One morning when I was jogging at the park, I overheard a mother teaching her child to count as I was walking behind them.  The child was naive and very keen to learn.  She was holding her mother’s hand and they were walking slowly hand in hand while she was counting from number 191.  After she reached 199, she said 100-100 (one-hundred-one-hundred) instead of 200.

Although it was not a correct answer but her mother still reacted in a positive way and told her the right way to count.  She gave her praises and encouragement and her tone was full of joy and happiness.  The atmosphere was so calm and positive.

Parents play a very important role in a child’s development.  It determines how they handle and react to different matters when they grow up.  Do you agree?

Happy Chinese New Year from Colin and SiewPeng! :D  May the year of dragon brings you great health, happiness and prosperity!

We have taken our picture with the golden dragon at Sunway Pyramid.   The decorations are fantastic.

Unlike previous years we have taken the pictures of the cat statue in Kuching, this year we are enjoying a quiet Chinese New Year in KL and we have just visited some of the largest shopping malls.

Lots of people were taking their pictures with the golden dragon too!

There are effects like smoke.  Take a look at the dragon’s tail closely.  At random times, the smoke comes out from the dragon’s nose.

This is the dragon’s head.  The art work is nice and meticulous.

Opposite the golden dragon is a Chinese pagoda.

This is how the pagoda looks like from the top.

This is a larger view opposite the golden dragon.

There are fire balls hanging down from the center of the roof.

Inside the mall, there is a place for ice skating.  The red lanterns are above the skaters.

Before we left, we took some pictures outside Sunway Pyramid.

The side view of Sphinx.

As we walked further, we found a small roundabout decorated with lanterns, beautiful lights and flowers.

Lots of peach blossoms.

We went to Pavillion at Bukit Bintang earlier this month, and we found a huge dragon there.

Colin, SiewPeng and the huge dragon at Pavillion, KL.

Once we entered the mall, there were children singing Chinese New Year songs on the stage.

Outside Pavillion, Bukit Bintang.

A few days before, we went to The Gardens Mall and found these cylinder lanterns.

Instead of setting up the dragon statue, Midvalley Megamall used paper cutting lanterns, which is really nice and big and I think it is not an easy job to set them up though it seems easier than the dragon statue.  If you look closely, the patterns on the lanterns were cut and pieces of patterns were then stapled together.

And by the way, lantern in Mandarin has the same sound as dragon, which is ‘Loong’.

SiewPeng with the Sphinx statue with red ribbon (decoration for Chinese New Year).

And here we are again.

Wishing everyone all the best in the year of Dragon!

Happy Deepavali to those who are celebrating the Festival of Lights, especially to the Indian community in Malaysia.  :)

This is the first time in my life I have a public holiday for Deepavali in Malaysia.  Previous years I was in East Malaysia where it is not a public holiday.

I have visited KL for quite a few times in the past, but have never come during this festive season.  I am surprised to find that there are Kolam(s) in all of the shopping malls I have just been to recently.

Instead of 3D decorations (which can usually be seen in shopping malls), this time I saw a 2D decoration.

Kolam is a type of painting painted with coloured rice powder.

I noticed that most of them have peacocks as their theme.

Some of these decorations are labeled as Rangoli.  I don’t really know about their differences.

There are 2 separate entries in wikipedia on Rangoli and Kolam.  From what I understand, Kolam is a type of Rangoli?  Correct me if it is wrong.

Other Deepavali decorations at a shopping mall.

I thought of going to Batu Caves (KL) today, and see how crowded it is but I have other plans.  I recalled someone told me that it will be more crowded during Thaipusam.

I will wait for SiewPeng to join me in KL and we are going to visit Batu Caves during the festive season, and I am sure that we will have a true life experience on how crowded it is.

I believe that there might still have a comfortable space between people so that visitors can still move around even it seems very crowded from the pictures (same thing as a picture of a crowded shopping mall), compared to the space on KTM train (city route) where the space on the train is sometimes zero or negative (terribly squeezed among human).

Once again, Happy Deepavali to everyone.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Muslims.

As usual, this cat is decorated with a festive theme again.  The new thing for this year is the frame which surrounded the cat statue.

SiewPeng and Colin with the cat statue in Raya theme.

The squares in yellow and green are not puzzles but a type of food made of rice called Ketupat.

These are the Ketupats on the cat’s ‘hand’.

This year the cat is wearing a green head wear called Tengkolok (traditional Malay head gear for men), last year it wore the same thing but in brown.

And again I have seen this every year since 3 years ago, - the light.

It is a long public holiday this year because usually there are 2 days off for Hari Raya Aidilfitri and our Malaysia National Day (31 Aug) falls on the 2nd day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, therefore a replacement holiday is given on the 1st Sept (3 days). That makes three days of public holidays in a row!

If it is a public holiday in your country, what are you doing today?

‘Hi, Siew Peng!’

‘Hi, Teacher Jock Eng!’

The other day, my colleague and I greeted each other when we met at the staff room.  The first thought that struck my mind was, hey, our names actually rhymed!  While the thought still lingered around my imaginative world of rhyming words, my colleague went on and said, ‘I want a drink.’, as she was holding a cup and a packet of those instant coffee powder.

The moment this sentence popped out of her mouth, my thoughts started to wander around my imaginative world, trying so eagerly to look for something to rhyme.  It was actually after break time for my class and I have just cleaned the class and emptied the rubbish bin, I was washing my hands and all of a sudden, I said, ‘I am washing my hands at the sink.’.

So, it became,

‘Hi, Siew Peng!’
‘Hi, Teacher Jock Eng!’

‘I want a drink.’
‘I am washing my hands at the sink.’

Haha!  How brilliant could that be?  We both laughed! :D  What an interesting way to greet someone and even carry on a conversation!  Can you imagine what would it be like if people are actually rhyming what they are saying to each other?  Even when they are in a fight?  Take this for example,

‘I don’t want to see you anymore!
You make my life so bitter and sore!’

‘Well, you think I like to put up with you?
Try putting yourself in my shoes!’

I think if they go on like this, they will end up laughing.  Hey!  This is not a bad idea to solve conflicts huh?  As they are thinking about words to rhyme, they might even slowly forget about what they were fighting about initially!  Not bad at all!

Recently, I came across a movie which I watched many years ago.  It is called ‘The Shawshank Redemption’.  Have you heard of it or watched it before?  There is one particular line that I find quite meaningful, it sounds like this, ‘hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things…’.  And I agree.  How about you?  Therefore, I would like to start something with this line and hope to get some rhyming lines from the readers of colinjong.com!  Here goes…

Hope is a good thing,
Maybe the best of things.

Sometimes, the road ahead is rough,
But with hope, we can survive and be tough!

Alright then!  I am throwing this to everyone out there now!  What are you waiting for?  Find the words and let’s rhyme!!!