Coffee Lover

A few more of those 'antique' stuffs that we came across in the market. These are coffee grinders, hardly to be seen anymore in these days of instant coffee and pressurised coffee machines.

Now that we are well into Spring, there are more bicycles and traffics on the road. Cafes and coffee shops are now invading the pavements and any open spaces with their chairs and tables. And the places are always full and that when it comes to killing the time the people here also knows how to 'lepak'.

Yesterday was the last day of school for Fizah, the next 30 days will be crunch time attending GCSE exams. I remember that major exams in past were held over a shorter period, mostly within a week or two at most. Nowadays not only courseworks are taken into account but the exams are well spread out over a month. It all seems much easier these days.

Yesterday I only knew that Zimah and Faris have finished their exams. Didn't realise that all these days between their revision and playing badminton, they were actually having exams! It's no big deal though. We are not the regimented type, much prefer kids to have their own ways to prepare for their exam.

On the same subject, there was a study done by UNICEF which found that Dutch children are the happiest children in the industrialized world. Here's the article - Holland beats out the competition in a study that took account of material well-being, health and safety, education, family and peer relationships, behaviors and risks, and their own perceptions of their well-being. So, what's the secret of Dutch happiness? . "Holland is a livable, rich, free, well-governed country. People are happy in those conditions." And their positive Dutch outlook is fostered in the education system. "I think in Holland, we are very open with our children," says Esther van der Zaag,, a primary school teacher. "There are rules, but not too many... Play is the most important thing to learn. We teach them through play, not through rules." Play gives way, further up the education ladder, to learning based on conversation and consensus: "Sometimes the Dutch are criticized for too much negotiation, for not being strict enough or not having rules," says Tom van Veen, a father, teacher and co-principal. He says Dutch children are encouraged to form and express their own opinions. "They're used to negotiating at home. In school, too, it's not just, "Here are the rules, follow them.' It's a good thing, but it is tiring." The same model of consensus decision-making pervades the highest levels of Dutch politics and corporate culture.