A new chapter...

My proud victory!

2010-07-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

World Cup 2010 has just come to an end, and so has the World Cup challenge organised by staff and students in the institute. Participants had to face two challenges. The first was to predict the score of each game, while the second was to predict the qualifying teams in each round all the way to the final.

There were around 40 participants... from students to postdocs to professors... and I was ranked at 7th in the score-prediction challenge! Not bad for someone who doesn't know much about football, huh? :p

As for the second challenge, well, guess what?!

I have this sitting proudly in my office:

Yes.......

...because.....

....I was at the.....

*drumroll please*

....ahem...

BOTTOM place!!!

The winner managed to score 140 points in this challenge while I only managed a mere 18 points.... how I wished I had the psychic octopus :p

Had supported Argentina all the way..... too bad they lost to Germany....

Anyway, I was awarded with that cute trophy for my 'victory'.... some of my labmates are quite envious of my trophy! :p

Guess who 'won' the bottom place in the score-prediction challenge?!

It was 'won' by another Malaysian student!

Yes, we are definitely dominating there. Well, now we know why we have never qualified for the world cup :p

My disrupted 'holiday'

2010-05-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

It's gonna be a hung parliament! That's the most talked about news in the UK today, after an exciting general election yesterday. In case you're wondering what a hung parliament is - I only just learned the term a few days ago - it means there is no party with majority seats. Only a marginal win. Sounds familiar? It's 308 all over again...

Not that I am familiar with the political scene here.... one of the reasons why I did not vote. Yes, I'm eligible to vote here because I'm considered a resident and I'm from a Commonwealth country. Upon learning that, a British labmate asked me if he could vote in the next Malaysian general election....haha I have no idea...

But the main reason I did not register to vote was that I was not supposed to be around! I was supposed to be holidaying somewhere in Europe! But as luck would have it, thanks to the Eyjafjallajökull - pronounced as “AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul”- volcanic ash (or talcum powder from Iceland as someone put it), a friend's flight from Malaysia was cancelled and so we had to cancel all our plans! We had booked all the flights and accommodation..... and a 2-days-1-night Highland tour!

Luckily, I managed to find a labmate to go on the tour with me last minute.

It was an interesting, relaxing and informative trip. We travelled comfortably in a 16-seat coach with only 10 of us, while listening to the history and stories of the Highlands as told by our tour guide-cum-driver. Of course, the history of the Highlands could not run away from the name William Wallace, made famous world-wide by the movie 'Braveheart'. It's one of my favourite movies, if you still remember this. But I'd got it all wrong :p

While telling the story, our tour guide kept mentioning the movie, especially the incorrect parts which were only Hollywood's script to 'add to the flavour'.

For one, the real fact was not as romantic as the movie :p
The fight started because of some fish that he caught, not his fiancee.... though the English soldiers did capture his fiancee afterwards.

He did not have any affair with the princess before he died. He was not betrayed by Robert The Bruce, but by someone else.

Even the most dramatic part of the movie was not a fact. That he shouted the word FREEDOM before he died was impossible, because he was tortured and his mouth was stuffed with his you-know-what after he was castrated... our tour guide told us in detail how he was tortured, which was not shown in the movie... my friend was nauseated after listening to all the details.

Enough of all the facts.... kinda lazy to write... pictures say a thousand words.....

The graveyard where William Wallace's mother was buried

Doune Castle, as taken from the side....

Hamish and my friend...

The grave of Rob Roy (the Robin Hood of Scotland)

A mini waterfall

Glen Coe

Uruquart Castle, taken while we were taking a cruise on Loch Ness in a boat equipped with an ultrasonic radar... but no sign of Nessie :p

Uruquart Castle

An old house from the 18th century... where we could see for ourselves how people lived in the 1700s....

We were allowed to go inside the house where we sat huddled in front of a burning fire to keep ourselves warm (just like how it was in the 1700s) while listening to stories from the past...

We also visited the Culloden Battlefield and many other interesting places. Unfortunately, my two batteries and my friend's ran low after a few hours on the first day even though we charged them the day before! Thus, we only managed to take a few pictures and nothing after that.

Just to compensate for not writing for so long, here are some old (well, only a few weeks' old) pictures:

A nice stroll in the hermitage one warm Saturday (the warmest since I arrived, so warm so that I had to remove my outer jacket!)

Saw a nice stream of water....

and saw something funny......

I would not dream of parking there :p

Felt like taking off my shoes and jumping into the water!

A walk in the woods

Passed by a sheep farm.... this one came near me when he saw me approaching! But after a while, and finally realizing I was not going to feed him anything, he ignored me and continued grazing hehe...

A stable

Went to the Royal Botanic Garden one week before that:

A Chinese-themed garden... there were many coins in the water! Make a wish! :p

A glasshouse with tropical garden inside

Chipmunk?

The male chasing after the female... or was it the other way round for these birds?

For the love of our nations.... or maybe not...

2010-03-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

My Swedish labmate walked into the lab this morning and told me some Malaysians were going to burn the Swedish flag today.

A French labmate, who overheard our conversation, suggested that me and him should take a picture of us hugging each other and post it on the internet, as a peacemaking sign :p

She then asked what we would do if war erupted between the two nations....

Swedish: I might have to go into war...

Malaysian: Do you have national service in your country?

Swedish: Well, they have the right to force me to take a gun and go into war....

French: But they cannot force you to shoot someone.... or maybe they'd just shoot you instead... hahaha...

Swedish: Actually, I'd probably take my family and run away...

Malaysian: Haha... I'd probably do the same....

Disclaimer: It was never the intention of this post to take any sides. Never was there any part in the conversation (including the part not posted) that supported or agreed with the action, reaction or response of those involved in the controversy or the demonstration.

Same notion, different nation

2010-02-22T03:55:00.000-08:00

The VAT (value-added tax) in the UK has just been increased, or maybe I should say reverted back to 17.5 %.

I was actually surprised that there did not seem to be much on this issue in the news. I mean, if that was to happen in Malaysia, it would have been much publicised and there would be much noise and protest.

We are talking about a country which does not have any real form of identification for its citizens besides the passport. I asked the locals here and they gave me quite a big reaction to the idea of having an identity card system because it is likened to being spied by the government! It is just unacceptable here! Therefore, I had expected them to protest real hard on a tax increase.

However, when I mentioned this to a Swedish friend, he told me that in his country, political parties that proposed tax increase were usually the crowd favourite and would eventually win in the election.

Why?

Because tax increase means improvement in the administrative system delivery and better services and facilities. Everything that goes in comes out.

Guess there is still a lot to be learnt by our government.

Something out of everyone

2010-02-03T12:57:00.000-08:00

The movie Avatar has sparked off many interesting conversations during lunchtime and in the blogosphere. It seems to bring out something in everyone....

The Interpreter

...this is actually a movie about self searching... about a human who find his true self in another form...
- Bamboo
(have to mention you again :p)

I think it's about being given a second chance in life... to do the simple things (like running?) which are otherwise impossible in his real life...
- Me

It seems to me that he's running away from problems and reality...
- A labmate

What I have to say:

I've said what I have to say.

The Scientist

Did you notice how Sigourney Weaver held the micro-pipette in one scene? She's doing it all the wrong way! She should have faked out as a scientist better!
- A labmate, who happens
to be a biologist

What I have to say:

I actually did not notice that. Seldom notice such details. Anyway, if you want to know, it was the scene where she was at the background 'conducting some experiment' while Jake was doing some recording.

The football fan

I'd rather watch football in 3D!
- A male labmate

What I have to say:

World Cup 2010 is just a few months away! Oleeeeee Ole Ole Ole.....

The Movie Maniac

A labmate's boyfriend is pleading with her to go watch Avatar on IMAX with him ...... again.... for the third consecutive week!

What I have to say:

After a gap of 12 years, James Cameron has once again created what I call the I-watched-it-20-times-in-the-cinema-and-cried-each-time Leonardo DiCaprio effect..... only, this time, on guys!

The Simon Cowell

Good.... but not great....
- ...

What I have to say:

Nah. No one said that. I made that up :p

Earthians vs Pandorans

2010-01-31T03:13:00.000-08:00

Finally watched Avatar... on 3D!

I've never watched any movie in 3D format before - 4D or 3D motion master doesn't count. If there ever should be any movie that just HAD to be watched on 3D, Avatar would be it.

The forest on Pandora, or Hometree as it was known in the movie, looked amazing. The trees, leaves, plants, etc. looked so lively. The flying and floating creatures looked nice on 3D too. I especially like the 'floating jellyfish'.

After reading the review written by a friend, I had doubt on this movie at first :p

As it's a free-seating cinema and my friend and I went in just on time, we had to sit quite near the screen. Because of that, and the fact that the 3D glasses kept falling down - I wonder if that's because I wore it on top of my short-sighted glasses or because my head is just too small? :p - I felt kinda sleepy in the first 10 minutes or so.

I had to practically hold the 3D glasses throughout the movie! Anyway, after I got used to it and the movie started to become interesting, I really enjoyed it.

However, I agreed with Bamboo that you could already figure out the plot, the good guys and the bad guys 10 minutes into the movie. And the movie somehow reminded me of Pocahontas. My friend thought the same too.

I disagree on calling the Pandora inhabitants Aliens though. It all took place on Planet Pandora, so if there ever should be anyone labelled as alien, it would be the human (the Sky People or dreamwalker as it was known by the Pandorans).

Oh, and I must say that the Pandorans do have nice figures... curvacious, slim waist and a lithe body :p

Secret to eternal youth?

2010-01-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

I know.

It's pathetic.

After searching hi-and-lo, I finally found some of the clothes I was looking for.... in the kids' section.

Certain international brands do offer small size that fits me.

But most often, their smallest or even those in the petite sections are still too large for me!

Anyway, in the kids' section (which are meant for those between 7 - 16 years old), the sizes are categorized according to height and age. And those in my range of height actually fit me easily!

And yes, they are meant for 11 -12 years olds :p

Of course there are still some that are too tight for me in certain areas. After all, girls that age have not reached puberty yet :p

Sometimes, there are benefits that come with shopping in the kids' section. I actually bought a pair of shoes for almost half of what adults would have to pay cuz my size was categorized under the junior size!

Chronologically, I'm (more than) double the age, but seeing that I'm biologically only 19, and I'm now wearing clothes meant for 11-12, have I discovered the secret to eternal youth or what? :p

Lift.... or elevator?

2010-01-11T12:12:00.001-08:00

Ever heard of this joke about the lift and the elevator?

Americans insist that it should be called an elevator because it was invented by an American.

British insist that it should be called a lift.... because they invented the English language! :p

Which one do you use?

I use both, whichever that comes to mind on the spur of the moment.

To me, it's just a word used to represent that electricity-driven box that carries us up and down... as long as others know what I refer to, it should be fine. Just a way of communication.

And that's the way I look at all the silly attacks regarding the use of the word 'Allah'.

Why can't everybody just be more open-minded and look at it as a mere language interpretation? If there ever should be a war (of words), it should be among linguists, not the so-called pious people.

Or am I witnessing the setting off of a new trend where special words would be patented in the future?

In any case, if THE CREATOR is in your heart, HE WILL BE no matter what you call HIM. It's just like how some people give cute or stupid nicknames to their dear family members, but the nicknames make them all the more dearest.

On the other hand, if you do not have HIM in your heart, what's the point of all the sweet words 'hanging from your mouth'.

Even a husband who calls his wife Honey or Darling could be cheating outside :p

New Year, New Friend, New Resolution

2010-01-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

Joined a secondary school senior, his coursemates and their friends to the Hogmanay (a Scottish word for the last day of the year) Street Party on New Year's Eve.

Quite an international group as there were 11 of us, from 6 countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, California, Sweden and the Netherlands.

A group picture - some had wandered away somewhere - taken at the entrance to the Street Party

The festival was divided into different categories, with different ticket prices. There were a Garden Concert and a street party. The whole street was decorated with colourful lights on trees and there were stalls selling food, drinks and merchandise by the roadside. There were two big screens at both ends of the street, with spotlight (which reminded me of Gotham City :p) and loud music with guest deejays. The street was turned into a concert venue.

The screen at the centre taken from afar....

It was crowded. People pushed from all directions and it was thus difficult to move around. Some people sat on their friend's shoulders and their legs kept kicking at us accidentally. As I was too short, I could not see what happened on the big screen. A stranger (jokingly, I think) offered his shoulders for me :p

There was a small firework display (an appetiser :p) every hour counting down to 12.

People started singing along to the songs and dancing so we tried to join in. Unfortunately, halfway through the party, there were some technical problems with the screen and sound system. Some people booed, friends started complaining (guess there would not be a second time for us next year!), but worst of all, there was this drunken man who kept stumbling and stepped on my foot once!

The only highlight was the counting down and the fireworks display, with the castle set as the background. No, I did not take any pictures as I wanted to enjoy the moment :p

After that people held hands together to sing along to Auld Lang Syne. We left after that and decided to go for a drink. Most pubs were crowded and so we went separate ways as some wanted to attend their friends' new year party.

The best time of the night was when three of us (two Malaysians and one Hongkie) went for a drink on our own.

I find friendship with a Hongkie to be really interesting. Since we had the same Chinese root and both places used to be colonised by the British, we shared the same sentiment towards certain nations. But most of all, we spoke the same language that was Cantonese, grew up listening to Cantopop, watching Hong Kong film and TVB drama series, and had the same 'frequency' and sense of humour. The bonding was so easy (even easier compared to some fellow Malaysian Chinese!), he could pass as a fellow Kamparian! In fact when he first introduced himself, he tried to trick me into believing that he's a Kamparian and I actually believed him. But one thing betrayed him. If you have been watching Hong Kong films and drama series, you would have noticed that when they insert certain English words into their Cantonese, they always pronounce it in a certain 'melody'. And I had thought it only happened on TV :p

Before the night ended, we made some new year resolutions...... to watch some of the must-watch films that we had missed :p

P.S. Went to Glasgow for the weekend and came back to find the city covered in snow all over again!

My Christmas Diary

2009-12-28T15:03:00.000-08:00

Had my first proper Christmas celebration this year.

In the past, Christmas used to be just another public holiday for me... and some nice shows on TV! :p

But this year, I spent it in a slightly different manner. The celebration started quite early, with lots of dinner, party, panto, etc. taking place before everybody left home for the long break.

As people left one by one and wished everyone 'Merry Christmas', it felt so nice.... just like when we leave home for our CNY. Kinda miss that feeling....

Here's my Christmas celebration diary:

---------------------------------------

11th Dec: Institute Christmas Lunch

The Christmas Lunch took place at Jimmy Chung's, a Chinese buffet restaurant. They had it there every year. I wonder if it's opened by a Malaysian Chinese as there were satay and curry on the menu.

Before the lunch started, we were presented with our Christmas gift, from our Secret Santa! A few weeks before that, everyone had to draw a name from a box and we had to buy a gift for that person. The recipient would never know who the gift was from. The catch was that the gift must be something silly and not useful!

I got a really big box. And there's a paper sticking on the gift.

Look what was printed overleaf!

Lyrics to a song....

Let's zoom in for a better look...

Do you recognize what song that is? I did not at first. But when a labmate hummed it to me, I recognised it right away. Here's a fun version of that song:

I unwrapped my gift to find this box....

A box of cereal!

But, no, that's not what I got. Instead, I found this inside....

A reindeer headband...... I wore it throughout the lunch hahahaa.....

... and this....

Plasticine! Hahaha.... I've never played with plasticine since primary school. Some received small teddy bear, chocolate, banner, mini table-tennis, etc.... As people started playing with their new toys (yes, even playing table tennis in the restaurant!), I started playing with mine....

Made this in the restaurant...

Made some afterwards.

Aren't they cute? :p

The party did not end after lunch. Instead, we went to the German Christmas Market. There were many colourful and brightly lit stalls selling food, liquor, decorative stuffs, etc. Had a taste of German malt wine.

It was around 4pm when we left the market, and that's when the real night started. We went pub crawling! I was told it's a very common activity here. Going from pub to pub, stopping in every pub for a drink and a chat before moving to the next one. A list was prepared earlier, and there were altogether 8 -10 pubs in the list!

We spent about 45 mins in every pub. Everybody ordered (alcoholic) drinks. I skipped from ordering sometimes, or ordered fruit juice. I wonder how they coped with so much liquid and alcohol in a few hours! Anyway, some pubs were so crowded we had to stand in the middle, once even blocking the entrance to the men's toilet! :p

After the 6th or 7th pub, it was already after 8pm. People started going separate ways, so my labmates and I went for dinner on our own while the rest continued 'crawling'.

13th Dec: Lucia's Day

It was Lucia's Day on the 13th. It's a Swedish event that marks the opening of the Christmas season in Sweden. A labmate organised a small gathering at her place, where everyone prepared a little food for sharing.

We had Lussekatter, also known as St. Lucia bun prepared by a Swedish labmate. Everybody brought something from their home-country. We had Spanish tortilla, English quiche pie, French 'shoo' (I'm not sure how it's spelt, but that's the way it's pronounced to me) and some snacks.

Wonder what I prepared?

Well, I prepared 'tong yuen' (glutinous rice balls in ginger syrup) since it's almost Winter Soltice!

Unfortunately, I could not find glutinous rice flour last minute and I did not have time to search for it. In the end, I bought other type of flour. And the balls did not turn out that well (of course I warned them in advance that it was not the right ingredient, so as to do justice to the right taste of 'tong yuen') :p

At least the ginger syrup turned out well and they loved it :p

25th Dec: Christmas Dinner

On the day itself, I attended the Orphan Christmas Dinner.

Nope, it's not organised by the orphanage. A friend's coursemate organised it for those of us who did not go home during the festive season, and thus 'orphan'.

We arrived at the host's flat at around 1.30 pm.

A Christmas tree surrounded by gifts

The 'dinner' started at around 2 pm when we had our first starter, followed by the main course.

Look at all the food we had! Those were only part of the dinner as the table was too small!

I'm not good at remembering names of food, so.....

