Lydia Teh

Thursday, March 20, 2008

International Women's Week at UCSI

5 March 2008

The School of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts Association (SSLA) of University College Sedaya International invited me to give a talk during this year's International Women's Week.

I had wanted to go earlier to catch Lee Su Kim, author of Malaysian Flavours and A Nyonya in Texas who was slotted to speak just before me. However, I got terribly lost as it was the first time I had ventured into that part of the city. Fortunately I arrived in time for my own session on "10 Things I Learned in a Decade of Writing." The concourse area where we had the talk was bustling like a pasar malam as various stalls had been set up to commemorate this special week. The activities included a photograph exhibition on STD, food fair, a magic show, a self defense workshop and talks on women's health.

The program booklet

Part of the audience

The gaily decorated stage

Note to self : next time print notes in a smaller, handy size. The flapping of the A4-pages was a big distraction, according to no. 1 who had tagged along with me. He also suggested that I stay behind the podium as I was wont to shake my legs, as can be seen from this picture.

Thanks to Mr. Ken Choong, the advisor of SSLA for inviting me. I'm glad to find out that he has read Life's Like That and is currently reading Honk! If You're Malaysian.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Venus

Wed, 20 Feb 2008

I was invited on Venus together with Datin Freida Pilus, the chairperson of the Cempaka Schools to talk on "Handphones in School". Datin Freida took the stance of No Handphones in School, absolutely. I'm pro.

Cempaka Schools had for a period of time allowed students to bring the phones to school but discovered that it was too much of a hassle. Now if students are caught with a handphone, they're confiscated till end of the year where they auction off the phones. The SIM cards are returned to students.

The reason I want my kids to take handphones to school is for convenience. Sometimes we need to contact each other, say if I'll be late in picking them, or if they have to go somewhere directly after school and I need to keep tabs of their whereabouts.

As for the security reason for carrying handphones in school, Datin Freida retorted, "Don't you have confidence in the school to keep your child safe?"

Datin Freida is very vocal, or as Aishah said, 'passionate' about the topic. In the last three minutes of the show when time was running out, all three of us were talking at the same time. Interesting!

There were many things we discussed but due to lack of time, this has to suffice for now.

L-R, Host Aishah Sinclair, Datin Frieda Pilus, me, Sariah Wan Jaafar, producer and cohost

Monday, November 26, 2007

Launch of Times @ Pavilion

Times launched its seventh store at The Pavilion on 23 November 2007. I was invited read the chapter on Manglish. I did the proper English bit, she Manglish.

YB Dato Rafidah's parting remark was : "Not only do Malaysians speak like that, Singaporeans too."

I was there early and managed to take a picture of this lovely backdrop before the crowd thickened.

The authors mingling with each other. Chef Wan was comparing his and Siti Nurhaliza's Raya open house.

YB Dato Rafidah tossing the Merdeka Salad whipped up by Chef Wan. We all got to eat the yummy salad later. The core ingredient was so hoon. Mmmm... it was so delicious.

A gift for Dato Rafidah Aziz. Later I bumped into her daughter, Rohaiza, buying a copy of Honk! If You're Malaysian for herself.

It was good to meet up with other writers too. I met Florence Thomas, Amir Muhammad and Tan Twan Eng for the first time. Tan had rushed over from ntv7's The Breakfast Show. He's quite a shy guy but very nice. Also caught up with Lam Seng Fatt, assistant editor at The Star whom I've met once before at Menara Star.

The food was marvellous - plentiful and good to eat - all catered from the cafe located inside the Times. Do pay a visit to Times Pavilion.

The new store was outfitted at a cost of more than RM11 million and showcases more than 200,000 books and 600 magazine titles, said Ng. (Datuk Ng Jui Sia )

He added that books that could not be found in the store can be located at an online kiosk which gives access to four million English book titles.

The 18,000 sq ft store also has exclusive members' lounge, a 50-seat cafe and Wi-fi access.

"It will be a new book shopping experience and we have ordered special trolleys for customers to push around as they do their purchasing," said Ng.

Business Times, 23/11/2007

Temujanji @ Astro Awani

4 November 2007

I was invited to appear as a guest on Temujanji. This is an interactive talk show on Astro Awani, Malaysia’s first and only 24-hour news and information channel presented in Bahasa Malaysia and targeted at the Malay community in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

What differentiates this talk show from others is its interactivity. Here, members of the floor ask the questions. The show was divided into three slots with two breaks in between. In each slot, two members of the audience get to ask a question each. I had brought the roti horns as usual and got them to sound the horn before the question is asked.

A slogan I coined during this show (thanks to Eric Forbes for the inspiration) is 3B : Baca Buku Banyak-banyak or read lots of books. I hope viewers will remember the 3B slogan when they go to bookstores so that they will buy lots of books to read.

With talk show host, Amir Mahmood Razak

Part of the audience comprising of students from High School Kajang. Usually Astro invites MU students for the show but it was exam time in the university.