D's 4th Grade Texas Project

D made a mobile for her first Texas History Project. It had to have four official symbols of Texas.

This is the eco-friendly portion of the project, a recycled Texas shaped Lone Star Flag from 3rd grade! I'm glad it was still tacked to my kitchen bulletin board - this was the easiest part of the project.

This was the most time consuming part of the project, she made the armadillo from papier mache.

Beautiful Metropolis - Shanghai

The Bund is the most beautiful architectural symbol of Shanghai. It is often referred to as 'the museum of buildings'. Different styles of European buildings can be found in here. It houses 52 of them some of which are the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) building, Customs house, the Bund Financial Center, Peace Hotel and many other business buildings and hotels. It is brightly lit at night and the most popular destination for tourists and locals in Shanghai. People from all walks of life gather at the Bund to snap pictures of that beautifully-lighted architectural scenery. The Bund is oftentimes packed with visitors at night.

From the perpetually packed promenade of the Bund, there are excellent views of Pudong's modern skyscrapers just opposite the Huangpu River. That certainly gives you a strong contrast between modern and classic architecture. Pudong especially features the most magnificent skyscraper standing amongst the many tall buildings, the Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai's famous landmark..

The best way to view the Bund and Pudong's skyscrapers are by Huangpu river cruise or ferry and through the Bund tourist tunnel - a slow-moving tram of a low-tech, antique tunnel of the 80's era or also known as the 'Sightseeing Tunnel'. 

A Visit to the Petronas Twin Tower in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

On the eve of Christmas of 2009, I visited the capital city of Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur. I specially wished to visit the most impressive architecture which was almost recognizable from anywhere in the city, the Petronas Twin Tower.

Petronas is Malaysia's national oil company. At the base of the tower is an opera house attached to a chic and sophisticated shopping mall complete with cineplex known as 'Suria KLCC'. Each tower consists of 88 floors and somewhere in the middle on the 41st and 42nd floor levels it is connected by a Skybridge which is open for all visitors for free viewing of the city's skyline. But admission to the Sybridge only allows 1700 visitors per day so tendency is you have to wake up really early to get to the ticket counter to obtain the free admission tickets. The ticket counter opens at 8:30 a.m. and it's a first-come-first-served basis so it's always advisable that you go there early before all tickets are snapped out.





The viewing on the Skybridge only allows 10 minutes so better grab that camera and take as many pictures as possible.





The twin tower is just magnificently beautiful especially if you are standing just right beneath it and then you look up... and the next thing is you're lost for words...You will just be awed by its beautifully designed glass pagodas that you will feel an instant excitement to find the best spot to take the best picture of that whole twin tower immedately.





Here are some memorable photos:

Tiananmen Square, Beijing China

Tiananmen - The massacre, 20 years on



Please click on the link above to know more about Tiananmen Square massacre. The above images and video are courtesy of a file shared by the onlinecitizen.com which I felt I had the need to share it on my blog to help me understand what's the importance behind Tiananmen Square that made it one of the places of interest in China. I had finally seen the place during my trip to Beijing on June of this year. The place was actually a very huge open space which was large enough to accommodate an assembly of one million people.

Tiananmen Square has been the site of a number of political events and student protests. It is widely remembered for the protest of June 1989 which resulted in the massacre of Chinese protesters in the streets to the west of the square and adjacent areas. About a hundred thousand people mostly university students have gathered to join the demonstrations in support for democracy.

The tension among protesters had actually escalated after the death of Hu Yaobang, a reformist, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1980 to 1987. The government officials were unhappy with Hu's advocation for social and political reforms so he was forced out of office in January of 1987. He died of heart attack on April 15, 1989 but the government at first did not plan to give him a state funeral so it ended up in furious reactions from university students across Beijing. The students marched on Tiananmen Square calling out for the rehabilitation of Hu's reputation. A delegation of student petitioners who patiently waited to speak with someone for three days  at the Great Hall of the People on April 19 was unfortunately not received by the Government officials which eventually resulted to tremendous tensions from the protesters. It became chaotic then and the next thing happened was that the military repeatedly opened fire on the unarmed citizens. It was not known exactly how many people died but it was only learnt that bloodshed of few thousands people lay dead within that time.

Istana Open House

It's quite a long hike towards the Istana building from the entrance.

So I stopped and posed for a moment..:)

Along the way, I stumbled upon a Big Gun....

Then admired a nine-hole golf course...

Had seen the Istana Villa....

And, spotted the Istana building where the President receives and entertains states guests.

Making dreams a reality

I remembered a quotation from an early Greek literature that reads: "Hold on to your dreams, for if dreams should die, life is broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Indeed, the mind is capable of dreaming very profound things. If someone had a dream and holds fast to it, his mind will find a way to bring it to reality. The ability to dream is a beautiful human faculty which often leads to amazing results. Once it becomes focused on something, it can break limits and surpass expectations leaving no stone unturned to make dreams into reality.



We achieve because we dream. There are many successful people in this world who dreamt big and whose dreams changed their lives and also inspired others. Take for example, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, founders of Apple Computers and Microsoft respectively. Besides bringing fortune to themselves, they have also revolutionised technology, brought great convenience and progress to mankind.



But to dream and make those dreams into reality are not just by a wink of an eye. These people are of great character - strong and determined - which enabled them to face challenges of any sort. Like any human being, they failed many times. But, they didn't give up and instead they continued to dream and work hard to make their dreams come to reality. We should take them as inspirations in our every endeavour.



Though it is human nature to cry out in anguish at all life's failures, we will always see ourselves in a much better light if we take a look around us and see that the most successful people in the world are those who have learnt to dream and struggled to fulfil their dreams, often against odds.

The First Day of FOURTH Grade!

Unimaginable!!

My baby girl started Fourth Grade today.
She had to carry all her supplies to school with her this morning and that backpack probably weighed at least 15 pounds! We have always taken her supplies to "meet the teacher" in the past. But she has 4 different teachers this year.

It seems just yesterday she was starting Kindergarten!