Potato pie - the host's own recipe

Potatoes

Some pancakes....

Ham

We also had stuffed turkey, sausages, vegetables, malt wine with berries, fruit juice, tea, and some liquor....

After the main course, we popped our Christmas crackers!

My first Christmas cracker

There were three things inside. A paper crown, a card with joke and trivia printed on it, and a small gift.

And the gift in my cracker was...

A pencil sharpener! :p

We took turn reading out the joke and trivia on our card.

By that time, some of the main course was already digested and made way for more food! So we had our dessert....

Quite a lot for dessert!

We had chocolate with fillings, chocolate truffle, grapes, dumpling with raisin, bacon and sausages, dates, olive, crackers and a variety of cheese (cheddar, goat cheese, German, French, Italian.... sorry I don't remember :p)

By the time we finished eating, it's already past 7pm! Non-stop dinner for 5 hours!

We exchanged gift and I got a box of Thornton's sweets.

My Christmas gift

And of course a group photo....

It felt like a real family Christmas dinner. Had a nice and memorable white Christmas!

But the snow started melting a few days ago! Oh no! There goes my snowman, snow angel, snow fight....... patches of green have reappeared on the white.... and it was really slippery that I almost slipped and fell many a time....

However, there was a light snow today.... and as the cold winter continues, maybe there's still hope for my snowman :p

It's gonna be a White Christmas!

2009-12-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve! And it looks like I'm gonna have a White Christmas this year!

I was told that it'd been many years since they had experienced any white Christmas here as the snow usually melt quickly.

I guess I'm lucky this year, and in the coming new year!

It's amazing how the scene in the same spot can change so dramatically, in a span of a few weeks!

Scene #1:

Last month

Last week

Yesterday

Scene #2:

Last month

Last week

Yesterday

Saw some kids playing in the snow...

Plan to have my first snow fight, make my first snowman, snow angel, etc. soon......

In the mean time, it's nice to make my first.....

.... footprints in the snow.....

Merry Christmas!

From AM to PM

2009-12-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

9 am to 12 pm

The last I checked, it still meant morning... before noon....

So when I received an invitation from a Greek friend to attend his name day party (an event to celebrate on a particular day of the year associated with one's given name) held on that particular time of the day, I woke up early, went to buy a gift, and took a bus to his place.

The house seemed to be dark and quiet when I arrived.

I knocked. His brother opened the door. He looked at me strangely - we'd never met before. I asked for my friend.

My friend appeared at the door.... wearing a T-shirt and... well, still in his sleep-wear...

Obviously, he had just waken up... to be exact, my arrival woke him up...

Yup, the party was supposed to be in the evening.... 9 PM... not 9 AM... :p

I know. I should have clarified the time with him earlier... it's not as if I did not feel strange when I first looked at the time on the invitation... but... I thought... well, you know.... cultural differences, Greek-style... that maybe it's really celebrated in the morning :p ... not that I knew what a name-day celebration was prior to receiving the invitation....

I passed him the gift, apologised many times, and quickly left!

I feel so so so (x n) embarrassed! I know, these things happen.... in movies...... in the books..... but I never thought it'd happen in REAL LIFE.... to ME!

On the other hand, I could not help laughing whenever I think of it... I wonder what the Greek brothers must be thinking.... crazy strange Malaysian, partying in the morning..... :p

Anyway, if you're wondering..... I did go back later that day to attend the real party...

At 9 PM.

P.S. When I checked mails later, I received an email sent from him to every guest, apologising over his mistake to THE ONES who thought it's 9 AM. I do wonder if there ever was 'THE ONES'... or just ONE :p

A wet visit

2009-11-29T08:24:00.000-08:00

It's St. Andrew's Day on the 30th of Nov, which is the National Day of Scotland. Many historical sites and tourist attractions are open for free this weekend. After some search on the internet, I found a site only about 20 minutes' walk from my place!

The Craigmillar Castle!

Should have gone there on Sat as the day was nice. At least there's sunshine. But I only found out about the festival on Sat afternoon, so I made plans to go on Sun morning. Unfortunately, Sunday started off being gloomy, windy and rainy. But that's so typical of the weather here. After battling for some time, I decided to go anyway.

A narrow two-lane road going slightly uphill led to the castle. It was drizzling and cars from both lanes were whizzing past. There were moments when I kinda regretted my decision and I thought, it had better be worth it.

Arrived to find some families and couples there. Kinda relieved. Well, at least I was not the only crazy person to visit in this weather :p

Whenever I think of castles, I think of intimidating high towers that are strong and manifest power. So that was my expectation. But Craigmillar Castle was not as I expected. At least not compared to Edinburgh Castle. From afar, it looked small and not tall.

The Craigmillar Castle from afar

A closer look

Arthur's Seat could be seen on the way to the main gate of the castle

The lane to the main gate

An introductory sign beside the main gate

The main gate into the castle compound

The east wing of the castle... with the entrance to the castle at the centre

A courtyard could be seen upon entering from the main entrance

The two big trees guarding the main entrance in the courtyard

There were altogether five levels, all connected with spiral staircase, naturally. Prison on the basement. Chambers, dining halls and kitchens on each of the upper floors.

Spiral staircase

The fireplace in a dining hall on the ground floor

A corridor on the first floor looking down to the basement hall

There was a rooftop on the second floor, which looked out to a nice view. Unfortunately, strong wind was blowing and there was drizzle. I dared not walked near the edge of the rooftop. But I still managed to catch a glimpse of the nice view.

Somewhere near the edge of the rooftop...

The rooftop... all wet due to the rain

One of the corner on the rooftop

There was a P-shaped pond (which had dried out) at the back of the castle. The 'P' symbolized Preston, the family that first owned the castle. This picture was taken from the rooftop.

The P-shaped pond... too bad the gate was locked. Would love to stroll beside the pond...

A sketch of the pond in its past glory... possible activities included horse-riding, picnic, archery...

It was altogether an enjoyable experience. Probably because of its smallness, it's easier to make out the connection of each compartment and what it used to be.

It's also full of history. The castle was where Mary Queen of Scotland signed an agreement called the 'Craigmillar Bond' to have her husband killed because he was too ambitious and killed her secretary!

The best parts of the castle that I like most are the courtyard and the P-shaped pond.

Would like to come back for a second visit in spring and summer!

Spinning around

2009-11-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

Attended ceilidh (pronounced as kei li) for the first time yesterday. Ceilidh is a traditional social dance event originating in Ireland and Scotland. Remember this scene from Titanic where Jack and Rose danced with the lower-class in the ship? Well, that's a ceilidh and the same kind of music being played.

It was held in a church hall somewhere in the city centre. Went with a flatmate and her friend. It was organised by a school in the university.... to help students release tension before their exam, that's what I was told.

An instructor was present to tell us how to do each dance. All the dance involve a lot of jumping, waltzing, tapping, stamping, clapping, hooking hands and spinning. Breathless after each dance. The tapping and stamping on the ground with the beat of the music were so much fun, though I worried that the century-old wooden floorboards might not be able to withstand it!

And yes, there was the crazy spinning ala Jack and Rose. And my partner was spinning me so hard I fell on my bottom!

Ouch! But I was not the first, nor was I the last. :p

We ended the event by forming a large circle and holding hands while singing Auld Lang Syne.

My legs are still aching now from all the stamping. But I had so much fun I would jump (without falling on my bottom, I hope :p) at the next chance for another ceilidh.

The band members... some of them are actually Professors at day time!

Everybody was listening while the instructor was telling us how to do each dance

People having fun dancing. See the short man in white at the left corner? He was wearing a traditional Scottist kilt.

Note: Pictures were taken using my poor camera phone. Please bear with the poor quality :p

Held at knifepoint

2009-11-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

Was at the supermarket, shopping for some groceries... and a vegetable knife.

While I was at the check-out counter, suddenly....

.... the cashier at the counter asked for my ID...

.... apparently, you need to be 18 and above to purchase a knife!

Guess I should be flattered that the girl thought there's a possibility I was below 18 :p

But I wonder the reason behind the rule...

Afraid I might kill myself? Or kill someone?

Anyway, when I told my labmates about the incident, one of them told me an even funnier incident. A Spanish labmate's 60-year-old father was in Sweden some time ago. In Sweden, only those 18 and above are allowed to purchase alcohols. And her father was stopped for ID-checking, even with wrinkles and all :p

The justification? No physical appearance discrimination, no matter how old you look!

Celtic New Year

2009-11-01T07:14:00.001-08:00

Had my first real Halloween experience in UK last night. I had only read or heard of the pumpkins and fancy dress parties before. Never expected the city to be filled with Batmans, witches, angels, hooded monsters, devils, etc. Not to mention cross-dressers and pumpkins floating around. Some were really creative, I would say.

An invitation to a Halloween party organized by someone in another lab was circulated a week ago. But I did not attend it since I do not know the organiser personally. Instead I joined a Spanish labmate to witness the celebration of the Samhuinn Fire Festival.

Samhuinn or Samhain means summer's end. The annual festival is to celebrate the Celtic New Year, where winter/darkness arrives to replace summer/light. For the celebration this year, there was a procession along the Royal Mile. It stopped at the Parliament Square where a series of dances, rituals, and fire were accompanied by rhythmic drumbeats.

It was an interesting performance. Unfortunately, I missed out on a lot as the crowd was big and there were many tall people standing in front of me. How I wished I was on super high-heels or back as a kid so I could sit on my parents' shoulders :p

Happy Halloween!

Great 'tactic'

2009-10-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

The research group I am currently attached to is an ensemble of different nationalities. From locals to French, German, Spanish, Polish, Swedish, Hungarian.. and of course the latest addition, a Malaysian.

And there are so many different accents circulating in the lab.

There is this labmate who I always have problem understanding. In the beginning, I kept asking him to repeat himself. So I decided to change 'tactic' by concentrating hard everytime he spoke and listened for KEYWORDs to make out what he's trying to say.

Did it improve the communication between us?

Well, just the other day, he told me he wanted to take a short break for a workout in the GYM.

And I thought he wanted to leave for home early because he's not feeling well due to the GERM.

Back to school: Day 1

2009-10-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day back to school....

Student status.... sounds so young! :p

And I had such a fruitful day! :)

Met the officer in charge of my scholarship, had a short discussion with my supervisor and met labmates. This was not the first time I met them, as I came here a few months ago for the scholarship interview. Everybody has been so nice, friendly and helpful. Got my personal space, workbench and computer setup too. I have a very positive feeling about my new working environment :)

Registered and got my student card. With it, I can use the shuttle bus to the city centre free of charge. Thank goodness for that. My legs have been aching with all the walking these few days :p

Went to the bank too. Had initially wanted to open an account. But the minimum deposit required was 5000 pounds! Wow! Do even the poorest people here have at least that amount? So those with only 4999.99 have to stack their cash under their pillows? :p

Of course, student can still open an account with an introductory letter from the university.

And something happened while I was walking in the city centre. The sole of my shoe (the only pair that I have with me here) came off! At first, only a small part came off. So I had to drag and limp all the way, while making this flapping sound. I wonder what passers-by made of that. And right before I turned the corner into my flat, the whole sole came off! Sigh....

However, I still consider this a great day! Because of all the little things that I managed to do today!

Well, gotta stop now as I want to watch the first episode of 'Beyond the Realm of Conscience' :p

Back to Ground Zero

2009-10-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

Going back to the life of a student again starting tomorrow....

Have a mixed feeling of excitement and worry...

Excited over a new life, new experience, new culture, new friends....

Worried because I have left student life for quite some time... even though I have never really left university :p

Maybe I'll have more time to blog compared to the past 10 months.

Now that I am far from home, thanks to internet connection, I can still hold on to things that are familiar, which is what I've been doing these few days....

1. Signing in to messenger early in the morning... because that would be the only time friends back home are awake :p

2. Listening to local (ooopss... it's no longer local to me...), I mean Malaysian radio stations online albeit the late night show :p

3. Watching TVB drama series! Looking forward to the new series 'Beyond The Realm of Conscience (宮心計). The plot would be something like 'War and Beauty' (金枝慾孽). The series will be aired starting tomorrow. In the meantime, I am watching Off Pedder (畢打自己人), which is only 20 minutes each episode. One good thing about this drama series is that each episode has a different story, so I do not have to start watching from the beginning. It's already up to episode 253!

Will be back on track very soon....

Home-sick already

2009-10-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

I don't know how to start this.

The condition of my new home is not what I expected. The previous occupant of my room was a guy, who left a lot of junk and even leftover food in the room before he left. I'm lucky, however, that I have a very nice housemate who shows me around and helps me clean up. At least, the room is more presentable now. But the wall and carpet are dark in colour, making the room a little dark and eerie. Some parts of the wall have paint peeling off..... The wardrobe smells damp. I thought I'd seen worst when I stayed in the university hostel last time....

The house is old. Only either the central heating system or the water heater can be turned on at one time. Hope I'd get through winter nicely.

Miss home. Family. Friends.

Internet connection is so important now. It's like the only connection to the people I know. But there's still time difference.

This is not my first time away from home. Not my first time experiencing change. And they say practice makes perfect. But I don't like it any more than I did last time.

I know it's just the transition period. Hope it'd pass very very soon.

In the last 10 months...

2009-10-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

I have reached the closing of yet another chapter. Gonna start a new one tomorrow.....

Looking back at the last 10 months, it's been a great and memorable one.

Managed to do all the things I promised myself to do at the beginning of this chapter...

Yoga class....

Dancing class.... learning rumba, samba and jive....

Healthy lifestyle and home-cooked meal everyday...

Spending time at home with family and meeting old friends once in a while...

Met a lot of nice people at work.... how fast everyone bonded.... transforming from total strangers to a big family who helped one another out.... working and playing together... complaining together...

Our first waterfall outing in May...

Taken in July when we took pictures around campus.... the three of us shared an office, always chatting and laughing together...

A combination of different types of personality... and yet we have a lot of great time together...

Our second waterfall outing in August

With this, I officially announce the closing of this chapter.

Farewell lunch

2009-10-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

Colleagues in my department organised a farewell lunch for me yesterday at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel.

It was still a working day for them while I was already on leave. And yet they still found time out of their busy schedule for the lunch. Even the dean and an admin staff were present. Really touched.

They presented me with a few meaningful gifts..... a card signed by everybody..... a framed and signed group photo of everyone during our last trip to the waterfall..... and a framed photo taken at Kellie's Castle a few days ago..... really love the gifts.... there could be no better gifts....

It was a short lunch... but we managed to take some pictures and joked around. Some had to leave early to attend meetings and other duties. The time to bid everyone farewell had to come though.....

The Head of Department presenting me the group photo...

Female colleagues.....

That's the group photo I'm holding... as if we're taking a prisoner's snapshot :p

Group photo....

The special gifts....

Gonna miss them.....

Pangkor Trip

2009-10-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

Had another enjoyable weekend on Pangkor Island with colleagues.

We had to gather at Lumut Jetty at 11am on Sat. Three of us left from my hometown while the others came from other towns. We took a ferry to the island. Saw a burning ship on the way.

When we arrived on the island, we checked in at our apartment and went for lunch at a hawker stall nearby.

The weather was great. Not much sunshine. Not too hot. Right after lunch, we walked straight to the beach at Pasir Bogak, enjoying the sea breeze, fine sand, water, waves lapping at our feet.....

I had my first canoeing experience! We went two-by-two. It was so much fun, paddling, chatting, surrounded by endless sea water.....

Went back to our resort at 6pm and played at the swimming pool.... chatting until 7pm.

After shower, we went for dinner at the restaurant in the resort and walked to the beach again. Sat down for drinks at a stall at the seaside. Went back around 10 and continued chatting with the TV turned on.

On Sunday morning, we went on a boat trip for island hopping and snorkelling. We also went jungle-trekking.

Took lots of pictures, but I dare not show most of them as they feature topless male colleagues in swimming trunks :p

While everyone was still fully dressed :p

Felt like professional divers :p

We left the island at 1pm. Had lunch at a McD outlet in Sitiawan. The three of us who came together drove back after that but stopped by at Kellie's Castle in Batu Gajah for another sight-seeing.

The castle was built by Kellie Smith, who was a Scottish. As I'm going to Scotland soon, we took a lot of pictures at the castle, with my friend 'pretending' she's visiting me in Scotland :p

Like this one very much....

Such a memorable trip... lost an earring (yes, the one I bought not long ago)... it's probably lying in the ocean now.... but even that and with all the bruises and scratches I got during snorkelling and jungle-trekking, they were all worth it.....

Wedding dinner + Reunion + Farewell

2009-10-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

It was an enjoyable day last Sunday.

Woke up early and went to the bride's home to get ready our 'equipment and tools' and to finalise our plan. We were only given 15 minutes to 'welcome the groom and his entourage' in order to send the bride off at the auspicious time.

The entourage arrived around 7.50 am. But we had to wait while certain ceremony had to be performed. Our 'session' started around 8 am. Our obstacles at the front gate were quite simple, such as performing some yoga poses, finishing some food and drinks within a certain limit of time, blowing up balloons until they burst, arranging letters to form a romantic love declaration message and finally the dressing up. One of the brothers had to endure having lipstick on his face and hairclips on his hair :p ..... But some of them cheated during the games!

Once inside the house, they had to pass below a stick ala Limbo Rock. They were then let to go upstairs for the Q&A session. The groom was finally let into the bride's room. The last obstacle was, of course, to find the wedding shoes and wearing them on the bride.

It was followed by some ceremony. While the family and relatives joined in the ceremony, we sat outside for a drink and a chat. After about 1.5 hours, the bride was led into the groom's car and off they went to the groom's place.

Again, there was a tea ceremony while we waited outside. When it was over, we took the opportunity to take pictures with the bride and groom and visited their room. Too bad I forgot to bring my camera!

Went home around 11.30 am. Had a good rest before getting ready for the dinner that night. Old friends who came from KL arrived early and gathered at my house. Had a great time catching up with them.

The dinner started at 7 pm. Luckily, I did not forget to bring along my camera this time!

Posing with the bride at the reception....

