260414 Wonderful Saturday!

****English post today for Maximum Typing Speed and Liberation of feelings and Ideas*****

I am supposed to write on my BIG (Bina Insan Guru) Programme or even rant on something else first, but since they are really long, and I have work waiting for me but just can't wait to talk, so yea, I will talk about today first!

I will talk about the rest, tomorrow perhaps. Right now, I hope you can understand my mini posts because I need to be a hermit later with my faithful books and unfinished story waiting for me.

Today is a Saturday. Duh. Simple Saturday? Sleazy Saturday? Sunny Saturday? I don't know, but I can only say that today left me recharged with new aims and power for my life ahead, along with some pitfalls.

NUMBER 1: VEGAN DAY
I have always wanted to become a full-time vegan ever since I become a lacto-ovo vegetarian, i.e. a vegetarian who consumes eggs and dairy, since the previous year. The more I read up on vegetarianism along with food and nutrition, the more I realized that the egg and dairy industry are equally as cruel because:

• Both hens and female cows are literally imprisoned just to produce eggs and milk.
• Both are killed when their production levels drop.
• In both industries, the males are culled, i.e. the male chicks are killed at birth as they are worthless in the egg industry; the male calves are separated from the milk cows to be raised as veal.

Those are my brief understandings about the egg and dairy industry. Feel free to read up for more.

Yet, I have not give them up completely due to social and convenience reasons (I cannot cook by myself!). I have repeated this umpteen times so I am skipping the entire essay on this. Today, I decided to alternate my vegan days and vegetarian days. On vegan days, I skip my Milo, Horlicks, eggs and biscuits. They are my largest addictions so not eating them-even for just one day-was quite a challenge. I am happy to say that I DID IT!

My Food Diary Today is as follows:

Breakfast: Ecobrown Brown Rice cereal beverage, 2 apples, some almonds, some mixed seeds, 5 cherry tomatoes, ginger

Snack: 8 prunes

Lunch: Rice, tofu, spinach, ladies' fingers, eggplant. I should thank my lucky stars as the  "Nasi Campur" stall actually sold tofu today-first time I've ever seen. Probably God understands that I want to be a vegan today.

Snack: 2 veggie buns. Dairy and egg free! It's really rare. Well, it is "Bread for Life" which I got from an Organic store in Tesco. It is on the expensive side but it keeps me really full, unlike the conventional bread which leaves me hungry half hour after eating it!

Pre-Exercise: Some raisins

Dinner: Oats, 2 apples, 3 walnuts, some cherry tomatoes and a dash of ground cinnamon.

Dessert cravings must be satisfied but I want to neither waste my money on commercial desserts with questionable ingredients nor add inches on my waistline. Apple and cinnamon just do the trick perfectly, but the combo alone will never do justice for my stomach.

Yay for not screaming for not drinking Milo today! I would like to see vegan chocolate drink powder in the market soon as chocolate drinks give me that boost I need before exercise without weighing me down.


NUMBER 2: TALK ON PRONUNCIATION

Hmm... I am not sure what to talk about for this as I was literally in dreamland.Not because the speaker was monotonous, but rather, I found that I just could not sit still for more than an hour. Plus, I made a huge mistake by treating myself to a sweet drink at night the day before and not being able to fall asleep until midnight. By hook or by crook I have to hit the sack by eleven from now on, and wake up super-early if I have endless work.

I learned about the importance of using a fun approach for children while teaching pronunciation, such as through software and nursery rhymes. Though, I am not sure on teaching rhymes like "Three Blind Mice" and 'Mary Mary Quite Contrary" to kids as they have a really morbid history-again, just read up on it! Nursery rhymes, though meaningless, can teach children about rhymes and ways to arrange words into sentences. I think I know my next steps-to download videos on pronunciation and grab a copy of the Sky Pronunciation software off the Language Department since I have to brush up on my pronunciation at the same time as well.

Sadly, his explanation on the Bingo way to teach pronunciation beats me totally. I wonder how am I going to teach properly, or, basically, be an adult who has no problem to sit still, though I will happily take long walks or run errands rather than having my butt glued onto the chair-and-burn-for hours!

NUMBER 3: BABY TAPIR PERFORMANCE AND THEATRE AT PENANGPAC

I actually volunteered to participate int his performance, thinking that I would be doing Choral Speaking. I couldn't be more wrong-I had to ACT! GOD HELP ME!

Seriously, I am a total goof at acting okay. Spastic movements, emotionless face, monotonous voice... I can really bag myself Razzie Awards for being the worst actress, ever. What could I do? As a teacher, I have to morph into an artist, a singer, a dancer, an ACTRESS... to make lessons interesting. Hopefully I can at least show emotions when I act before I graduate.

Anyway, I embraced this opportunity as a chance for me to learn to act and interact with children, because I need to teach children languages, and I believe that no child will learn well with a teacher who behaves like a robot or has a mortifying, deep voice. I love such activities as well. In this case, the storytelling session was held in conjunction with the Tapir Day.The Tapir, an endangered Malaysian animal, is the focus. Anything related to fitness, Buddhism, environment and animal rights surely interest me. I believe that animals are our friends and should be taken care of in any way, unless if they harm us of course, such as cockroaches.

Besides, I get to go to Straits Quay-for the second time in my life. I fell in love with the place ever since my first visit there with my senior last year for a theatre. Before that, Angus, my classmate, kept firing up my emotions and imaginations on that British-style splendour by the beach by telling me how beautiful and romantic the place was. I have absolutely nothing to have romance on because I am enjoying my singlehood right now from birth and being a kid-at-heart, duh. I just want to go there for the beauty of the building and the scenery by the beach.

I was grateful for being able to play my role and entertain young children. Our performance was prepared for merely a week before this big day and I kept getting reprimanded for being emotionless and a monotonous voice. I want to improve on it, especially since to me, being scolded in front of my peers is a huge humiliation. I envy those who are born actors and actresses and can blend into their roles well. I played as Mrs Pigeon, the mother of pigeons but I was unsure if I was motherly enough in the play. First time try, first time know. Haha. Sorry for my broken English here.

The hallway at Penangpac. Pictured here is the Art Exhibition where the drawings by children dedicated to Tapir was exhibited and sold.

 

Le me during rehearsal


After the performance, we watched a children's theater on the Tapir. In that story, the tapirs were  discriminated due to their physical characteristics which were distinct from the other animals, e.g. ostriches, monkeys and elephants. They were reprimanded by the Jungle Queen because they did not respect mutual differences and individualities.

I was astounded by the theatrical effect and the variety of dances, along with the abilities of the performances to bring out the soul of the animals. What caught my eye though, was the fact that part of the performances were the blind. Performing must be very challenging for the blind children because they could only rely on their senses and hearing to navigate. Hats off. I am indeed am ungrateful brat to complain for my goofiness-I must take the initiative to improve on it instead.

Well, what started out as a mini post ended up to be quite long and took me slightly more than an hour! Words cannot describe my Saturday today. This explains why I love Fridays and Saturdays: the former  as an immediate break from class and a day for me to enjoy treats; the latter a huge breathing space for me to let loose and participate in the activities which itnerest me and allow me to learn and develop.

Till then for now!

Happy Sunday everyone!