Miss Kwok's Secret Garden

Removal Notice

2005-07-31T16:06:00.000+08:00

Dear all,

With immediate effect, my blog will be moved to the following site:

http://louisakkw.mysinablog.com

I will no longer post any new entries here. See you at my new place.

Personality Tests

2005-07-30T15:55:00.000+08:00

Reading other blogs, I found the following personality test. Try it if you have time.

The Clothes You Wear

What others see from your style
Although to the untrained eye you may seem like a plain dresser who avoids trends, you actually wear carefully designed accessories and clothes that emphasize your uniqueness. You value your freedom and have an artistic mind. You are neither aggressive nor timid, but you believe in yourself.

What your nightclothes reveal
You're in need of love. You want to be taken care of and panic easily. You have a strong wish for security in your life.

What others see from your ties
You enjoy being alone. You like to life the simple but good life, and you cherish your freedom. You are thoughtful, confident and uninterested in glamour.

What others see from your belts
If there's not a single belt in your wardrobe, you like freedom and are opposed to all kinds of rules. You are creative and very good at work that requires you to stretch your imagination. Your main downfall, however, is that you can be very moody.

What others see from your shoes
You're very young at heart. You regard freedom highly and don't like to be controlled by a set of rules. You don't like conflict, will compromise wherever possible, and are hardworking people. Occasionally you can become vulnerable when having to face problems, especially emotional ones.

What others see from your earrings
You are probably a free spirit at heart with artistic talent. You are absolutely unique and are always coming up with lots of great ideas. Being happy is your most important goal.

How do you view success:
You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.

What are you most afraid of:
You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

The last analysis
You are probably a romantic and passionate person. You are sensitive and lonely when you aren't in love. You can be somewhat self-centered, but you are honest and sincere to others. You like to make a good impression of yourself and worry about what others think of you.

Fun? There are more tests in this site: Quiz Box. I have tried another one - Get to know yourself better.

Summer class

2005-07-29T14:38:00.000+08:00

Since 18 July, I have taken up a summer class in the school that I am going to teach in the coming school term. The course ended yesterday. My task is to boost some Form six students' writing skills.

The panel chair approached me in early July about teaching this summer class. I did struggle for this at the beginning. On one hand, I wanted to enjoy my summer holiday and I planned to take a short trip to Singapore or Taiwan at the end of July with my husband. On the other hand, the class might be a good chance for me to know more about the new school, the students and their practice. After discussing this issue with my husband and some of my colleagues, I decided to teach the class.

I am glad that I have taken the job. In the last 9 days, I was introduced to some 'coming' co-workers. We are going to have the staff retreat camp on 5 and 6 of August. At that time, I won't be a total stranger. I did know more about the practice of the school and the standard of the students. I know what they need and I can prepare the teaching materials in the rest of my summer holiday.

Taking a short trip is still what I want to do, perhaps I will have one in late August for about 4 days to Singapore.

A new platform for blogging

2005-07-11T18:39:00.000+08:00

The software that I used for making my homepage also provides a tool for blogging. I tried to use it today and found it far user-friendlier than the blogspot one, espeically when I tried to insert photos. What I have to do is to drag the photo to the place where I want it to be. However, it does have a few drawbacks.

1. It only provides two functions - archives and RSS. Nothing can be added to the sidebar, which means all my favourite links and beautiful buttons will be gone.

2. Comments can't be read when it is in the archives mode.

What do you think? Visit the blog and give me some comments.

New gadgets

2005-07-02T00:01:00.000+08:00

My husband and I went shopping. We bought two gadgets. I bought the Tungsten T5. I have longed to get rid of my thick diary.
Neil, I am not starting a gadget race. The iPod belongs to my husband. I will stick to my own iriver mp3 player unless Apple publishes a new version of iPod which has built-in radio.

Speech Day

2005-07-01T16:53:00.000+08:00

It was our annual speech day yesterday. I took some photos with my colleauges. Enjoy the slideshow.

If you only see a blank frame, click here.

My precious babies (revised)

2005-06-29T23:25:00.000+08:00

Have you met my dogs? Now you have a chance to watch two of their clips.

(Click here if you see a blank frame.) This is "Ah Mong". He loves singing. When I play the flute at home, he will sing with me. But the sound you hear in the clip is produced by a synthesizer.

