Program Pelajar Emas from Penang State Government

Update in 2020 - seems like Pelajar Emas program discontinued by Penang state
(Source: http://www.bernama.com/bm/news.php?id=1722631 )

This year we have one Standard 1 and one Standard 4 in our family :) Both eligible for the Pelajar Emas program by our Penang State Government. We applied for it through our neighbourhood DUN center as there was no forms being distributed via schools. All we need to do is fill up a form, provide a copy of parent's IC and a copy of the child's MyKid and birth cert.

Status of application can be checked online via i-Sejahtera. Just key in the child's myKid #. When it is successful, we saw this screen with our details. 

Screen shot of status page after successfully applied for program Pelajar Emas

About a couple of months later, we got the official letter with information how to claim the Pelajar Emas contribution. I think it's because when we applied, it is near the April 30 first cut-off date. Hehe, the children were so excited getting their "gift" from the Penang state. Too bad 爸爸 was so busy that day until forgot to take a photo of them.

Never had disaster felt so near

Today is a public holiday for the King's Installation ceremony, and the children and I are at home. 爸爸 is away on business trip since Tuesday. Both children are taking their afternoon nap as 姐姐 had tuition replacement early in the morning.

First time I felt the tremors was when I was waking up 姐姐 around 4:30pm as she need to get ready for ballet class. I felt the bed shaking and asked 姐姐 not to shake her legs, to which she denied of doing. Then my head began to get dizzy and spinning, and the blinds in the bathroom was shaking. It feels a little like being in the water too long and "floating". The spinning is definitely not a pleasant feeling at all! I quickly changed out of my house clothes and also asked 姐姐 to change out of her pajamas. 弟弟 is still sleeping in the next bedroom. I asked 姐姐, did she feel the house shaking or spinning? She said, no. I thought it might be due to my lack of sleep, but the feeling did not go away.

Then panic starts to strike, and I was looking outside if we should make a dash for it? This was playing in my head - run, or don't run? Run, or don't run? But no one was running out of their houses in our apartment block! Those who are at home seem to be keep looking outside like me, and not taking much action yet. Then it hit me, if it's God's will that we go, at least the children will be with me. Gosh, it's not a good feeling. We want to live!

Still in order not to be late, I started waking up 弟弟 and prepared our simple dinner. 姐姐 was still dazed from being woken from her nap. Life goes on and pray for everyone's safety. We saw from 6pm news that there was an earthquake off Aceh on the west coast of northern Sumatra.

At night when ballet class ended, we were stuck in a jam along Green Lane or now known as Jalan Masjid Negeri. Later just realized that a lot of people were at shopping malls and they had to go back early due to tsunami alert. It was later lifted. Phew!

From this experience, I found we are so unprepared for disaster. Lots of work to be mentally prepared so we know what to do in the future. It's different from the 2004 incident as that lasted only a short while, and this one which I felt long minutes ticking by and still feel the aftershock.

Tribute to Ironhide

Ironhide is one of our fave Autobots. The above photo is a figurine we got from KFC Chicky Meal promotion a while ago. The 'bot doesn't "transform" like the previous Bee and Optimus we got from Petronas but it's only RM8.10 (before tax with the toy). Not sure why the photo appear like this, I had actually rotated it the right way... sigh... what's wrong with blogger??

The reason I'm spending time to reflect on Ironhide because 爸爸 heard from his friends that watched Dark of the Moon that Ironhide has died in T3 **sob sob**. In order to avoid the crowd we had wanted to watch in cinema next week, but now I've decided not to go. Why had they taken out Ironhide from the movie???!!!

弟弟 had been talking about Ironhide all the time when we are on the way home and especially excited when he sees any trucks like the one Ironhide transform to. He has watched both transformer movies since getting the above Ironhide. However how do we explain to him that his fave 'bot die in the movie? Argh... what a disappointment....

Haze, haze, go away

Penang is grappling with haze once again. As far as I can remember, haze hazard is something that came to us in recent years, perhaps in 2006? Prior to the children born, I didn't notice much of haze. However nowadays, I follow reports on haze because both children cough and feel uncomfortable with the haze.

Monday morning, we went outside and everythings shrouded with whitish smoke. We can smell smoke from the air we breathe. This put us on alert to start drinking lots of water. We could see Penang Bridge from our door and Georgetown from our balcony on usual days, but from Monday visibility has really dropped until we couldn't see Penang Bridge.

Even bouts of rain throughout the week did not help much. However at least now we can see Penang Bridge and Georgetown buildings once more. We used to be able to see Butterworth with clear skies, but now visibility is still poor so it's not visible yet.

When will the haze go away, and how come no one's getting sued for causing such pollution?

Now we ordered an air-purifier which has not been delivered yet. Hope it's going to help the children get some clean air at home.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

My fave movie sequel is going to be shown soon, can't wait to see it! Hm... how to drag 2unwilling children to the cinema and keep them quiet for at least 2 hours for me to watch peacefully? The preview photos look so cool :)