Don't ask sound advice from me!

A mother of my tkd student called me last week. She was in need of a favour from me. Her son was offered to go to a boarding school in Sabak Bernam, and she said he wanted to attend the school but he's reluctant because he'll have to drop the tkd class with me. Well, you know the hostel regulation - "balik kampung" sekali saja dalam sebulan. She asked me to pujuk him and arrange some special training for him during the school holidays.

"Kalau kelas tiap2 hari pun takpe, cikgu Alia"

(Memanglah tak pe, tapi cikgu Alia pun nak kena kerja jugak lepas grad ni.)

It's not that I don't want to help her, but I'm not good at giving advices. By the way, I've stayed in a hostel in Sabak Bernam last time, I won't recommend anyone to stay there lah. No offence to the locals. I'm referring to the schools/hostels there. Good schools, but sometimes the attitude of teachers and students - aiyak, really s***s la wei! And you should go there and observe how the teachers teach Science and Maths in English. Kesian tau! They have good knowledge on the subject, but it's not easy to ask them to convey the information in English. Facilities is another issue. Sometimes it's good for us to learn the hardship, bla...bla...tapi, to excel you have to have the right means and the access to many many things such as good books, "established" library, sporting facilities, internet etc. If you're offered to join an established and good boarding school, go ahead! Tapi, kalau sekolah yang 'kureng' sikit tu, timbanglah mana baik buruknya. Pulak tu Sabak Bernam is 2 hours (if you're driving there lah!) away from PJ! Naik bas lompat, around 3-4 hours baru sampai KL.

When H came to my house last Saturday, I started off the class with the usual stuff, warming up and stretching session, punching on sitting stance, bla...bla...1/2 hour before the class ended, the mother called,

"Nanti beritahu H balik awal ye. Nak pergi kenduri"

So, I stopped the training quarter to ten. I spoke to H, asked him the name of the school and so on. (I've never heard of the name before!) I told him that if he's decided to join that school, it's ok with me. He can still come for training whenever he's on holiday. He looked so sad! It's more like the parents' decision to send him there rather than his. (if his mother reads my blog - I'm a dead meat hehehehe!) - see, I'm not good at giving advice! I didn't even know what to say to him at that time, I didn't know how to make him feel good about going to that particular school. (well, personally, I don't like him going there-I felt obliged to tell him "it's OK"). Finally, I told him,

"Dulu, cikgu pun sekolah kat Sabak Bernam. Ada kelas tkd. Nanti cikgu telefon cikgu cikgu, pastu bagitau cikgu tu yang H student cikgu, dan tanya kalau cikgu tu ajar kat sekolah H. Pastu bolehlah H belajar dengan cikgu cikgu."

What a terrible way to end a conversation with so many cikgus in the middle of the sentences!

- Dear Parents, if you're thinking of sending your children to boarding schools - please, please ask for their opinion first. In my case, I was the one who decided to join the school, so I had to tolerate all the not-so-good things along the way, because I was responsible for my own decision. Don't allow your decision to destroy (I need a less powerful word for that) your child's life!


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Pin asked me to give her some advice on how to get rid of a miang cikgu from her life. This cikgu is married and have 2-3 children. He keeps on bugging Pin after she gave her hp number to him. He told her that he needed the number to inform her about some class activities...society ker ape benda tah as she was the representative for that particular class/society.

My destructive advice was,

"Pin, you just tell him that you're not interested in him...or in any guy. Tell him you're a gay! He'll be surprised and for sure turned off lah! Kalau tak berjaya, you ask one of your girlfriends to pretend to be your special girlfriend and bring her to see him"

"Erm, kalau tak jadi?"

"Kick him at his *****! No more father's day for him after that!"