I Have Won A Prize From Albert's Blog!

Last Monday, in the midst of marking my students' final test papers, I took a short break to temporarily release myself from the boredom. I started to surf friends' blogs. Out of the eight which were linked to mine, only two were quite active.

Although Albert P's often updated his "Albert World of Physics" which was meant to increase his students' interest in physics and to help them cope with exams, I seldom spent time reading it and never left any comment.

Last month, an entry of Albert's finally attracted my attention. He was going to give a prize to one who could answer his four questions by filling in six blanks each with the correct word. Living in the Internet world where having access to all kinds of information and knowledge is within seconds, it seemed to be an easy task. At first I was only interested to see how tight the competition would be among his students whom I supposed were his target participants.

After three weeks, two students responded but unfortunately none of them answered all the questions correctly. I began to be tempted to participate in the quiz. However, since Albert had mentioned that he would reveal the answers after ten students answered, I remained silent.

Another week passed. When I visited his blog again last Monday, I noticed that there were no more respondents. This time, I decided to give it a try as an outsider reader.

Based on the previous answers provided by his two students, I was certain that the fifth blank was the one which caused the most headache. I had roughly the answer in Chinese, but giving the exact translation in English was another challenge. I was hesitating between two words. After some consideration, I posted all my answers via the comment.

That afternoon, I happened to have a meeting with Albert at Sis Annie's house to discuss urgent issues related to the Calvary Care Home (CCH) children. I did not say a word regarding my participation in his quiz. That evening, after I sent him an SMS to remind some Bible verses, he replied, "...I am now in front of my blog. You get all answers correct. Your prize is coming soon."

Having received the confirmation from this guru cemerlang (brilliant teacher) in physics, I immediately considered myself a pelajar cemerlang (brilliant student) even though there was nothing to be boastful to have defeated his Form 4 students. In fact, when I was a science student in school, while I could daydream during the maths and chemistry classes and yet scored good marks, I was not able to understand physics very well by studying on my own.

Albert added to my delight by praising that I was an A+ student. Little did he know that despite my former physics teacher's high esteem of me, I had dropped this science paper during the Chinese Independent Schools' National Unified Examinations for fear that the possible low grade might be a sore in my result slip.

The next thing I thought was the prize. I imagined two scenarios. As a teacher, he might smilingly hand over to me a physics workbook written and autographed by himself, and then encourage me to learn more in the subject. That would rather be a torture to me... The next day, I quickly expressed my "worry" in his blog. As a blog friend, he might give me a treat at his forever favorite Johnny's together with Matthew. Having taken the same menu three times at that restaurant, I would not be very keen to eat those familiar dishes.

I did not see Albert until yesterday. In the afternoon, we brought four CCH boys to Popular bookstore at Jaya Jusco. He asked me what I would like to receive as a reward. It would be nice if all the competition organizers consulted the winners' preference before they gave them the prizes! I simply left the decision to him.

I was reading Spencer Johnson's best selling book "Who Moved My Cheese?" when I later saw Albert walking towards the counter, carrying a transparent box which contained a pink object and trying to hide it from my sight with a chuckle. He was behaving like a mouse who had just discovered a piece of cheese and wanted to keep it to himself. When all of us came out from the bookstore, he passed to me a plastic bag with the "cheese" inside.

"This is your prize."

He had got the idea from our lunch at CCH earlier. I immediately liked the gift, laughed at it and suggested that we held a prize giving ceremony on the spot! The witnesses of the two-minute event were the CCH boys and passers-by who must be wondering what was happening to these two excited Chinese fellows in white photographed by an Indian boy who was Luke.

To be crowned as a princess, you do not need to marry a prince. Just participate and win in Albert's quiz!