(Click here if you see a blank frame.) Here please meet "Siu Mor Gwai" and "Ah Mong". They love eating very much. When they hear the sound "eat", they will behave exactly what the video shows you.

Thank you

2005-06-29T21:34:00.000+08:00

My dearest 6B students,

You are all very supportive of my decision. I am very proud of you.

Mr Tong said in the comments for the last post,

It is lucky for you guys and gals to have Ms Kwok as your teacher and it is also lucky to the same degree for Ms Kwok to have you all as her lovely students.

In fact, I am far luckier. I don't deserve your praise as being your class teacher, there are still a lot of things I haven't yet done for all of you.

To be honest, I personally gained a lot from you this year. You are very caring and helpful. Being creative is one of your strengths. You gave me a lot of first experience.

1. The whole class threw me a birthday party, with 4 handsome guys performing strip dance (to the readers who were not there: they only took off their school jacket). By the way, there should be a video of the dance, can someone pass me a copy? And then you all sang me a birthday song in the old wing playground. Don't you know that a lot of teachers eyed me jealously on that day?

2. The whole class walked on the track, hand in hand, on Sports Day.

3. You broke my rule. Don't you know that you were the first class I ever invited to my home during Chinese New Year and it was the first time I ever gave red packets to my students.

4. You gave me a gift on Mother's Day. What's more? You sang "世上只有媽媽好"!

No one can replace your position in my heart. I will always miss you. You are definitely the angels that God has sent to me.

Goodbye

2005-06-27T17:48:00.000+08:00

There is something I want to tell you all. It may be a bit shocking to you. I have resigned and I won't be able to be with you in Form 7.

Having been in the school for seven years, I really feel tired and bored. I need something new to refresh me if I still want to be a teacher for the rest of my life. An opportunity was given to me in April. After serious consideration, I decided to take up a new job in another school. I didn't tell you earlier because I didn't want to disturb your preparation for the final examination. Now it's time to let you know.

Thank you for giving me a lot of precious moments in this year. I have enjoyed being your class teacher and English teacher. Choosing to leave you is the hardest struggle I had to face. I hope every one of you can be promoted to Form 7. Though I will not be your teacher in the coming year, I will always be your mum and friend and you will always be the apple of my eye.

2 interesting TV programmes

2005-06-21T18:30:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday afternoon, switching on the cable TV, I hoped to find some interesting movies on HBO and Cinemax channels. To my disappointment, the movies in that afternoon were rather boring. Then I remember I have subscribed Now TV, so I turned it on and browsed through the channels offered to me.

Two programmes from the Disney Channel caught my attention.

Lizzie MuGuire (weekends, sorry, forgot the time). Lizzie MuGuire has been shown on TVB Pearl before as a pilot project launched by the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research to promote English learning in 2003.

So Little Time(Monday to Friday, 9pm).

Both are teen programmes but I still found them interesting. Frankly speaking, these programmes are a good laugh, don't expect too much. Sometimes it's good for me to just sit back and relax. They serve this purpose too.

Each episode has an independent theme, you won't miss anything if you miss one episode. I like this kind of TV programmes, you won't get addicted to watching them.

A film a day!

2005-06-16T20:18:00.000+08:00

It is a bit ironic. When my students were having fun, I was leading a dog's life. Now my students are facing a life-and-death issue (is having final examination really that horrible?), I'm enjoying half-day work in these two weeks.

On the first two days of the week, I had to finish the marking of public examination papers. After handing in all the scripts to the HKEAA on Tuesday, I decided to give myself some treats.

At that night, my husband and I went to a seafood restaurant to celebrate the completion of his voice-over project and my marking.

Then on Wednesday, we went to watch the film - The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I got one message from the film. It is the answer to the meaning of life. The elderly of Magrathea wanted to find out the true meaning of life so they built a super computer - Deep Thought. When Deep Thought was asked to give answer to the true meaning of life, it told the elderly that the answer was 42. Why? Sorry, you've asked the wrong question. You need to ask the right question. When you have the right question, you will know why the answer is 42. Do you get the message?

Today, we watched Batman Begins. If you love action movies and want to know how Bruce Wayne became Batman, you shouldn't miss the film.

I gave up watching Mr and Mrs Smith as one of my colleagues watched it last week and she told me to save my money.

Another test from my student

2005-06-06T09:00:00.000+08:00

You Are the Girl Next Door!

