Flashback of year 2010

So yeah, it's literary the end of the year. From study to graduate and to work, I've entered the most important phases in a human's life in just a year's time and I shall say year 2010 is the year I fulfilled my dreams.

I started off the year 2010 with a picnic with my lovely sistahs at Batu Ferringhi, Penang. All of us had a last "pre-sem" outing for the last time as this was the last semester for most of us. After the enjoyable outing, it was back to reality: all of us were busy with final year project, classes and tutorials. But than, we still managed to find some time to have some happy hours: movies, lunches, dinners, birthdays celebration and karaokes.

I was only a student for about 4 months. Starting from May 2010, I was officially known as a free person, because I'm not a student nor an employee! During the 4 months student life, I enjoyed as much as I can as a student, but I also made some critical thinking of my future. At first, I thought of continue to do Masters. I've made discussions with lecturers and even passed up the application forms. At the end of April, my lecturer passed us a message informing us there was a job vacancy in a subtitling department. It's a job that I used to dream of after I knew that I was not able to be a crime scene investigator. So, I took the chance, and now here I am, had passed the 6 months probation period and got the confirmation letter.

Apart from getting the job that I want, I also managed to watch a world class badminton matches during the Thomas Cup final event at Bukit Jalil in May. Through the match, I was able to watch my favourites players playing in front of me. I was happy as I was able to feel the real atmosphere of an international badminton match and "meet" my favourites players, although they were far from me. =)

I had a sweet time during the trips with my sistahs from Taiping to Penang to Kedah and to Sarawak. It was the wonderful moments we shared before we leave the uni's world and I thank them for being apart of it to make our trips so sweet and memorable. My family and I also spent some time to go back to my grandparents' hometown in Hainan Island, China. During the trip there, I was able to recognize most of the relatives there and the relations between us. It was a meaningful trip as I learned things and I saw different things in a different country.

The major event in year 2010 was non other than my graduation day in August. It's an honour for me to be able to walk on Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra's stage to get my scroll from the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia, Tan Sri Dato Dzulkifli Abd Razak. The graduation day itself was kindda bored, as we had to wait for some time for the speeches and other graduates to get the scroll 1st before I can get mine. And after getting mine, I need to wait for others to get theirs, before all of us can went out to get photos. Graduation day was a small scale gathering for me and my classmates, but a big scale of gathering for me and my lovely sistahhoods. It was the last outing we had as an 8 piece sistahhoods, because we will walk in different path at different place. Who knows when we will meet again in 8 piece sistahoods?

My year 2010 is fulled with joyous moments, but there were some "down" moments too. I choose to cherish the sweet moments and put the bad moments behind me. I will also remind myself of all the wrong doings I had and keep myself on track so that I wouldn't make the same mistakes again.

As for the coming year 2011, I wish to enter another different phase of my life and wish myself all the best! =)

Picnic at Batu Ferringhi...

birthday celebrations...

BATI night...

Taiping-Kedah trip...

Sarawak trip...

after the rehearsal for convocation...

one last outing with sistahs...

while visiting Hainan Island...

team building with colleagues...

pot luck...

and the day I wore the robes, sache and mortarboard!

Good, But Not Good!

Congratulations to the Malaysian Football team who put up a solid defense against Indonesia to win the Suzuki Cup for the first time. K. Rajagopal's boys played very well in Indonesia yesterday and in Malaysia four days ago. I guessed it was really a boost for Malaysian, especially the football team. Everyone was so happy for the win, until it was declared a public holiday tomorrow (31st Dec) by our beloved prime minister.

The sudden public holiday announcement did no good for workers, especially for me and my colleagues. Our job is to do and edit subtitle for tv programmes. For editing part, we need to wait the subtitle files from the freelancers to send in before we can do editing and after some technical stuff, it will be air. Normally, freelancers will be given a time frame to do the task and a due date to send in the files. We have no problem if there are fixed public holidays because freelancers will be acknowledge about it and they'll send in the file before the public holidays. But if it's a sudden public holiday like this one, we can only hope that the freelancers will send in before the office hour, or else we will be working on the public holiday!

It is not a good feeling to be working since it's a public holiday! Yes, we can still get an extra leave/OT, depends on how the company works, but it feels bad when everyone else is off but we are working! I rushed my translation file too, as it is needed to be edit by my colleague, and I have 3 files to be edited. It's like having a war, trying to finish as much as I can. For me, lady luck is with me this time, as the file I was waiting came in in time. But it was not the same case with my colleagues. They still need to go to work tomorrow.

I wish the sudden declaration of a public holiday will not happen frequently. May God bless me.

Happy Yuletide!

Merry Christmas!!

I wish everyone a merry merry Christmas! Enjoy the festive season! =)

*I myself is enjoying this Christmas with my lovely family!

