A Thousand And One Aims

Tajukkk... mcm bercita2 besar kan? A thousand and one aims tuh. Apa benda la yg dicita2 kan tu ek, byk bebenor bunyi nya..

Sebenarnya bukan 1001 aims, tp lebih kepada 2 aims je. Yg 1000 tu related to my PhD, yg 1 tu related dgn Aisyah punya homework.

Wah.. Aisyah dah ada homework? A ahh... td gi meeting ibubapa dan guru kat kelas Aisyah. Budak2 nursery ni akan starting this week, dpt satu assignment setiap minggu. Assignment yg dimaksudkan adalah assignment membaca dan menghabiskan satu buku cerita yg cikgu dia suruh bawak balik rumah dan baca sama parents. Satu buku satu minggu.

So td ada la dia terangkan cara2 nak membaca dgn anak2, dan kelebihan membaca bersama. I'm really pressed for time so x sempat nak ulas pjg2, but basically kena cari time yg sesuai, tutup semua TV and other distractions, make it just 10 minutes a day, cuddle2 gitu, and byk kan bg anak2 reka cerita from pictures. Kalo x nak baca dah pon teks, tgk gmbr, or suruh diorg cari karektor2 terlindung dlm gmbr.Yg penting kena istiqomah (make it everyday), and byk2 kan bersabar. Try to make it fun, kalo anak2 asyik nak ulang buku sama, layan kan aje lah, sbb repetition adalah key to success in reading. Pada peringkat 3 - 4 thn ni, kebanyakan bkn read pakai formula pon (the technical way that adults read), more to recognizing word patterns. Sbb tu kalo anak2 mcm hafal ayat dlm buku, galakkan sbb lama2 dia faham pattern and automatically dah bole decode dlm brain dia, Insya Allah..

Alhamdulillah, Aisyah so far mmg bab membaca buku ni at least one book a day tu wajib. It's her bedtime routine, x de bedtime story x bole tido dia. Even when we are on holiday, we will take several books with us, just so that dia bole tido lelap heheh.. I must praise Hubs la on this one, sbb lately aku kan slalu stuck dkt lab sampai wee hours of morning, so upacara baca membaca ni mmg on weekdays serah kat Hubs. Weekends baru aku amik alih. But at least tugas bwk Aisyah gi library utk tukar2 buku tu dah mmg fixed kat aku, so x la rasa bersalah sgt.

So masa meeting td dpt buku log satu utk catat buku2 yg Aisyah dah complete baca kat umah (1 buku = 1 star, 10 star = 1 certificate - mcm2 betul insentif diaorg ni, walhal baca / tgk2 buku je pon). Juga dpt her first book assignment. Kena baca, nnt next Monday cikgu dia nak soal content buku tu hik hik. Mcm book review / book club plak.

Tu je lah pon assignment dia, tp Mummy dia extra excited. Bkn apa, sekolah sini kan byk main, skali diorg dah slowly nak transfer budak2 ni ke Reception Year next September, tu yg pelan2 dah start ajar membaca. Btw, aku rasa kat Msia budak2 dia mungkin lg advance kot, ramai agaknya yg 3-4 years old yg bole membaca. Kwn2 aku siap ada ckp, nak masuk good pre-school kat Msia, budak2 kena at least tau membaca, mengira, menulis, dan membaca Iqra'. Jawapan aku adalah, 'Kalo anak aku by 3 years dah pandai buat semua tu, aku home school kan aje. Cukup mak bapak dia je ajar kalo 3 thn dah pandai semua'. Apa guna yuran tetapkan mahal2, tp nak terima budak yg dah sedia pandai mcm tu. Konfius betul.. Kalo betul dia institusi bagus, patutnya buktikanlah budak yg x tau apa2, within 6 months dah pandai buat semua, baru ye... betul x?

Eh, tiba2 emo plak. Tu bab assigment Aisyah la.

Yg a thousand tu plak, aku dok syok baca blog ThesisWhisperer ni, psl cara speedy nak tulis thesis. Aim kan utk tulis at least 1000 words a day. That's like 2 full A4 pages with double spacing a day. Tp 1000 tu kena yg betul2 refined and confirm masuk thesis lah, bukan yg caca marba ntah berapa kali kena edit lg tu. So if you need 60 000 words for your thesis, katanya, then at the rate of 1000 a day, 60 days bole siap. Tambah lah a few more days or weeks utk SV cek2 etc, correction, then voila, leh submit. Fullamak... on paper best je dgr kan. But it's doable, bcoz it's been done. Penulis tu sendiri took 2 months je from cover to cover. And lulus without major corrections. Impressive, kan? Ada sorg lg tu tulis dia buat 2 weeks aje. Yg tu aku rasa dah bkn impressive, tp keje giler hehehe...

