a maid to boot.

I will have 6 weeks on my own at which time i hope to have all the kids' digits intact, then we're off to be with the mom for 9 weeks and then back again alone for another 6 weeks.

On top of that i have to contend with work.

So yesterday chronicled my 1st day.

It was relatively uneventful. I was in front of the enotebook most of the day, unfixing a boo boo i did when i tried to install ubuntu onto it. Had to do a complete reformat and reinstall.

J1 was at home from school, and was tasked to finish her homework as well as some test papers to test her readiness to sit for the exams on the coming weeks.

J2 was sent to school by myself as she had a late night sending the mom off at the airport.

J3 was still suffering from fever and the cough and sniffles she caught from me since monday. her temp was consistenly above 38 and 39, so we had to supp her to try to keep her fever down at mid-day. That worked for a few hours and by early evening, her temp had spiked again.

I checked and her temp reading said 40.5 deg c. So instead of trying to get her to see her paed on monday, my mom and i made a beeline to the children's emergency.

luckily it was not a full house, and we were seen in relatively short time. J3 was misreable by then and the sight of unfamiliar docs made her even more misreable. Luckily the MO on duty pull up some mulan on youtube and that placated her some.

3 hours, 1 blood test, 1 xr and 2 doses of brufen later we finally left emergency.

The mom had a long distance chat with the consultant or reg on duty and she's happy that the tests came back normal.

So much for a low-key kick-off, and instead we got all the excitement.

Hopefully day 2 would be more relaxing.

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A case of out of the frying pan and into boiling water.

My notebook running vista had just given me the blue screen. It was reliably giving the blue screen on a daily basis for the past week!

So today i decided to take the plunge to install ubuntu and hopefully no more blue screen.

Well was i wrong! I set out to have it dual boot, but ended up only being able to boot in ubuntu. My limited knowledge of linux and ubuntu did not help, but i like the UI, and hopefully the stability.

Luckily i backed up my key files, and am prepared to spalsh money on xp home, but i feel a need to solve the problem or give it a whack first. Call it the engineer in me, (or a sucker).

Am enlisting a friend's help but for now will have to work on the desktop while i figure out the notebook problem.

Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the pot!

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So that's how it feels like

I am sad. I am upset. I am angry. most of all I am disappointed.

Why am I feeling so? It because I have roundly and soundly been stabbed in the back by someone I thought I was helping.

Case in point: I prepared a document for him,a spent close to 2 full days (on my own cost), sent it to him to review; and today news filtered back to me that my version was the outdated version.

It was not like there was no opportunity to send me an updated document, in fact we had spoken many time on the phone. he had the chance to review and rebut the information in the document but he decided to keep it from me, and make me look like a fool in front someone whom I had said I've pre-qualified the project.

All the pro-bono work was for nothing. I am damn angry, in fact I have not felt this level of rage in a long time. And I thought I was doing my best to help him.

in making me look bad, I think he has done himself a further disservice. because he has made himself to be a person who is untrustworthy, or worse; a person living in his own little world.

Now I know how it feels like to have a knife shoved and twisted into one back. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and this is one of them. And I'm unsure if I am magnamacious enough to let it slide. I want revenge, I want payback.

Lord, please help me be strong in the face of such adversity and stupidity.

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Cool!

I was listening to my download of jazztrax when I saw this and thought it was simply beautiful.

Wouldn't you agree?

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My future

In a short span of 24 hours, the first or many decisions will be made by others that will impact my future.

There will be a meeting a skeptical entrepreneur and an unorthodox investor where they have a meeting and decide if they both want to jump into bed together on a project.

I put that project to my partners who then worked behind the scenes to set the ball rolling.

The stakes are high, and the returns potentially lucrative.

but that tentative first step may be the hardest because the entrepreneur has been screwed over by too many people to be an optimist, whereas the investor is unorthodox to say the least.

Within the next 24 hours we shall see if my project and indirectly my firm will be able to survive.

Let keep our fingers and toes crossed.

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Part 2 - Water Investment

Some may say that I am one of those who follow the herd mentality.

The Cleantech Group has just finished their investment forum on Cleantech, and there was a discussion on Water investment, so I can safely say that I am not alone in this thinking. In fact, this is a well known fact for the past 20 years or so.

A lot of pundits are saying that Water will be the next oil. UNlike oil where there can be substitute to energy, human rely on water to survive. Man (or woman) can survive with minimal use of energy such as coal and oil (just live like caveman of the past), but we cannot survive without water. You could say it is the elixir of life. THe lack of water will not only cause huma suffering but it will also cause social unrest, and thus potentially leading to antagonistic attacks on neighbouring countries in order to have that access to fresh water.

Singapore has accutely felt this fact since day 1 of independence, when Malaysia used water as a leverage in its dealings with Singapore during its short time as part of Malaysia.

So naturally, Singapore can be considered the Oasis in water technology, as the government has sought to be independent from Malaysia in terms of the citizen's water needs. It has desalination plants, as well as the Newater, which is essentially is recycled water.

So where would I look for in terms of water investment? I'd say 2 or 3 major themes.

