Since Earth Day is just around the corner, I’ve lined up a few activities for the kids during the weekend to create awareness on the importance of doing our bit for mother earth. If you don’t know what on earth is Earth Day (where have you been?), let me try to break it down for you, ya?
Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment, and will be held on April 22. We can show our appreciation by getting involved in environmental activities such as beach clean-ups, tree plantings, or park restoration.
Appreciation for Earth Day begins at home, too. Parents can teach their children about energy conservation by turning off lights and appliances when leaving the room. (something that I’m guilty about not doing, sometimes!) Teach them to turn off the water while brushing their teeth and use a mug to wash up.
Parents can also encourage their kids to recycle things in the house. Teach them about the value of a product that can be turned into something with a new life, such as an aluminum can or a plastic water bottle. Well, the list goes on!
And to commemorate Earth day, Playhouse Disney will be airing Handy Manny and Friends’ episodes that deal with the importance of preserving the environment on 22 April, Thursday.
There will be also a Handy Manny Earth Day contest. Enter Manny’s Mini Garden and tell us how you can get handy with the earth by drawing on a sketch pad. Hey, you stand to win a Handy Manny Garden Tool!
Help Handy Manny save the planet by sending your green messages!
Just log on to www.playhousedisney-asia.com/earthday.html and click on Handy Manny’s Earth Day icon to enter the site. Click on Manny’s Mini Garden and get creative! There are plenty of brushes and colours to help you and your kids to send your green message.
And don’t forget, let your children learn more about Earth Day on Playhouse Disney (Starhub Channel 34), 22nd April, 9am – 2pm.
my cousin is such a passionate writer when it comes to cars. so proud there’s someone in the family who actually writes for a living (unlike rubbish me who only gets to write replies to the public and draft speeches and papers that get chopped into pieces and… oh enough about me.)
thanks for thinking of aniq. and i’ll get him to like the colour yellow.
ps: this one’s still up for grabs, girls… (and i mean the cousin. ok, the car too.)
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The funky little one
Story & pictures by Azfar Hashim – 28 May 2009
Small and fresh, that’s what the 107 is all about
Peugeot 107
Aniq is my four year-old nephew, and for a boy his age, he’s rather chatty, smart and active. Case in point – I can get breathless just going after him, and his never ending questions can easily numb my mind. But fortunately, he’s a very obedient little boy. You can let him loose – running around like any other child his age – but call him out, reason out with him and he’ll gladly listen. And he never fails to put a smile on my face.
Driving Peugeot’s updated 107 pretty much reminds me of Aniq (you’ll understand why I say so along the way – read on).
I smiled widely at the first sight of the 107. And in this particular shade of yellow, well, is such an attention grabber. Somehow, I swear the car winked and smiled back at me every single time I unlock it. Err…really.
Exterior
The bulk of the update focuses on the face of the car. It gets a slightly reshaped bumper (that gives an additional 15mm length) with wider honeycomb grill, topped off with a chrome strip running horizontally across. There are also additional vents at the sides, but those are merely for aesthetic purposes above anything else.
At 3,445mm long, the car looks rather small and compact when viewed from the side. The upswept A-pillars which ends almost vertically downwards towards the C-pillar definitely gives the car a bulbous stance. Cute, ain’t it?
From the rear, you can easily mistake the 107 for the smart fortwo. However, the 107’s looks more prolific all thanks to your typical French design flair – a glass hatch that opens up wide, flared wheel arches and smoothly-shaped rear bumper.
Pity the factory-fitted tyres though. With 14-inch hubcaps wrapped in 155/65 R-14 Continental tyres, it looks way undersized – not doing any justice to the already lovable exterior.
we had our first official friendly match of the season at the tampines safra astroturf pitch last night. although we just break fast 2 hours prior to the match, the guys really showed their mettle against a much younger opponents (at least for the first half, hehe)
the team gelled well even though this was the first time that we played. kudos to the team coach, powerdol for his shrewd first half tactics. we were indeed surprised to be 3-1 up by halftime. goals scored by loki and jon in the first half plus a gift goal from the opponent gave us a commanding 2 goals advantage.
but in the second half, it was a different story. the opponent team perhaps shellshocked by footsie, regrouped and came up stronger. maybe its our lack of fitness that let us down. they came up eventual 4-3 winners
credit has to be given to the younger opponents with their never say die attitude, they kept running while we, mostly daddies with buncit tummies, content to just take it easy. but overall it was a commendable performance by footsie fc. i can see the potential of the team. with more matches and training, we can indeed be a force to be reckoned with
ps: thanks to the WAGs that supported us throughout the match.
so i missed out on the whole ‘wah, 16 weeks!’ hoo-ha, because i just HAD to give birth four months ago instead of like… NOW. (yeah they brought forward the starting date to aug 08 instead of jan 09 because some clever mums-to-be started a petition on a motherhood forum. gah!)
dang it. there goes one month’s worth of $alary i could have $aved.
and somehow the whole slew of ‘incentives’ or ‘dangled carrots’ didn’t send me to the moon and back either.
because, just what IF i do decide to throw in the towel and do the sahm thing for real (as opposed to fantasy, which is what i’m living in now)?
then, the extra childcare leaves, paid or unpaid, would have no impact on me.
i would have no income, so nothing in it for me there in terms of tax reliefs.
the extra cash gifts? too late for that too. bah.
and if i really were a sahm, no change in subsidies if i decide to send my kids to pre-school because, you know, sahm’s children don’t *really* need to have a headstart with an EC education since their mums have all the time in the world to do the ‘teaching’ themselves, like make their own flash cards and paste words on all the furniture around the house, etc. right? :S
so it was with much interest and enlightenment that i read a forum letter by a certain ST reader.
