EPISODE 28: HELLO, WE MEET AGAIN.

After rushing Jordie to school this morning(almost late again!)-- I drove back and on the way, along the road, spotted this lady in bright dress with baseball cap and sunshades. She looked familiar and in an instance, I guessed she was Ingrid the Chilean lady. (see Episode 21)...... I pulled over and offered her a ride to Robina. She was so happy to see me again. We had lost touch since the last meeting. She said today was her birthday! Now, how interestingly coincidental! She wanted to buy me breakfast at Robina, but I ended up treating her instead since it was her birthday. We had a lovely chat at Michel's Cafe, my fave coffee hangout place and talked about life and hopes and children and Australian culture and fitting in. Amazing how two ladies who hardly know each other from different cultures can meet and talk like old buddies. .But..it happens only once in a blue moon. She said she believed this was a strange but nice coincidence that we bumped into each other on her birthday. Before she left, I felt suddenly the need to pray for her and I asked if I could. She said yes and hugged me. "Call me yes? This Friday, come to my house, bring your son and swimming costumes.." Strange how people come into your life, ..just like that....

EPISODE 27: SOMERSET MUSIC FESTIVAL -PT. 2

No sweaty palms, just stay calm,..that was our chant today, all the way to his 3rd performance for piano solo post 1900 composers category. He was playing this song, "Minnie Mouse Hits Town" and played it rather well. He made one slight mistake, but was as expressive as he could ever get... for a straight-faced guy.. another boy also played same song. The minute he played, there was a clear difference. I knew Jordie definitely was the better player.. other children did well too, but I knew he was definitely better than the rest...and so, today he won his 1st blue ribbon!! Him and another boy tie.. for 1st place.. He was so pleased with himself. "Getting better and better!" His teacher, though had higher standards. She said he still needed to improve, and the message was blue ribbon wasn't the ultimate goal.. you still need to be watching out for this and that.. until your exams... sigh!

EPISODE 26: SOMERSET MUSIC FESTIVAL - Part 1

Jordie performed for his very 1st time at Somerset Music Festival today. The Somerset Music Festival is held every year at Somerset college for most music instrument categories including even poem reading and voice.We were working really hard to make sure he played some decent music for this competition. It is great exposure to performance for children learning music so that they will want to make more effort towards playing and sounding better. Jordie got enrolled in 2 categories today and he played well. He looked really stressed, poor boy, ..

nervous to perform for his 1st song... and worse still, he was the 1st player, so he didn't know what to expect really...even though crowd wasnt very big, he was still nervous. But he did all the right things except one wrong note...the girls really won hands down, they were such good little pianists... He was given a green ribbon (3rd place). Red is for 2nd and blue is the best. I told him green was good, but I believed he could do better, so I asked him, if a red one *2nd place" was possible for 2nd category, he said he'd try.... and he did get it! So proud of him! no photo tho.. unfortunately, ran out of camera battery...

ORIGINAL BRAND OF HUMOUR, JORDAN-STYLE

Humour is what keeps you alive & going and sane. I love my little boy's humour, he has developed his own brand while growing up. Here are some examples:

~ When he was 4, I peeped into the toilet and asked, "well are you done poo-ing?" He says, "Yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full."

~ Mum: "Hey what is that brown spot on the toilet floor?" Jordan: "I don't know but it sure looks like Tasmania..."

Your 2nd grand auntie will be visiting soon. She's from this town called Muar. He puckers up his lips for a smacker kiss , "You mean MU-AH!!"

Reading about Old Testament prophets, there was this prophet called Obadiah who went around prophesying doom for disobedience. My son says if in Malaysia, his name will be pronounced in threatening tone as "Obey or Die-ah?"

"Hey, what's this plate made of, is it ceramic?' ...."No it's melamine."

" Oh, what, it's made of 'never mind'? ..guess it won't break .."

When we saw this cute long dog with short legs walking on the street, I told him that it was a dacshund breed pronounced 'dag shend'.

"I think you should just call it a dog sausage." he replied.

He misspelt Happy Father's day in his card as Happy 'Fart'-her's Day. When mistake was pointed out, he said that as far as he was concerned, both were absolutely relevant for his dad!!??

RIDING THE GIANT WAVE

don't think will ever try this in my lifetime..but just watching it gives me this sensation of sheer abandonment and being set free as in who the heck cares anymore about what happens? let go and enjoy....

INNOCENCE IS BEST FOR NOW...

"Mummy, you know what gay is?" asked Jordie one night at dinner.