1) Low energy desalination or filtration.

Technologies that will take salt water (in abundance) and convert them into fresh potable water. Based on the traditional way of desalinating salt water is to boil the water, extract the salts and then allow the water vapor to condense back into water, sans the salt and other minerals.

However, this is energy inefficient. THe latest technologies include reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology. Hyflux, a Singapore based company is a prime example of a listed company taking advantage of the need for access to clean water to grow its business.

THe key would be to push these technologies into more energy efficient processes, or to take an out of the box approach in desalination.

2) Recycling water.

When Singapore started bottling Newater for the public to have their first taste of recycled water, much was made of it; and some in not so nice terms, ie jokes like drinking pee etc etc.

However, the asronauts have been doing that since the spacelabs days as it is important under those circumstances to be able to bring a bare minimum amount of fresh water from earth and then depend on what can be recycled to sustain the astronauts in space.

Again, recycling water uses a variety of membrane technology as well as charcoal scrubbers.

There are some innovative technologies like Katadyn and Hydration Technologies, that provide solutions that require no power (except human power) to provide the clean water for the users. These are mainly driven by the need for military personel to have access to clean water irrespective of their location as long as they have access to a river or pond for fresh water.

The opportunities here are then to look for key enablers that can lower the cost of adoption. Or to be able expand the volumetric flow of the membranes to something a village could use, but continue to be human operated. Or perhaps to expand the life of the membranes.

3) Irrigation and piping.

I believe this is one of the most wasteful loss, which can be controlled. 

A lot of pipes in Malaysia are old and the infrastructure is crumbling, thus leading to flow loss that could otherwise be recovered and used by the users.

Perhaps the next innovation could be how to monitor leaky pipes deep underground. The current use of ground microphones are limited to the area of coverage. What is needed is a grid monitoring system akin to the electrical grid system to detect unusual activities within the water grid, ie higher than usual flow of water etc. This is an interesting article about detction of water leakage.

No I believe the next innovation to come out would be in the area of leak detection as there are current major efforts to improve the membrane technology for the filtration of water.

Next, agrotechnology.

The next thing in investment.

If I were running a venture fund right now, I'd be looking at 3 major themes, and I have been consistent at sticking to these themes:
1. Energy
2. Water
3. Food or I'd call it agrotech

Now anyone not in a comatose would have known that billions of dollars of investment has been pumped into cleantech, so I kinda believe the whole sector is tapped out.

Potentially the bright spots are technologies that improve upon existing solutions, ie the race for better efficiency in solar is never ending, and so is the race to make cells and panels cheaper.

We have also seen a lot of investment into smart grid technology, and perhaps a movement into electricity on demand like if a domicile has its own source it is able to better regulate its own use, and also be able to sell any excess to the grid.

The other area is how to make wind more ubiquitous? There are areas where current wind technology does not work due to inconsistent or low wind speeds. I read the other day that a company was just funded to commercialize their gear technology to reduce energy loss via mechanical means.

Similarly to wind, how about underwater current (as opposed to the current wave technology). However of key would be concerns of environmental impact to oceanic life.

And for many company's in the area of energy, the race is now building up generating capacity, be it via plants or solar farms or wind farms.

I am hopeful that within the next 5 years we will start to reap the benefits of such technology in our daily life.

Next installment will be my thoughts on water technologies.

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Whitney Houston

Last night as I drove home from a meeting, Whitney Houston's All at Once was playing on the radio. Since I was alone in the car, I blasted the music.

I realized what amazing voice this woman has (and hopefully still does), and it was such a tragedy to have her married to Bobby Brown and get caught in the downward spiral of drug abuse.

Well, the good news is that she's divorced Bobby and hopefully her voice is also on the mend and she'll come back with her amazing voice again to vow listeners like me.

And I do miss her, and her voice (especially ballads)

entrepreneurship in a downturn

I read an interesting article on the harvard weekly about the above
topic and its amazing that entrepreneurs will always find opportunity
in any situation, and in this case, the opportunity is during a
downturn.

It goes to say that when capital is scarce, then only the best most
efficient, most creative ideas will get funded.

However, I am puzzled by the above. If this occurs in an environment
of high entrepreneurial activity, then one can postulate that the
businesses that get funded are truly the cream of the crop.

However, what happens in a situation where there is relatively low
entrepreneurial activity, where risk taking is frowned upon. What
then? if there is a scarcity of projects, then does it mean that there
would be a mismatch between the capital that is going into less than
ideal projects?

I see singapore as being in the latter group, and fear that while the
efforts of the government in stimulating more risk taking, the
projects that are being funded is not the one that have a high
survivability factor.

What do you think? Keep capital scarce or risk pouring good money into
bad projects?

Airport users subsidizing the ERL at KLIA

This came about as some relevation that users of both KLIA and the LCCT is subsidizing YTL for the operating cost of the ERL.

While some may feel cheated, especially if you don't use the service but I feel that one must look at the matter objectively. I used to travel quite extensively to Heathrow airport and the cheapest, fastest, most reliable way of getting from London city to the airport was to use the Heathrow express.

