An Ordinary Me doing Ordinary Thing

We may be the so called closed friend, but we only contact each other once a while.

So while I'm not busy shopping today, I "loiter" around Facebook and you've just updated your posts.

I recalled that it was some time ago since the last time we had chat.

So I decided to Facebook-ed you just to know what have you been up to recently.

It turned out that we had a long chat through phone.

All this while, I knew you've taken a different path from your original plan and I always wished you all the best in your new route.

But I didn't expect that you felt so bad with all those that had happened on you on this route.

After digesting all your grumbles, all I can do was imagined myself in your shoes, feel it and try to imagine how would I react.

And then, I offered some words of encouragement.

Frankly, I wonder whether all those plain and ordinary words from the deepest of my heart will help you.

But at least I think that our conversation will make you feel better as you've voiced out all those things in your heart.

Up until the moment I don't know what should I said anymore, you suddenly thanked me and said that I was the first person to give you some encouragement's words and that you felt motivated to go on with your plan.

My mind went blank and I was very surprised upon hearing it.

To tell you the truth, my eyes were filled with tears and I felt like crying at that moment.

Like I said, I just wanted to know what you've been up to.

Never in my mind that this conversation we had would have help you, let alone the words that I had said.

I'm glad that you find my words motivating.

Here and now are the last few words from me to you:

"I got your back!"

"Forget You"

I didn't know Gwyneth Paltrow could sing like that! ^^

Down Memory Lane

Saturday, 19th February, 2011

6 months after my graduation day, I went back to a place that I had spent for most of the times for the past 3 years-the Pearl Island of Malaysia, Penang. The purpose of returning to the old place? Spent a precious time with my beloved sistahs! As most of the member of the sistahoods are staying over in Penang, I myself travelled to the north to meet them. I took Friday night's train and reached Butterworth at 5.30 am. As the earliest ferry to the island only started at 6 am, I waited for about 15 mins at the train station before I went to the jetty. Though it was a weekend, there was a crowd at the jetty at this hour. I guessed the ferry still played an important part for the people to/from the island. The cool air breezes while the ferry moved and I felt like I was back "at home".

As I took a bus to my destination, I started to "mesmerise" the times that I had spent in Penang throughout my university days. The 30 minutes bus ride really brought back all my memories.

As I reached my destination, I truly thought that I was coming back to start my new semester! Arghh! It really brought back all the memories of the times I stayed here!

the best part of USM which can look over the sea~

the place where I learnt about languages~

"terjumpa" my old friends~^^

the new library~

nevermind if I can't enter the new library...pic with it will do~

my faculty with its tutorial rooms~

the hall where I got my scroll~

the Penang Road in USM~

lecturer halls full with memories~

the road I've taken for the past 3 years~

As I've finished "enjoying" my old times, it's time to starts the "agenda" of the trip! =)

must do:breakfast at Sg. Dua's Plus Two's wanton mee~

KTV-ing at Red Box at First Avenue~

sistahoods in the lift! ^^

After a day full of entertainment, we headed back to one of my sistah's house. All of us stayed over at her house. We chat, we ate, we drank and we played hard. At the middle of the night, we all finally dozed off.

Sunday, 20th February, 2011

Woke up around 10 am and get ready to have our breakfast/lunch at the nearest hawker stall. We said goodbye to a sistah as she was going back to her home, and went to Queensbay Mall and spent the last few hours at Old Town coffee shop, before I said goodbye to the remaining sistahs and got into the bus and headed back KL.

It was a real tiring journey, but it's worth it as I spent the some quality time with my beloved sistahs! ^^

外婆到我家来！^^

外婆甚少会离开自己的家，因为外婆是经营杂货店的，所以很少关门没有营业。由于阿姨打算要从外婆家回来我们家，舅舅建议来我们家一趟。难得外婆爽口就答应了，所以他们都浩浩荡荡地来了。难得外婆也来这里过一天的新年，我觉得超兴奋的咧！也因为外婆来这儿，我的另一位阿姨及家人就来咯。虽然只是来几个钟，然而我还是觉得很高兴，毕竟，外婆是那种千呼万唤都不会离开家门而到远方的人（除了出席亲戚的宴会）。

外婆万岁！^^

PROTON Malaysian Open 2011

没亲眼看到李林交战，真是很不爽啊！！人家已经"预算"他们会在决赛相遇的，结果林丹却在quaterfinal的时候退赛，让我失望极了。人家也不就是因为要看这场赛才去看总决赛的嘛，怎知会是这样。 真是人算不如天算！没有李林的交战，李宗伟与陶菲克那场赛的比分数是一边倒的，也不怎么激烈。反而是男双，女双及混双比较激烈，四位球员们在场上的交流实在是精彩！