Tp harus lah di highlight kan bahawa kedua2 org yg buat speedy2 writing ni semua native English speakers. And hanya bole buat bila ALL experiments dah habis. Bkn masa halfway through ke dah attempt. Although aku mungkin x dpt nak buat mcm mereka, aku saja la share kat sini, kasi bakar sket smgt kita sama2. Also, walau aku mungkin kurg setuju dgn tulis tesis dgn gaya merempit, aku sokong point dia yg lain spt waktu plg best menulis paragraphs, kaedah chunking and blocking, penggunaan mindmap dsb nya. Mana yg elok tu boleh lah kita amalkan, Insya Allah.

Oh satu lg nak tambah jgk sbb dia ala2 kena dgn title hari ni kan. Aku kalo wat kerja (writing / analyzing), suka giler main lagu A Thousand Years by Christina Perry in the background. Soothinggggg je. Merembes2 idea. Dah boring ulang2 kang, psg Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel plak hihi... Kalo masa coding dulu suka lagu2 from Belinda Carlisle, sbb lagu dia rancak *tiba2*

Semoga tercapai lah 1001 aims kami ni hendaknya... dgn Izin Allah...

Olympic Torch Relay, Plymouth 2012

Minggu lps (19/5/2012), on the Saturday, byk aktivit yg berlaku. Siangnya tu di Plymouth ada berlangsung 'Plymouth Lord Mayor's Day 2012', yg mana entry nya aku dah upload smlm (click here to read). Pada masa yg sama, pg nya jg ada siaran langsung Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee di siarkan secara langsung di TV, live from Buckingham Palace, London. Dan pada hari yg sama jgk, the Olympic Torch Relay (Larian Obor) buat Sukan Olimpik London 2012 bermula. Larian obor ini dijadualkan berlari selama 70 hari across the UK, in the countdown towards the Olympic, and includes about 8000 torch bearers!!!

Yg lebih menarik lg, larian obor ini bermula daripada port paling hujung di UK, x lain x bukan di Lands End, Cornwall (kalo nak tgk sket2 Lands End ni mcm mana, bole click sini, we went there in 2009). So pg 19 Mei tu, larian bermula from Lands End, menembusi seluruh daerah Cornwall, dan dijadualkan tiba di persinggahan pertama yakni Plymouth. Woot wooooooottttt....!!! Kena sorak lebih sket sbb Plymouth area kampung khennn, susah nak jd headliner, so sesekali naik nama as first, harus la excited terlebih hehehe... Btw, this just shows la how FAR out Plymouth is, port paling hujung tu sampai jd tempat 1st start larian obor. Mmg agak pedalaman ya ampunnnn...

Or course, aku x mahu ketinggalan event ni. Ntah bila lg lah nak berada dlm kemeriahan Larian Obor kan, sbb dah la Olimpik 4 thn skali, apa plak la chance aku nak berada di negara yg ditabalkan menjadi tuan rumah lps ni. So dgn nekad yg jitu, aku mengorak langkah kuar rumah bersama Aisyah around 8.45 pm that night (aku baca twit diorg ckp terbabas sket from target 7pm, so maybe around 9 pm baru sampai).

Kenapa aku dgn Aisyah aje? Mana Hubs? Well... kita sibuk nak witnessing history Olympic 2012, dia plak sibuk nak tgk history Chelsea lawan Bayern Munich in the Champions League final match. Pulok doh... timing plak sama dgn waktu larian obor tu, so he opted to stay glued in front of the screen lah, dah mmg penyokong Chelsea sejak azali kan? (Saksikan keterujaan Hubs bila kitaorg melawat stadium team Chelsea di Stamford Bridge semasa kami ke London April lps di sini). Nasib baik team dia menang, so dia pon happy je spjg2 mlm tu dan x brp berkira kami balik dah mlm hahah.

Anyway, syukur Hubs jenis yg Ok-you-may-go,asal-bawak-Aisyah-and-masakkan-dinner-dulu punya type,(highlight: bawak Aisyah tuuuuu... ke main nak tgk bola tanpa gangguan!). Tp sbb aku mithali, selesai masak, congek ekor jgk la kata org Klate (translation: kelam kabut) nak bg sampai jgn missed bila depa lalu dpn The Big Screen kat town.

