Friday, 13 March 2020

I was at Cass' school at 7-ish this morning to attend a talk.  It's a UPSR exam (a government exam for Year 6 students) goal-setting talk, where parents of Year 6 students are invited to attend this motivational talk together with their kids. Attendance is not compulsory though. I attended this talk when Alycia and Sherilyn were in Year 6 in that school.  During their time, the parents and students had to take an oath where the parents promised to do their best to nurture and encourage their children to study hard and the students promised to strive hard academically to achieve their targeted number of As in the UPSR exam. This year, the oath is omitted.

At the entrance of the auditorium, the parents' temperatures were taken and we were asked to sanitize our hands.  In previous years, parents' attendance were higher. This year, in bad light of the Covid-19 outbreak, attendance was lower. I could still park my car at the car park right outside the school vs parking at least 500 - 800 meters away in previous years.






The parent and student had to write out the latter's targeted number of As he/she is hoping to achieve in their UPSR exam on a piece of student's achievement progress  form.  As you can see from the form, this year is all about exams and targets! But Cass is still so chill and totally unperturbed, which ain't very good.


The HM also announced that after the week-long school holidays, all Year 6 pupils have to undergo a psychometric test.  The entire talk was in Mandarin and I was struggling to comprehend everything that the principal said. Luckily this time I didn't doze off, unlike in previous years 😂

The talk ended earlier than expected (YAY!). After I left the school, I sent my car for a wash and  walked to PappaRich for breakfast alone.  For once I was hoping that the sun will be out so that I could do my daily dose of 'virus-killing' in the sun when I walked but today has been a gloomy day.  The scene is very, very gloomy in every aspect of our country 😥




The below short article, written by a reporter from The Star papers is an excellent way to describe the economic condition in our country now:

The economy is *slowing*.
Businesses are *suffering*.
Foreign capital *fleeing.*
Stock market falling.
Ringgit *weakening.*
Living cost *rising.*
Personal wealth *shrinking.*
Consumer confidence *slipping.*
Public anxieties *growing*.
Coronavirus *spreading*
while Politicians are still busy *fighting.*
The country rotting.

What a bleak and overcast start to the new year.  When will all these doom and gloom ever flit from our country?

The first term school holidays start tomorrow and it looks like we will all be home bound for 9 days!  Our pastor has just Whatsapp-ed us to inform that the Chinese church service, Sunday school and youth meetings will be suspended for 2 weeks. The English service will still proceed at 9 a.m. as usual.  We may still go to the mall but cinema and arcade will be off limits for them - just a quick lunch and  book shopping perhaps. 😐

Hubby's Chinese Translator

Some of you may be wondering why my girls are in a Chinese primary school though hubs and I are both pure yellow bananas.

What's a yellow banana?  We have yellow skin but are white inside, as in talk and even think like gwai lohs (the whites).  HA!

I have never really supported hubby's decision to send the girls to a Chinese primary school and definitely not to a private Chinese high school. Yup Alycia's going to attend a Chinese high school next year.   Totally NOT my idea OK.  It's purely his decision.  He's the boss.

And you see why....



He now has a Chinese translator here to help him check the bill, printed all in Chinese, at a Chinese restaurant, A-HA.

But I am still opposed to the idea of Alycia going to a Chinese high school next year. It's not her choice as well.   Learning Chinese for 6 years is torturous enough.   But again, he's the boss. And I just have to do extra work everyday checking her English essay so that she will not lose touch of writing well in English, which is my homework to her before she can touch her iGadgets!

Registration In Primary School

It was a tough decision for me - to send Aly to a Chinese school or to a kebangsaan school? I was all the while more gamed towards a kebangsaan school as I didn't want Aly to go through the stress of studying in a Chinese school. Moreover, I had wanted Aly to study in a school which is located just minutes away from our house which would be very convenient for us to bring her to school and pick her up. If Aly is accepted into this Chinese school that  hubby really wanted her to get into, she would have to wake up really early in future to get ready for school. The traffic jam on the one-way road leading to this school is horrendous and parents are now spending between 2-3 hours a day chauffering their kids to and from school.

Hubby has been very steadfast in his decision to send Aly and Sher to a Chinese school. He said he will do all the chauffering of the kids in future. So on Tuesday, he went to that Chinese school and registered Aly there. He didn't have to wait for long as it was the school holidays. The result of the registration will be out in July next year. I can't imagine my 3 kids going to a Chinese school in future - the heavy load of homework, the endless tuitions and me on the road almost the whole day chauffering them around and sitting down with them till midnight every night to ensure that they finish their homework. I shudder thinking of this life.