I always like to pose under the beautifully decorated arch hehe...

Ex-coursemates

Ex-classmates

Ex-schoolmates

Yammmmmmmmmm...................singgggggg!!!!!

The dinner ended at around 9.30 pm.

The newly-weds and the 'ji muis'...

The Bold And The Beautiful :p

Some of those who came from KL left right after the dinner. It would be my last time seeing them before I leave. Au revoir, dear friends!

Just a quick announcement

2009-10-02T23:51:00.000-07:00

As the title suggests, I would like to make a quick announcement here. Should have done this a few months ago, but I've been busy and kept delaying it. Don't worry though.... nothing that could cause a heart attack :p

Just that I'm going to start yet another new chapter soon... yup.. very soon... mid-Oct to be exact...

I'll be leaving for UK for further study.

And my schedule for the remaining two weeks is already full.

It's a friend's wedding tomorrow. And I'm gonna be one of the ji mui (sisters) hehe... Will be going to the bride's place tonight to discuss the plan for tomorrow morning, to 'welcome' the groom and his entourage :p

And of course, I'm looking forward to the wedding dinner tomorrow night. The bride is an ex-classmate and ex-coursemate, so many of our hometown friends and university friends will be attending the dinner! So it will be a reunion gathering plus farewell dinner for me!

Also have plans with some close colleagues to go shopping together. And of course, a department trip to Pangkor Island next week! And a farewell lunch with colleagues...

Will write about those, if I could find some time before leaving..... :p

.... till then...

Raya adventure

2009-10-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

Visited a Malay colleagues open house last Sunday. Her kampung (home village) is located in a small town called Sauk, somewhere near Kuala Kangsar and Gerik. Sauk is famous for its sai dou fishball.

Colleagues in the department were invited, but not all could make it. As some colleagues went back to their hometowns for the Raya break, everyone departed from different parts of the country.... from Ipoh, Taiping, Penang....

I departed from my hometown, following the car of a colleague who brought her husband and son along. We managed to arrive at our destination after some detours. We almost missed the small trail leading to her house. There were vegetable farms, shrubs and fruit trees on each side of the trail. Brick and wooden houses were scattered here and there.

We were amazed when we arrived at her house. It was so large, a colleague joked that she thought she's at a menteri's (minister) residence :p

The house was fenced but there was no front gate. That just shows how good the security in suburban areas still is. More than ten cars could be parked at the same time in the front lawn. There were langsat and durian trees in the lawn.... and a fish pond at the back of the house! Outside the fenced area, there were orchards, bamboo shoots and a river... it was such a nice surrounding....

Her mom cooked us a lot of Malay food. I especially loved the tempoyak (fermented durian with chillies)! We also tried some Arabian cookies and tidbits brought home by her parents who just came back from Makkah.

After lunch, we changed into shorts and slippers and started exploring the area. Went to a small waterfall not far from her house... yup... another visit to the waterfall... it's the third in 5 months... as a colleague said, we should rename our department as the 'recreational club' :p

While the guys went for a swim, us girls washed our hands and feet and sat down for a chat. The young boy, on the other hand, played 'sand castle' with his family.

We went back to the house around 4 pm for another round of cookies and teabreak. We also took a group photo.

We had so much fun there someone suggested making her house the department holiday resort :p

We left at around 5pm. But that's not the end of our adventure for the day. We headed to a lake resort called Tasik Raban, about 15 minutes away.

Tasik Raban....

The bridge...

The resort...

Some greeneries...

It was a very nice place. A few people were fishing there when we arrived. Many activities could also be carried out there. Unfortunately, it was not well-promoted. I never knew there was such a nice place so near. Would like to go there again.

Efficient wedding

2009-09-22T02:02:00.000-07:00

Attended an Indian colleague's wedding last Saturday night. It was my first time attending an Indian wedding and I did not know what to expect. But at the end of the night, all of us concluded it with one word..... EFFICIENT...

The dinner was held in a hall belonging to the Tamil Methodist Church. The ceremony started at 7.30pm. My colleagues and I arrived at about 7.40pm (slow traffic due to Raya) and found ourselves a table (free-seating). Someone was giving a speech, which lasted for a few minutes. After that the bride and groom were invited to the stage to say something. Another few minutes... and then it's time to eat... well, not exactly time to eat. The dinner was served buffet-style. So we went to queue for food, while someone kept our seats for us. Another 15 minutes. By the time we finished, it was about 8.30pm. We decided to leave the table immediately to make way for other guests. We went to the dais to congratulate the bride and groom, and then posed for pictures. We left at about 8.40pm.

When we left, guests were still arriving. We heard that 1200 guests had been invited.

Yup, the whole dinner only took about an hour. No waiting for the arrival of VIPs. No waiting for hours for the food to be served dish by dish. No chaperon ('dai kam je') speaking non-stop on stage :p ..... no drunken relatives 'singing' karaoke on stage :p ....

Married colleagues commended on the efficiency....

Single people like me have no comment.....

Anyway, a friend and I were busy checking out.....

... the fashion....

Besides sarees (okay, that's the only one I know :p), there were so many different types of traditional Indian dresses floating gracefully around that night....

We felt like getting some tailor-made for ourselves :p

Wanna lose your appetite?

2009-08-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

Watched District 9 with a friend this afternoon.

The movie is rated 18-SG. Which means there are many violent scenes and terror. And yes, there are many gory scenes in the movie. My friend said it's the movie to go for if you wanna lose your appetite :p

It started off a little boring. The first 20 minutes or so felt like a documentary or the 8 o'clock news. But the excitement came after that.

Most movies about aliens either start with an introduction and then build up the momentum, or start with an alien-attack followed by a series of defense. And then there's the usual hero who's either in the defense unit or a nobody who rises up to the challenge, makes sacrifices and saves the world.

But not District 9. The way the story unravels is different. There is a main character (an unknown actor), but he starts as a nobody, and does not end up a hero.

A lot of meaningful scenes. There was a touching moment of friendship between a human and an alien.

I think the movie is trying to deliver some messages.

Really gory...

.... but very interesting.

Recipe for a hit

2009-08-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

Finished reading New Moon (the second book of the Twilight saga) a few days ago. What do I think of it? Well, I better wait until I finish the last book before I comment on it :p

But I can see why it's so popular. It has all the right ingredients.

#1 : Namesake

Edward and Bella.

Edward, the century-old vampire, which reminds me of Edward Scissorhands, another century-old immortal. It's one of my all-time favourites. Who could forget Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp!) and the Winona Ryder sculpture?

Bella. Belle. Beauty. Reminds me of Belle in The Beauty and The Beast (another of my favourites), the only animated feature film ever to be nominated for Best Picture in the Academy Award.

#2 : High school

Just look at the success of High School Musical. Need I say more?

#3 : Forbidden Love. The Mortal and The Immortal

Everybody wants a taste of that 'forbidden fruit', whether in reality or through imagination :p

The love story between a mortal and an immortal, or the aging and the never-aging..... a few movies of this theme come to mind. I remember watching The Highlander many many years ago. And Forever Young. OK, maybe this one does not really fit into the theme. And the latest one is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, though I do not like it that much.

#4 : A teenage superhero and his love interest ala Smallville

How many times have we yearned for the truth to be revealed? For young Clark Kent to tell Lana Lang what he really is? For the adult Clark Kent to explain to Lois Lane why he always disappears? Or for Peter Parker, our Spidey friend, to explain why he could not be with Mary Jane?

I have also watched the Twilight movie. Prefer the book. Maybe because I watched it a few days after reading the book. Felt like the movie did not explain a lot of details. But of course, it's difficult to fit everything into one movie.

Or maybe because most movies based on bestsellers are a disappointment to me. Take The Da Vinci Code for example. I guess it's really hard to satisfy book readers. And some things (like code-deciphering) are just difficult to be explained visually. The only exception for me is the Harry Potter series. Because the movies have all the visual effects (Quidditch, flying broomsticks, magical castles, etc.) to compensate for.

But if I watch the movies first, I would not want to read the books anymore. Kinda lazy to spend time on reading when I know the plot :p

One exception though, or maybe not, is The Lord of The Rings. I picked up the book after watching all three movies. Read the first page..... and gave up. The first page was fully dedicated to the description of one small little detail of the setting :p

Movie marathon... mission failed

2009-07-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

Finally got my car installed with rear seat-belts. Made the appointment last December and the service centre could only fit mine in July!

While waiting for my car, nature called so I used the toilet in the service centre. I was 'conducting my little business' when I saw a small centipede crawling up from the hole! I quickly finished up and flushed the toilet. Luckily it's a squat-type toilet. Imagine if you're sitting there and the centipede crawled up and entered you-know-where! Aaarrrggghhh..........

Went to TGV after that. Had at first planned for a movie marathon. Had been looking forward to watching Transformers since last year! And since I was at the cinema, I thought I should watch Harry Potter (the sixth movie!) as well though I did not put much hope on it since it only premierred a few days ago.

Surprisingly, it was Transformers which was sold out for the whole day, despite being on the cinemas for 3 weeks! And it was only 10 something on a Saturday morning! Anyway, I managed to get a seat (fourth row from the front) for the Harry Potter movie. Better than none. Did not want to go home empty-handed... I mean 'empty-sighted'......

Like HP-6, probably because I was a fan of the book series. There were some funny and touching moments. But of course I already knew the plot. And I look forward to the final instalment(s), which will be split into two. Felt like re-reading the whole series after watching it.

But Harry Potter has to wait. Cuz I wanna start on a new series.....

The Twilight Series

Yes, the Twilight series. I only first heard of it about two months ago when a friend mentioned it as she was reading another book (The Host) by the same author. And then a colleague mentioned it and the movie again. She said she liked it better than Harry Potter! I gotta read it! :p

The day I blocked the DPM

2009-07-12T04:57:00.001-07:00

It was the 5th Malaysian Festival of the Mind.

Held in the university from the 10th to the 12th of July, it was jointly organised by the university, the Malaysia Mental Literacy Movement (MMLM) and a few other organizations. It was officiated by the Deputy Prime Minister, YB Tan Sri Dato' Haji Muhyiddin Mohd. Yassin.

I was on my way to campus as usual, when I spotted a traffic police on his large motorbike guiding a black car coming from behind. I automatically slowed down, moved to the side and let them overtake me. The black car had a plate beginning with 'W' and the windows were all tinted with dark shades. Wonder if that was the DPM.

When I reached the campus, it was crowded everywhere and really difficult to get a parking space. Anyway, the opening ceremony had started and I saw red carpet leading to a lecture hall. My friend and I were not interested in the ceremony, so we headed straight to the exhibition hall.... mainly because someone told us there were free shampoo give-aways :p

When we got there, there was already a big crowd. There was a long queue at the give-away counter. We did not want to wait so we ended up not getting any shampoos... sob... sob :p

We proceeded to the exhibition booths. There were many interesting things to see. Everthing was related to the mind, the brain, IQ, EQ......

Large crowd surrounding the booths

Even the MENSA society had a booth there

Halfway through, the DPM who had finished his speech at the hall in another block came for a short tour of the exhibition with his entourage. The Menteri Besar of Perak was with him too. My friend and I continued with our own tour.

We were looking at the display of a booth situated at a corner when the DPM turned the corner. Automatically, we moved closer to the booth to make way for him, thinking that he only wanted to walk around. Suddenly, the DPM stopped beside me and I realized he wanted to look at the booth. My first reaction was to bend down so as not to block his view (as he was not very tall :p). It was at this point that his bodyguard made a small gesture asking me to get out of the way. I hurriedly moved away while still bending down a little. My friend said the whole scene was very funny! Luckily, it was not on the newspaper :p ... another lucky thing was that I was not living in the old days, or I would have been beheaded by now!

Things went back to normal after that as we continued to each booth :p

The concept of hypnosis.... someone was swinging a small pendulum above a piece of card with things written on it....

Power of the mind... a visitor was holding a pair of 'L-shaped handles' parallel with both hands without moving... and the exhibitor was able to move the handles closer, farther away or cross each other using his mind power..... Harry Potter, eh?

MPH Bookstore had a booth as well, selling books related to the mind at a discount of 15 %....

A booth selling mind games, puzzles, etc..... we were allowed to try each game... it was so much fun that my friend and I ended up buying a few different games each :p

Brain display

Real human brains immersed in formalin, while some were preserved brains... we were allowed to touch and hold it. I tried it, and since it had been preserved, it's hard and smooth instead of soft and slimy as I had imagined :p

An equipment that can capture our brain waves...

Some were selling products (games, books, CDs, etc.) while some were promoting training programmes.

It's funny how most exhibitors thought my friend and I were students. There was this booth selling CDs containing songs audible to the conscious mind but also embedded with certain frequencies that could trigger our subliminal minds. We were really interested, until she gave us the wrong example, saying how her niece and nephew after listening to the CD managed to score distinctions in exams. That was it. We lost interest :p

There was a booth which provided tests on our memory. For each test, we were given two minutes to memorize things and then recall them afterwards. In the first test, we were given a list of 20 items and we had to recall everything in the right order. In the second test, we were given the prices of 10 items and we had to recall the price for each item in random order. And in the last test, we were given the pictures of 12 persons and their names and titles (Ms, Mr, Mrs, Dr, Datuk, etc.) and we had to label picture of each person in random.

I tried all the tests and managed to get them all correct! The exhibitor doubted it at first, so he double-checked my answers. He then congratulated me, asking me what kind of technique I had used. I did not know what to say :p.... I had never received any memory training before. I described to him how I remember things and he said, "Oh, so you're using the association technique!".... I just nodded and said ya.... :p

There was a magic and msytery corner which sold magic-and-trick products, with some scheduled stage magic performance every 2 hours. There was no body-cutting, but there were pulling things out of an empty hat (no rabbit though :p), swallowing a piece of paper but pulling out a long strand of colourful paper, lighting a piece of paper on fire and a nice scarf suddenly popped out and changing a one-ringgit note into a two-ringgit note.

Other activities included mind challenges and competitions, testing the age of our brains and minds, a sleep therapy corner, talks on emotional intelligence, mind mapping, personality test and interesting workshops.

I attended a self-hypnosis workshop by Mr Terry Winchester, a well-known hypnotherapist from South Africa... well, not the kind of hypnosis you're probably thinking of.. no pendulum swing and controlled action (though that was what I had thought earlier :p).. but interesting all the same....

Let's not forget!

2009-06-27T23:54:00.000-07:00

Could not believe it when I heard on the radio a few mornings ago that Michael Jackson had died.

I would not say I was a big fan. I was probably still a crying baby when he was at the peak of his career with his uncontested record-breaking album "Thriller". But I have always liked some of his smash hits like "Billie Jean", "Beat It", "Black or White", "We Are The World", "Heal The World" and "You Are Not Alone". I'm sure most of us grew up with those songs.

There were many negative reports surrounding him in recent years. I admit some part of me believed he might be guilty. When someone was so successful, it's easy to believe that this someone might resort to something 'different' to gain satisfaction at the next level. Personal friends and hardcore fans of his did not believe those reports, of course.

With all those negative news, we (at least me) had forgotten how good he was. Until I watched his concert which was shown on TV last night. The singing was good. The songs were great. His stage presence was undeniable. His mere presence caused hysteria and tears among men and women alike! Most of all, his dance steps were incredible! Even though those dance steps were choreographed almost 20 years ago, they still feel so up-to-date and relevant. Oh, many people have managed to imitate him. But none can do it the way he did it!

And I just realize that many of the scenes and dancing in movies, comedies and music videos of other artistes were actually taken from Michael Jackson's music videos and concerts! That just goes to show how much impact and legacy he had left us. Not to mention his trademark gloves, hanging pants, white socks, jackets, etc. :p

Newspapers and the internet are now full of his news. There was this report saying that he's worth more dead than alive. As cruel as it may sound, there seems to be a ring of truth to it (except maybe to the organiser of his never-would-be upcoming concerts in London in July). More news can be expected.... on the cause of his death, his debts, his estates, the custody of his children........

There are also some reports on his childhood (or the lack of it), which could probably explain why he liked children and built Neverland. He started singing at the age of 4 or 5 and missed all the things kids at that age did. Kinda sympathize him. I'm not trying to imply whether he's guilty or not. After all, who am I to judge? It probably does not matter anymore. But in a way, everyone had played a part in the making and breaking of MJ.

I guess I will always remember his Moonwalk, his 45 degree bending, his slow-motion dance moves and the touching moments when he sang with a group of children.

What about you? How does his death make you feel?

I feel like digging up my old collection of pop songs. Reliving those moments during my teenage years when I used to be 'crazy' (but not hysterical :p) over some pop singers.... :p

Furry fun

2009-06-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

Remember my little doggies?

Well, I am starting a whole 'new collection'!

With different themes.

Theme #1: One happy family

House image from http://secure.goldengateshousing.org.uk/TenantServices/Content.aspx?id=3

Presenting to you:

Papa dog looking smart in his bow tie, getting ready to work....

Briefcase image from http://www.tutorialized.com/recent.php?d=04/21/2006

Mama dog in her pearl necklace, on her way to the market......

Flower hat image from http://www.neopets.com/~xColliex

Basket image from http://www.scissorcraft.com/jsgames/basketfill/basketfill.htm

Their precious little baby, learning A B C....

Theme #2: Crimebuster

*Sniff* *sniff*...... Grrrrr.... I can smell some pirated DVDs nearby....

Theme #3: The Dalmatian

I'm the 102nd... brothers and sisters, here I come!

Dalmatians from http://jigsaws.hit.bg/101-dalmatians/image/101-dalmatians-1.jpg

Theme #4: Guard-dog

Sitting attentively, guarding his master's house loyally (门口狗 hehehe...)

Kennel image from http://www.susannabenn.com/

Theme #5: Reflection

Whoooooo... is that dog I see.... staring straight back at me... when will my reflection show, who I am inside.. ay.....

Tigger from www.millcreekbengals.com/cartoons.htm

Theme #6: My little pony and friends

Ok, it still looks like a canine... but the tail and legs remind me of a pony, especially those wooden rocking ponies for kids.....

