Call Me Higgins

Un-Yammy Experience

Higgins — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:06:03 +0000

I was invited for dinner at this relatively new place in Miri. Food was generally acceptable, palatably speaking.

When it came to desserts, I had a good look at the menu

and decided on the taro sweet corn banana split. Since I don’t like sweet corn, I asked the waitress whether I could substitute the sweet corn with vanilla. She nodded in assent. My host, on the other hand, decided to stick to the original taro sweet corn banana split.

Seconds later, she came back to inform me that they’d run out of taro or in her own words “No more taro”.

“What other flavours do you have?” I ventured.

“Vanilla and sweet corn”, was her terse reply.

“Two vanillas for me and for my friend, one vanilla and one sweet corn”.

She then paused for a while and said, “Taro?”

By then, I was a bit annoyed. “I thought you said you have no taro”.

“We have,” she corrected herself.

“Alright then. One with two vanillas and the other a combination of vanilla and sweet corn”.

When she returned minutes later, I was given this.

I know what you’re thinking. Where’s the taro? I got two vanillas and my host friend, two sweet corns. I could have kicked up a fuss but it wasn’t worth it.

Moral of the story: Scrap the name taro because most of the staff have no idea what taro is. There is a possibility that some just assume it to mean banana split. Hence, just stick to plain old banana split with a choice of 3 flavours (or more) in the menu.

Signs of the Times

Higgins — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 07:57:39 +0000

One of the features of communicative language teaching is the use of authentic texts in the classroom. This includes utilising a host of materials which you can get outside the classroom. What if these so-called texts are peppered with grammatical errors? Aren’t we as teachers guilty of perpetuating the errors?

If Dickens were alive, he would have begun it like this upon seeing the two signs below:

It was the most horrific of times, it was the worst of times
It was the age of anything goes, it was the age of degradation throes
It was the epoch of so long it’s understood, it was the epoch of grammar may not be good:

Am I to stand close to you at all times?

It was a time where grammar can be dispensed, eh?

Nothing is Free

Higgins — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:41:01 +0000

It has been quite a while since I last blogged. And the reasons are numerous but none is worthy of mention. Anyway, something caught my attention this morning when I went shopping. I saw this tempting sign, and it sort of beckoned me to take one.

I decided on the Bako postcard. But the moment I picked it up, I saw this:

Moral of the story: Behind every card lies something more than meets the eye or as the Malays would have it “Ada udang di sebalik batu” (Loosely translated as There’s a prawn behind the rock).

Keeping Up Appearances

Higgins — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:00:00 +0000

If there is one thing we can learn from Hyacinth, it’s the importance of making one’s message clear rather than sounding pompous. I find her antics here awfully hilarious:

Happy Teacher’s Day

Higgins — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:20:12 +0000

Heroes unsung,
Are these educators.
Perhaps they figured
Prominently in
Your school days.

They might have spent hours
Encouraging you when you were down
And they might even have
Chastened you when your
Hubris had got the better of you.
Even when they appeared unkind
Rest assured they always had your interest
Securely locked in their hearts.

Dare we forget them this day,
A flame that has enlightened
You and me in some small way?