A trip to BFM

      BFM is a radio station in the Klang area. BFM stands for Business FM.

 

Last Friday, our school organized a trip to BFM. BFM was located at BU8 plaza. We took a car to the place. Before entering the station office, we were amazed by the decoration of the station. We entered the station with excitement, waiting to know what was next.

       We were welcomed by one of the co-worker. We entered their office and into their meeting room or conference room. Their office was flooded with computers and laptops with all brands. Before starting the discussion session, we were provided some snacks from the workers. They were very kind and friendly. Inside the conference room, there were examples of BFM slogans such as:

Battle For Malaysia

Bieber Free Music

Bungalows For Me

Brake Faster Macha

Bribe Free Malaysia

Busy Finding Money

Brainy Female Mentors

Blazing Female Managers

Bold Fearless Mothers

       There were 8 different people speaking to us excluding the founder, Mr. Malek Ali.

Uncle Sharaad – Current Affairs

Mr.Sharaad is one of the morning FM hosts that talks about current affairs. He is currently 48 years old. Current affairs are basically things that are happening now, or facts about the world. Uncle Sharaad said that there are a lot of current affairs to talk about, but he will only choose the ones that people would love to hear the most. Uncle Sharaad said that his responsibility was to first find the facts. After he has collected the facts he would frame it in his own words. After that the facts would be easier to understand. An example is what caused the war in Syria. It was because of some conflict. Uncle Sharaad is on the radio at 6.15 a.m. and 7.30 a.m. from Monday to Saturday.

Uncle Malek Ali – Founder of BFM

Malek Ali was the founder BFM. He started this radio station because there was a need in the radio station world for Business radio station. He started BFM in 2008. Thisradio station was not popular till now. BFM earned money by having advertisement. A 30 seconds advertisement cost RM500 per plays. As BFM is a business station, they frequently interview people such as Tony Fernandes- the AirAsia boss, Lim Guan Eng, and Khalid Ibrahim. Starting a radio station needed 5 million ringgit. It was very costly for them, but they still survived till now.

David Chew

David Chew is the “technical guy” in BFM. He works as one of the host in Morning Run from 6-10am. He is the one who is in charge of the radio system. He told us how radio works. Firstly, the BFM station broadcast the signal from a transmitter to a transmitter tower in Batang Kali. The transmitter send microwave signals to Batang Kali. These microwave signals are strong and can be broadcasted as far as 500km. From Batang Kali transmitter tower, it broadcast the radio out to Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Selangor and Melaka. This type of broadcasting is called Terrestrial Broadcast. FM stands for Frequency Modulation. It costs roughly about 10,000 ringgit a year to own a radio station in Malaysia. Then, he told us how Astro works. Astro studio sends up a signal to a satellite in space. From the satellite, it broadcasts to the whole Malaysia. It uses VHF, very high frequency. Sometimes when it rains there is no signal, because the clouds in the sky blocked them.

Diana Blackburn

Aunty Diana was in charge of the songs played on BFM. She had 5000 song in a playlist. She had a software that sorts out the different types of songs played on the radio.

Aunty Meera

Aunty Meera told us about all the policies and guidelines for radio stations. We were discussing about the Rules and Regulation of radio. She said that since BFM is a business radio station and they talk a lot, they always get in trouble. Aunty Meera told us that they couldn’t talk about politics and other stuff having to do with the government.

Uncle Jason

Uncle Jason is the guy who does all the things to do with the iPad app call the B-side. It’s called e-magazine and is available for Android too. These articles are contributed by other people. There are various types of visual effects since it’s on the iPad. It is also downloadable on Android.

 

       Lastly, we were toured around by one of the workers. He was an old aged guy. He name was Uncle Soon Heng. He brings us to the studio and introduces the equipment in the studio. It was interesting. I am very pleased and happy with this trip because I learned another new knowledge. It was fun and I hoped to join them and spend more time with them next time.       

Music in the Air

One time at our lovely school,

Seating with hearts filled with excited spirits,

Waiting for a person called Rocky,

Having a sibling called Stony.

He came and reached with a bag on his back,

Surprised to see what we had on our hands,

He said well done, and praised us for our obedience,

And began his lesson with a smile on his face.