Post China Trip

I've been staying in China for the past 8 days and sadly, I have 2 major things to complain. All I can say is that, some of them are still, mentally not fully educated. I had a big problem with them spitting around in the public place whenever they feel like spitting. It is wayyy too unhygienic! When we wanna spit, we surely knew there were something bad inside the saliva/flame that make us uneasy inside our throat. That's why we spit. With that, it already 'shows' that that thing is not clean. So how can someone spit that thing in public place? I truly really don't get it!

And then there's one rude Chinese tourist who seems can't wait to take photos at a tourist spot. It happened when I visited Nanshan, where the Kwan Yin Statue was located. There is a place where a word, 寿, which means longevity in Mandarin, is spotted on a big stone. My family and I happened to be the first one to reach that place (because we were the only one went down from our tram, and there were no one there) so we take turn to take photo with the word. Halfway, there were some don't-know-originated-from-where's Chinese tourists came. At that time, I was going to snap a photo of my aunt (which is only a few years older than me) when I heard a person "Oi! Oi!"-ing behind me. I know that person is shooing me, but then I purposely took my time to snap another picture and than slowly walked away. bluek! And my aunt heard one of them saying, "Young people no need to take picture with the word." Come one! It's a tourist spot. Whoever is interested can just take picture of whatever things that a person like. Age does not matter at all! I really can't understand why they behave like that.

One rotten apple will spoil the whole barrel.

I hope there are not a lot of rude person, not only in China but anywhere else in the world, because it can tarnished reputation. Why should a person be rude to others? I really don't understand. As for the spitting part, it is still understandable as spitting has been a culture for such a long time in their history. It will take some time for all of them not to spit at public place, and I guessed they might had improved.

It might seems that I am too naive to think that everyone should be a good person and behave nicely. No, that's not what I'm trying to say. What I'm trying to say is that at least in a public place, please show some respect to others who is a total stranger to you. It's not that everyone wants to see the bad side of a person. Yes, no one is perfect. You can do whatever you like in your house and put on a good mask when you're out of the house, because human love to see beautiful thing.

Hainan Island Part 2

12th-15th Dec 2010

For the next three nights, Fulin Hotel in Wenchang city will be our temporarily 'home'. It took about 2 hours to reach Wenchang from Haikou. A car rented by our relative came to fetch us at Haikou Hotel at around 10 am, and we reached Wenchang around 12 noon. We first checked into our hotel, unloaded our luggages and then went to the village. The distance to the village by car is about 10 minutes, so yeah, our village is quite near to the town. Upon reaching the village, we were greeted by my granddad's cousin brother's daughter and her family and my grandma's younger sister. Right after that, firecrackers were lighted to mark our home coming.

Throughout the days we had in the village, we had dinners and lunch there. We also went around the town to shop, mostly on sport's apparel. We also went to visit my grandma's sister and her family near the Wenchang town.

All in all, there were no cultural shock for me as how the village's environment looks like. The only different are the structure of the houses.

This is how a row of houses looks like in the village

Ping pong-ing during her lunch, I guessed *she's wearing high heel*

Each bus stop has this board showing each bus's destinations.

Local taxi

Lots of Li-Ning shops in Hainan Island!

16th Dec 2010

The day we departed Hainan Island. It was the coldest day we ever had as it rains heavily, with the wind blowing as strong as she likes. Though there were many domestic flights (inter China) were interrupted, ours were not. We even reached Malaysia 20 minutes earlier! =)

It's damn cold!

All our stuff

Taken inside the plane

Hainan Island Part I

Woohoo! It's time for holiday!

Thursday, 9th Dec 2010

Woke up at 3.30 am to catch the 6.55 am's flight to Hainan Island with AirAsia. Actually, the main purpose for us to go there were to visit relatives there, because my grandparents came from Hainan Island. So, it planned out that the first 4 days we will go on tour and the last 4 days we will go back to our hometown in Wenchang.

We reached LCCT around 5.30 am. With all the luggages checked in, my family and I went into the waiting hall. Around 6.30 am, we were walking into the airplane in the rain. The plane were already crowded when we went in. By 7.10 am, we were still sitting in the plane and there was no signal indicating that the plane would take off soon. Hence, the worst part of flying "appeared":flight delayed. Duh. *It's very bored to be seated in an airplane which had not taken off* After about 1 hour waiting in the plane, the plane finally took off. It took about 4 hours before we reached Meilan Airport in Hainan Island.

The weather of the day was cool, just like the weather we have in Cameron Highlands. We were greeted by Sandy, a tour guide from NamHo travel agency and my cousin brother and Auntie Mai Choo who flew in from Singapore and reached on time around 11 am (we supposed to arrived 10 minutes later than them, but thanks to AirAsia, we were 1 hour late).

We checked into Hotel Haikou in the capital of Hainan Island, Haikou city. Had lunch in the hotel before we went walking around the area. As the malls were not too far from the hotel, we shopped without Sandy.