Pony image from http://faux.uwcs.co.uk/my%20little%20pony.png

Theme #7: Mother nature

This one is my favourite.... made from a colourful paper bag.....

Paper bag image from http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/objects-equipment/5030700-paper-bag.php?id=5030700&refnum=1192263

Tree image from http://www.imageenvision.com/stock_clipart/details/0025-0802-2714-2960/tropical_palm_tree_cartoon_character_flexing_his_arm_muscles

Picnic by the waterfall

2009-05-31T02:08:00.000-07:00

Sneaked out for a picnic lunch by the waterfall with colleagues on a Friday. It was the first unofficial social activity where everyone in the department was present.

Okay, we did not really have to sneak out. After all, the dean and ex-dean knew about it. We invited them along, although they backed off at the last minute due to urgent meetings and calls... much to the relief of some of us.... that left most of us youngsters :p

Anyway, the picnic was right after our department meeting. A colleague ordered pizza (his treat - he promised many months ago :p)... some also brought homemade garlic bread, cakes, drinks, etc.

We went to this waterfall called Sungai Salu, which was about 20 minutes' drive from campus. Despite being a local, I'd never heard of this place before :p

A colleague (from another town :p) recommended it. It was quite empty when we arrived, with only a few people around. I was told that it usually started getting crowded after 5pm.

Not too crowded when we arrived....

We climbed up a few steps to a mini-waterfall. We had at first wanted to go further up, but the path was blocked halfway... so we decided to stop at the lower mini-waterfall... which was probably a good thing..... cuz I did not bring suitable footwear. Anyway, my Head of Department was so nice he offered me his slippers while he went barefoot!

The tracks leading up to the waterfall

That's where we had our picnic lunch

Deep in water... my colleagues, except the half-naked man :p

The mini- waterfall

Some rocky surface beside the waterfall.... hmmm... why does it remind me of someone wetting his pants? :p

A different angle....

People basking by the waterfall... looked so relaxing I felt like joining them :p

Male colleagues with their rolled-up sleeves and pants, looking like farmers :p

Hmmm... wonder what they were discussing.... found some new species?

Nice view.... I like the rocky surface (minus the man, of course)...

We left the waterfall to visit an orang asli (aborigine) village. The village was a mix of modernity and primitivity. Modern brick houses with luxurious cars parked outside stood among rundown wooden huts with tree trunks as pillars and leaves as roof. It was amazing how these huts stood the test of time and storms.

Anyway, a few colleagues are now working with Habitat For Humanity (HFH), an international organisation, to build some low-cost houses for these orang asli. A few representatives from the organisation visited a few weeks ago. As they could not speak our local language, they asked us to help as the middlemen to talk to the villagers. Sites for the houses have been identified and cleared. They have also talked to local suppliers for the raw materials. I was at first tasked to help translate and talk to the suppliers. However, someone else who were familiar with the suppliers around town volunteered to help.... which was a good thing, as I have to admit I'm not familiar with the shops in town and I'm not a good bargainer :p

We are now discussing where to go for our next... ahem... 'team building'. A few names of nice tourist attractions around the area have come up. But with the new semester starting, it would not be easy to find a time that suits everybody. Hmmm..... we'll see... :p

Final? Final!

2009-05-17T01:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while.

Had been busy for a few weeks with final exams (not me sitting for the exams, thank you!). Now that it's over, we have more flexibility with our time that we managed to organize a small party in the lab and a factory visit hehehe..... Great bonding I would say, as we survived together a few police road blocks along the way while wondering if we'd be blocked since I was dressed in black that day. No kidding. A colleague was actually stopped once on her way home from work for dressing in black!

Passed by the famous 'democracy tree' and the vacated buildings nearby. Everything was quiet.

Don't ask me who the current and final CM of my state is, as I have no idea. If things could change within a span of 8 hours, how do you expect me to know, right? After all, my daily routine is not affected. Though the same cannot be said for those working in the public service department, especially the officer in charge of hanging the pictures of 'important people' on the wall. A friend joked that a special rotator should be installed on the wall, so that with a press of a button, pictures could be changed automatically. But with the rate things are going, I'm afraid the motor would not hold for long!

Source

Welcome to Perak!

While waiting for the drama to unfold, let's move on to another drama.

Or should I say reality?

I'm talking about American Idol!

It's down to the Final Two now! It's Adam vs Kris! Well, if you ask me, I'm voting for Adam. Ok, so my vote doesn't count, but still....

To tell the truth, I disliked Adam in the beginning. His spiky hair, thick dark eyeliner, leathers, nails...... his performance was already quite good then, but it was only after he changed his appearance that I started to like him. He now dons a decent haircut and some simple make-up, with occasional leathers but that's acceptable and suits his style of music. And he looks good in white tux too! What with his broad shoulders and tall figure, he towers over Ryan hehehe.... I like his smile too. He looks so sincere and humble when he smiles.

I like Kris too... he has this cute boyish charm, he plays the piano and the guitar. He has had a few great performances too. But Adam has been consistent. In fact, he's outstanding every week! And since we can only have one winner, it's Adam for me.

Looking forward to a great show during the finale. At least the decision would be final.

Am I an irresponsible driver?

2009-04-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

I really need to write this, now!

My heart is still beating fast, my hands are still a little shaky.....

Maybe it's not such a big deal to many, but somehow I am bothered and feel shaky.

While I was driving to work just now, I knocked down a dog with a loud thud!

It was a wide road, with grasses on both sides. Earlier on, I already spotted the dog (with a collar) running lively beside a motorcyclist (probably the owner) on the grass at the roadside. But I never expected it to rush out when I was nearing them. I was really shocked, I cannot even remember whether I had braked. But I did slow down afterwards to check on the dog through the rearview mirror. It was still running lively on four legs, so I think it should be alright.

But the impact is still there now as I am typing this. I checked on my car just now, and luckily there was no blood stain.

I don't know why, but I'm a little bothered by it. Should I have stopped my car and checked on the dog and apologized to the owner? Have I become an irresponsible driver who ran away after knocking down someone (or something)?

My Guardian Stars

2009-04-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Received my first gunshot when I was 6.

Nah, not the lethal ones.

But this:

Source

For those of you who had never seen the tool before, it's used for ear piercing. The earring would be filled into the gun (like a bullet) and shot through the earlobe. Not sure if it's the same tool used for piercing tongue and nose though :p

If you think it's cruel, you have not seen it all. Before the gun was invented, traditional piercing was done manually. Ginger would be rubbed on the earlobe to make you feel numb. Then a pin would be used to make a hole! Manually!

Luckily, the gun was already invented when I had my first piercing at the goldsmith.

But I made the mistake of changing from the original pair of gold earrings to a pair of plastic earrings. And my skin was sensitive to the material. Made my skin itchy and there was pus discharge. I ended up removing the earrings and the flesh regrew.

I dared not pierce my ears ever since then, until I was about 11. I remember in that year, there was an intercalary month in the lunar calendar (闰月), which means that the same month occurs twice. The Chinese believe that buying gold jewellery during the intercalary month is auspicious (don't ask me why :p). Anyway, I had my second 'gunshot' that year. Of course, I selected a pair of gold earrings. A pair of simple and small ball-shaped earrings.

Source

Had been wearing the same pair since then.

Until a few weeks ago..... when I dropped one of the back clutches. Did not know where I dropped it and I could not find it... so I decided to get a new pair.

Went to the goldsmith and traded in my old pair for a new one. I remember my old pair cost about RM50 when I was 11, and now with one clutch lost, the goldsmith gave me RM40 for it. Was that a good deal?

Well, of course I still had to pay a little for my new pair of earrings.

Out of all the designs on display, this pair caught my attention.

I think it's unique. Simple without being too plain. Sparkly without being too flashy.... and most of all, I like the idea of a star reaching out to a smaller star.... just like our guardian star (守护星), a concept that was probably popularized by TVB :p

I really like my guardian stars... and best of all, I get to admire them everyday in the mirror :p

90 years old!

2009-03-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

It was my paternal grandfather's 90th birthday last weekend. So we went out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Booked 3 tables earlier and invited a few closed relatives.

The first table was for the first generation of the family, consisting of my grandfather, grand-uncles and grand-aunties.

The second table was for the second generation consisting of my parents, aunties and uncles.

The second generation. That's the 'birthday boy', standing in the middle in white. That's my mom standing at the back in pink and my father behind her, almost hidden.

And of course the third table was occupied by the third generation, namely me and my cousins.

The third generation wishing the birthday boy....

Since we're Hokkien, we tried to wish him in Hokkien for fun. But none of us in the third generation speaks the language! So we had to ask our grand-uncle to translate for us before passing the message to my grandfather. Don't ask me how to say 'Happy Birthday' in Hokkien. I forgot the moment the words came out of my mouth :p

Singing the birthday song......

We were seated on the first floor of the restaurant. At first there were other families having dinner on the same floor. But after some time, they left so we had the whole floor to ourselves! My uncles started singing karaoke. Soon everyone joined in. I was shy at first. But after some persuasion, I joined in :p

Things got real crazy when my aunties started dancing! I was again shy at first. I was never really closed to relatives in my father's side. But it's such a happy occassion, my grandfather was really happy and even my grand-uncles and grand-aunties (who have always looked strict I was sometimes scared of them :p) started dancing! So again I joined in the fun. They even partnered me up with my father for cha-cha hehehe....

Anyway, they were really surprised to see me dance. Guess to them, I have always been this shy and quiet bookworm cousin of theirs :p

So I told them about my dancing lessons :p

My grandfather was dancing on the little stage with my aunties by his side. Look how happy he was.

Posing with my beautiful cousins. I was the most casual in jeans.

Took a picture with my grandfather and an auntie.

We left the restaurant around 11 pm and gathered at my grandfather's place. Naturally, two mahjong tables were set up :p

While the first and second generations were busy playing mahjong, we proceeded to a story-telling session! With my grandfather as the story-teller, surrounded by his grandchildren as the audience. Stories travelled back to his childhood in China (he's born in Malaysia but moved back to China with his mom who was ill, and later brought back to Malaysia by his father). After the story-telling session, we played a simple game of message delivery. My grandfather would whisper some Hokkien phrases to the person next to him, and the message would be delivered until it reached the last person. I was unlucky to be the last person, where some 2-syllable phrases could end up sounding like 3-syllable vulgar words! And I had to shout those words out!

Overall, it was a happy occasion. After all, it's not everyday that we get to celebrate 90th birthday. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from my grandfather's lifestyle. I remember he used to jog every morning in a white singlet, short pants and a small towel hung around his neck. After that, he'd cycled to town. When he's not moving around, he'd be watching TV, ranging from TVB drama series, Taiwanese Hokkien drama series, Hollywood movies to Bollywood movies. No kidding! He likes Bollywood movies! I enjoy discussing storyline and drama plots with him hehee...
And during the weekend, my father and uncles will go over to play mahjong with him.

By the way, I'm the eldest of the third generation who carries the family name! I'm not my grandfather's eldest grandchild, but those who are elder are my aunties' children, and my grand-uncles' grandchildren (who carry the family name) are all very young. That makes me the eldest! I wonder if this means I'm the 长子的孙 (eldest grandchild)... or does the term only apply to grandson?

Anyway, it's not as if my grandfather owns a large estate or a hotel empire to be passed down to me :p

Else, I would not be sitting here blogging. Maybe I'd still blog. But I would blog about the limited edition milk bowl I bought for my chi hua hua :p

Or I would be off sun-basking in some islands or sandy beaches. Or busy cutting my new self-sponsored album or movie. Or just busy with manicure, pedicure, shopping in New York, Paris, Milan, London... see? I would be so busy I'd never have heard of England :p

Ok, back to reality.

Will it collapse?!

2009-03-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

OK, before I start on what I wanna talk about, please allow me to do this:

"Yay! Lee Chong Wei beat Lin Dan! Chong Wei won the Swiss Open 2009 Men's Single by beating Lin Dan 21 - 16, 21 - 16. Yay!"

Ok, calm down. Take a deep breath...... ok , back to some serious stuff :p

I was marking some reports in my office today when I suddenly heard some cracking sound on the floor. Upon checking, I saw some tiles on the floor beside my desk bulging upwards. When I stepped closer to have a look, the cracking became louder and more frequent. The shelf above the bulging tiles was leaning to one side and my pot of cactus had toppled. All of us in the room (I'm sharing the room with 2 female colleagues) got worried as the cracking sound could be heard from the outside. We're worried that our room would collapse! We quickly took our precious belongings, left the room and reported to the staff in-charge of this stuff.

While waiting, colleagues from other departments (especially those in the civil, construction and architecture fields) came over to have a look, bringing with them measurement device, tools, etc., while discussing some of the possible reasons (settlement since the land used to be a tin mine, poor construction, tension due to changing conditions, etc.). Some even joked about earthquake.

One of them broke a piece of tile to check the structure below. To our relief, the concrete structure was still strong and flat. Only the tiles had come off. See the pictures below:

Take a look at the bulging tiles.

See that? The tiles had come off......

Glad that my room won't collapse after all. But we are monitoring now, and if something out of the ordinary happens, we'll request for a new room.

Anyway, I started commenting on the poor quality, poor workmanship..... until a colleague's remark shut me up.

The magical remark?

"Even Parliment leaked."

It starts with a 'T'

2009-03-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

Lately, I really like this song (and I swear it has nothing to do with the cute singer :p).... don't ask me whether it's a Chinese or English song, cuz it's kinda complicated :p

It's easy to fall in love with a song when you get to hear it almost everyday. I first heard of this song because it's the ending sub-theme song of a local Chinese drama series. It's in Mandarin. One day, I heard it played in Cantonese on the radio, sung by an HK artiste Eric Suen (孫耀威). Feeling curious, I checked out the name of the singer of the Mandarin version at the end of an episode. The name 'Chin' appeared. The first thought that came to my mind was, "he's probably some unknown local artiste" :p

The name 'Chin' came up again a few days ago in a local Chinese daily. That was when I found out that he's a Thai singer of French-Thai parentage. The song was originally in the Thai language. Anyway, he's trying to break into the Chinese market. He went to Taiwan recently to act in a Taiwanese idol drama series. He also did a commercial for Sony Skinny T Digital Camera, which was how the Mandarin version came about. There was also an English version for the commercial.

Besides his Cantonese version, Eric Suen also recorded his own Mandarin version, but the lyrics and song title are different from Chin's.

Ok, after ranting for so long, you still do not know what song I've been talking about :p

So here they are, in different versions/languages:

Chin's original Thai version called 'Term Mai Kuey Tem'

Chin live in Malaysia during his promo tour. A half-Mandarin-half-English version called '遇见你 (Meeting You)'

The Sony Skinny T commercial. Shot in Taiwan if I'm not mistaken (I've seen the Ferris wheel in a Taiwanese drama before). It's broken into 3 short episodes. This is the first episode. The story is kinda cute and romantic! :p

Eric Suen's Cantonese version called '只要和你在一起' (As Long As I Can Be With You)

Ok, there is no need to include all versions of the same song here. But I cannot get enough of it :p

My mom likes the Canto version hahaha... probably because she gets to listen to it almost everyday on the radio.

I prefer Chin's versions, especially the original Thai version, even though I do not understand a single word he's singing.

And now while we are at it, I'd like to introduce another famous Thai singer-cum-pianist :p

'Tor' is his name. If you had watched the recent MTV Asia Awards, he won the Best Artiste of Thailand. No, I did not watch it. I only heard of him a few weeks ago during a live interview on the radio when he was in Malaysia to promote his latest album. And I was wowed by his piano-playing skill. There was a part during the interview where he showed off his skill. He asked the DJ to select and press any 5 keys within a range of keys in random order while Tor had his eyes closed. Not only was he able to reproduce the keys in the selected order, he actually created a new song right there and then using the 5-key melody! Maybe this is very common and easy for those of you who can play the piano, but I was fascinated! No wonder he is known as the Prince of Piano in Thailand.

Tor singing a song called 'Rak Ter' (I Love You) live

First we had J-pop (which probably started with GTO), then we had K-pop (how could anyone resist the oh-so-romantic Winter Sonata? :p). And now........ drum roll, please..... braze yourself for the invasion of .......... another drum roll..... T-pop!

No, I honestly do not think that T-pop started with The Iron Ladies (人妖打排球) :p

What's your style of gardening?

2009-03-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

Some like to disperse a bagful of seeds, and pick the best seedling out of the lot.

Some prefer to pick the best seed and take good care of it, hoping that it would germinate into a healthy seedling .... and if it does not germinate, then only pick another seed.

I prefer the latter. The only problem with this is that not all seeds can wait. Some have 'expiry date' :p

What's your preference?

Student antics

2009-03-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

I was commenting on the reports submitted by a group of students, saying how they copied and pasted one paragraph from this book, another paragraph from that website and then put them together as a report. In order to explain my point, I likened it to watching a movie which shows scene A and then suddenly jumps to scene B without any connection between the two scenes.

While I was making my 'movie analogy' point, a male student suddenly stood up, pretended that he was holding a machine gun and shooting away (scene A), then suddenly turned to his friend and started 'smooching and kissing him' (scene B).

Talking about making a clear point.... :p

That was a good fight

2009-03-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

Sob... sob....

He was defeated again....

Just finished watching All England Men's Single Final between our very own Datuk Lee Chong Wei and China's Lin Dan (nicknamed 'Super Dan' by the media.... kinda funny).....

Lin Dan won 21-19 and 21-12.... gotta admit that he's a strong player.... but Chong Wei (ooops sorry.... I mean Datuk Lee... even though he's only one or two weeks older than I am :p) put up a good fight too.... and screams of "Malaysia Boleh!" could be heard all through the game.

Looking forward to the next time they play each other again!

Keep fighting, Datuk Lee!

To Love Or Not To Love?

2009-02-27T22:55:00.000-08:00

It's the last day of February! The month associated with love, love and love. At least, that's what we're told on TV, radio and the media.

So before the month of love ends, guess I should pay some tribute to it.

A search for the definition of love led me to some interesting quotes related to love.