He said Music, music, music,

We played our musical instruments,

He said stop, stop, stop,

So we stop playing our stuff,

He said listen to my call,

1, 2, 3, we played our instruments,

And from noise came music,

Music filled the air,

Everyone was so happy.

He explained to us the meaning,

Music is an art,

Music is a hobby,

And music is a job.

Music is noise with a rhythm,

To some people,

Music is a lifestyle,

Music is everything.

Today we enjoyed music,

We learnt that music is fun,

Music is a hobby and job,

Music can touch people’s heart,

And music is the best!

 

 

Story of a Myanmar Boy

 

Once in Myanmar, there lived a boy, named Jack. He is eleven years old. He comes from a very poor family. His father lost his life in an accident, while his mom got ill and could not work. He had a brother and a sister. Jack’s family depended on him to live because he was the only one that could work. Where he lived was near the dumpsters of the cities. Every day, he would pick garbage to sell and get money. He would find cans, bottles, used cupboard or reusable stuff to sell. With a little money, he was able to buy food for his family and continue to survive.  

        As time passed, war began in Myanmar. At that time, Jack was fifteen years old. Jack’s mom recovered from her sickness. Month after month, the war went from bad to worse. “It is time,” said Jack’s mom. “I will send you all off,” said Jack’s mom.

       “Where?” exclaimed Jack. Jack’s mom pointed to a country on the map- MALAYSIA.

       “I have decided to send you to America but we have to go through the UN. During the process, you will go to a refugee camp in Malaysia to live because it is unsafe here,” explained Jack’s mom.

      “What about you?” asked Jack.

      “I will stay here till the war ends,” said Jack’s mom. The next day, his mom applied a passport via the United Nations. The UN scheduled them to leave Myanmar next month. 

       A month passed in a blink of an eye. After all the goodbyes to the whole village, Jack and his siblings were sent to the airport. Before they left, Jack gave his mom his last hug. He didn’t want to leave his mom. Tears rolled down from his eyes. It was a touching sight. After the touching sight, Jack left his mom and boarded the plane. In a few minutes, the plane departed from Myanmar, heading towards Malaysia.

       During the journey in the plane, Jack was thinking and dreaming of his mom, while his brother and sister enjoyed themselves. He missed her so much. His dreaming shortened the time, and they reached Malaysia very quickly. In Malaysia, he was identified as a foreigner. He was sent to a center, called United Learning Center. At ULC, some Myanmar refugees stay there before being transferred to the designated countries.

       Jack’s first day at ULC was a little shy and scared while his siblings were happy when they met new friends. When he entered ULC, he met many children that faced the same problem as him. They were all children who either lost one of their parents or both of them. Slowly, he began to make friends and played with them. They played together, ate together, learned together and sleep together. They played and shared their feeling till he had forgotten that it had been a year since he entered ULC. As more Myanmar refugees enter the center, he met more and more new friends. He also comforted those who still missed their parents.

       “It continued till today,” said Jack. As Jack was speaking with me, a group of new Myanmar refugees were transferred in. Jack ran towards them and made friends with them. It was another wonderful sight. An eighteen year old boy making new friends with kids aged seven to fifteen.

       I really hope that one day God will bring Jack and his new friends to Christ. It will be the best sight in Heaven.

IMC Trip :)

        Last Friday, we went to a sport center to train disabled children futsal. We were divided into several groups. The location of the Sport Center was in Subang. The children there were either autistic or down syndrome. The word IMC stands for Individual Mentally Challenged. The journey took forty minutes. During the trip, we talked about the disabled kids.

       We reached the Sport Planet at 10 in the morning. Before training the kids, we did some warm-ups like stretching, bending, jumping and running. After the warm-ups, we entered the futsal field. Same as before, we had to pick a partner. This time I picked Xiang. He was a boy who needed encouragement. We did passing, dribbling and running together.

       The moment I saw him, God told me to pick him as a partner. He was quite shy. He didn’t want anyone to touch nor go near him. But I took the courage and be his partner. During the first few practices, he was quite shy and didn’t do much. So, I did what was told and got him to follow. Slowly, his shyness got better and better. He started to follow what I did. Before the match, I succeeded in convincing him as a friend.

