In three-month times...

Slightly less than three-month times, I will be leaving the Netherlands and back in my country, Malaysia. It has been a wonderful journey being a part of Eramus Mundus MA in Special Educational Needs. I count it a blessing from God. Thank you Lord.
When I look back, I think I will treasure most the friendships I have made and appreciate the learning I have garnered so far.

Keukenhof - Holland's spring garden

I went to Keukenhof last Sunday, on my birthday exactly. So it's gonna be quite unforgettable:) The place is beautiful. Full of colours. Full of flowers...tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, and other spring bulbs. Open from 19 March to 21 May (2008) and next year will be from 18 March to 16 May. I am very happy with my digital camera which still function well (after I dropped it few days ago) - Olympus FE-320. Capturing some super-macro shots...I'm loving it!

Act of kindness....I am touched

I just watched the TV reality show 'Extreme Home Make-Over'. It's so amazing how the lives of a family is touched by the act of kindness by good-hearted, generous people. Their lives are never be the same again. The couple has three kids - two girls both diagnosed with SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) and a son. Living in a house with stairs and curbs, they have to face these obstacles daily right at their home that disable the movement of the girls even on their electric wheelchairs, and having to depend highly on their parents to carry them around. The day came when people with good hearts and kindness offer to transform their home. To give the girls their independence and freedom.

Their new house has no stairs, no curbs, has wide walkways, door knobs and tables at reachable levels for the girls, voice activated switches and electronic movement devices to carry the girls to the bathrooms....it is simply amazing. Now the girls have their own freedom to move around as and when they like. Now they can be independent. Donations and sponsors kept coming...the house mortgage is fully paid for, the medical debts are settled. The parents are so grateful. The kids were ecstatic. And I'm so touched. Tears rolling down my cheeks...the kids are given education funds for their colleges. All are taken care of. Pretty unbelievable...Speechless...The joy at their faces...Their wildest dreams have they ever imagined!

We are simply touched and inspired by acts of courage and kindness. I believe that we all have something good in us, the ability to bless, to be kind and to inspire. To bring joy to people. And it is more blessed to give than to receive. I believe that saying with all my heart.

What do we need to bless someone? Money? Time? Expertise? Perhaps, it all starts with a thought. A thought that can remains as a distant thought. Or it can births forth a set of action. And before we realised it, we step into the world of possibilities. Doors, one by one, are opened before us. Yes, I believe it is possible.

I burned my sausage pastry roll...again!

I followed the instruction from the package, put into oven for 8 to 10 mins, so I did for my sausage pastry rolls. Just less than 5 minutes, I smelled something burnt and a cracking sound. I burned my sausage roll..again and cracked a plate! This time more smoke came out and it filled the entire living room. This reminded me when I also overcooked using the microwave oven in the shared kitchen in Roehampton campus. The smoke and the smell stayed for some weeks.
I have three more sausage rolls, hmm..I will try again another time and experiment until I succeed. A crispy sausage roll.

So no sausage pastry roll for breakfast today, I settled for non-preparatory food - milk and cereal.

Awaiting parcel from Amazon.com

I bought two books from Amazon.com last week, shipped on the 9th April. I am eager for the delivery to my doorstep, it's gonna be these few days. Ah ha..an Easter gift for myself. I even wrote and pasted a note on the door to Mr.Postman, saying: "Delivery from Amazon.com? Knock harder at the door or the window. TQ - Mr.Postman!" Just in case I didn't hear him knocking as I put on my headphone listening to songs.

Here in the Netherlands, it is hard to find a Christian bookstore, I haven't seen one and if there is, it's probably be in Dutch. Why didn't I think of Amazon earlier on? The idea just came two weeks ago. I am so glad! As I have not been to church regularly, I feel that I am thirsty for more of Him. I have all sorts of other reading materials awaiting me to consummate them. It has been a reading year for me.