This is what I found to be the most 'conclusive' definition of love:

"To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down." - Woody Allen

Errr????

Drama vs Reality

2009-02-15T06:04:00.000-08:00

Finally.......

... finally (panting)...

... finally finished watching the final episode (episode 82!) of TVB drama 'The Gem of Life'...

I did not start from the first episode. I only started watching from episode 68 onwards (you could still understand what happened before). My brother (who has been following the drama series from the beginning) came home and watched it during CNY, so I just watched along from where he stopped. Thank goodness for that. Else, I really could not take it. Really fed up and annoyed with the characters, how they manipulated and deceived one another.

Basically, it has a simple storyline. A and B are rivals. So A teams up with C to harm B. B, on the other hand, manipulated D to deceive C so that C will betray A. A wants to seek revenge and blackmails D. So D has no choice but to turn C in. A and B then become partners due to business reasons and compete with C. C gets angry and hires E to spy on D, who knows F, who ........ ok, ok..... maybe a simple graphic representation would give you a clearer picture....

Yes, that's what the main plot of the story is about. Even a six-year-old kid's drawing is easier to understand :p

On a closer look, the relationships among the characters do resemble a diamond. No wonder the title :p

Really need something light now...... something like American Idol!

Yes, it's back with a new season. Despite having the same format (or 'plot') every season, it's still a nice reality show. Even minus the drama, the clowns, or Simon's comments, I'd still go for the talents and the performances.

And I accidentally discovered another reality show on TV! It's called 'I Survived a Japanese Gameshow'.

This is what the show is about. 250 million dollars. Two teams. One 'survivor'. Challenges. The winning team gets the reward. The losing team has to vote out two members to play in the elimination round.

Sounds familiar, eh? Yes, it's like Survivor, except that:

- Instead of Jeff Probst, it has an English-speaking Japanese host (though I cannot seem to understand him sometimes)

- Instead of an isolated island in a small corner of the world, the contestants are stranded in Tokyo!

- No mountain-climbing or river-crossing. Instead, the two teams have to play (in both the challenge and the elimination rounds) in a Japanese live game show called the Majide. Yes, it has a live audience in the studio and it's broadcasted live on Japanese TV.

It's kinda funny in a Stephen Chow way, if you know what I mean. With games having names such as 'Sticky Sticky Bang Bang' and 'You Stand Still. No, You Stand Still', you can expect lots of unimaginable and gross 'dramas', where the players are spun, hung and pulled, thrown around, forced to wear weird gears, etc.

Cannot imagine it?

Here's part of an episode I found on youtube. Enjoy yourself :p

FREEDOM!

2009-02-07T19:50:00.000-08:00

Prompted to write this after watching 'Braveheart', which was shown on TV the other night.

Freedom!

That's the last word from Sir William Wallace before he was beheaded after a series of tortures. At least, that was what happened in the movie. I am not sure how much of the content in the movie was based on historical facts.

The controversial statue of Sir William Wallace

Anyway, the movie told of a Scottish knight, Sir William Wallace, who led commoners to fight against the English army. He won a series of battles, the most notable being the Battle of Stirling. Unfortunately, he was betrayed a few times by the Scottish nobles, which eventually led to his capture and execution.

Sounds familiar, isn't it? Kinda ironic that the movie was shown a few days after the shocking 'change of government' in the state of Perak.

What's the point of spending billions on election, only to be over-ruled by the decision made by one person, who was supposed to protect the rights of the rakyat?

But hey, this is a good movie in the making... just imagine.... our own version of Braveheart..... which tells the story of how some awakened commoners went out to fight and won the Battle of 308.... but betrayed by some 'hopping noblemen (and noblewoman)'.....

That, of course, is not the end of the story. Let's just hope that justice will prevail.

Chinese New Year diary

2009-01-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

Dear diary,

Had a nice time this CNY. Below are some of the highlights.

Gathering at LK's house

This has been an annual event for many years. In previous years, we usually went from one house to another and gathered at LK' house as the final stop. This year, due to time constraint, we gathered there directly on the first day of CNY. Activities included singing karaoke, playing mahjong and chor tai tee (a type of poker).... no money was involved, of course... we're good citizens :p

Lion dance

I remember feeling excited over it when I was a child. It's been a long time since I saw one. Had the opportunity this CNY when a neighbour invited a group to perform the lion dance in their house on the first day.

A lion dancing bravely to the rhythm of the drum in front of a strand of burning fire-crackers......

Another lion following behind....

The sweaty drummer :p

Reunion lunch with friends

This has also been an annual event since we left school. Held on the third day of CNY as usual, thanks to the effort of our dearest monitor, Bamboo, who was forced to bear this responsibility for the rest of his life because he failed to produce our class T-shirt :p

Hey Bam, we really appreciate your effort. You will always be our good old class monitor. Once a monitor, always a monitor.

Yes, he was our monitor for five years. He was so good so that we actually requested that he be transferred back to our class once when there was a reshuffle of classes. We just could not bear to lose him as our monitor (else, who's gonna clean the board and sweep the floor when the rest of us 'forgot sometimes' ? :p)

Even though only 9 (out of 40!) turned up for the lunch, we had an enjoyable time reminiscing our secondary school life. Needless to say, teachers with weird habits became the centre of our conversations and causes of laughter :p

Post-reunion lunch activities

Our reunion lunch was usually followed by some activities such as playing mahjong and chor tai tee. So engrossed were we in the game that there was one year when we played till dawn :p

This year, however, we only played till dinner time. Also learned a new game called Hold'em poker.

Meeting cousins and relatives

Went to my aunt's place where all my maternal relatives gather every year. It also happened to be an aunt's birthday, so we had a small birthday party.

Lots of children were running around. And the cutest and youngest of them all was my cousin brother's son! He was still a sleeping baby last year but this year, he's walking!

Isn't he cute? He's only 16 months old but looks smart and cute. Look at his thick dark hair, round chubby cheeks, small mouth and red pouty lips! :p

He's a very obedient kid. No tantrum. Eat quietly. Play by himself without disturbing others. Never snatch others' toys. Not a single cry.

Smiling and playing by himself.....

It's show time!

Went for a movie with friends on the fourth day. Watched All's Well Ends Well 2009. Would have enjoyed it more if I had not read its synopsis earlier. Nevertheless, there were some funny scenes here and there. Had a great time laughing together with friends and a bunch of cinema-goers.

Four yum cha sessions

Managed to attend 4 yum cha (drinking) sessions. Most of the attendees were from the same group of people, with a few additions in different sessions. Catching up with one another. Exchanged news on the whereabouts of everyone, who's married or about to, who's already a parent or becoming one soon, etc....

Regards,

Me, your writer

Behind the scene

2009-01-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

Campus comedy, some conversations that took place in an anonymous campus in the faraway land of gold and treasure.

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Lecturer : The guy sitting over there, what's your name? Can you please tell me the answer to question no. 2?

Student : My name is......... the answer is........

Lecturer (muttering to herself) : Oh no, that sounds like a female name.....

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Lecturer : You have to use ..... to do .....

Female student : Oh sh*t! (then looked down sheepishly after realizing she had muttered too loud)

Lecturer : (had to try hard to suppress a laughter)

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Lecturer 1 : There are many good-looking male students in my class!

Lecturer 2 : Really?!

Lecturer 1 : Yes! Tall and good-looking! I wonder what they are doing here. If I were them, I would not torture myself to study here. I'd go for auditions and modelling......

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Lecturer 1 : You seem busy.

Lecturer 2 : Ya, I'm preparing my lectures. Really pity the students. Even I feel like throwing up looking at those books.

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Now you know what happens behind the scene :p

Don't dream, be careful!

2009-01-12T06:13:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you have read or heard of this before.

People cheated of their money. Women cheated by Casanovas, phone scams, SMSes saying you have won the grand prize (ya, dream on... as the Cantonese saying goes, "no such big frog jumping on the street"), emails asking to 'borrow' your account so they can transfer certain money they have inherited from the US, South Africa..... etc.... I dare say that for sure you have received one of those.

But I never imagined it would happen to people close to me, until a few days ago.

My auntie was cheated of 10k! No, she was not one of those greedy, gullible individuals. Instead, someone called to say her son, my cousin, had been kidnapped! I still do not know yet the details of what actually transpired, but it sure sounds scary.

The first thing I did after that was to change the names in my phonebook. No more mom, dad, home, honey, darling, baby (Ok I never had those terms of endearment in my phonebook :p) ...... and my mom told me that if ever one day I found her coming home and taking out valuables suspiciously, I should shake or hit her, to make sure she's not hypnotized, cuz she has heard of this happening before!

Some words of advice here: Please be extra careful!

Einstein's equation

2009-01-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

I was chatting with a friend on MSN the other day when I asked him to share his experience of moving back home. He moved back to his hometown in Tawau (which he said was also a small town) a few years ago.

And these are the points he made:

#1 Funny gossips among 'aunties and uncles'

That is the sure sign of small towns, I guess.... Gossips probably spread faster than virus in small towns! :p

And now to point number 2, the most important thing to note (that's what he said).... an advice/warning.... and a useful equation....

#2 Hometown = Weight gain

That equation, I bet, receives much more attention among the average Jacks, Joes or Janes than Einstein's equation of E = mc2! But if you want to prove that equation wrong, then we would need Einstein's equation!

According to Einstein, the concept of mass-energy equivalence is ... ok, let's not get philosophical here :p

In simple terms, the equation E=mc2 states that the amount of energy released is equal to the amount of mass lost, or vice versa.

Energy released = Mass loss ... (1)
Mass = Weight/Gravity force ... (2)

Therefore:

Energy released = Weight loss/Gravity force

or

Weight loss = Gravity force x Energy released

Hmmm.... Albert Einstein probably discovered and derived his famous equation during his stay in his hometown :p

Diaries, letters and a secret club

2009-01-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

Finally, I’m back on the line. It was my first day at work this morning. Met a lot of new colleagues (I cannot seem to remember names and faces!). I am, of course, posting this from home (did not curi tulang :p). Spent the last few days discarding unwanted stuffs and unpacking.

Had a lot of fun looking through my old stuffs. Found some old drawings, my diaries (I had forgotten all about them! No big secrets though :p), some letters…. even my kindergarten report card was still there!

Reminded me of my childhood, some of the things that I used to own (some old handicrafts, handmade stuffs), games that I used to play (there was this secret club that I formed with my brother and cousins… better not reveal too much or my brother is going to kill me! :p)

The most meaningful things that I found were some old letters, greeting cards and birthday cards. Reading the messages and wishes brought back so many sweet memories. I have to admit that I have forgotten all about those cards and letters and even some of the senders (kinda embarrassed to admit that last one :p). Anyway, there was this letter that I like the most. I threw away most of the cards (sorry if you’re one of the senders) but I’m keeping this letter. It was from a secondary school junior/schoolmate, signed without a name and marked confidential. I am not sure who it was from… still trying to figure out (a few names came up)…. But I’m touched and motivated by the content. There was a little request from the sender. I could not remember how I responded to that. Hope I did not disappoint her.

Found my new yoga class and dance class too. Gonna start soon.

With this, I officially announce the beginning of a brand new chapter. :)

No regret

2008-12-26T10:39:00.000-08:00

That’s it. This chapter has finally come to an end.

I started this chapter in May and after 8 months, I am proud to say that I have no regret. Definitely one of the best chapters of my life.

Greatest decisions in this chapter:

1. Taking up dancing lessons
2. Moving into my new house

Highlights of the chapter:

1. Making lots of new friends, especially in the dance class
2. Attending lots of dance parties (Pontian, Kota Tinggi, JB, Kluang)
3. A day trip to Batu Pahat
4. Visiting friends in KL
5. Surprise birthday celebration
6. Trapped in a crowd of screaming fans of Linda Chung

Kinda sad to close this chapter. But really excited about my new chapter. I promise myself that the new chapter will be:

1. A healthy one (gotta look for a new yoga class, and hopefully dance class as well)
2. A colourful one

…. And most important of all, it will not be my last. There will be many more exciting new chapters to come.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my source of inspiration, even though you don’t know who you are :p

Note: I do not have broadband at home yet, so I might not be able to post anything in the next few weeks (unless I could sneak some time off to post something in the workplace :p)

Christmas Eve and Cookie

2008-12-24T23:58:00.000-08:00

Had an enjoyable Christmas Eve party last night. It would be my last dance party before I leave home in a few days' time.

The party was held in another town about 1.5 hours away. We gathered at my yoga instructor's place before leaving.

And I had a picture with Cookie..... not christmas cookies...

...... but this.....

That's Cookie, my yoga instructor's pet dog. Isn't she cute? (Sorry I forgot to fix the red eye, so it looks scary :p).... I don't usually touch animals because:

1. I'm scared of them :p
2. They might be dirty
3. They're wriggly and squirmy and I'm afraid of hurting them
4. Afraid of their lapping tongues and dripping saliva

But Cookie is just too cute to resist. She kept jumping up to me, so I took that picture with her hehehe......

Anyway, we left for the party not long after that. It was held in a large ballroom. There were about 200 people attending. There was a big stage and a large area of dance floor.

Dinner started at around 8 pm. While eating, we were presented with a line of Latin dance performances by different age categories, from as young as 8 years old to as old as 50 years old.

Remember the poster I mentioned in my previous post? That's them. Look at her sexy and glistening outfit!

Sexy dance move!

There were also two Indian dance performances by a group of dancers specially invited from a neighbouring town.

After the performances, it was time for us, the audience, to dance!

Blasting loud music, great disco lightings, blinking spotlights... everything was perfect. There were cha-cha, off-beat cha-cha, square rumba, rock n' roll, twist, samba, disco rock, waltz, free-style, Mexican dance, chicken dance, Malay joget... and even tango! We did not know all the dance steps, so sometimes we just stepped and jumped around for fun hahahaha..... Not many people knew how to tango, and in the end, only one old couple was left tangoing on the dance floor. And everybody clapped when they had finished.... the only thing missing was a stalk of red rose on the old lady's mouth :p

At one point, loud bumping disco music was played. We made a circle and took turn (several by several) to go to the centre. Everybody went wild and started shaking some assets! :p

Reminds me of Destiny's Child's Bootylicious ..... I don't think you can handle this!

We stopped for a while to sing birthday song to those born in the month of December, then continued dancing.

There was a sudden blackout. Then we started the countdown to 12! Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus appeared and started throwing sweets and candies around. Everybody wished everybody "merry christmas", shook hands and hugged (ladies with the ladies :p). Maybe I was small and light, there was this lady who hugged me and then lifted me off my feet and whirled me 360 degrees around! Hahaha..... We formed a human-train and snaked around the whole dance floor while Christmas songs were played in the background.

The party ended around 12.30 am.

Took a photo with my yoga instructor

My ears were half-deaf after that cuz we were seated right beside the amplifier. Even now, I think my hearing has not returned to normal yet.

Overall, it was a crazy but fun-filled party! One of the best parties I've ever had!

Last classes

2008-12-23T20:53:00.000-08:00

Had my last yoga and dance classes in Johor yesterday.

Instead of repeating each posture 5-6 times, we only repeated twice because my yoga intructor wanted to let me try as many different postures as possible in my last class.

And of course, not forgetting to take some pictures of me in action hehe...

That's me in my black-orange-white yoga outfit....

Cannot seem to make out the location of my head and limbs? :p

Here's a side view:

And of course, a group photo at the end of the class....

Me and my yoga instructor and class mates

After yoga class, it was supposed to be my dance class. But since it's my last class, we turned it into a pot-luck farewell dance party. Each guest brought some food, and thanks to the contributors, we had a variety of nasi lemak with shrimp sambal, fried noodle, fried vermicelli, fried kuey tiaw, popiah, chicken curry, wild boar curry, chicken feet in vinegar, pudding, fruits, snacks and red wine!

As it is still the school holidays and university semester break, most people are not around. But most of the uncles and aunties who I am closed to attended the party. We had a nice time dancing all the social dances that we have learnt so far... from cha-cha and rock-n-roll to off-beat cha-cha, samba and square rumba. There were also a few performances of Latin cha-cha, jive and rumba.

After a few hours of merry-making, people started to leave and only those of us who are closed were left. Of course I took that opportunity to take some nice pictures with them....

Not just your average pictures....

But some sexy, sizzling hot dance postures.....

We are, after all, dancers..... :p

Are you ready? Need any napkin?

Ok, I boasted a little..... :p

..... but still...

I like the pictures!

One of the postures in our Latin cha-cha choreograph

A pose invented last night.... :p

Another one....

A pose in our Latin rumba figure, the right sideview

The left sideview. Can you believe he's 60? 60 and still looking fit and strong!

Trying to imitate the poster behind :p ...... the dancers in the poster are some of my instructor's best students who have won international dancing competitions.

And some silly pose hahahaha........

That's Teoh and his wife... Mr Teoh, are you trying to suppress your laughter at this silly pose? :p .... looks like some Indian dance movement, eh?

Alright, let's get serious, ok?

That's more like it :p

Presenting to you, ahem.... the most potential dancers for the year 2009:

From left: My yoga-instructor-cum-dance-classmate, Mr Lee, me and Mr Lee's wife.

I took a picture with my dance instructor too.... but he's the type who likes to keep a low profile... so I better not put his picture here... let him remain anonymous :p

Ok, I gotta stop now. Need to get ready for the Christmas dance party tonight. If I'm not too engrossed in dancing or enjoying performances, maybe I'll snap some nice pictures of real dancers for your viewing pleasure tonight! Stay tune!

Christmas announcement

2008-12-22T20:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas is just around the corner. Have always like Christmas even though I don't really celebrate it. All the X'mas trees, decorations, colourful lights, snow (I mean the white cotton wool in Malaysia :p), the jingles, Christmas songs, and most important of all...... great shows on TV! :p

How are you going to spend yours?

Me? I'm going to spend my Christmas enjoying my last few days in Johor, finishing some reports and packing.

I've been keeping this news for almost a month now. It has now been confirmed. I'm moving back to my hometown next week..... to start yet another new chapter.....