       After training for half an hour, the time had come to play a match. We were divided into two groups and each group consist of nine members.

Peep, the game started.

We snatched the ball from the opponent and started passing around. The ball went high and low. The game became exciting until a goal was scored by one of the disabled kids. The goal filled the whole field with excitement. Our team was happy despite the sad faces on the opposite team.

 Peep, here goes the whistle again as the game starts again.

        As usual, we were told to pass to the disabilities kids. After an exciting first half, the whistle was blown again for the second half. During the break, everyone drank all their water as everyone was tired and sweating. After the break, we continued the second half. It was quite normal until there was a leap hole in the opposite team’s defense. Azrul got the ball and passed the ball to Tyler. Tyler was dribbling till he crossed it to the middle. At that moment, I was there. The ball flew and came in front of me. With a kick, the ball flew and went towards the pole. I was scared and watched. Eventually it hit the pole and bounced out. Phew! The opposite team had been saved by the pole.

       The same chance came after a few minutes. This time Tyler got the ball and passed it to Azrul. With a mighty kick, the ball flew towards the upper post. This time it was worst. The ball flew and hit the crossbar and went out. Phew! The other team had another save. Another chance came. This time Heman got the ball. He passed it to Azrul. Because Victor was blocking, he had no choice but to cross into the middle. Again at that moment, I was there. This time, I kicked with full power. The ball flew and hit the post! But, it hit the right inner post and went in. GOAL! Everybody was happy except the opposite team. The score was 2-0. It became a one-sided game.

       Peep, Peep, Peep, the game ended.

   Even though they lost but we still enjoyed the match. After a tired match, we went back to school. This time I really enjoyed it.

Baking some muffins

  

     Muffins are delicious cakes filled with different flavors. A muffin is a type of semi-sweet cake or quick bread that is baked in portions appropriate for one person. They are similar to cupcakes, although they are usually less sweet and lack icing. The flavors could be blueberries, chocolate chips, poppy seeds, raspberry, cinnamon, pumpkin, nut, lemon, banana, orange, peach, almond, carrot, vanilla and strawberry. But, baking the muffins is not that simple. Firstly, you must have a mixer to mix the ingredients. Secondly, you must have an oven to bake your muffins. Lastly, you must have the time to bake delicious muffins because you can’t bake good muffins in one try.

            Last Friday, my school invited a teacher to teach us how to bake banana muffins. A few days before baking, we were told to bring utilities to school to bake like mixer, chopping board, knife, wooden spoon and mixing bowl. We brought the items that we were told. The ingredients were provided. The ingredients were butter, castor sugar, self-rising flour, yeast, sodium bicarbonate, banana and 3 small eggs.

            There were 6 groups for baking, so we had to split up. First, we measured the butter and cut the remaining 150g into a bowl for later use. Then, we measured 80g of flour and 115g of self-rising flour. Next, we mash the banana into paste.

Firstly, we separate the egg white and beat it up till it was firm and put it aside. Then, we beat the butter and sugar in a mixer till it became fluffy. After the egg white became fluffy, we added the remaining egg york into the mixture. Next, we add the banana into the mixture slowly, after that we add the flour and egg white into to the mixture. After adding everything, the mixture contains everything and will be mixing for another 5 minutes. After beating for 5 minutes, the mixture is complete. We get a mixing bowl and pour the mixture into muffin cups slowly. As decoration, we sliced the banana and put them on top of the mixture. Lastly, we preheated the oven for 45 minutes in the temperature of 180 Celsius. Then, we put the muffins in to bake. It had to bake for an hour.

In the meantime, we washed and clean up the place for the second group to come. Since mother’s day was right around the corner, our teachers told us to make cards for our mothers. We made beautiful cards. An hour passed in a blink of an eye. It was time to check our muffins. We ran down at the speed of light and saw our delicious muffins come out of the oven. We were asked to put them into a bag and paste the card we made as a mother’s day gift.

We had a great time baking with that teacher and gave him some gifts. Before he left, I asked for the recipe of the banana muffins and he gave one, then he left. I appreciate this lesson and will continue to use this recipe to make muffins.