You're caring, warm, and the girl that nice guys want to marry. Uncomplicated and simple, you've got an easy going attitude guys love. But this doesn't mean you're dull - far from it! You're a great conversationalist, and you're an expert at living the good life.

What Kind of Girl Are You? Take This Quiz :-)

When I was browsing the blogs of my students, I found this test in Heidi's blog. Out of curiosity, I did the test. Do you think I am a girl ('a woman' to be exact) next door?

I remember when I was young, my father always said that I was this kind of girl. He always told other people that his daughter might not be very beautiful but she was the kind of person that would attract others when they had the chance to know more about her.

I really need to thank my father because he always reminded me of my 'quality'. Whenever I could not get any attention from the boys I liked when I was a secondary student, I would tell myself they did not have the chance to come to know more about me. It was their lost, not mine. Though you may say that I was just trying to comfort myself (a little bit like Mr Q's spirit), at least my confidence would not be slashed.

The films that I'm going to watch

2005-06-04T15:40:00.000+08:00

I am back. I have been leading a dog's life since May. If you were not a teacher, you would never be able to understand the tough situation we are facing. All the book inspections, class visitations and the setting and circulation of examination papers really were suffocating. I did not dare to switch on my computer and TV as I was afraid that I would give in to temptation.

Now this kind of life is going to come to an end. I still have homework and public examination papers to mark but the burden is a lot lighter. As a reward for my hard work, I am going to watch two films during examination period. One is "Mr and Mrs Smith" and the other is "Batman Begins". Why do I choose these two movies? The main reason is I love action movies.

A blogger, Dustless, also recommends "Sin City" in his blog. If I still have time, I will definitely go and watch it.

There are a lot of things I want to do when I finish all my school work. Besides watching the above mentioned movies, I want to finish a few books I have bought these days. I have also pre-ordered the Harry Potter Book 6. Hopefully, it can arrive in early August so that I can finish it before I carry out my summer duties. I am also looking forward to the fourth movie of Harry Potter.

Thinking of all these things I am going to do lifts my spirits.

Little games my students enjoy playing

2005-05-08T22:52:00.000+08:00

Your Birthdate: January 13

Being born on the 13th day of the month should help make you a better manager and organizer, but it may also give you a tendency to dominate people a bit.

You may be more responsible and self-disciplined than you realize.

Sincere and honest, you are a serious, hard working individual.

Your feeling are likely to seem somewhat repressed at times.

You are apt to be much more practical, rational, and conscious of details.

Your intolerance and insistence on complete accuracy can be irritating to some.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

I found this game on Jenny's (my student) online diary. What you need to do is to type in your birthday and it will generate the personalities that you may have. From time to time, my students will introduce this kind of game to their classmates and friends. I once saw one which required you to type in your name and then it would help you generate a Japanese name.

Over 99.9999% of my students are using xanga. When you see one student publishing the game on his or her diary, within one day, nearly the whole class will follow suit. Sometimes I really hope they can be this fast in learning and doing homework. If possible, I also hope that they will not just spread games like these on the Internet. Perhaps they can post some useful sites for learning English and other subjects. The sad truth is I never see such things happen.

Let's come back to the above analysis. Nearly all the descriptions are wrong. I am not an organized person, though I am a bit dominating. But I am only able to dominate my husband (luckily, he won't be able to read this confession as he doesn't like reading my blog. Why? Simply because he hates reading English!) I admit that I am sincere and honest, that's why I am going to tell you I am not really very hardworking. My husband can prove that I am an emotional and impractical person. I hate paying attention to details and I need to beg others' tolerance on the careless mistakes I made. How much truth is left in the analysis then?

The best Mother's Day gift

2005-05-06T21:46:00.000+08:00

I am not a mother but I have 29 sons and daughters this year. The number of my sons and daughters will continue to increase as time goes by. On my birthday and Mother's Day, these babies will give me a lot of surprises. Today, they gave me a bunch of flowers, sang a song and posted some sweet words on the board.

What they did really warms my heart. Being a teacher, I sometimes feel frustrated and depressed. However, it's also my students that make me stay in this field. My dear sons and daughters, I really appreciate what you all did to me today. Thank you very much!

You Blog; I Blog

2005-05-03T09:40:00.000+08:00

In these days, guess what is the most heated topic among bloggers? Right! BLOG!!!