Emancipation

Emancipation. What does this word means? Its root word is emancipate (verb). The meaning from Thesaurus dictionary is: to liberate, set free, unshackle, let go, untie.
To set somebody free from slavery, or other forms of bondage, restrictions or conventions. In Dutch, it is bevrijding, emancipatie.

I first came to learn about this word during my masters study in special educational needs. It appears in many articles I read. But it was one of the classes that I attended last year that I began to take interest in this word. It brought deep meaning to me. Jesus, my Lord, emancipated for human race. The lecturer spoke about the voice and advocacy actions of parents and people with disabilities that have great significance towards the equality and betterment of their lives. Emancipation. To break free from barriers, barriers from social construct that only accentuates the strong, the dominant, the majority. How about those least heard? How about the people with disabilities? What are their voices, their opinions? I am particularly interested to hear and to learn about people's own experiences, their thoughts, their dreams and hopes. This word also reminds me of several men and women who made history in the work of emancipation.

"Every human being is born equal", echoed William Wilberforce, a British polician in the 70's who worked tirelessly to abolish slavery during his time.

Emancipation Declaration 1863, a decree issued by Abraham Lincoln, was a document prepared for its journey in ending slavery.

Dr. Patch Adams, remember the movie? It is one of my favourite movies, I watched it many times, never get sick of it. He is a doctor with a dream, not quite an ordinary doctor. But what is 'ordinary' ? hmm...reflection... Maybe just an ordinary doctor who does etraordinary things?Back to Patch Adam, he dreams to build a free hospital. In essense, what he and his team do is to celebrate life and help patients to live life to the fullest. For me, that matters most despite the span of life - long-lived or otherwise.

I hope to share with you more about the works of emancipation, small or big scale, it doesn't matter. You can share yours too, your experiences, your dreams :)

What's in that creature?

I am fascinated by caterpillar cum butterfly. What an interesting and creative creature! I like it as it transforms. Caterpillar symbolizes the transformation to something beautiful, a caterpillar turning into butterfly inside its coccoon, then springs forth to life! Sure we all have something good inside us to be discovered. So don't give up on a hairy, slimmy, eerie-looking caterpillar.

I am not a caterpillar expert but I did some search in the nets about it.

Cycle 1-Egg: Adult butterflies lay their eggs on the leaves of their host plant. Each butterfly species has certain plants that their caterpillars must eat to live and grow. Some butterfly species are very specific to one or two plants while others may be able to eat a family of plants. Butterfly eggs are small in general (like the size of a pin head) and usually hatch in about 3-7 days.

Cycle 2-Caterpillar: The caterpillar hatches from the egg and usually the first thing it does is eat the egg shell. After that it will start consuming the host plant. The caterpillar will spend the next several weeks eating and growing since that is its main purpose.

Cycle 3-Chrysalis: This stage is often a called a cocoon, but generally a cocoon is the pupa stage of a moth while a chrysalis is the pupa stage of a butterfly. At this point the caterpillar has made its final molt into a pupa and in about 1-2 weeks an adult butterfly will emerge.

Cycle 4-Adult Butterfly: The adult butterfly will spend its time eating nectar and mating/laying eggs. Many butterflies only live about 2 weeks, however, some species such as the monarchs will overwinter by migrating south and thus will live for many months.

I think I have no favoritsm towards these two, I like it both. Butterfly is beautiful, full of life, free to fly and mate, flaunt its beauty and colours. Just as our fingerprints are different, so does the patterns of each butterfly are never identical, the same goes with tiger strips and so on. Caterpillar is cute, oh that little hairy green creature..oh ok not always green, it depends on what species, but I like it to be green. It eats a lot. The first thing it eats is its own egg shell once it creeps out of the shell, leave nothing to waste! Anything good about caterpillar? Sure it does. It is used in industry like in silk industry. But caterpillar can do much damage to plants, so it been a target of pesticide control. Too much of anything good is bad. Too much of honey is bad too.

I will label this post as 'Caterpillar & Butterfly' as I can't split them to two different things, a caterpillar is/will be a butterfly, a butterfly was a caterpillar. So anything about these two goes into this label.