A Day in the Stadium

A scorching day in the stadium,

 

With some sporty sportsperson that love to run,

 

Dashing in the sun with a pair of running shoes,

 

Sweat starts to flow from my cheeks to my toes,

 

I was sweaty, I was hungry, I was down on my toes.

 

 

Then came the coach with a bottle in his hands,

 

He said, drink up and stand on the sand,

 

I stood up with a tired body,

 

Started to run 300 yards,

 

With all my strength, I completed the run,

 

But my body now was full of ache.

 

 

Later, I ran and jumped on the sand,

 

I was practicing a sport on the sand,

 

I passed this event and proceeded to my friends,

 

We sang a song while jogging a whole round,

 

While we drank some cups of tasty juice.

 

 

After the run we kicked some footballs,

 

Before we started we were warned to stop playing,

 

But we didn’t listen and continued to play,

 

The coach was furious when we saw us play,

 

He banned us all from playing again.

 

 

We were all exhausted and ready to leave,

 

We left the place with our sweaty bodies,

 

We sat in the car to leave the stadium,

 

And went back home and bathed ourselves,

 

Then we lay on our beds and fell into deep sleep.

A Trip to Yakult Factory

 

 

     We went to visit the Yakult factory at Seremban. The journey to the place was quite long. It took us about an hour to reach there. When we reached there, we entered the huge factory. While everyone was inside, the tour guide explained how Yakult was being process.

Yakult is a probiotic drink made from Lactobacillus bacteria. It was created by Japanese scientist Minoru Shirota. Yakult claims that the name is obtain from jahurto, an older form of jogurto, the Turkish word for "yoghurt".

First, we visit the Seed room. Skim milk, glucose, sugar and water are the main ingredients. Skim milk powder is mixed with sugar, glucose and filtered, sterilized water to make a sweet milky solution. After the ingredients were being mixed, they are sterilized at a high temperature for a short time, destroying any bacteria that may be present. The solution is then transferred to a 6,500-litre culture tank via a closed system of pipes and valves. The bacteria that makes Yakult comes from Japan and stored in the seed tank to multiply. The temperature of the room is 37 Celsius. The purpose of the seed tank is to breed Yakult-Lactic acid bacteria.

Next, we went to the culture room. The temperature of the culture tank is reduced to 37°C and live Lactobacillus strain from the seed tank is added. The solution is allowed to ferment for about one week until the number of Lactobacillus bacteria reaches an ideal concentration. The concentrate is transferred to a 12,000-litre mixing and storage tank. The tank is chilled to around 2° C. Sterilized flavors, syrup solution, vitamins and calcium are added to the concentrate. Prior to bottling, the concentrate is diluted with filtered, sterile water.

Later, we went to the Moulding room. This is where Yakult bottles are made. Also, Yakult made their bottles by themselves. There are three injection moulding machines. They make 7,000 bottles per hour and the temperature is 250 Celsius. The bottles are made from polystyrene. The bottles are then transferred by a tunnel to another place.

Then, we went to the Clean room. This room is where they do microbiological testing. This room is an air tight room. The outside air will pollute the reading and only bacteria are involved. After that, we went to the Quality Control room(QC). In this place, they check about the quality of the factories production.

Next, we went to the Bottle filing and packaging room. The bottles are wrapped with individual bottle labels. Then, they are filled with Yakult, capped with a foil lid, sealed and transferred along the conveyor belt to the packaging facility. The machine can fill 36,000 of bottles per hour. Before being packed, the bottles are being attached with a straw. Then, single bottles of Yakult are sorted into groups of five and shrink-wrapped in polypropylene film. Ten "5-packs" are grouped together and wrapped again in polyethylene film and then heat shrunk, forming a 'carton' of 50 Yakult bottles. In average, they produce 7,200 packs per hour and 720 cartons per hour.

Lastly, we went to the Refrigeration Room. Finished products are kept refrigerated before delivery to stores. In total, the factory produces 322,000 bottles of Yakult per day. According to research, there are 30 billion live bacteria living in each Yakult drink. Also, there are only 70 workers in the factory due to computerize system.

This trip is really interesting. After this trip, I realized that Yakult drink is good for health and I will start drinking it daily.