RED FOR LUCK



A basket of oranges symbolise wealth and gold




Oranges are often exchanged when you go visiting



My creation

My pet cat forms part of the hanper too! 

Red colour brings luck



Crackers are fired to usher the new year

   

Fish bowl effect of my basket hamper

Multiculturalism is practised
in Singapore.  We wish each
other in every festival.

My good friend Lathika and I with hand-made lanterns

Another basket creation as gift

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR

Happy Chinese New Year to all of my Chinese family members. May the year bring you prosperity, happiness and true love for many years to come. Even my cat Horas doesn't want to be missed out in this celebration basket for my neighbour. He's not part of the gift though.


Have a good snake year ahead with lots of ladders to climb higher. Anyone free for a game of snake and ladder?


Just don' t bring the real snake ok?

A TRAGIC LOSS



The parents carrying the ashes of their sons




The hearse on the way to the crematorium




The grieving parents and a personal note
written by the President




About 1000 people turned up for the final wave




Nigel and Donnavan with their warrant officer dad




Friends and strangers left flowers at the accident site



The happier time of the family



Truck drivers are paid by the number of trips they make




Saying goodbye in a teary manner




Young lives gone so soon




Strangers turning up at the funeral




Prayers from all races for Nigel and Donovan















  28 01 2013 

News of road accidents always wrench your heart. Lives are snatched without goodbyes and bodies and limbs mangled beyond recognition. Hopes of seeing continuity in the family life-line severed in a second. The victims' loved ones 'died' too. Devoid of feelings, lost for words, dried of tears, aimless in directions and emptied of hopes.

I can't imagine the loss felt by parents when their children can no longer be in their arms, kiss them goodnight or say a prayer before bedtime together. No more shrieks, laughter or running of small feet around the house.

In 1968, I lost two very good and close classmates. Chan, together with her cousin perished immediately under the tyres of a garbage truck. A monster truck against two small bodies. The game was over before the match could even start. We had just finished our National Day dance practice at Jalan Besar Stadium when the accident struck. The news became fodder for the media and for days I kept cutting articles about the tragedy.

It was a rare event of an accident at such scale to happen on those days so the coverage in the national papers was wide. I kept those articles for a long time, taking them out ocassionally until I was able to have a closure and threw them away.

How did I feel about losing two friends, whom for a second I was chatting bubbly with and the next I was wailing for? No right word could be found to aptly describe neither my feelings nor the tumultous emotions that were running amok in my whole system at that very moment.

If I was struggling for words in trying to reconcile my feelings over my friends' death, I would not be able to describe what the parents of Nigel and Donnovan are going through now. I have not been there and pray to God that I would not be there.  I am not able to represent how they are feeling. Too painful may be an understatement. Time will heal may not make sense now. Their life had been doomed when they lost their only children prematurely and at a very young age. Tears would be the constant companion.

In the blink of an eye, two boys with years to go before reaching their prime were gone, struck down on a busy Tampines Road during peak-hour traffic on Monday afternoon. They had been mauled by a cement mixer. One died instantly while the other shortly. Their parents' world shattered into smithereens.

The public had clamoured for improvements to traffic safety and stronger enforcement against errant drivers and motorists in comments and letters to the media. They were concerned that Nigel and Donnovan had died in vain if not enough is done to protect vulnerable road-users like the brothers.

My heartfelt condolences to Mr and Mrs Yap. Please be strong for one another. Through all this suffering, Mr Yap had forgiven the driver. Mr Yap said that after he had calmed down and thought about it further, he felt ready to forgive the driver as it was "purely an accident, and not a case of hit-and-run".

"After all, he did stop to check what had happened. And he's already 56 years old, maybe even a grandfather. Seeing the devastating scene, I'm sure it was a shock to him too, and it will be something that will be hard for him to forget," said Mr Yap.

"Losing my sons, my heart is broken. Even if I hit, punch or scold him, my children can't come back," Mr Yap indicated, adding that he hopes the driver will "continue to live a happy life and know that I have forgiven him".  Mr Yap had so much to give even after going through a loss of such mega scale.

And dear drivers....human bodies are not meant to be mutilated and smashed with metals, especially those of big vehicles.

Drive with care

A loss is hard to bear

NB:  Pictures from internet

LIFE IN A NON-PRINT WORLD


MY STUDENTS, MY TEACHERS


We are close, but they know their boundary

 
















In my students' eyes I am their teacher. I impart knowledge and imbibe values at their impressionistic stage.