Sesampai nya kami di sana, larian obor tu tgh berlari, tp aku mmg x nmpk apa sgt la sbb org ramai ooo... Like 10-20 meter deep dah org dpn aku, yg dah dtg dulu. Niat nak teruskan memecut ke the Hoe (the final stop where the cauldron will be lit), dgn harapan dpt memintas pelari2 tersebut (Sbb dia ikut jalan jauh, pusing stesen bas Bretonside, then lalu dpn Waterfront, Barbican, baru ke The Hoe), tp terjumpa plak geng Malaysiana di sini. So amik2 gmbr dan diskas whether it was feasible or not nak hiking ke atas menuju ke The Hoe (hiking, okeh. Naik bukit).

Diskas punya diskas, kitaorg decide to stay kat bwh aje lah, and tgk from live TV kat skrin besar tu. Sbb utama, bwk budak2 takut susah nak handle dlm ramai2 kat atas. No 2, nak kena berkejar balik solat Maghrib (at 9 pm, Maghrib lom masuk lg, but will be in another half an hours time). Tp mcm2 ado kat atas tu, konsert la, stalls la... very festive la kot.

So kitaorg pon tgk la skrin besar tu je. Skali bila dia tunjuk ariel view of The Hoe, wah bersyukur x pegi, sbb penuh sesak gila2. Estimated 40 000 org sekitar ceruk Cornwall ada kat atas tu. Almaklumlah, first day kan relay ni kick off, so ramai la yg nak turut serta. Nmpk x gmbr mcm stadium tu (org bertingkat2 tu), yg ramai org tgh tgk ke bawah sbb org bawak obor tu tgh berlari kat situ? (pic #4 below). Tempat manusia2 bersusun bertingkat sesak2 tu is actually lereng bukit ok, hari2 biasa org x panjat or even lalu! So x tahu lah aku kalo dtg naik push chair ni bawak mcm mana. Junjung atas kepala la kot, haha!

Ok, ni saat2, bersejarah la kata org, where the cauldron is lit for the 1st day. Agak terkilan sbb lps dah habis semua majlis, baru dpt tahu rupanya aku x payah bersusah payah ke town, sebenarnya kalo aku berjalan dlm 5 minit ke jln blkg umah aku, dan tggu kat situ around 8.50 pm, dah akan dpt sorak dan tgk secara dekat larian obor tu. Dah x payah bersesak2 dan semput2 berkejar ke town. Ler.... x dpt info la plak. Walau pon x dpt tgk live, happy jgk dpt merasai festivities around the commotion, coz that's part of the celebration pon kan *emosi sket srott sreetttt*

 

Plymouth Lord Mayor's Day 2012

19/5/2012 yg lps merupakan sambutan Lord Mayor's Day di Plymouth. Celebration ini diadakan annually, consisting of lots of stalls, booths, concerts, programs for young ones, and also the most anticipated parade. I think I've blogged about it the previous years, so kali ni just bubuh gambar je la ek.

[1] Mula2 gi Roland Levinsky crosspoint. Kat foyer bgnan ni ada mcm2 stalls. I really like that the Uni works together with the community bila ada festival2 mcm ni. Kat Msia mcm payah, and believe me, sbb I grew up dlm area Universiti, and parents still live dlm area close to universiti to this date, but our Unis kat Msia mcm susah nak open door to the community. Tp aku faham, open sgt kang, mula la hilang laptop, projektor dsb nya. What a shame kan?

[2] Geng2 tgh get ready. From top to bottom (1) Heritage Society, (2)  Plymouth Uni Jazz Band , (3) Samba, (4) miscellaneous other clubs getting ready outside

[3] Sempat masuk bubble. Layan jgn x layan pameran itu semua...

[4] Kat town org dah cari port nak tgk procession

[5] Tiba2 feeling romantik plak di tgh panas

[6] Pada hari yg sama, Larian Obor Olimpik London 2012 sedang berlangsung. So larian tu secara live tunjuk di skrin besar. Pada masa ni larian dah sampai Truro from Lands End, dan dijangka sampai Plymouth at 7 pm.

[8] Parade pon bermula!

[9] Someone was super-excited here!

Ok those are all the pics I have to share. We didn't stay long after the parade, sbb nak balik solat. Shows and games were still running until 4 pm though. Anyway, we went back to solat and rest, sbb ptg nanti nak kuar lg sambut the Olympic Torch Relay Torch Bearer's arrival in Plymouth. But that's for another entry lah ye. Stay tuned ;)