I am new to writing blog but as I browse other bloggers' blogs, I could learn a lot about it. Here, I don't want to repeat other people's views (actually I don't want to infringe intellectual property rights), if you want to know more about blog, you may read Jacky's Blog, Just a sidekick, The Dukedom of Aberdeen and The Dustless Workshop. I am sure you can get a lot of ideas from these bloggers.

To me, 'blog' is a term of a very wide sense. I think it's more like a magazine on the Internet. And this magazine can be published by a single person or a group of people (I do find some blogs written by a group of people). The person who writes the blog decides the content of the blog. Thus, whether a blog is interesting or not depends greatly on the content provider.

Some people may create a blog for self-fulfillment. The blog is a place for these people to accomplish their dream of being a writer. You can find people writing a series of stories and novels. Blog becomes a platform for these people to publish their masterpiece.

Some blogs serve as commentaries. Bloggers of these blogs act as columnists. They will voice their opinions over some social issues or unfairness in life.

Some blogs are very educational too, like mine. They have a goal to achieve, like helping students to learn English. Other examples of this type of blogs are company blogs. They mainly inform their clients or public about their products and news.

Some may use the blog as a sketchbook. Whatever comes to their mind, they just sketch it down and share with all Internet users.

There are some more, like blogs about film reviews, book reviews, common interests, etc. Some simply are diaries. Some are a mixture of all the above.

Why do people like blogging then? A blog is very interactive. Readers can leave comments to you and they may even become your blog's faithful readers. It's also an excellent place for intellectual exchange as it serves as an interface between you and other bloggers. You may make a lot of friends too.

Now I blog, when will you blog? Use your imagination, creativity and intellect to create your own blog!!!

Anti-Japanese Protests

2005-04-19T23:17:00.000+08:00

Days ago, I wrote a blog about my view on Peter Kammerer's article. Today, I also found an article, 'Don't risk Asia's peace and prosperity', written by Tom Plate, expressing similar view. Both columnists urge the two nations to move forward. Why don't these columnists see the root of the problem? Here, I want to share with you a letter from Fion Yip. I think Ms Yip has pointed out the problem clearly.

Japan must learn from history, or risk repeating it (adapted from SCMP, letters to the editor)

Most Asian people fiercely protest Japan's request for permanent membership of the UN Security Council and its distortion of history textbooks, while a minority seems to have sympathy for it.

This minority says that China and Japan should forget about the past and move on, and that we should look at the economic benefits for both sides. This group has missed a very important point - these are two different issues and we should not mix them together to conclude that we should forget the past and move on.

Whether the Chinese and Korean peoples forgive Japanese war criminals is a personal decision. But it is utterly wrong to try to forget what the Japanese did to China and other Asian countries. It is dangerous. If we do not learn from history, it will repeat itself.

Japan has political and military ambitions in Asia. Both the US and Japan believe that China will be a threat if it becomes a real super-power. With US support, Japan may one day take strong actions against China in order to slow its rapid growth. Precisely because Japan is an economic power and many people like its products, we should tell it to learn from Germany and face up to its past. Japan should contribute to world peace and globalisation. But if it cannot face its past courageously and responsibly, Japan will never be able to gain genuine respect worldwide and convince people that it will not repeat these acts.

The protests, as long as they remain under control and there is no serious damage, should not be suppressed. I believe that the central government will make sure they do not go too far. Those who are sympathetic towards Japan should re-read the history of massacres, tortures and other war crimes. Given the complex international politics - China's tricky relationship with the US, the Taiwan issue and so on - who can guarantee Japan will never invade China again? To expect no protests is even more dangerous to world peace. That's why we all need to speak up.

FION YIP, Sha Tin

I would like to ask a question. If Germany did not offer an official apology after the second world war; its prime minister visited the grave of Hilter overtly and continually; and its government allowed the modification of history textbooks to whitewash the things it did to the Jews, could other European countries and the USA forget about the past and move on?

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yan Mah

2005-04-17T20:01:00.000+08:00

I finished the book yesterday. The story was very touching and I got my eyes bloodshot because of crying.

The book is about the painful childhood of Yen Jun-ling. Her birth brought about the death of her mother. Her family considered her bad luck and thus her brothers and sisters all discriminated against her. Her father seldom talked to her and made her feel unwanted in the family. Luckily, she still had her Ye Ye (grandpa), Nai Nai (grandma) and Aunt Baba (her father's sister) on her side.