BUT...In my eyes, I am my students' student. They teach me a lot about life; struggles, resillience,  perseverance, pain, hunger, hopelessness, poverty, humility, simplicity, the courage in gambling the too many odds strewn on their young pathway and upholding of adults' responsibility in their small frame.

About life not found in the printed words or visual screen.

Life etched and locked in their heart and mind. Waiting for someone to unlock and share with them.  To let them know that HUMANITY is still exist and is out there

SOW YOUR SEEDS

Living With Service

                                



















An apple bears 5-6 seeds each. How many apples will each seed bear? It's the whole tree; many apples, many more seeds and many many more trees.

The circle goes in a virtous cycle.  

Life isn't about finding yourself.

Life is about creating yourself.  

Life is about serving and giving.

MASSIVE CLEAN-UP

NOW YOU SEE IT NOW YOU DON'T


Reminders...reminders...like hanging a laundry

 

Before the extreme make over

 


After make over




Files all in order



More space to place worksheets



My conducive workstation




Teacher's Day Tea Session with the President of Spore




Flowers add colours to brighten the table



Family photos as a source of inspiration

Name hand engraved on teak wood

Awards and accolades

 



















A NEW LOOK
Did a major clean-up at my work station before school reopens. Unwanted files, papers, stationery and miscellaneous items parted ways with me. Some were thrown or recycled reluctantly while others received the same fate without me giving them a second thought.  

From a ‘junkyard corner’, now my place can earn the label as one of the tidiest areas in the staff room. I must give myself a pat on the back for the discipline and perseverance I had kept for this huge transformation. Just compare the before and the after pictures of my place to imagine how much has been cleared and removed.  

Now I must steel myself to keep the place as it is for the rest of the year.

MUMLAND



Mum and her children together with their spouses




Mum went for her medical check-up



My Mum, My World

Attending a wedding function

My son fooling around with his grandma

Mum and her elder sister








Mum using an i-Pad to keep her mind alert

My reliable maid who takes care of mum

The most beautiful woman in my heart

A HOLIDAY WITH A DIFFERENCE

Friends have been asking me, "Madam, where did you go for your holiday this time round?” I did not step foot on any faraway continents except to Mumland where I would find unconditional love, inner peace and warmth throughout the year.

I tried to spend as much time as possible with my 82-year old mum this year-end holiday. Mornings would find me oiling, combing Mum’s hair and applying moisturiser to her legs. Breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner would find us sitting together enjoying the food and casual conversations.

We would also have hours in front of the goggle box watching soap operas and dramas with mum taking intermittent naps in between. Then there are the medical appointments and reviews to keep and accompany mum to. Social occasions like weddings, birthday parties and prayer sessions also filled our calendar for the November and December months. I could feel mum’s uneasiness whenever I tell her I have errands to run or meetings to attend. She would then be asking Tini endlessly (my superb and reliable domestic helper) when I would return during my absence.

My Mumland experience has kept me busy and allowed me to serve and be closer to my mum, which, I would not be able to do so on normal school days. As I hold and look at Mum’s gnarled hands, I am reminded of the many years she has sacrificed for the family. Yet never a second has her love for us wavered or wane. What I am doing now is beyond comparison to what Mum had committed her whole life to for us.

My mum is the truest friend I have. When trials heavy and sudden fall upon me; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert me; when trouble thickens around me, still Mum will cling to me, and endeavour by her kind percepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness and cause peace to return to my heart.

My mother is the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical education I received from her. And I find solace in her for the best place to cry is on my mother's arms.

So dear friends, I seek your apology if I am not able to present you with any souvenir items this year. Instead, I present my wish for a fruitful and enriching year ahead for you with your mum. Love your mum for you could be her world.

SISTERLY LOVE

Happy Birthday Mazlifa

For there is no friend like a sister in calm or stormy weather: To cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.

A sister is little bit of childhood that can never be lost. We are entwined in an intimate mesh of heart, soul and the mystical cords of memory. You sister, is a gift to the heart,  a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life.

Wishing my Sis Maz a very happy birthday today.  May Allah bless you with lots of good health, happiness, love and taqwah in your life. We all love you and are counting the seconds to your arrival.

Lots of love from the Rahim-Sabiah clan.



The sisters with our lovely mum



 

The whole family together





Maz and Me before our Kota Tinggi off road trip





The six siblings of the Rahim-Sabiah clan



We love you Sis Maz



Nephews and nieces together

 

Our other halves