First day was a free day for us because the real tour had not started yet.

Pizza Hut

A mall's lift

View of the mall inside the see through lift

Mc Donald's Grilled Chicken Sandwich

Instead of apple pie, they have sweet taro pie

Carrefour

Friday, 10th Dec 2010-Xinglong

Charted van arrived at 7.30 am with a driver whom will fetch us for the next 3 days. We started our journey to XingLong after our breakfast. Today's weather at Haikou City is still windy and cool as well. Journey to XingLong took about 3 hours. But we stopped over some places of interests throughout the journey.

We did not went to Boao Asian Forum 博鳌亚洲会址, but we just peeped from outside. What to do? My mum does not interested in looking at building. I guess I have to wait til the next trip!

Hainan Tropical Wildlife and Botanical Garden 海南热带飞禽世界

Xinglong Coffee Factory

Next destination after coffee factory was Baoshu Hall 宝树堂, where Chinese medicine was introduced to us. We were given a foot massage too.

Baoshu Hall was the last destination of the day before we checked into Silver Lake Resort at Xinglong. Had our dinner at the resort before we went back to take shower (hot spring water only available after 6 pm) and had a few games of mahjong in the room.

Saturday, 11th Dec 2010-Sanya

The morning weather was a bit cold when we checked out from our room and went to the dining hall to have our breakfast.

The first stop was Dijia Crystal 帝佳水晶 where the PIC shared some information on crystals. Then, we moved into the shop where there were lots of crystals on rings, necklaces and bracelets are being sold.

The next stop was Nanshan. It's a place full of Buddhist temples and it was very crowded. The whole place are very big that we had to move around with a shuttle car. This place is famous for its Guan Yin statue near the exit. Besides the Guan Yin statue and temples, the dishes in the vegetarian shop inside Nanshan were very delicious too!

Nanshan Culture Center 南山文化苑

Guan Yin statue

After spending 3 hours at Nanshan, we headed to 南天门生态大观园 where there were lots of flora and some fauna. There are lots of plants-normal and abnormal plants, like a pumpkin with a giant size.

南天门生态大观园

After we had our dinner, we went to the shopping complex opposite our hotel. We bought quite a lot of stuff: instant noodles, bread, tit bits, and some fruits. Only when we went to cashier then we knew that we need to pay for a plastic bag! But we were not frustrated by that at all. There were 10 of us. So each of us took some stuff and went back to the hotel. I guessed local people might see us as a bunch of crazy tourists who went shopping for raw food in a mall. Who cares? We just wanted to taste the local food! =)

Sunday, 12th Dec 2010

The weather was a lil bit hot today, as we were now at the southern part of the Island. Today's schedule was not pack and the places of interest were not as crowded as Nanshan.

Luhuitou Peninsula 鹿回头

Li Ethic Village 黎村苗寨

Yalong Bay亚龙湾沙滩

Went back to Haikou City where we will overnight before going back to our hometown, Wenchang.

海南人万岁！

上个星期原本要outsource的ASTRO AEC阿贤贪吃路线的华文字幕被逼在in house做。由于我的节目没那么早播放，我也被分配到帮忙做此节目的字幕。说真的，虽然我的弟弟常会看此节目，我却是没有追着看啦！但，这一集的节目让我感到很自豪咧。这星期的主题是：红毛海南。讲的是在福隆港英国人aka红毛人的英式下午茶以及新古毛Kuala Kubu Bharu海南人的食物。虽然说我可以比别人早先一步看完整个节目，我却没有那么做。我想趁着电视播放的时候，和家人一起观看整个节目。因为我觉得和家人观看一个关于“我们”的节目会有很大的感触。果真的，星期日那晚，正当节目要开播时，我们已经坐在电视前等待了。当我们看着节目时，看着店主巧妙的做kaya，糕饼和泡咖啡，再加上主持人阿贤所说的每一个字也都令我们看了有很深的感触。

很多人都不知道， 我其实是个海南人。可能因为海南人比起福建人，广东人，客家人或是福州人来的少吧。所以，很多人都不晓得其实马来西亚还有海南人的存在。也因为是比较少见的原因，我都很少用海南话。至少，我还是会讲啦，好过我的两个弟弟及堂兄弟。因为我从小就跟我的公公婆婆一起住。现在回想起来，我还真的要感谢父母当初把我留在kampung给公公婆婆照顾！

我的公公和婆婆是从海南岛来的海南人。公公是我们家第一个先来的。当时，公公是为了要工作而南来。待看到这里的环境及状况还不错（比起当时的海南岛），公公过后就带婆婆及曾祖母来这里长居了。他们在Sri Menanti落地生根。在kampung，公公开了一间咖啡店，自己做kaya包，糯米饭，kari ayam等等。当时的kampung是以马来人和华人为主。所以，店里通常都会挤满了很多的人。据说，公公做的食物很受当地欢迎。连住在相隔几间的阿姨都说她们有时候都买不到kari ayam！咖啡店在我出世后不久就没再营业了。所以，整个咖啡店就是我童年的娱乐场所！