The service is prompt and zooms me into London within 30 mins. The other alternative is cab, which could cost close the 60 gbp instead of able 30 gbp for the X.

And so does the ERL. The trains are clean and runs efficiently. I think it was a mistake not to extend the line to the LCCT because more people can then use the ERL to get to and from the airport from KL.

So for once, I think some quarters are barking up the wrong tree. Sure, the concessions should have been disclosed, but rather the cry over spilt milk, why don't the people put their heads together and lobby for the ERL to extend the line to include the LCCT?

At the end of the day, people must be willing to pay for service. Take the bus, while cheap may not be conducive since the bus is at the mercy of the jams that KL and its suburbs are so prone to.

Fair or not, you'll not hear me complain about the ERL as I think it's the right infrastructure to put in place.

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Elizabeth Wong - How low has Malaysia sunked?

I read with disgust the treatment meted out to Elizabeth Wong and the recent revelation of compromising pictures sent to the tabloids and the media. Let's see what's fact and fiction (I shall try my best)
1) She is single and non-Muslim (fact). So she is free to have sexual relations with her partners. While the older folks may frown on pre-marital sex, but to be honest, this is a trend that we have seen in both the Muslim and non-Muslim community.

2) These pictures were taken without her consent. Until proven otherwise, we must assume she is innocent.

3) It was taken in a private setting, therefore, by right should remain private.

4) She has a track record for doing what's right (which is so often missing in politicians in Malaysia today)


The key question is:
1) Will her constituents still be able to trust her to do a good job after this?

2) Does it matter to her constituents what she does in private? Is she hurting anyone? Is she committing a crime (having pre-marital sex is not a crime, unless you are Muslim or a minor)?


To be honest, I think Khir Toyo is supremely hypocritical to ask Eli Wong to quite when this is the only transgression she has made. Who knows perhaps he also has skeletons in his own closet and it is just a matter of time before the skeletons come out to play.

If you subscribe to the conspiracy theory, and I fell many do, it would seem that BN would stop at nothing to dig enough dirt on the PR elected officials to force them to jump ship or quit, thus allowing them to take over the state governments. If you cannot win using a democratic method, then you use an underhand method, which is to force people to defect or shame them into quitting.

In the end, I think BN (be they be responsible for the entire fracas or just an innocent bystander - but by Khir Toyo making statements, it would mean that the BN or UMNO is linked somehow or other) will end up being the major loser, because the sympathy of the masses will sway to the direction of Eli Wong. And coming so soon after the Frog incident in Perak, it would further strengthen the people's perception that BN is desperately to take over the State Government (by whichever method that works best) and does not care what the Rakyat's wishes are. The BN has put themselves above the Rakyat they are supposed to serve.

And this puts Malaysia very close to being a failed democracy.

This is Technopreneurship!

My main beef with supposed technopreneurship coming out from multi-million dollar research funding is that the gap to close between the lab and the consumer is WAY WAY too big.

I saunter over the many websites on venture funding when I stumbled upon this company, Smule, who managed to raise US 3.9 million at a time when many tech companies are slashing workers or dying off.

Check this out. For the users, KISS (keep it short and simple), but underlying the user interface, I can only dare to imagine the coding needed, but even more, the IDEA!




This is simply AMAZING!

If you read the articles on why it is successful:
1) Any idiot with an iPhone can make music with it (good or bad is not the issue)
2) Users can hear music from other users around the world. This is the network effect, and ISP or the telcos all love this because it drives data usage (already iPhone users use more data than other traditional users of the mobile phone)
3) Well, it runs on the iPhone (need I say more?)
4) Rather than targeting other developers to use the technology, this goes to the consumer direct. Risky, but any investment made by VCs tend to be high risk high return.

What do you think?

Rain, glorious rain!

I just came back fro penang and alor seats where I spent my chinese new year holidays, and boy, was it scorching hot!

I went up north with 1 sick kid and adults, and I came back with 3 sick adults, all down from the pure heat up north.

And now as you can see it is raining in singapore. Have never been happier!

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Volvo ocean race singapore

Finally had the chance to go to the race village yesterday. Though the boats had left singapore for qingdao, there were still activities for the kids.

Woofball was fun, although the wife complained of the smell inside the ball. But the ocean simulator was really cool. Would have been better if they had some air conditioning on board as it was hot and muggy inside.

I hope they will come again in 2011.

Fruitful meetings

Yesterday was a whirlwind day of meetings, with me leaving the house at 6 am and didn't go to sleep till past 1.

Good meetings, and action items.

I am hopeful that there will be many more cross border forays for business, leveraging on my network both in singapore and malaysia.

And you know what, I do feel a bit homesick for malaysia. I see my friends and they have more opportunities, even with the nep, just by virtue that malaysia is developing and singapore has developed.

A friend remarked that many things that entrepreneurs try to do in singapore ultimately need to touch the government (and I do not mean permits and registrations) and eventually will touch the tlcs, which may not have such a good result for the entrepreneur.

It is an interesting observation, and one that warrants a bit more thought and understanding.

In the mean time, plenty of work to do on both sides of the border.

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