Wednesday, June 3, 2009
New research direction...
As a research student, we have to have regular meetings with our supervisors, and this morning is one for me. An interesting outcome of the discussions, a brand new research direction, which might be a breakthrough area...am excited, as well as anxious whether there will be enough background literature on doing a "breakthrough" research!!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The coldest weekend so far this year...
Winter is here, and it is frostier than usual, and the last time hail and snow flurries happened in Wellington was about 14-15 years ago.Why am I not surprise? When it was my turn to accompany my dear husband during his studies in London in 1990, the firsts winter we had there was so cold that it snowed heavily, and the last time that happened in London was more than 20 years before that. And now, here in NZ, and, co-incidentally, it happened when we are here. My Kiwi friends told me this year, there's no autumn in Wellington, we went straight into winter. The cold southerlies add to the dropping temperatures, and ski resorts in NZ opened early. The surrounding hills near where we live now can be frosty in the mornings and the patter of early morning hails can be heard on our windows. Our electricity bill will be quite high this winter, as our house was built in the 60's, so it is really a cold house, sometimes colder than the temperature outside.
Thank you, Wellingtonians!
originally written on May 14th, '09.
Coming to a new place, to live, can be very daunting, and can give a person high anxiety levels.We ( my 2 children and I) arrived first in Wellington, New Zealand, as due to bureaucracy glitches, my husband can only arrive at a much later date.On arrival at the Wellington International airport, we were greeted with what Wellington is well known for, the rain and strong gusty winds. The flight from Auckland was akin to a mild roller coaster, due to the winds! Vic Uni kindly arranged for airport meet, and was kind enough to transfer us to our temporary accommodation. Datin Judith Amin, cheers for your kind heartedness for offering us to put up at your nice and warm house, without which, we would have been more challenged, as the very next day, I have to report to the University. Wellingtonians are very helpful, and all you have to do is ask, or even before you ask for help, they offer their help. To the Wellingtonians who came up to help this "Damsel in Distress",Your kindness and warmth made up for the sometimes "unfriendly" weather you have. A very BIG THANK YOU! That sells Wellington!
To Ann and Gill, thanks for taking us under your wings! You are God sent Angels that helped took care of us when we felt so lost!
Coming to a new place, to live, can be very daunting, and can give a person high anxiety levels.We ( my 2 children and I) arrived first in Wellington, New Zealand, as due to bureaucracy glitches, my husband can only arrive at a much later date.On arrival at the Wellington International airport, we were greeted with what Wellington is well known for, the rain and strong gusty winds. The flight from Auckland was akin to a mild roller coaster, due to the winds! Vic Uni kindly arranged for airport meet, and was kind enough to transfer us to our temporary accommodation. Datin Judith Amin, cheers for your kind heartedness for offering us to put up at your nice and warm house, without which, we would have been more challenged, as the very next day, I have to report to the University. Wellingtonians are very helpful, and all you have to do is ask, or even before you ask for help, they offer their help. To the Wellingtonians who came up to help this "Damsel in Distress",Your kindness and warmth made up for the sometimes "unfriendly" weather you have. A very BIG THANK YOU! That sells Wellington!
To Ann and Gill, thanks for taking us under your wings! You are God sent Angels that helped took care of us when we felt so lost!
Have books will travel!
originally written on May 11th, '09.
My dear father always asked me,"when are you going to stop studying?" I don't have an answer to his question everytime he asked me, as I consider studying and learning an ever continuous process. Everyday, every second,hour, there's always something new to learn. I took the plunge to take a sabbatical from my work, to undertake, or rather trying my hands on attempting a PhD. Now my family and I (minus my eldest) are in Wellington, and I am with Victoria University, Wellington. I hope I will be strong enough to weather the demands and challenges of my study, as well as life in cold, windy Welly!
My dear father always asked me,"when are you going to stop studying?" I don't have an answer to his question everytime he asked me, as I consider studying and learning an ever continuous process. Everyday, every second,hour, there's always something new to learn. I took the plunge to take a sabbatical from my work, to undertake, or rather trying my hands on attempting a PhD. Now my family and I (minus my eldest) are in Wellington, and I am with Victoria University, Wellington. I hope I will be strong enough to weather the demands and challenges of my study, as well as life in cold, windy Welly!
Library On Twos
originally written on Oct 7h, '08.The Keynote Speaker at a major library Conference I attended in Durban last year said, of all the libraries in the world, the greatest are those on 'two legs', i.e. the knowledge one has in her(generic term for whatever gender) mind, thus the words 'on twos" and if these are not "harnessed" we are 'losing" them. Knowledge one acquires throughout one's lifetime, is a culmination of acquired information through formal and informal learning, through experiences, through one's involvement with networking with others, storytelling, and even eavesdropping...
This is my first posting, and thanks to my sis, who is more a techie than I am. I have just joined Facebook, and as one of my friends who responded to me (though he invited me eons ago!) said that I'm of the older generation, as I'm more of the e-mail era...about to be extinct!So before I am going to be extinct as a dinosaur, i better post and share whatever I have in my "library on two" with the knowledge world.
An image of the recent knowledge sharing sessions. I am involved recently with organizing a conference for pre-school teachers in Sarawak,Malaysia, on innovative and fun ways of teaching and learning maths and science, using materials easily available no matter where the schools are. The teacher who designed an interesting and fun way of teaching and learning maths and science, using used plastic bottles. I must say he is very passionate in this project as he garnered the involvement of parents from the community too.
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