Kinda sad to leave as I have bonded well with the people here, especially the people in my yoga and dance classes. Even though I've only known the 'aunties and uncles' in my dance class for half a year, they have been nice to me... and we have attended a few parties together. And of course, my friends here...

I remember that I really disliked it when I first came here. Kept complaining about the food and the place..... but I end up spending the longest time here among my coursemates. And a few years down the road, it now feels like a second home....

Had farewell dinner with Alvin, Janice, Mun Yee and HP last Fri. Farewell lunch with Shek and KL yesterday. And later today, there will be a pot-luck dance party organised by my yoga instructor and dance mates, also as a farewell party.

I'm going to spend Christmas Eve attending a dance party organized by my dance instructor in his hometown.

Wanna make the most out of these few days before I embark on a new journey next year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Mom's latest toys

2008-12-12T01:56:00.000-08:00

Remember my trip to Penang last weekend? Well, I stopped by at home for a few days.

And my mom was busy with her latest toys!

These are my mom's latest toys:

Doggie on the run....

No, she doesn't play with them. She makes them!

Being a full-time homemaker, my mom likes to find new things to do, especially handicrafts. And being her daughter, I naturally 'inherit' this from her :p

We usually learn from many different sources. Friends, self-learning, reading books.....

We have done lots of knitting, cross-stitching, sewing, origami, paper flowers, weaving using rattans, dolls.... making use of unwanted materials, ribbons, threads......

These are the ones I made:

A pair of doggies enjoying a scenic view....

Aren't they cute? They look very lively and real too!

I only managed to make two in that short stay at home. And my fingers ached for a few days after that. But it's all worth it.

Not only is it a good way of recycling, they make nice decorative items and gifts too!

Star-struck

2008-12-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

I was in Penang last weekend. Was there for only a short stay at my brother's place and thus did not inform any friends there.

Anyway, on Saturday afternoon, my brother took me to one of the latest and most popular shopping complexes in Penang. The Queensbay Mall. It's also the nearest from his place, within 5 minutes' drive.

And guess who I met?

Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣) of TVB! She was there for an autograph session to promote her latest album. Yup, she has released her own album. Typical of TVB artistes.

Anyway, I did not go there purposely to meet her, of course. Only knew about it that afternoon. Since we were already there, we decided to join in the fun. The event was supposed to start at 8pm. By the time we neared the stage, it was already crowded... it was lined with masses of people everywhere, up to the second floor!

I was standing quite far behind, and with my height, it was very difficult for me to see the stage. Ok, I could not see the stage at all :p

Everybody waited and cheered whenever they thought she had arrived.

She finally arrived around 8.30 pm.

People kept cheering. Hands were raised with cameras, it was even more difficult for me to see the stage :p

She greeted the audience in Hokkien, since it's the unofficial language of Penang. After a short banter between her and the MC (a Myfm DJ) in Cantonese, she sang one song. She left the stage for a short break afterwards, followed by a session of games and photography.

Linda Chung and the MC

While she was singing.....

Finally, it was the autograph session. People kept pushing from behind to reach the stage, and suddenly, I found myself standing in the front row, right below the stage hehehe.... so I took some pictures of her. Unfortunately, I did not bring my digicam, so I could only use my handphone.

The autograph session

Linda Chung was very tall, with a pair of slender long legs. Very sweet-looking and cute. Not the typical fair-skinned Chinese artistes, but a little tanned and looked athletic.

Tall and slender

Up close and personal

She seemed to be a nice, sweet and friendly person. This is the kind of people I'd like to see achieve success. Well, to be honest, I would not say she's a great singer. It's quite obvious she's not a born singer... but who knows, with lots of hard work and training, she could make it big in the singing industry someday. After all, Andy Lau was an actor first.

As for her acting skill, let's just say I've seen her improving a lot.

One thing is for sure. She has a lot of fans among teenagers. While trapped in the crowd, I overheard some conversations among the teenagers standing around me and I guess they really liked her. They cheered very loudly with phrases like "love you!" and "support you forever!".

I did not cheer or scream. Maybe I'm over that period. Or maybe I'm not a big enough fan. Hmmmm... wonder if there would still be any celebrity who could make me scream my lungs out? :p

Great love to brighten the globe

2008-11-23T00:20:00.000-08:00

Just came home from the Buddhist Tzu Chi Charity Sales. It's an annual event organized by the Tzu Chi Society (慈济), an international society doing humanity and relief work worldwide.

They have a centre near my place and this year was the third year in a row I attended the charity sales. Went there with a friend around 12.30pm and it was already crowded. Luckily, I managed to find a parking space not far from the centre.

We were greeted by a large banner and a large crowd.

Another banner to promote their "1013 (一人,一善): One Person, One Good Deed" Campaign.

There were many stalls selling vegetarian food and beverages, fruits and vegetables, flowers and plants, groceries, books, paintings, and decorative items.

My friend and I had our lunch there. We were allowed to visit their centre. There was a hall inside the centre, decorated with paintings, photos and words of wisdom.

A large painting inside the hall.

Adjacent to the hall was a mini-library and a cafe serving coffee and tea. There was also a large screen in the cafe, showing a channel called 大爱电视 (Great Love TV). This channel was initiated by the society. It is available through cable or satelite dish. It also streams live online at http://www.newdaai.tv/. The aim of Great Love TV is:

To spread its spirit of seeing the world with love, endeavor with the rest of Tzu Chi to document our world's truth, compassion and beauty, and wish for great love to brighten the globe!

A beautiful crystal figurine, a symbol of the society. The globe can rotate!

Besides fund-raising, the event also aimed to educate, inculcate good habits and promote awareness 0n environmental issues.

A set of utensils to promote bringing our own when we eat out and reduce the use of disposable utensils.

A poster promoting 5R (Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle).

Rubbish life: The time it takes for total degradation

Making it part of life

Put environmental preservation into practice in all aspects of our everyday life: consume less and conserve more in everything that we do and use. Reuse or avoid using anything disposable - bring your own shopping bags or eating utensils and shun convenience-packaged goods.

Sense and sensibility

2008-11-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

No, this has nothing to do with Jane Austen, the book or the movie.

Looked up the word 'sensible' in the online dictionary and found many definitions such as:

- conforming with established standards or rules
- capable of or reflecting the capability for correct and valid reasoning
- consistent with or based on or using reason
- well grounded in logic or truth or having legal force

Every so often, we are subjected to the scrutiny of the society, its norms and what is considered logical.

In a way, these so-called established standards help to keep things in order... but there are times when they become obstacles for further development and growth.

I was at MPH the other day and I came across this book entitled "How to think like Einstein: Simple ways to break the rules and discover your hidden genius" by Scott Thorpe. Yes, according to the author, one simple key to breakthrough is rule-breaking. Of course, here it does not mean breaking the laws and involving yourself in crimes. Rather it describes how as we grow older (and supposedly wiser), we tend to analyse and think too much, conforming to norms.... and hinder us from further breakthrough...

Society norms or what our hearts want?

Outrageous dreams or sensibility?

Do we have the courage?

An unexpected turn of events

2008-11-14T00:12:00.000-08:00

Was in KL for two days (Wed and Thurs) to settle something. It was quite a last-minute arrangement, so at first I only planned to spend the night at a friend's place and leave right after I settled everything. But things turned out unexpectedly! And an enjoyable one too!

My ex-coursemate, Esther, who was supposed to be away for an outstation trip on Wed suddenly called me on Tuesday night to tell me that her trip had been cancelled and that I could stay at her place. So on Wed evening, she picked me up from the LRT station and we went straight to her house to bath. We had at first plan to only meet up with an ex-coursemate, Yuki for dinner at Sunway Pyramid. But coincidentally, some other friends sms to ask about some other things, and when they knew of our dinner, they decided to join us!

In the end, seven of us turned up. Me, Esther, Yuki, Chloe and Kuek (also ex-coursemates), Kenix (Yuki's current housemate) and Niki (my hometown best friend). Too bad it was quite late, else we would have asked Rain to join us as well. And BL (another friend) had just left KL two days ago.

Anyway, we went to Sakae Sushi for dinner (or rather supper, cuz by the time food arrived it was already quite late!).... Niki arrived with a belated birthday gift for me and a box of J.Co doughnuts! I was told they're the latest craze in town and people had to wait in long queues just to have a taste of the doughnuts. And Niki queued up just so I could have a taste! I felt so touched!

Kuek was the last to arrive. Everybody seemed to look and behave the same, though Kuek had a new trendy hairstyle hahaha.... but in general, everybody's role was still the same. Esther kept grumbling and complaining about the slow service (looks like Sakae Sushi Sunway Pyramid would be black-listed from now on). And Kuek kept teasing me, saying how my Mandarin sucked when I first went to Johor and how I had improved by leaps and bounds. He even added that he felt proud as a Johorean because Johor had managed to Mandarinise me! :p

By the time we left, most shops were already closed. We went our separate ways home.

The next morning, Esther, Kuek (who is staying in the row behind Esther) and I had breakfast together. Kuek sent me to my destination after breakfast. I bumped into a friend there, who was also heading the same way, so we travelled back down south together.

I felt tired and sleepy, but really glad to have met up with friends.

And my baby is back.... though smelling of paint, but shiny, safe and sound!

I'm only 19!

2008-11-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

Attended a dinner and dance jointly organised by the yoga centre and dancing studio last night. It started around 8pm but we went there early. The yoga centre had set up a little booth at the reception where they gave free monitoring of your body composition.

Needless to say, I went for it. It's a simple machine where you stand on a scale and your body would be scanned. The machine then analyzes your body composition based on your age, sex, height and weight. The analyzer will print out the result slip once it's done.

My result slip

Look at that! My metabolic age is (Ahem!) 19! Ok, the analyzer might not be 100 % accurate. There could be some plus minus, but it couldn't be that much :p

I was not even feeling well at the time of the monitoring. Due to some 'hotness' inside my body, there has been a big ulcer in my mouth since last Sunday. Having such hard time eating and chewing. The worst was that I could not open my mouth large enough a few days ago to spoon feed myself because it exerted pain each time I did so. Not only that, my right jaw was swollen. I think it's due to inflammation of the saliva gland. Not sure what the medical term for it is. But my mom called it 'sang ja soi' in Cantonese. Some people call it 猪头皮 ('pig head skin'... or is it 'pig's dandruff'? :p). I was told that one popular remedy for it was to draw a circle on the swollen spot and write the word 虎 (tiger) in the circle. Why? So the tiger can eat the pig hahahahaha......

OK, back to my body composition... you see, if I was not unwell, I'm sure my reading would have been even better :p

And look at my visceral fat rating. Only 1! Hehehe..... it's the lowest and most ideal according to Tanita (the body composition analyzer). It says that:

Ensuring you have the right healthy level of visceral fat reduces the risk of certain conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure, and may delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.

And who says yoga is bad?

The day I lost my 'legs'

2008-11-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

I will be 'legless' until next week. Yes, that's how I feel without my car. It met with an accident. Yup, IT.... and thankfully, not me.

Today was probably another one of those bad hair days for me. Sent my car for snow wash, as I always did once in a while. Went to the same place. The same car-wash centre I've been patronizing since I first brought my car here. What customers usually do is to leave the car-keys there and let the workers wash and drive the cars to the dry area for vacumn cleaning. And the worker in charge of my car rammed mine into the car in front..... sigh... I could only watched helplessly when it happened.....

The accident was probably a 'penalty' for being loyal.... this centre used to be the only one on that row of shops. When I drove there today, I turned when I saw a car-wash sign. But halfway into turning, I realized that it was not the one I usually patronised. One look around, and I discovered 3 car-wash centres on that row. I was already halfway, and I paused for a while trying to decide if I should try out this new one or went back to the old one. But there was a car in front still being washed. So I decided to reverse and went to the one I always visited.... which turned out to be a big mistake.....

The bonnet and the front part of the car were dented. The car plate was smashed. One headlight was smashed. Luckily, no internal injury on the engine. As for the car in front, a Kenari belonging to a Malay lady, there were some dents on the bumper and the back door. The Malay lady was not around when the accident happened as she went out to buy something and left her car there.

I was shocked and at a loss for words for a while. And worried too. I was the only lady there and surrounded by the workers, a group of Indian guys. The guy who smashed my car looked scared and asked if I could wait till next month when he would get his pay. Actually, I kinda sympathised him. But someone had to pay for this and that someone could not be me. Anyway, his co-worker called the boss so all of us waited there silently.

A good Samaritan who was having his car washed at that first centre I mistakenly entered came over after hearing about the accident. Seeing me alone with the Indian guys, this Chinese guy waited there for the boss with me. Maybe I looked like a damsel in distress hahaha...... and when the boss arrived he spoke to the boss for me too....

Another lucky thing was that the boss (also an Indian) was really nice about it. No fuss or anything. In fact, he was still smiling, as if that was something he dealed with everyday (which I later found out to be quite true!). He immediately called a workshop.

Alvin, whom I called earlier, arrived not long after. And it turned out that the guy from the workshop knew Alvin cuz he sent his car there once. I consider that another lucky thing cuz I've heard of dishonest workshops where they replace your spare parts with non-original ones. At least this one could be considered a 'friend'.....

The workshop guy told us these kind of accidents happened very frequently at car-wash centres because their shoes were slippery due to the foam. In fact, one took place last month at this centre where a MyVi rammed into a Honda (no wonder the boss was casual about it). And co-incidentally, the Malay lady who owned the Kenari was there during the MyVi-Honda affair. She told me she had been battling with herself earlier whether to get her car washed at the centre after witnessing that 'affair', but decided to come in the end. Unfortunately, it ended with a Kelisa-Kenari affair :p

So now, I will be without my legs for one whole week. Mun Yee drove me to the pasar malam just now and I bought some veggies and stuff. Guess I'll have to cook these few days. Maybe this is a good opportunity for me to brush up my cooking skill (if I have one to start with :p).....

Headlines of the day

2008-10-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some 'interesting' excerpts from The Star dated 31st of October 2008:

Mixed feelings on yoga

By LESTER KONG

PETALING JAYA: Not only Muslims have reservations on practising yoga, some Christian groups also have mixed feelings about it due to its ties to Hinduism.

While some Christian groups say it was wrong to practise yoga as it belonged to a different religion, others say they saw nothing wrong as long as the participants do not deviate from their beliefs.

The Malaysian Council of Churches general secretary, Rev Dr Herman Shastri, said different churches hold different opinions on the practice of yoga.

“In modern society, many young people are interested in health and well-being of mind and body.

“Some churches said it belonged to a different religion so Christians should not do it,” he said, adding that many churches held spiritual retreats that were opened to non-believers, featuring meditation to alleviate stress and help people seek spiritual comfort.

Another source said the issue was problematic as the council did not have a uniform stance on it.

He said other church groups consider yoga to be a healthy exercise if done only for physical reasons.

“But generally, for Christians, if they do not offer prayers to other Gods while practising yoga, I think it should be fine,” he said.

Malaysia Hindu Sangam president Datuk A. Vaithilingam said yoga had long been an accepted form of exercise in many countries regardless of religion and culture.

“Yoga practitioners can just leave out the religion and do the exercise. It‘s entirely up to the individual,” he said, adding that there were no restrictions that yoga practitioners had to be Hindus.

The Malaysian Muslim Solidarity Movement also said there was nothing wrong with Muslims practising yoga as an exercise.

“It is just an exercise for health and brings peace of mind. Nothing more than that. It has never been averse to the Islamic faith,” said its president Datuk Zulkifli Mohamad, adding that there were no objections on yoga by ulamas around the world.

“This new fatwa is not healthy and yoga is a very subjective and debatable issue,” Zulkifli added.

Yoga is a form of exercise called Asana and was one of the most ancient physical and mental disciplines originating from India some 5,000 years ago.

The Islamic Development Department had said on Wednesday that the National Fatwa Council is expected to make a ruling to ban Muslims from practising yoga.

What I have to say? I've been practising yoga for 3 years now and I have yet to detect any trace of religion in it, unless you consider concentrating on each breath you take as worshipping the God of Breath.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, a thinking president?

By P. GUNASEGARAM

What is so endearing about Barack Obama is his freshness and honesty in politics, stopping just short of naiveté, with the right mix of pragmatism and idealism.

IF THINGS go according to prediction, Barack Obama will become the next president of the United States of America, the first black person ever to do so and, for the first time in a while, a thinking and thoughtful US president to boot.

Call me prejudiced if you want but I am influenced by two books he wrote. The first was Dreams from My Father an autobiographical account about his search for his own roots, his life philosophy and the forces driving his career aspirations.

He established himself as a sensitive, reflective and contemplative writer in that 1995 book, but which only became a bestseller after it was reissued in 2004 when it began to get obvious that Obama may be shooting for the metaphorical stars.

His other book was The Audacity of Hope published in 2006 that became another bestseller. This book encapsulated very well his thoughts about law and politics and the role he expected to play in his chosen career.

The great thing about both books was that they were very readable – and sounded pretty honest – very rare for those written by politicians.
Said the New York Times when it reviewed the second book: “Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois and the Democratic Party’s new rock star, is that rare politician who can actually write – and write movingly and genuinely about himself.” Agreed.

I must confess that I have read a lot less of John McCain. I have not read what is perhaps his most celebrated work, Faith of My Fathers with Mark Salter but I took the trouble to read an excerpt online. That does not tell you a lot but does give you a flavour of sorts.

McCain has an interesting story to tell and the lessons that he has learnt from his forefathers. He talks about his navy days and there are accounts of his time in captivity in Vietnam during the war that the United States waged against Ho Chi Minh’s Vietnam.

Obama, 47, was born in 1961, two years before President Kennedy’s assassination, to a black Kenyan father and a white American mother from Kansas. His parents, who met in university, separated when he was two and subsequently divorced. His mother remarried an Indonesian. He lived in Jakarta and Hawaii for most of his childhood years.

Despite what some would consider a muddled life, Obama is an embodiment of the American dream, studying at Ivy League-status Columbia University in New York and Harvard. He became the first president of Harvard’s Law Review, overseeing 80 editors.