Things started to get worse after Nai Nai's death. Her stepmother had taken the role as the one in-charge of the whole family. No one dared to antagonize her. However, little Jun-ling once had confronted her in the presence of the whole family, she loathed her since then. You can then imagine what kind of life little Jun-ling led in the family.

Since everyone detested her, Jun-ling started to hate herself. Ye Ye and Aunt Baba kept reminding little Jun-ling of her own potentials and how valuable she was. I believe, without the encouragement from Ye Ye and Aunt Baba, little Jun-ling would not be able to survive in such an abject environment and keep telling herself that she would finally succeed one day.

One thing in the book really upsets me a lot. Her stepmother decided to send Jun-ling to a boarding school. On the plane to Tianjin, her father approached her sheepishly and asked for her name! How come her own father couldn't even remember his own daughter's name?

Jun-ling had every reason in the world to hate her parents but she didn't. She still obeyed everything her father had arranged for her and hoped that one day she could get back the love and acceptance from her father. From Jun-ling, I saw the virtue of perseverance and I admire her eagerness to study.

This book finished when Jun-ling was fourteen and set off for England to continue her studies. I will buy her previous bestseller - Falling leaves, her first autobiography. I want to know more about what happened to Jun-ling.

What a shame!

2005-04-16T12:10:00.000+08:00

When I was reading the SCMP yesterday morning, I found an article written by Peter Kammerer, entitled "Let's embrace tomorrow". I could hardly agree with Mr Kammerer's point of view.

He referred to the recent firing of words between China and Japan as pointless sniping and bicker. He also recommended the two nations to put the past behind them. He implied one of the nations (most probably referring to China) should be more tolerant. He quote Belgium as an example. He mentioned that some years ago he witnessed how friendly the Belgian are to the German tourists even though they were completely aware of the atrocities committed by the German troops during World War II. He then urged a reconciliation between the two nations should be made as soon as possible.

Had he been more aware of the historical entanglement Japan and China are involved in, he would have known things are more complicated than he thought.

Japan is far different from Germany. We all are aware of the savagery committed by the imperial Japanese troops in China during the second world war. Instead of following what Germany had done, the Japanese government has never offered a formal apology, not to mention compensation. Worse still, ever since Junichiro Koizumi became Prime Minister of Japan, he and his cabinet have been visiting the Yasukuni shrine (a place where convicted war criminals are honoured along with Japanese soldiers killed in World War II) regularly. What further infuriated Chinese and Korean governments was Japan's official attempts to distort wartime history in school textbooks to whitewash its wrongdoing. It only emphasized the fact that there were two atomic bombs dropped on them, and thus a victim in the war.

I am not justifying the riot in China. No one should resort to violence as it only makes things worse. Everyone has the right to condemn China for allowing the riot to happen. But have any other nations (especially the USA) ever denounced Japan's Ministry of Education for allowing the removal of all references to the "comfort women" and atrocities such as the Nanking massacre in history textbooks?

A Master Degree

2005-04-10T10:05:00.000+08:00

I am planning to take a master degree in English. When I searched the internet for a list of courses, I found one offered by the University of Hong Kong - MA in English Studies. It sounds quite interesting. The course includes the studying of English literature, linguistics and culture.

However, I do have one concern about taking the course. There is a lot of required reading for each module. Altogether there are 12 modules in the programme, for part-time students, they need to study 4 modules in one semester. Each module lasts for 6 weeks. After the completion of each module, students have to hand in an assignment (usually an essay). For the fourth semester, it's the dissertation writing time.

Frankly speaking, the requirement is not harsh. But as a secondary school language teacher, can I afford the time to do the reading and assignments? This is what worries me most.

Can any bloggers who have taken a master degree before give me some suggestions? Please share with me how you can manage both your work and studies at the same time.

Flute

2005-04-07T23:51:00.000+08:00

I've been learning flute with Matthew for about 3 months. Sigh! Though I have already passed the Grade 5 practical examination, he still needs me to start learning from the basic.

His method is completely different from my earlier teacher. He wants me to unlearn all the techniques my previous teacher taught me which I have already got used to. I can see that I am doing better and better each time I attend his lesson, however, the process is frustrating. The breathing, the movement of the muscles, the way the air is blown out from the mouth and how my mouth looks are all different. It's really difficult for me to undo something I used to do and have been doing for 3 years. Another problem I am facing is - not enough practice.

