A Night at the Museum

Excitement at the Penang Museum

Remembered the Ben Stiller movie, "The Night at the Museum" and all those things can came alive after the doors closed from the public at night?

Incidentally, for me, I am teaching Note Expansion for Std 5 and Std 6 pupils and one of the topic I intend to teach was exactly this topic.

So, when I read today's online STAR about the event they approved for the public to stay overnight at the Penang Museum, I just had to blog on this one.

The event was dubbed, A Night at 57, Macalister which is the street address of the museum. Anyone can apply to join the first ever hair-raising slumber party of the museum premise. Forty people join this firs-ever sleep over at the museum.

Before going to bed, they will be shown a host of horror movies, be given a ghost story telling session as well as a sketch on a childbirth in progress enacted by the museum staff.

Why the childbirth enactment, you may ask? That is because the museum was the former King Edward V11 Maternity Hospital where nearly 60,000 babies were delivered. Then the Japanese used it as a naval hospital during their occupation of Malaya. Subsequently, when the British came back, they used it as military barracks before turning it back again into a hospital. In 1955, it ceased being a hospital once more.

The St. John Ambulance and the Red Cross Society then moved in; followed by the Center for Penang NGOs. Then it was left vacant for two years before being turned into the Penang Museum.

This 99-year old museum is replete with all types of ghostly tales. CCTV footage has shown closing doors, shifting chairs, strange flying lights and sounds of heavy breathing at the mortuary.

The participants arrived with sleeping bags,torch lights and other personal essentials. They were served a buffet dinner using hospital-type trays.

When darkness fell, the group were split into smaller groups and given a tour of the various parts of the museum including the mortuary and post-mortem facility. Incidentally both these facilities were gutted in a mysterious fire two months before this overnight stay event.

The next morning, the participants were woken up to take part in a treasure hunt. One of the participants apparently felt someone touching her shoulder when she was given a tour of the pantry last night.

Due to the success of this pilot overnight stay, more of such events will be organised in the future.

Interestingly, all the participants were given practical advice before participating in the overnight museum stay.

Here are some of them.

When you need to go to the toilet, bring along a friend. Otherwise you risk bringing back 'two phantom friends'.

When you take a shower,always keep one piece of clothing on.

Watch what you say and no brave claims of gung-ho bravery

Carina-Beauty with Brains

Carina Tyrell is no ordinary beauty queen. On the face of it, with her towering heels, skirt slit to the thigh and a plunging neck-line, the new 24 year old Miss Cambridgeshire is every inch the stereotypical beauty queen. However, truth be told, she is a fifth year medical student at Cambridge University.

Her father was a top-notch physicist  who helped build the Large Hadron Collider, while her mother was  an executive with the World Health Organisation. Carina has been predicted to get a first-class honours degree in her finals this year.

Age is No Barrier When Love Triumphs

Ageless Beauty-Flawless Facial Skin on Face and Neck

Would you believe that: 

-marriages are made in heaven?

-love knows no age barrier?

-love is blind?

-falling in love at first sight can be true?

Trendy 

Recently in February 2014, Liu Xiaoqing & Yi Gang were married in San Francisco.

Seductive Sixty

Liu is an actress and businesswoman and she is 60 years old. 

Sensuous

Yi Gang, her husband on the other hand, is only 28 years old! 

Marriage Made in Heaven

He is  China's national badminton star.

Visually Appealing

Apparently, Yi has fallen in love with this lady for the past 20 years!

Sensational Model

He was hardly one year old when Liu was 33 years old!

Great Bodywork!

Imagine an age gap of some 32 years!

Pretty Sixty

This is Liu's fourth marriage.

Vivacious couple

This is truly a fairy tale romance as both bride and groom looks equally attractive.

Imagine Liu looks almost as if she is the same age as Yi. 

She exhibits flawless skin on her neck and face.

A True Taitai!

The PISA Wake-up Call?

Education-Key to Your Future

Imagine. 

In the last triennial PISA International Student Education Assessment conducted globally by OECD in 2013, only one out of a hundred 15-year old student from Malaysia was able to solve the given creative problem-solving questions posed. This compares dismally with five in Singapore, Korea and Japan.

Creative Problem-solving

Industrious Asian countries like Korea, Japan, Macau-China, Hong Kong-China, Shanghai-China and Chinese Taipei, along with Singapore, as usual, make up the top seven of the list.

Malaysia ranked close to the bottom of the study at 39th out of 44 countries. This meant that Malaysia took the last 6 position in this study. Her mean score was only 422.

Singapore, meanwhile,came up tops with a score of 562.

The overall mean score for all countries was 500.

Where Malaysia Stands

Let us look at some of the details.

Malaysian students scored below average or ranked 52 out of the 65 countries in mathematics, science and reading.

Malaysia also registered more than half of the share of low achievers, which means the students lacked the skills needed in a modern workplace.

Malaysia's share was sadly below the average percentage of 11.4%.

In the top performance category, Malaysia only had 0.9% share (not even one percent) of top performers as compared with Singapore's 29.3%.

Conversely, Singapore only had 8% share of low achievers. The mean share was 21.4%.

An interesting observation is Vietnam. She fared much better than Malaysia although 45% of its 15-year-olds did not even have the opportunity to go to school. 

Vietnamese students ranked 17 out of 65.

It was perceived that countries which performed well in the PISA invested in education as a vehicle for a better future and ensured accountability in educational standards.This investment in education is oftentimes, accompanied by high aspirations as a nation to build on human capital for the country's betterment and economic growth.

For competitive nations, the government and society have a big responsibility in education. Schools are not seen as a means for a select few to go on to a government career. Instead, it is regarded as an avenue where every student can learn to make the best of their own potential and talent.

The Psychologists Take on Profiling

Are these psychologists using free rein and poetic justice when they do profiling ?

See which do you agree.

Gems of Wisdom

These sayings are great motivators and reflectors for us to live forward.

Have fun!

Natural Mosquito Repellant

Hope this works!

I got this from a friend.

I am not sure whether it truly works.

No harm trying. It's just a few limes cut into halves and studded with cloves or star anise.