Producing Little Shakespeares

        When time permits, I love to introduce acrostic poems in my classes. And I always include at least a session of acrostic poems in my English Language Society meetings. An acrostic poem is a poem where certain letters in each line spell out a word or phrase. More often than not, the very first letter of each line is used to spell out the message. 

As April draws to its end,
Perhaps it's time to 
Reflect on how much we've achieved
In these four months and
Learn from mistakes made.

        Students love it, especially, when I get them to write acrostic poems of either their own names or names of their classmates. Needless to say, I have to emphasise that only positive things get to be featured.

        But in the most recent English Language Society meeting, I decided to tweak the writing a little after coming across the idea in the Internet. I divided the members into four groups : 2 groups were named the Optimist Clubs while the remaining 2 were members of the Pessimist Clubs. Captains from each group came forward to pick a topic, which was then used to pen an acrostic poem. 

The rule : the Optimist Club can only describe their topic in everything positive and the Pessimist Club is only allowed to depict their topic in a negative light!

The results of their labour :
1.   The Optimist Club said 
Examinations are great
Xtra revision to reinforce our information
A plus will be claimed
Moms will be happy
Imagine a world with smart people
Nothing would stop me
A new hope is waiting
To be achieved
I will be the best!
Our knowledge will be tested
Never be last
Search for your standard!

2.   The Pessimist Club said
Exams are useless
Xtremely hard and boring
Always study until midnight
Mom scolds me every day
I hate exams
Nobody likes exams
A is impossible to get
Terrifying questions everywhere
Immensely suffocating
Oh my God!
Nobody welcomes exams
Sad life of every student.

3.   The Optimist Club said
Girlfriends
I have a gem
Ready to be by my side
Let's go on a trip
Far away from the busy city
Resting on your shoulders
Inhale the beautiful sunset view
Everlasting
Never ending
Dreams come true.

4.   The Pessimist Club said
Great without them
Incredibly selfish and demanding
Respect nothing
Lack of sympathy
Furious when wishes are not met
Retarded
Idiotic
Extremely impossible to reason with
No privacy for boys
Dreadful to meet.

       

Little poets hard at work

At the end of the session, I have not churned out little Shakespeares but at least, my charges appeared to have enjoyed writing the poems.

Filling Our Tummies at Tummy Bowl

      Duty beckoned and hubby had a work-related dinner to attend. Having to fend for myself, plans to dine with two of my colleagues were duly hatched. Upon the recommendation of another colleague who regularly sniffs out noteworthy eateries, we proceeded to Tummy Bowl after school. 

Tummy Bowl is located at 4, Persiaran Greentown 8, 30450 Ipoh, Perak.

      Located in Greentown, Tummy Bowl is a new kid on the block. I rarely head to this part of town so it was an eye-opener to me to spot many new restaurants. I wonder how many can stand the test of time, though.
       Tummy Bowl brings us closer to Hawaii as it's all about the Polynesian hype of poke bowls. For the uninitiated, the poke bowl food trend is taking the world by storm. A classic poke bowl would start with a base layer of rice followed by seasonings and sauces, and finally capped off with a variety of toppings. The word "poke" means "to slice or cut" in Hawaiian and it's pronounced as "poh-kay". People with indecision may want to stay away from poke bowl though, as part of the fun is choosing the ingredients to customise your food!
        Here at Tummy Bowl, patrons pick up a form from the counter and scrutinise the menu to build their bowl.
Step 1 : Pick your base.
Step 2 : Pick 2 sauces.
Step 3 : Pick 4 sides and unlimited fresh toppings.
Step 4 : Pick your protein.
And there's an optional step of adding on house specialties, which would incur additional charges.

Obtain your order form here

Customise your poke bowl from this order form

       

A tempting array of cold pressed juices

Salad bar?

Intently packing our bowls

For my very first poke bowl, I opted for pesto rice to be drizzled with a tangy Lime Aioli sauce and a fruity Mango Coconut sauce. I then called for onions, corn, cherry tomato and pickled ginger to accompany my rice. Despite fresh toppings being unlimited, I suppressed any inclination for kiasu-ness by only choosing 4 : scallion, ebiko (fish roe), wasabi and fried garlic. And the star of the bowl (the protein) was Teriyaki Unagi (freshwater eel). Prices at Tummy Bowl are determined by the protein picked. So my bowl of Teriyaki Unagi was priced at RM26.90 and I had to add another RM2.00 for my rice to be tossed with pesto.

My appetising meal

Chose to rehydrate with mango, orange and blueberry juice

My poke bowl of Teriyaki Unagi

Lots of nuts and seeds in this Shoyu Salmon poke bowl

Almonds and avocado among other treasures in this Salmon Flakes poke bowl

My "damage" of the evening

        Looking at a poke bowl, it's reminiscent of a salad bowl. Those who know me well can testify that I generally shy away from salads. But this poke bowl had me ooh-ing and aah-ing throughout dinner. It was incredibly delicious and I finished every single morsel in no time. My fellow diners were  caught up in conversation and took a little longer to finish their meal. But they too agreed that food at Tummy Bowl is certainly yummy.