Author: Adeline Liong

Landas, oh, landas!

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events, droughts and floods is in line with what climate scientists have been predicting for decades — and evidence is mounting that what’s happening is more severe than predicted, and will get far worse still if we fail to act. David Suzuki, Canadian academic,

Working during school holidays

Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work, work till we die. C. S. Lewis, British writer and theologian Have you ever worked while you were in high school? I am prompted to ask this question after I met a bunch of high school kids who

Reminiscing on year-end school holidays

The long year-end holiday has officially begun. One of my nephews shared the news with me recently. Last Friday was the last day of school for his younger children. He also proudly told me that his third child, a girl, did better than expected in her UPSR exam. The second

Thank you for these useful modern gadgets

I try to save money whenever I can, but lately I have been visiting a laundromat a lot. Rural folk in remote areas generally don’t know what a laundromat is, and those who know what they are can’t use them because their places don’t have electricity. The word laundromat is

Close encounter with crocodiles

Have you ever held a live crocodile before? I did so for the first time in my life last Saturday. Never mind that the crocodile was small at about two feet long. The exciting experience happened to me at the famous Jong’s Crocodile Farm in Kuching. I went there with

My masseuse, my saviour

My favourite masseuse is on a long holiday this month. She is back in her country, Thailand. She told me recently that she had not gone home for three years. When I asked her what she was going to do during her one-month break, she replied, “I am going to

Eight hours in a big aluminum can

Do you like watching movies on a long-haul flight? Until recently, I had never watched movies on a long-haul flight. I don’t know why, but I decided to make history during my recent flight from Sydney to Singapore by watching two movies. It was my last chance to change my

Catching up with friends in Sydney

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. — Elisabeth Foley, American legal theorist I was among nine former students of Sibu’s St Elizabeth’s Convent School who was in Sydney last Thursday for a brief reunion. Why Sydney, you may ask. Five of

House of four ‘kids’

To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honours. – Tia Walker, American blogger I live in a house with four ‘kids’. They are not kids in the real sense of the word. The four ‘kids’ in my house are my mother, my dogs