That he has come this far in the US presidential campaign is surprising given that his last name rhymes with “Osama”, his middle name is Hussein and both his father and stepfather were born Muslims. It also says much for how far the United States has moved forward over the years in race relations and attitudes, and demographics.

What is so endearing about Obama is his freshness and honesty in politics, stopping just short of naiveté, with the right mix of pragmatism and, yes, idealism.

He has no major scandals, speaks a whole lot of sense, is consistent in his approach and oh so convincing when you hear him speak, it touches your heart. You just can’t catch him out.

And he has persistently refused to be dragged into mudslinging even if a lot of dirt has been thrown at him.

Despite some of most low-down provocation centred around his name, ancestry, liberalism and relative youth, he just stays above the fray.
John McCain, 72, could not be more different than Obama. He was born to Anglo-Saxon parents in 1936, a full quarter of a century before Obama, in the Panama Canal zone. His father and his paternal grandfather were four-star admirals in the US Navy.

He did not quite follow in their footsteps all the way but did join the Navy and retired as a Captain to enter politics in 1981.

His great claim to fame was that his plane was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 during a bombing mission during the Vietnam war. He was captured by the North Vietnamese and systematically tortured. Overall he demonstrated great courage and resilience during captivity.

Some accounts described him in his early days as a Navy pilot as sub-par flier who took undue risks and was at times careless and reckless; during the early-to-mid 1960s, the planes he was flying crashed twice and once collided with power lines.

According to Wikipedia, his aviation skills improved over time, and he was seen as a good pilot, albeit one who tended to “push the envelope” in his flying.

To me, he pushed more than the proverbial envelope when he tried to pass of an incident when he was a pilot and sitting in the cockpit during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 (when Obama was a toddling year or so old) as evidence that he has been tested for the rigours of a US presidency.

Here’s a news account of that which appeared on Oct 21: “I was on board the USS Enterprise,” McCain, a former naval aviator, said in the capital city of Harrisburg (Pennsylvania).

“I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war.”
As the crowd of several thousand began to swell with cheers and applause, he added with dramatic effect: “America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I’ve been tested, my friends.”

Now, that’s stretching it – and we have not even talked about Sarah Palin yet.

People who are not afraid to think will remember that at the same time that the United States demanded the removal of nuclear missiles from Cuba at America’s doorstep, the United States had theirs at the Soviet Union’s backdoor in Turkey.

In other words, the over-rated President Kennedy had pushed the world to the brink of nuclear disaster to maintain a double standard. How unstatesmanlike!

If that is what McCain meant and means by preparedness and being ready to fight for his country, sitting in his cockpit, waiting for the action to start 46 years ago, not having changed his point of view one jot in that entire period, heaven help us all if he becomes president.

If McCain prevails and despite all the odds becomes the next president, then we can be sure of one thing – the God and country rhetoric we have had from the Bush era to mask a multitude of sins, will simply continue.

Not only the United States, the rest of the world will suffer for that.

P. Gunasegaram is managing editor of The Star. His choice for US president from the elections of Nov 4 is clearly Obama.

What I have to say? The PUBLISHED article above is well-written, I would say. The irony of it? The US presidential election is PUBLICLY debated and discussed here when we do not even get to vote or that the direct impact of the result on us might not be too significant, while OUR OWN political issues are not to be publicly debated or risk being ISA-ed, all the while asking the US to buzz off for interferring with our infernal... sorry, I mean internal affairs.

On a side note, if you must ask, then I'd tell you that I support Obama too :p ......

A series of events leading to the Love Letter

2008-10-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm way past the age of screaming over some celebrity. But that doesn't stop me from feeling excited over it. It keeps us young and energetic :p ..... my elixir for eternal youth ahem...

The closest I ever got to a big celebrity would be a few years ago when I met LeeHom Wang during his promo tour in Ipoh Parade. Ok, I did not really meet him as in 'face to face' :p

I was in Ipoh to visit my cousin, but she's out.... to Ipoh Parade to meet LeeHom. My uncle offered to take us there. So there he was (LeeHom I mean), standing tall and handsome on the stage on the ground floor while I could only watch from the first floor :p ... I had wanted to go down there, but the escalator (it was not moving) was full of people!

Haven't had any chance to be in 'close proximity' to any celebrity since then (concerts don't count). Not even during my holiday in Hong Kong 2 years ago.

So when I heard news that Raymond Lam Fung (TVB actor/singer) would be in Malaysia, I was excited! Because one of the venues for his promo tour was Kampar TAR College.... I mean, KAMPAR! My hometown! Ok, so I was not in Kampar at that time. I did not get to meet him. But I was excited anyway. I mean, how often does Kampar get any visit by famous stars? Ok, so Michelle Yeoh was in Kampar a few years ago for a charity event... and a few big budget movies featured scenes filmed in Kampar :p

Actually, Raymond Lam was also in JB yesterday (Danga Mall and Danga Bay), but I did not go..... :p ..... kinda like his latest song though... it's the sub-theme song to Moonlight Resonance (a TVB drama Raymond was cast in), called 愛不疚 (Love With No Regret).... so I looked for the MV, which led me to the MV of another song of his called 愛在記憶中找你 (Looking For You In My Memories)....

Really like the story featured in the MV. It was really sad and touching. Someone commented that it was based on the movie Lake House (starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock). Haven't watched Lake House. After a search on the internet, and I found that Lake House itself was based on a Korean film called Il Mare.

And it reminds me of a Japanese love story I watched many years ago.

Love Letter

It's a beautiful story of love lost and rediscovered... a tragic beginning or ending depending on how you look at it... and a little mystery :p

If you like love story and haven't watched this one, go watch it. Just remember to get ready some tissue papers or hankerchief or your other-half's shoulder :p

If you're lazy to watch the movie, here's a short write-up I found on the internet.

But I would recommend watching the film yourself. Enjoy!

Thanks a lot!

2008-10-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

Would like to take this opportunity to thank family members, friends and everyone for your birthday wishes, either via phone call, sms, email, friendster or facebook.

Special thanks to Alvin and Janice, Mun Yee and Hui Phing for their big surprise. They sneaked into my house, hid in Mun Yee's room and popped up in front of me with a birthday cake lit with ONE candle (take note, only one candle, so you can guess my age :p) around 12 am. Thank you, guys!

Received a cute key-pouch, a bracelet (which I received last month from the witch) and.... a Leona Lewis cd! The Spirit album! Really appreciate their effort, especially Mun Yee's.

Have always liked Leona Lewis since I found out about her! Like all her songs (except for the theme song for the coming Olympics, but that's not her fault, right? :p), especially the ballads! It's the latest album playing in the cd player in my car. And it makes my driving experience all the more fun... so if you see me mumbling while driving.. don't worry, I haven't gone crazy.... I'm just singing along to the songs played in my car.

Thank you. May all of you be blessed with good things too. Let's spread the good spirits around!

No need to say goodbye....

2008-10-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Watched "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" with my father when I went home last week. Never expected it to be that good.

I remember watching "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" in the cinema a few years ago. I kinda liked it too. But LOTR was still fresh in my mind then and thus, Narnia sort of paled in comparison.

So I never expected much from the second Narnia. But it was very very good. The action, the battle scenes, the scenic settings.....

It has an archer (remember Legolas in The Two Towers? :p) in the form of Susan Pevensie. It has a cute little heroine (Hobbits?) in the form of sweet little Lucy. And it has a handsome king/prince (think hairy Aragon :p) in the form of Prince Caspian.

But what sets it apart is how it tries to connect the modern world and the middle age... the time travel between the two realms... a taste of a different life....

*spoiler alert* for those who have not watched it....

It was really sad when they had to retreat in the first attack and left half of the Narnians (centaurs, fauns, minitaurs, etc.) trapped behind the gates and slaughtered to death.

And the duel between Peter and Miraz reminds me of the Gladiator (Russel Crowe's character died) and Troy (Eric Bana's character died).... :(

The final scene when the Pevensies were about to leave was touching too. I like the song played during that scene .... the melody, the lyrics, the scene... it's very touching...

I'll come back

When you call me

No need to say goodbye

How I wish Prince Caspian and Susan could be together :p

The parent lottery

2008-10-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

Everybody has dreams and things to achieve. I have my own dreams too.

I always feel like I'm different from most people... the odd one out. Due to my upbringing, I only want my life to be simple and peaceful... which is why I would never ever become filthy rich. I guess I probably won't die of hunger, but I'd never be filthy rich either.

I have always said I never had much luck with lucky draw and stuff. The truth is, I have won the biggest draw ever from the first day I was born. I have won the parent lottery (according to Randy). They may not understand everything, but they support and love me very much.

There are people around us who always want to have a say about our choices. Sometimes I feel bad that my parents have to endure 'well-intentioned comments' from these people regarding my choice. There are times when I feel like, they are bullying my parents because they are more educated.

Anyway, my brother and I have always had good grades... something that my parents are proud of. We are the pride and joy of our parents.

I'll know where to find motivation when I need it.

What is it??

2008-10-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

I turned off the lights and slept early last night, only to wake up in the middle of the night feeling itchy all over my body. When I turned on the lights, I saw red spots and rashes on my body and limbs! Looking at those rashes gave me a shiver!

So itchy that I could not go back to sleep... kept turning around in bed. I dared not scratch for fear of leaving scars or that the rashes might spread.... but it was so irritating! How I wished for a steamy hot bath or that fish spa Bamboo had......

I remember having rashes when I was small and my mom told me it's 'fung mok' (风膜)... not sure what is the Western medical term for it..... back then my mom would rub some whitish substance and warn me not to scratch. She also covered me up because the condition could worsen when exposed to air (风)....

All sorts of possibilities crossed my mind.

1) Dengue? Chikungunya?
But I do not have fever or muscle pain.....

2) Insect bites?

3) Could it be the chicken rice I had for lunch? Bird flu or bird
infection?

4) Or the squid in the tom yam fried rice that I had for dinner?
Allergy?
But I was never allergic to squids or prawns.

5) What about that glass of hot chocolate I had that
afternoon? Maybe it contained something imported from
China?

I started tracing what I had taken for the past two to three days... but certainly it would not take that long to take effects if it's allergy? Besides, they were probably floating in the septic tank by now :p

I kept thinking and rolling in bed, and cocooned myself (including my head) in blanket (in case it's 'fung mok' :p)... telling myself to go see a doctor the next day and call my mom. After 'struggling' in bed for some time, I finally managed to drift off...

Strangely, when I woke up this morning, all the rashes and red spots were gone... not feeling itchy anymore.... everything's back to normal.... but I'm very sure it was not all a dream :p

I hope it means Goodbye! and not a See-You-Again-Tonight....

I still have no idea what it is....

Has anyone of you had similar experience before?

Can anyone tell me what it is????

A Tale of Two Hearts

2008-10-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Attended a wedding yesterday.

4th of October 2008 marked a special day for my friend Jully. It's the day she made a marriage vow with her husband Nicholas.

Jully is my ex-faculty-mate. Strangely, we never spoke to each other all those five years when we were undergraduates. We only started to get closed during our master's studies, probably due to the fact that many of our friends had left to venture into workingdom, so there were only a few of us who stayed :p .... and coincidentally, she's also a church-mate of Alvin's, who was then my next-door neighbour. Now that I think of it, it was also Jully who introduced me to yoga. She invited me to join her and Amy (her coursemate) for yoga class (although they stopped after a few months :p).

The wedding was held in Melaka. Both the bride and the groom are from the historical state of Melaka. It was a church wedding as both are Catholics. It was my third time attending a church wedding. During the first time, I was only in my primary school so I could not recall much of it. The second time took place during Alvin and Janice's wedding last year.

Jully had chartered a bus to take all of us in the southern region to Melaka to attend her wedding. She also rented two apartments for those coming from afar and needed to stay overnight.

I followed the bus and made a day trip to Melaka. We started the journey at dawn and arrived around 8.30 am.

The ceremony started at 9 am with the arrival of the bride.

Cute little flower-girls

More flower-girls

Older flower-girls :p

Jully walking down the aisle, with her father at her side.

Her father giving her away.....

The church ceremony ended around 10.30 am with the bride throwing away her bouquet of flowers. It hit a guy hahahaha..... and he gave it to his girlfriend.... :p

The wedding lunch (yup, it's a lunch instead of dinner for the convenience of those attending both the ceremony and the lunch) was held in a five-star hotel. It was scheduled at 1 pm, but we arrived early so I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the ballroom.

I like the flowery arch

The VIP table for the bride and groom and their family members. Nope, that's not the picture of the groom :p ..... they were just testing the LCD and the sound system...

Posing under the flowery arch hehe....

Another one... just to show off my boots hahahaha... :p

It's an ice sculpture! It melted a little and water was dripping... but it managed to stay in that form throughout lunch...

Part of the backdrop at close range...

During the lunch, Jully came over to our table and so we took some pictures together.

There were slide shows playing intermitently,displaying their wedding photos, childhood pictures.. and of course their love story.

Theirs was a great one. Just like something out of a Hollywood romance...

When two paths cross.... (相遇):

Fate first brought them together when SHE joined a uniform unit in secondary school where HE was an officer. Friendship blossomed....

First trial (考验):

Soon, HE left for UK to further study while SHE stayed in Malaysia to finish her secondary school.

Reunited (重缝):

Fate reunited them when HE came back to Malaysia and happened to work in the same state where SHE attended university..... the beginning of a beautiful romance.....

Second trial (再度考验):

HE was sent to work abroad while SHE continued her study in Malaysia. A long distance relationship took place for three years.... but they were still going strong....

SHE later joined HIM and they spent a year abroad...

The Vow (一生一世的诚诺):

After one year of life abroad, they decided to come back to Malaysia ... to start a new journey together.....

This song is dedicated to Jully and Nicholas... and to all the couples out there.....

Can farmers sing?

2008-10-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting song.

Song title : 舉高隻手 (Put Up Your Hands!)
Artistes : 農夫 (Farmers aka FAMA)
(No kidding! That's the name of the duo band!)
Genre : Rap
Origin of artistes : Hong Kong
Language : Cantonese

Take note of the lyrics. Very interesting, funny and meaningful!

Let's all put up our hands together! Hehehehe.....

Chicken and duck... who's speaking?

2008-09-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

A Chinese girl playing with an Indian girl

No, I'm not trying to be artistic (though I like the way quaint melody writes her blog http://www.quaintmelody.com/).

And no, I'm not trying to be Yasmin Ahmad (the award-winning director of Sepet, Mukhsin and all those meaningful Petronas advertisements on TV).

But I kinda like this scenario.

I have always been amazed by kids who can play together happily even though they could not understand one another's language.

Take my family for example. Whenever there's a big family gathering (e.g. during Chinese New Year), you could see kids ranging from 4 to 8 years old (my little cousins and my elder cousins' children) running around, chasing one another, playing together happily. But what amazes me is that every one of them speaks a different language. Some are pre-schoolers who speak Cantonese at home, some speak Mandarin, some speak English, some attended Chinese school, some are English-educated.... and yet, they seem to be able to 'communicate' with one another :p

I always have a good laugh listening to their 'conversation' hahaha.... one speaking after another, each in a different language, repeating many times (because the others could not understand :p)... but no one's replying to anyone.... hahaha... just like the conversation between 'a chicken and a duck' (鸡同鸭讲) :p

And yet, they seem to be enjoying themselves, having fun playing together....

Look beyond the exterior, the skin colour, the language barrier..... it displays innocence and harmony

Just like there's no language barrier in music... at least that's what Madonna says (Music... makes the people.. come together... yeah...) :p

Or should we say it's a language called 'melody'?

Virtual remedy

2008-09-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

Not feeling yourself?

Have all of the symptoms below?

1) An avid fan of Hollywood movies
2) Well-informed of the 'local scene'
3) Have a good sense of humor

Try this prescription (ONLY if you have ALL of the symptoms listed above):

http://bongkersz.com/2008/09/22/the-malaysian-political-oscars/

Still feeling the blues?

Try this as well:

http://bongkersz.com/2008/09/19/bee-end-downfall-parody/

WARNING:

Side effects may include:

1) Laughing non-stop
2) Teary eyes
3) Rolling on the floor
4) Stomachache

Prescribe at your own risk.

Why your boss is not always right: Learn it the Malaysian way

2008-09-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

Very often, we hear of the slogan 'Customer is always right' (顾客永远是的).

But what about your boss?

A few years back, I worked part-time for an American engineer. He had been staying in Malaysia for some time so he understood the culture here. He even learned Mandarin and Malay using those educational cassettes and CDs. Sometimes, we could hear him uttering expressions like Walamah! (which he meant Alamak! :p) and describing himself as a Mud Zalleh giller (those were the exact words he used!), which means 'crazy Westerner'.

Oh ya, he was a George Bush supporter. (Note: If I meet him the next time, I must remember to ask whether he's a McCain or an Obama)

Anyway, there was one day when I worked until quite late in the office and so we had dinner together. We went to this Chinese foodcourt nearby. It was very crowded, but we managed to find an empty table. So we sat down. A waiter came over. After taking our order of drinks, the waiter put a small tag on the table.

Of course in such a situation, we Malaysians naturally take turns to explore the food stalls. So I offered to wait at the table first. However, my boss said that we could both go order our food. I then explained to him that the tag was just to mark the order and not a reserve sign. But he insisted that once a tag was put on the table, it meant that the table was occupied. After trying for some time, I decided against arguing with him anymore so I went to order food.

When I came back, I saw two Chinese guys sitting at our table, while my boss was standing there trying to tell them (again and again) that the table was occupied. I don't think they understood him as they just ignored him (Mud Zalleh giller eh? :p). The waiter who took our order earlier was also standing there with our drinks.

I thought it wiser not to get involved in the confrontation, so I looked for another empty table instead. I found one and asked my boss to sit there. After some persuasion, he finally followed me and sat down. The waiter placed our drinks on the table. However, my boss asked him to take the drinks away and re-ordered new glasses of the same drinks. Not sure if the waiter understood him, but after my boss repeated a few times, he left with the drinks and came back later with our 'new' order.