Life in my school is hectic. I can't practise flute every day. It's really a luxury to me. I originally have planned to take the Grade 8 examination next year. Now I don't know for how long I have to postpone this idea.

Holiday

2005-03-23T20:53:00.000+08:00

Hooray! There is one more day to go only. In this holiday, I have to follow my plan and finish every task on my to-do-list. I can't waste my precious time like I did in the Christmas and Chinese New Year holiday.

My dear students, sometimes your teacher is just like you. Let's encourage and monitor one another. I hope all of us can finish what we plan to do in the holiday. Okay?

A Level Oral Examination

2005-03-15T22:26:00.000+08:00

AL UE oral examination started yesterday. Yuki and Daniel were among the first group of students having the examination. From their feedback, it seemed that students could perform quite well in the individual presentation section. I hope all 7C students can really perform their best in the examination.

I have never been so tired before on a school day. I was fully occupied from 8:00am to 7:30pm today. After the morning assembly, I had a double UE lesson and a history lesson. Afterwards, I had to conduct oral practices with my S7 students till 6pm. Meeting Johnathan's father concluded my school day. Dragging an exhausted body and mind, I still needed to have dinner with my mother-in-law.

I am sure tonight I can have a deep sound sleep.

Report Card Distribution Day

2005-03-04T22:50:00.000+08:00

What a tough day I had!

I still needed to have normal lessons in the morning, then started distributing the report cards at 1:15pm. Unluckily, I had six lessons in a row in the morning. The last lesson finished at 12:40pm and I only had 15 minutes for my lunch. Finally, I finished my long day at 8:30pm. I arrived school at 7:30am today, that means, I have stayed in school for 13 hours.

Hide and Seek

2005-02-27T10:05:00.000+08:00

I watched it on Friday night! It's quite a thrill. Dakota Fanning is fascinating. How can a child perform so well? She is only a 12-year-old girl! I think she is the best female kid actress in this century. The male one should be Haley Joel Osment (the one who starred "Sixth Sense").

Constantine

2005-02-18T00:33:00.000+08:00

I finally watched Constantine last night! It's fantastic!

It reminds me of a movie I watched earlier - Devil's Advocate, starring Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. The story was also about devils in our world. In the movie, Keanu Reeves was the son of Satan himself. Al Pacino was Satan. It was also about "choice" and "destiny". But the sense of "destiny" was much stronger especially when you knew what Keanu had gone through in the movie was going to recur again and again, unless he could completely screw up Satan's plan, or he finally gave in, or Satan gave up. After watching the film, I really felt creepy because I was reminded of the power that Satan always has! I kept telling myself I had to make my choice carefully and pray for God's guidance, grace and wisdom to guard myself against evil.

After watching Constantine, this feeling comes back! But the message is more positive this time. The sense of "choice" in this film is deep-rooted. We have a choice to accept or deny what we have and we are responsible for the choices we made! Can we make the right choice every time? If we made a mistake, could there be any way to alter the consequence? This is what Constantine is going to do after he committed suicide when he was 15. He tries his best to battle with the devils to buy his way to heaven. (The film takes the stance of the Catholic belief. People who commit suicide can't go to heaven!)

Here I am not arguing whether the Catholic belief is correct or not. The message I got is - can we buy our way to heaven simply by the good deeds we do? As the Angel, Gabriel, said in the movie, we couldn't! The only way to heaven is we become converts to God! We believe He is the only creator and He loves us to a stage that He delivers His only Son - Jesus Christ to die for our sins! This is so simple. We don't have to make a deal with God. Gabriel also reminded me of His great love. Even if a murderer or rapist repents for what he or she has done and becomes a convert, God won't abandon him or her. That's why Gabriel envies human beings. According to Gabriel, we are full of sins and we don't have any noble qualities. We don't deserve God's love at all! But God loves us unconditionally! This is what makes Gabriel go crazy and liaise with the son of Satan.

I know I can't buy my way to heaven from the good deeds I do. But after knowing how great God's love is, can I do nothing? Is it the way to repay His great love?

Happy Birthday!

2005-02-16T22:36:00.000+08:00

My students came to my home today. They all came for two missions. The first one was to hold a birthday party for their classmate - Leona! The other one was to target at my red packets!

Here is the birthday girl!