Mistake to ignore stay-home mothers
I WATCHED Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally speech and realised just how much the Government values the working mum and how little the stay-home mother.
I felt disappointed and discriminated against. The Government is simply not interested in persuading stay-home mothers to have more children, presumably because we are not contributing to the economy. Tertiary-educated homemakers like me have been chastised for wasting taxpayers’ money on our education. We are constantly reminded that as it is our personal choice, we do not merit any incentives.
Stay-home mums willingly give up their financial independence and put their aspirations on hold because they believe that it is worth it.
They do so despite the disincentives, not because of any pro-creation benefits. They need no convincing about the joys of parenthood and do not fret about lost opportunities.
Doesn’t that make them the perfect candidates to have more babies? And surely, they need less persuading.
Stay-home mothers are not asking for handouts, just equality. Give our husbands (the sole breadwinner in our household) the tax incentives you are dishing out to working mums.
With our burdens eased, we may consider having more children. It wouldn’t cost the Government as much as the two-month extended maternity payout to the working mums, and may yield far greater results.
Stay-home mums are neither quitters nor parasites. They play an important role at home and are often active community volunteers. Educated homemakers want to stay active and return to the workforce when their children grow up.
The Government should respect a woman’s decision to stay home to care for her children, and provide opportunities for her to re-enter the workforce later.
I am fortunate to have started my family early and have discovered other passions while staying home with the children. I am now pursuing a second degree part time in preparation for my re-entry to the workforce when my youngest child goes to secondary school. I shall be 45 years old then, and not too old to embark on a second career.
I urge the Government to consider a two-pronged approach to boost birth-rates. It is already bending over backwards for the working mums and should consider stay-home mothers too.
We are women, we can bear children and we are willing to do so.
Lee Sui Yi (Madam)
man oh man, i wish i’d come up with that myself! i really couldn’t have said it any better.
i mean, i’m not exactly… uneducated. i would, or at least hope to, raise educated children too. while a sahm may not directly contribute to the economy, wouldn’t this be a kind of contribution in the grander scheme of things? and wouldn’t sahms be the more willing women to devote more time to procreating and adding to the population level, if anything, to justify their existence?
never mind the single working bees – let the sahms be the queen bees and do all the multiplying for you! come on, i even have the child-bearing hips and the child-nourishing boobs as guarantee and added bonus!
i was watching an episode of House on AXN the other day (which had the All American Rejects doing cameo in the opening!), about a rock & roll photographer who was five months pregnant and had a sudden stroke.
she had what was called the Maternal Mirror Syndrome, where the mother’s health mimics the distress level of the unborn baby. she suffered almost immediately from liver failure, kidney failure, jaundice, and basically, both their lives were threatened if the baby was not terminated.
House, being his practical, cynical self, tried to convince the mother to terminate her pregnancy and save herself, all the while insisting on referring to it as a “fetus” instead of “baby”, but the mother steadfastly refused and gave him two days to “fix it”.
so he performed a surgery on the baby in utero, cutting open the mother’s womb in the process, and here’s where time stopped, for Dr House and probably all the viewers of this episode (well, for me at least) – the baby’s tiny hand reached out of the womb, touched his finger, and squeezed it.
pretty much like this.
the difference is, this picture here was NOT staged or televised, but a real-life case where doctors performed a spina bifida corrective surgery in 1999 on a baby who was still in the womb, and from which this particular episode of House was based on.
the baby seems to be shaking the surgeon’s finger in gratitude, thanking him for saving his life, and testifying to his determination and strength to survive. wow.
so would you *still* call this being a “fetus”, then?
radiohead is coming out with their new album in 10 days time!! this is totally unexpected!
but get this, they are not distributing it by the traditional way, no major labels are involve in the distribution! they are totally cutting off the music label companies and straight to their fans, no EMI, Capitol records in the picture, nada, zilch!
they’re only selling it through their website (at least for now), and for the digital download version, they’re letting listeners pick their own price for the album – it’s literally a donation-based product. so its really up to you to decide!
the recording industry is so screwed! a superband finally got the guts to stop the unrealistic recording industry demands! i guess this could be the new business model for musicians alike. who need the recording campanies when you can DIY it yourself! way to go, radiohead! woo hoo!!
btw, i ordered mine through their website, and they already sent me an email informing me about about my purchase. guess how much i donated, in pounds, ok!
for all you gwen fans who will be thrashing around in the concert moshpit (haha moshpit sey!) come august…
JEALOUS MUCH, CAN?!