I sucked in my breath...yikes,what now... another death to innocence?

Pull a straight face, stay calm : "What is it?"

"It means you're happy..." he said with a grin...

PHEW! AM not quite ready at this point to explain what gay's connotation is. Unfortunately he went on to explain his neighbour had said to him when he was playing with a girl, "Stop playing with girls, you look gay." he was told... "So I asked Alex what 'gay' means & he told me,"It means you're happy."

Hmmm....I know that boy fully knew what he meant when he said it, and I knew he was covering it up when he had to explain what it meant to Jordie.. But later I did tell Jordie, there was nothing wrong with playing with girls, he just gotta balance it up also and play with boys as well... so boys and girls, we don't need to grow up too fast now.. just remember: be happy but not 'gay'..

CHOOSE WHO YOU WALK WITH CAREFULLY.

Jordie was reading his Aesop's Fables last night and when he was done, I asked which was his favourite. He said it was the one on the bear and the travellers:

One day, two men were on a journey when they saw a bear. At first, the bear didn't see them. One man got up into a tree as fast as he could. The other man was too slow. "Please help me up," he called. But the first man went further up the tree and left him on his own. "What can I do?" said the man under the tree. "If I run away, the bear will see me, if he sees me, he will eat me." So, he lay on the ground and did not move. The bear walked all round him, then went away. The man in the tree came down. He said, "The bear came very close to you. Did he say anything?" "Yes," said the other man. "It said 'never go for a walk with a man who leaves you when you are in danger.'".. Moral of the story: A real friend will not leave you to face trouble alone..

VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC IN SCHOOLS

Pupil's death puts spotlight on horrific violence in Australian schools Jai Morcom, a 15-year old boy, died after his head was apparently smashed against a wall when he intervened in what appears to have been a turf war over tables at his school called 'table wars'. How stupid is that game? How stupid and sad that someone has to die because of fighting over pieces of table and who should sit at which table... he wasn't even involved. He just happened to be around and became the punching bag of rage.

So, a brutal spotlight now glares on Mullumbimby and a school that is facing angry claims of endemic drugs and violence, calls for the resignation of headmaster Ian Graham and internet rallying for revenge beatings.

But Jai's death is a loud wakeup call for people about bullying and violence across Australia, where schoolyard and suburban beatings and brawls have been filmed on mobile phones and posted on YouTube. Truancy in Gold Coast is also pretty high and recently, police have been survelling neighbourhoods to ensure stuff like that is minimised. Parents and critics complain that conferences, strategies and no-tolerance policies have failed to dent what they believe to be a growing culture of violence that has spurred an exodus from state to private schools. National trends appear to confirm Rosenfeld's fears. Australian Institute of Criminology statistics record an overall 55 per cent increase in assaults between 1996 and 2007, and 48 per cent for juveniles, mostly by males but with a significant rise among teenage girls.

A study by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research found that reported violence in the state's schools rose 46 per cent between 1998 and 2003, and that almost one-third of high school students interviewed had admitted attacking a schoolmate in the previous 12 months. Ironically, all this school violence might actually trace its roots to home and upbringing. "Preventing violence at school is no easy task," said bureau director Don Weatherburn in the study. "Schools trying to inculcate a culture of intolerance towards violence sometimes find themselves dealing with students whose parents condone violent behaviour." Peer pressure has its role of course, but I believe parental involvement is a crucial part to how a kid stands and guards his values before others.

I think a majority of people take school largely to be a government-funded daycare babysitting program here. Don't get me wrong - I think most parents do love and take their kids' daily needs to task, but on the whole, the easygoing parenting style may have contributed in certain measure to all this uncalled for school horror stories of bullying, smoking, outright challenging of teachers and whatnots. On radio, people claim to see teenagers out skating, and having a good time at the park during school hours BLATANTLY and nobody seems to give a hoot about it.

Just a few days ago, my son's school Varsity College had a lockdown due to some thugs fighting in the Oval school field area. Every class was asked to stay in classroom until they were hauled off the grounds. In the wake of school violence, I think nobody wanted to take any chances, which was good.. No one was hurt but police were called in to check that no other intruders came into the school. They had weapons apparently, now that is a scary thot. what if they were guns or knives? these were obviously teenage thugs playing truant... Last weekend, Queensland Education Department research reported to a community forum showed that every week five children in every class are bullied, and up to 70 per cent of suspensions are related to bullying. So parents, let's be worried, be very worried and start looking out vigilantly for your young ones before it's too late..