Visit

2005-02-14T15:16:00.000+08:00

My matriculation classmates visited me yesterday. They got two very adorable daughters. The elder one is lovely and the younger one is funny! I love playing with the younger one because she always laughs.

An interesting board game

2005-02-11T20:03:00.000+08:00

Yesterday night, I went to a friend's home to watch the firework. After the show and dinner, he introduced a board game to us! Its name is "Settlers". What you need to do is to collect as many resource cards as possible. Then you can use the cards to build roads and houses to earn points! The first one who scores 10 points will be the winner. Of course, to make the game more exciting and challenging, there are some development cards which help you earn extra points and you can deal with other players to get the resource card you want. The sense of competition is not strong in this game, so no one will be ashamed of being a loser!

I need to find out where I can buy one! But it seems that you won't be able to find it in Toys"R"us.

New Look

2005-02-07T14:15:00.000+08:00

I got my hair cut today! It's really short now. If I want to keep a cool look, I have to use hair clay every day! This is what I don't like doing! The clay makes my hair sticky, which means I have to wash it every day! I think I have made a very poor decision.

Chinese New Year Holiday

2005-02-06T21:28:00.000+08:00

It finally comes! After Christmas, life was very hectic. There were book inspection, examination paper setting, marking and teaching in January. I was really exhausted. The Chinese New Year holiday is really something I look forward to. At first, my husband and I planned to go overseas during the holiday. However, due to our late decision, the tour that we wanted to join was full! It's unbelievable!!! :( Now I have to stay at home.

Today, I try to make a list of the things I need to finish before school starts again. Guess what! My list goes down to 25 items!!! They include different sorts of marking, like S7 composition, Section E and S1 & S6 examination papers; setting the coming S1 second term teaching schedule; and preparing a presentation for the course I've taken. I need to complete at least 2 tasks a day. Now I know why the tour was full. Taking a trip is definitely a luxury to me!

The ten places I want to go most

2005-02-04T21:56:00.000+08:00

1. Heaven (Of course I mean after I die)
2. Australia (It's famous for its sunshine and beaches. I haven't had any sunbathing for more than a decade!)
3. Japan (I love Japanese culture.)
4. Isreal (It's the place that a Christian should visit.)
5. France (I've been to Europe when I was a university student but I missed this place at that time.)
6. Germany (The same reason as above.)
7. Singapore (I want to see how it is different from Hong Kong.)
8. Shanghai (It is one of our competitors. I need to check it out!)
9. Lamma Island (People keep telling me it has changed a lot and it has great seafood. I went there only for once and I was a F.4 student at that time.)
10. Home (There is no place in the world better than your own home!)

Forum

2005-02-02T20:19:00.000+08:00

I got a forum in my homepage. When I first set it up, my husband told me not to have a high expectation on it. He said that usually not many people would leave a message there.

The first night I got it set, nothing happened. No one came. Surprisingly, when I logged into the forum the second night, some new messages appeared. The most exciting thing is those who came to the forum did not just reply to the message I posted there, they created new topics too. I really cannot imagine that a forum can be so dynamic. (Forgive me if I sound too naive! This is the first time I hold a forum!!!)

I hope the forum can go well and it really can be a place for sharing, learning, exchanging ideas and having fun.

Making a homepage

2005-01-31T13:16:00.000+08:00

I have always thought of setting up my own homepage for a very long time. However, being a teacher, especially an English teacher in Hong Kong, leaves me very little time to design and write my homepage.

Several years ago in the summer holiday, I bought myself a book about how to use Frontpage. I hoped to set up something in that summer. Of course, I couldn't make it. At first, it seemed not too difficult to start with. As I went on reading, I couldn't understand a bit what I needed to do. I gave up after two weeks' reading and trying. The homepage thing seemed to be too technical for me. I didn't think of doing anything like this again.

One week ago, my husband told me he discovered a software which was very user-friendly. It's a programme helping people make homepage. He showed me how to use it and then I was elated. I immediately tried it and then within 10 minutes, I already finished writing up my "Home" page.

This time, I only spent about 15 hours and I got my homepage published. I don't have to know any HTML code to write one and it's really an excellent programme for people who are too busy or not very skilful at the use of other homepage design programmes, there is one constraint though. This software is for MAC users only. If you are using a PC, you may need to search one for yourself.

The software's name is Rapidweaver.