Later while we were chatting during dinner, my boss laughingly told me that he suspected the 'new glasses' were probably the same ones the waiter brought in his first round. But he made the request anyway just to show dissatisfaction over the 'reserved table' incident. He said it's the American way of doing things.

Conclusion: Your boss is not always right. I should probably have insisted on waiting at the table while he went to order food, just to do it the Malaysian way :p

815

2008-09-15T07:17:00.000-07:00

The 15th day of the 8th month in the lunar calendar marks a special day for Chinese around the world. Mid-Autumn Festival, Mooncake Festival, Lantern Festival (any other names?).... whichever you prefer to call it, it's about reunion, eating mooncakes.....

I just found out that it's not celebrated the same way everywhere. I watched a TV game show yesterday, and a Taiwanese actress said that in Taiwan, they do not have lanterns, only mooncakes.....

Well, in Malaysia, we have mooncakes, lanterns, candles, pomelos....... at least, those are the things I played with on this special day during my childhood :p

Lanterns come in different shapes, sizes and 'technologies'... some are made with sticks and papers, some with wires and lantern papers, some are candle-lit, some use batteries, some are new, some are leftover from previous years..... some are bought, some are home-made..... I remember my most special home-made lantern.... the one made of pomelo skin hehehe....

And it looks something like this:

I do not play with lanterns anymore.... The last time that I played with lanterns was a few years ago, with my ex-coursemates hehehee....

This year, I did not celebrate on the day itself. Instead, one week before that, I attended a mooncake celebration organized by Alvin's Catholic church. I'm not a Christian or a Catholic, but it's solely a mooncake celebration without any religious element, and anyone disregarding race or religion is welcomed. I attended the one last year and it was fun. So when Alvin and Janice invited us, I happily accepted.

When I arrived, there were already many people... everyone was busy eating :p

The house belongs to one of the church members. It was brightly decorated with lanterns.....

Even bonsai was decorated with lanterns :p

After the buffet dinner, there was a lantern procession for children, while adults were left there with games, music, more food (mooncakes, snacks and red wines were passed around)........

Children getting ready for the lantern procession

There was also a lucky draw session.... but with my luck, I went home empty-handed.... but not before I had a nice picture taken :p

Me acting as a lantern (it looks as if I was emitting light! Flash problem :p)

The doctor and I

2008-09-08T05:17:00.000-07:00

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

I am taking two each day. Does that keep the doctor away for good? Not necessarily so :p

I have always had great respect for doctors. It probably started when I was small. My brother and I were always coughing when we were very small. My parents had to take us to see the doctor almost every week. I still remember those times, my parents taking us on pillions on the bicycles (my mom used to joke that we owned a 4-wheel-drive... 2 bicycles make 4 wheels :p).... I remember the doctors were always gentle and nice (they offered us sweets sometimes.... remember Sugus? :p)... and my brother and I never complained of having to take cough syrup. In fact, we loved it! And we never fell asleep after taking the medicine.... we're still very active (something that my mom complained often :p)

Doctors said we had weak lungs. We were recommended a prescription... a small pill that we had to take everyday for one and a half years... my mom told me it's to strenghten our lungs (补肺丸). And we have been strong since :p seldom visited the doctors after that (oops... touch wood!!)

But my respect for doctors dwindled a little a few years ago. A friend of mine worked for a pharmaceutical company at that time and she had to go to hospitals everyday to promote new drugs to doctors. She told me of her experiences, how some doctors were more interested in what the company could offer them (company-sponsored trips to doctors, free meals, etc.) than the drugs. And every year, you read some local news of straight As' students failing to get a place to study medicine. I have no problems with aspiring students who want to become doctors, but what I'm most concerned about is whether these people are sincere in contributing to the society or only want to enjoy the social status that comes with it (there's this 'unwritten law' that top students should study medicine)..... no offence to real-life doctors, doctors-in-the-making or doctor wannabes.... I'm sure there are only a few bad apples in the basket (Hmmmm..... better be careful on what I said. I have some doctor friends and they could be reading this right now! :p)

Anyway I went to see a doctor today. Oh, I'm not sick. Remember my general health screening test? I was advised to get a booster injection for Hepatitis B and immunization for Hepatitis A. That means I have to take the injections separately and not the 2-in-1 hep A + hep B injection. Would have preferred the latter... painful at one-go is always better :p

So I went to the campus clinic (it's cheaper). But it only offers Hep B injection service. A nurse attended to me. After examining my screening test report, she said I should start from the first dosage as my antibody level was low. Sigh.... if not for the fact that I had paid, I would have left and opted for the 2-in-1 offered in off-campus private clinics. So, I went ahead with the injection.

Went to a private clinic after that to get the Hep A injection. Two injections in one day? Well, I have to admit that I am a little bit afraid of injection and since I had gathered enough courage to take one, I might as well take the second one before I lost courage :p

The doctor on duty at that time was Dr H, a malay lady. When it was my turn, I entered her room.

Dr H: (Looking at my registration details) Yin Hoon, right?

Me: (A personal touch, eh? Hmmm... I am starting to like
her :p) Yes, doctor. I am here to get a Hep A injection.

Dr H: Are you a university student? It's cheaper if you go
to the campus clinic.

Me: (I like her even more! She's not the type who only
cares about making money!) The campus clinic only
offers Hep B and not Hep A. I just received a Hep B
injection in the campus clinic this morning (showing
her the gauze still plastered to my left arm :p)

She then told me about the 2-in-1 injection. So I showed her my screening test report and told her what the nurse told me. She went on to explain that a booster Hep B injection was actually enough for me since I received my previous immunization less than 5 years ago. She said it's not just about the level of antibody, as long as the 'memory of producing the antibody' is imprinted in my system. I think what she said makes sense (recalling what I learned from subjects like Biochemistry and Molecular Biology that I took last time :p).

As for the Hep A injection, she said it's optional as it's not as common or dangerous as Hep B. Anyway, she advised me not to take it today as she's not sure what type of Hep B (different brands and purity, eh?) was used by the campus clinic and I might suffer from fever if the two injections reacted.

And so I left the clinic without having to pay, but with a smile and renewed respect for (good) doctors. =)

Are you a fan?

2008-09-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of us grew up watching TVB drama series. For sure, I did. TVB has never failed to deliver. Every few years, a great production comes along, the kind that everybody remembers for years to come.... series like Yesterday's Glitter (京华春梦) and Looking Back In Anger (義不容情) in the 80's ..... sounds unfamiliar? Ok, those are too old.... Lisa Wang was still playing the role of a student back then, and now she's already playing mother-in-law :p ... anyway, those series are some of my mom's favourites :p ..... more recent ones include Cold Blood Warm Heart (天地男兒) - 1996, Secret of the Heart (天地豪情) - 1998, At The Threshold of an Era (創世紀) - 2000, Golden Faith (流金歲月) - 2002 ....... and now.....

...we have....

...another great TVB drama series.....

Moonlight Resonance (溏心風暴之家好月圓).

That's what I'm talking about. It's sort of like the sequel to Heart of Greed (溏心風暴), also a great series, with almost the same cast, except a few additional stars, and a reshuffle of the relationship among the characters.

It's the latest drama series currently airing in Hong Kong, in conjunction with the Mid-Autumn Festival next Sunday. I have watched until episode 28...... And I love every minute of it! Like it as much as I like Heart of Greed, if not more.

Just like most TVB drama series, Moonlight Resonance's main theme is on family values... parental love, filial piety, relationship among siblings, romance, with some comedy thrown in.....

Yet again, TVB tries to play with our emotions.... anger when the devilish manage to hurt or harm the good, glad and relieved when good wins over evil, laugh with the characters, cry with the characters (I have shed lots of tears over it! And I had thought only pre-Meteor-Garden Taiwanese drama series had that kind of power :p)....

I like scenes whenever the whole family gathers together... the jokes the siblings play on one another (they're so funny I could not help laughing out loud :p)...

And I like that there are lots of flashbacks ..... with nice popular old cantonese songs playing in the background.... most of the songs are my favourites... hit songs from the 70s, 80s, 90s and now (hmmm... sounding like the slogan of radio stations :p)

If you're a TVB drama fan and like Heart of Greed 1, then you're gonna like this one too.....

Happy Mid-Autumn!

And her name is Maria

2008-08-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

Indonesian maid.

What comes to your mind whenever you read or hear of that phrase? Someone to take care of the house? Victims of abuse by employers? Or maids who abuse the employers' children and run away?

I have to admit those were the things that came to my mind whenever I heard of that phrase.... until lately...

Remember I mentioned earlier that my current landlady had left her Indonesian maid with us while the family was away? Well, in the beginning, I was not used to having a maid at home. But I never order her to do anything. I take care of my own room and bathroom, wash my own clothes and cook myself. Her job is to take care of the rest of the house (master bedroom, living room, kitchen, garden...) and run some tasks for the landlady.

I treat her like she's one of the housemates. And we have got quite close. She told me about her family. She's a 39-year-old single mother with a teenage son and some adopted children... her husband has run away with another woman.... she told me about her working experiences..... good employers (whose children hugged her and kissed her goodnight everyday), spoilt children who called her names (and she cried to herself), good maid agencies who called to ask of her well-being once in a while... and bad agencies (her current agency stripped her, conducted a body-check and confiscated her valuable belongings before sending her here!) .... she has been working for my landlady for about 5 months and has yet to receive any salary... not because my landlady refuses to pay ... but that is how the system works. The agency would take all the salaries for the first few months and the period could last from 6 to 16 months, depending on the agencies....

So if you have a foreign maid at home or are planning to get one in the future, please bear in mind that they are just human beings with basic needs like us. Be good to them and good things will come back to you.

Hmmm... I'm suddenly reminded of the lyrics of two songs that I like:

"... what goes around comes around, what goes up must come down..."

Karma - Alicia Keys

".... what goes around, goes around, goes around, comes all the way back around..."

What goes around comes around - Justin Timberlake

We're not authorized figures to change the system, but the least we can do is be nice. Be a friend and offer a listening ear.

I have learnt a lot from her too. I asked her things about Indonesia, the social cultures there .... and don't think that she's just a 39-year-old auntie.. she's more 'IN' than I do! .... she told me of her hair-dyeing experience (I've never even dyed or highlighted my hair before :p).... and we just finished watching a Gwen Stefani concert together in the living room... actually it was me who joined her when I saw her watching :p .... and she told me she likes Linkin Park! And I told her I attended a Linkin Park concert in KL a few years ago.... hahaha.... she did tell me though that her son 'complained' that she's too old to like Linkin Park.... :p

And her name is Maria.

A fruity affair

2008-08-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

Another photography lesson.

Last Sunday, I went for another outing with Alvin, Janice, Mun Yee and Fu Yong. We went to a place called Tanjung Balau, a seaside near Desaru Beach. We left around 7 am and arrived around 8.30 am.

As soon as we arrived, we started taking photographs.....

Me in action:

The sun was still not bright at that time and thus the photos taken were not too nice....

Ok, maybe my photography skill and my camera had something to do with it :p

A group of campers were having a sandcastle competition.

KLCC :p

Wonder where they found the anchor.....

There were many small holes made by crabs...

Crabs were scurrying in and out of the holes. They disappeared everytime we went near them, so we had to be careful when we moved....

Shy little thing...

Another shy little thing :p

We felt hungry after some time, and the sun had shown up, so we found a shady spot for a picnic.

After filling our stomach, Janice, Mun Yee and Fu Yong went to play in the water. I did not join them but continued taking pictures.

The sun was brighter now, and I think the pictures taken were nicer too :p

This was taken by me using my camera:

This was taken by Alvin using his camera:

Guess I still have a lot to learn when it comes to capturing from the right angle :p

Not forgetting a group photo before leaving....

From left: Janice, Mun Yee, ME, Fu Yong and Alvin

We left around 11 am, not for home, but for the Desaru Fruit Farm (http://www.desaruff.com/).

The farm is promoting agro-tourism. There are two types of package. For RM15, you get a guided tour of the farm and a small box of fruits at the end of the tour. For RM25, you get a guided tour plus a fruit buffet. We selected the RM25 package.

Our tour guide was an Indonesian who spoke fluent English. He told us that 50% of the visitors to the farm were Singaporeans.

Our tour guide, standing beside a dragon fruit tree.

Dragon fruit

Passion fruit trail

Kinda romantic :p

Passion fruit

Roselle (Ribena)

Mango tree

Forget what it is :p

Forget again hehehe.....

Curry leaves

Pineapple

Papaya tree

Banana tree

Pisang seribu (loosely translated into 'banana a-thousand'). This type of banana can keep growing, unless you chop the fruits off. It is edible, but not as sweet or as nice....

Coffee tree

Coffee bean

Bee boxes.... our tour guide told us that bees liked the colour yellow, which was why all bee boxes were painted yellow.

There was a small agricutural gallery in the middle of the farm. So we went inside to have a look. A machine used to roll latex

Latex container

Tools for picking fruits

There was a nice garden outside the gallery

Posing in front of the gallery and the garden

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery after that. So all the pictures posted below are courtesy of alvinjani Studio.

Lots of fish in the pond

Another pose hehe....

The water apple trail

There was a welcome sign at the end of the trail :p

Another group photo

After that, we were brought to a mini-zoo in the farm. There were quite a lot of animals in the mini-zoo.

A monkey biting into fruits

Goat

Tortoises

Rabbit

Not to mention ostrich (err.... I mean that tall furry thing standing at the back :p)

Other animals included chicks, eagles, fighting cocks etc.

After that, we were given a bee talk. Oh, don't get me wrong. It's not a lesson on how to talk to bees.... but our tour guide gave us a short lecture on bees, all the while promoting products such as natural honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, etc.

Finally, at around 1 pm, the talk ended and we were led to our table for our buffet fruit lunch.

We were served a variety of fruits and a glass of roselle drink (ribena) each. There were bananas, dragon fruits, papayas, mangoes, guavas, fried bread fruits, jackfruits, pineapples, watermelon, water apple, rambutans, purasan, and pickles. And we were allowed to order a second plate of any fruits available... but guess what, we could not even finish what was served on the table. Halfway through, some of my friends started leaving for the toilet... (so if you're suffering from constipation, you know where to go :p)

Anyway, we left the farm after the buffet. Overall, it was a great bargain. For RM25, there was so much to see, learn and eat.

And we ended the day by watching the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics 2008!

From photography to modelling

2008-08-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

Remember I said that I wanted to improve my photography skill? Well, my friends Alvin and Janice (of Days to Remember) are very good at photography. They own a few cameras with different models, functions, etc.... (and are planning to buy a new model too... sorry for revealing your secret :p). Anyway they promised to give me a few pointers on photography.

And what better way to learn photography than an outdoor lesson? So last Sunday, Alvin, Janice, my housemate Mun Yee and I went to a park recommended by a friend of Alvin. It was very near our place. Since it was our first time to this place, we did not know what to expect.

When we arrived, we saw a large covered area. The signboard at the main gate stated that it's the Office of the Landscape Department. We thought we had gone to the wrong place. But we went in anyway. When we entered, we saw the office buildings on the right and a children's playground to our left. But that's not all there was.

We drove deeper on the tar road and discovered a paradise!

The place was divided into many small areas, each with a different theme and a different architectural design. So we decided to visit them one by one, starting from the structure near the lake.

So, I got ready my gear to become a photo-journalist (you see, I was planning to take lots of nice photos and blog about my 'little adventure').

And this was my first attempt dressing as a photo-journalist:

Oh, forget it. I looked as if I was going fishing :p

Anyway, I flashed out my camera and started snapping away, trying to remember the tips Alvin gave me.

Very nice, don't you think?

Once in a while, I wanted to be inside the pictures, so I asked my housemate to take pictures of me using my camera.

I gave up after a while... because Alvin took out HIS camera and started taking pictures professionally (with his wife Janice as his model)..... comparing the pictures I took to his, I guess I better put mine safely into the locker :p

Anyway, the three of us girls just focused on being the models after that :p

I have to say that Alvin really looked like a professional photographer. He took pictures of us one by one at each nice spot. He gave us instructions on where to stand or sit. All we had to do was just pose and smile, and he would snap away from different angles (without giving us any "1,2,3, smile"... just like those professionals :p)

And here are some of the pictures taken, courtesy of alvinjani STUDIO:

I like the trees behind!

From left: Mun Yee, Janice and ME

Can I bring this tree home?

Another nice background view....

Posing while climbing up the stairs...

Hmmmm.... what's that over there?

Shhhh... we're trespassing!!

Can somebody please push me from behind?

Pretending to look out the window shyly :p

How much longer do I have to sit here posing? The pebbles are jabbing at my b*tt :p

I like the patches of green grass and white marbles.....

What do you think of the pictures? I say, we should send them to the Landscape Department or the Tourism Ministry and offer ourselves to model for their brochure :p

Anyway, we only managed to stop at three places when it started to rain. So we had to leave. But we promised to come again. And the next time we come, we plan to 'dress up for the occassion' :p ..... well, I'm considering a nice sweet little dress in natural colour or some batik and slippers :p

What do you think?

You're still the man!

2008-08-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

Just watched the final match of the Olympics Badminton Men's Singles between our very own Lee Chong Wei and China's Lin Dan. And Malaysia has lost.....

Kinda sad about the results... I'm sure the game was the most anticipated game in this Olympics for every Malaysian... it was our hope of getting our first gold medal....

During the game, I felt like cheering and shouting words of encouragement to Lee Chong Wei! But all he (and us in front of the TV) could hear was the screaming supporters from China... they're, after all, the host....

As a friend commented, Lee was under a lot of pressure so he made a lot of mistakes, giving many points to his opponent.....

I earlier joked with a friend that if we won our first gold medal, tomorrow might be declared a public holiday :p (I remember we had a day off after winning the Thomas Cup many years ago)...so there goes our holiday :p

But whatever the results, I think Lee Chong Wei is still our hero! He's still the man! He still deserves a big applause (and not some bashing from the people, I hope)... and we have won a Silver Medal! It's still something to be proud of! :)