did she kentut her baby out of that body? did she get a wizard from hogwarts to erase all traces of stretchmarks on that belly? is she secretly a character in Heroes with the superpower ability to look dropdead dripping hot while casually carrying a baby? if not, who is her personal trainer? i want names, NOW! (or at least, tell me where to get that skirt, ouuhh…)
cis. lucky i’m not going to see her. wait i throw plastic mineral water bottle at her how?
ok ok, i’m not that evul. wait kena jail, cannot blog.
eh, what am i saying, i’m not even going to her concert!
now i shall show you a mak buyong celeb gone wrong instead, to make myself (and you) feel better.
can you guess who THIS is?
no no, this is not your typical supersize american housewife going to the nearest suburban mall to buy a dozen boxes of krispy kremes. she is in fact a famous young pop opera (?) singer, who was not too long ago a sweet, innocent child of 12 years old with a number one selling album on the british classical charts. oh, and she was also the world’s top 10 naturally beautiful people, according to some dodgy online poll.
maaaaybe she’ll need the name of gwen’s personal trainer more.
*looks down at wrinkly navel and saggy pouch, forever damaged by one aniq izhan*
so i picked up the paper some time ago and found something which piqued my interest, which then led me to more interesting stuff.
angelina jolie was quoted as saying:
“Someone saying to me that I’m thin is not a compliment. I’ve always been lean and this year I lost my mom and I’ve gone through a lot. I have four kids and I finished breastfeeding – it’s been hard to get my nutrition back on track. Instead of people saying I look like a person dealing with something emotionally, they assume it’s because I want to fit into skinny jeans.”
so i tried to google for a photo of her – no, not being skinny – but breastfeeding.
there was one, but detractors have claimed that it’s fake. oh well.
i was telling izad that the tummy flabs are coming fast and furious, and he tried to psycho me into jogging with him, but i didn’t have any running shoeees, i lamented. i asked if i could take pills instead, but he wasn’t too keen about giving me half his liver, so that’s out of the question. the last resort – i’ll just need to get pregnant again. then the fat is justified, and when i b/feed again, i’ll be skinny again! yes!
anyway, back to my googling, which led me to find other celebs who b/fed. and WOW! there’s like, a whole website dedicated to spotting celebs who are preggers, who’ve given birth, etc. and naturally, quotable quotes from stars who b/fed.
yeah, i’m always happy reading about people b/feeding, STILL. macam fetish liddat. and celebrities – they have the power to inspire mere mortals, so it’s great that that they speak on the issue in public.
oh, and i also found this international breast milk project – more wow! it’s a programme for volunteers to donate breast milk to the babies in africa orphaned by HIV. very noble cause. imagine, you can be the ‘ibu susuan’ (milk mother) of many african babies, no need to adopt them ala angelina or madonna!
and today’s straits times, there’s a front page report on filipino mothers staging a protest against milk powder companies, by baring their painted breasts to the media. goes to show that you DON’T need to be hollywood celebrities to get the message across, after all.
“The companies making baby-milk formula, led by Nestle, whose founder invented the product 137 years ago, and a clutch of American health-care giants, have long drawn fire for hard selling an expensive and – if mixed with unclean water – potentially lethal product in the developing world. Breastfeeding campaigners say that has gulled generations of mothers in poor countries into believing infant formula is superior to their milk.”
i suppose their agenda is slightly different, in that it really affects the infant mortality in the country. according to Unicef, 16,000 infants die a year in the Philippines from incorrect feeding practices, including the use of formula mixed with contaminated water. and more and more poor, low-income people there have fallen prey to the advertising message that infants raised on formula will grow up to do well in school, and thus find good jobs. they also regard b/feeding as “old-fashioned, low-class and backward”. how sad.
the filipinos are surely one of the strongest advocates in b/feeding. i was hosting a group of filipino officials just last month, and during our discussion on infant care centre facilities, one of them was really impressed and happy when i told them that it’s a requirement to have a separate fridge for storing b/milk. they were even more impressed when i told them that many working mothers here are encouraged to express b/milk with the availability of nursing room facilities.
yeah, yeah. here i go again, huh, being all militantist? tsk.
now, somebody hand me some paint… *unbuttons shirt*
he brought up that article in today’s paper about the study which revealed how women who are ‘daddy’s girls’ are subconsciously attracted to men who resemble their fathers, and this sexual imprinting occurs when they’ve had a positive childhood or a good relationship with their fathers.
i’ve always had a theory like that. i mean, it’s not exactly breakthrough science, is it?? but of course, in all cases of human nature, it’s not hundred percent applicable.
all i can say is… i married someone quite the opposite of my dad. well, EXCEPT for they part where they both like acquiring new gadgets. my dad really likes talking to him about such things – computers, car stereos, cameras… but that’s as far as their common interests lie. in terms of personality, they’re quite different. (with the exception of other ‘male-centric’ behaviours, like being generally messy around the house, hee!)
their style of parenting also differs… but i won’t elaborate for now.
my point of this entry was, to wish ‘happy father’s day’ to you… and you.
oh, and erm, this picture below – that’s just my… distraction. sorry, mr izad. next time i superimpose your face on mcdreamy, ok? lol!
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