长了那么大，我所认识的海南人若不是以前在kampung时一起的亲戚，就是有海南亲的朋友。每每回乡时，偶然还会遇到他们。父亲都会介绍给我们姐弟认识。从父亲介绍他们的语气，我觉得父亲好像很珍惜那种有海南亲的友谊。我当时还不是很明白为什么。在我上大学时，我自己才认识到的一个海南人同学。当她告诉我她也是海南人时，我顿时有种很有“亲戚”的感觉。我这时才能明白父亲的感觉。海南人在马来西亚已是很少见了。若朋友也是海南人，那种特别的feel就慢慢的产生了。现在，也因面子书的关系，我又多认识两个海南人。原来， 以前和我同班的小学同学以及中学的朋友也是海南人！

可能，其实海南人并不少。只是因为大家每天都用华文以及一些比较多人用的方言来沟通，所以大家才没有显露出自己的“根”吧！

It's time for Holiday!

Will soon be flying to Hainan Island, China for an 8 days holiday+visiting relatives! It's a long holiday, so I'm starting to pack my luggage now as I still have to work for 3 days before flying off. Plus today is Sunday. I have much more time to list out all the stuffs I need to bring along and the day before I depart will be the day I double confirm all the things I need. Packing for a long holiday is quite troublesome. There are so many important stuff to pack until it looks like I'm moving over to stay there!

Packing aside. I'm now very excited because this will be the very first time I visit the roots of my family! =)

The Last Month of Year 2010

In a flicked of time, we are now in the Christmas month! I dunno why, but I felt happy when this month arrived. Probably because I feel the joyous moment upon seeing the twinkling and shinning Christmas tree and the Christmas day itself!

Another reason that I like the last month of the year is that I can recall back all the things I've done throughout the year. I love reminiscing all the sweet memories! =)

How I wish I can celebrate a traditional Christmas Eve and Christmas day in the real snow just for once. I wanted to feel what a Christian feel in the European countries.

Goodbye Guangzhou 2010, Hello Incheon 2014!

16 days of the Asian Games had come to an end. Athletes had enjoyed themselves in the second biggest Games in the world after the Olympic Games, while we, the viewers/spectators had also enjoyed watching them performed. Congratulations to those who had won their games. To those who had lost, don't be too upset. Take it as a chance to improve yourself to be a more competitive and a greater athlete. One day, you'll win!

China won 199 gold medals to become the overall winner. South Korea in the second spot, with 76 gold medals whereas Japan was in third spot with 48 golds.

Here are some of the highlights of the closing ceremony which was held at the same place as the opening ceremony at Haixinxia.

Firework display during the welcoming ceremony

Cauldron in flame for the past 16 days

Performance

President of the Olympic Council of Asia, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah

The extinguished cauldron

The South Korean flag being rised

Handover the Asiad torch to the South Korean delegate

The significant OCA flag too

Incheon performance time!

South Korea's valuable 'international product'

謝了，廣州！안녕하세요 인천광역시

MAHA 2010

The 2010 Malaysian Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism Show started last Friday and runs for 10 days at The Malaysian Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS). It was hosted by Ministry of Agriculture and Agrobased Industries and organised by the Federation Agriculture Marketing Authority. I haven't went to this type of exhibition before, so when my brother was going with his friend (both of them are studying about agriculture), my younger brother and I tagged along.

There were so many visitors until we couldn't mange to turn into the road the the gate B car park, which is situated at the side of the SKVE (if I'm not mistaken). So, we ended up entered from the main gate to MAEPS. The traffic here was not as heavy as the gate B though.

The exhibition were all about agriculture. So, there were a lot of fruits, animals, plants, equipments, fertilizers, etc. The exhibition were divided into 2 parts-indoor and outdoor. There were 3 buildings for exhibition on information, whereas, we took shuttle bus to a 5 or 10 minutes drive to visit outdoor exhibitions-animals, tractors, plants, fishes. They even had an auction for livestocks!

It was like a walkathon, as we can only walk through all the booths. It was quite hot though while visiting all the outdoor exhibitions, although we had umbrellas. Some parents even brought along their infants! (What's so special/important of the exhibition that 'encouraged' parents to bring along their infants to a crowded+hot place?)

It was a new experience for me to visit this type of exhibition, but it will be my last time though.

a tractor used to fetch visitors to the main building from the parking lots

small scale of paddy field

tractors from the outdoor exhibition booth

turtle in an indoor exhibition booth

livestock auction

even our Prime Minister was there!