究竟要等到什么时候才我可以亲眼目睹这场李林交战呢？？

思。念。

思念与你们混在一起的日子。

思念与你们相聚的日子。

思念到戏院看戏及唱卡啦OK的日子。

思念追着看戏看到三更半夜 才睡， 隔天又得七早八早起来的日子。

思念睡到十一二点才起来的日子。

思念过着无忧无虑的日子。

思念不用担起任何包袱的日子。

思念十三年的读书生涯。

思念与全体家人相聚在一起的日子。

思念想念他的日子。

永不停止地思念。

原来，是这样。

现在的我才真正的明白这个原理：

原来，存钱不容易。

因为，花钱很简单。

上班都有半年了，可是，却存不到许许多多的钱。真是“佩服”我自己啊！但是，也不能怪他人啦。毕竟，我都是花在必需品上。单单保险都拿去我两个月的工钱了，再加上生活费用。。。

虽然是跟父母一起住，可是我也有义务出钱啊。看着存折里的数目越来越少，心里真的不是滋味。

以前，我总是认为只要自己能够赚钱就能随心所欲的拥有属于自己的东西。谁知在拥有之后，心情是如此的糟糕。唉，真是的。

这让我想起ABBA的Money Money Money这首歌的其中一个歌词：

Money money money,

always sunny in the rich man's world.

是啊，有钱人都不必思考该如何花钱。他们真的是可以随心所欲的买啊！看来，我还是到梦里做个可以随心所欲地买东西的有钱人吧！因为，发梦不必用到一分钱， 反而能让我开心一下！=）

Filler-Music-Adam Lambert

Lyrics:

Hey, slow it down whataya want from me

Whataya want from me

Yeah I'm afraid whataya want from me

Whataya want from me

There might have been a time

When I would give myself away

Oooh once upon a time I didn't give a damn

But now, here we are so whataya want from me

Whataya want from me

Just don't give up I'm workin it out

Please don't give in, I won't let you down

It messed me up, need a second to breathe

Just keep coming around

Hey, whataya want from me

Whataya want from me

Whataya want from me

Yeah, it's plain to see (plain to see)

That baby you're beautiful

And there's nothing wrong with you (nothing wrong with you)

It's me, I'm a freak

But thank's for lovin' me

Cause you're doing it perfectly (it perfectly)

There might have been a time

When I would let you slip away

I wouldn't even try

But I think you could save my life

Just don't give up I'm workin it out

Please don't give in, I won't let you down

It messed me up, need a second to breathe

Just keep coming around

Hey, whataya want from me

Whataya want from me

Just don't give up on me

I won't let you down

No, I won't let you down.

So just don't give up

I'm workin it out

It messed me up, need a second to breathe

Just keep coming around

Hey, whataya want from me

Just don't give up i'm workin' it out

Please don't give in, I won't let you down

It messed me up, need a second to breathe

Just keep coming around

Hey, whataya want from me

Whataya want from me

Whataya want from me

Gen XYZ in The House!

Gen X, babes born in the 1960s-late 1970s

Gen Y, babes born in 1980s- early 1990s

Gen Z, babes born in early 1990s-2010s

=>

From playing guli (marbles) to playing video games...

=>

From playing teng-teng to watching televisions...

=>

From having complicated meals to fast food...

When there are 3 generations in the house, one can feel the differences in each other. I'm in the Generation Y, so I was influenced by the Generation X in the early of my life and adapting the new technologies from the Generation Z while I'm growing up. Things changed with time, and I can see that my parents started to improve themselves with time from using manual stuffs to electronic stuffs, the most significant example would be the usage of typewriter in the past to computer nowadays.

I would say that Gen Y were a bunch of people who can adopt changes. Gen Y was in between Gen X and Gen Z. People from Gen Y does not grew up with gadgets like computers and PS and Ipods with media technologies such as the World Wide Web, SMS, MP3s. But I "met" them while I was on the way growing up. It's easier for the Gen Y to adapt these new stuffs as they were still at the young age when those gadgets were made famous. Whereas, the Gen Z was born with those stuffs around them. So, they're like growing up with them. All these stuffs were made by inventors from Gen X. So, when these things became a part of human's lives, people from Gen X also have to learn to use them and adapt the major changes in their working routine.

The world is changing. Thus, the Gen X have to follow the steps in order to be at the same level as others. As their children from Gen Y and Gen Z (that is, me and my younger brothers) grow older, my parents too, learn from us in order to be in the same "time zone" as us. My brothers and my grown up's environment were totally different from my parents, so our perspectives of life are different from them as well. What we think as an important subject may be some unimportant subject to them. So, there were times where I was upset because my request to eat at certain place or buy certain thing were turned down. Their reason: Not worth it; waste money. When I was a kid, I used to be very upset when that happened. But as I grew older, I understand it!

So, what's next after Gen Z? It has been suggested that the next generation will be called "Generation Alpha", for those babes born from 2010. Generation Alpha.....Gosh, even the suggested name sounds so "high-tech"!

For Better or Worse?

I used to hate Saturdays during the school days, because it means that a new week is coming, with all the school stuffs and classes. But now, I can't wait for Saturday to come, because it means I can totally forget about my work and spending the time doing all the things I want and Saturday is one of the day that I can go to places other than my workplace! So, each Saturday, I try to be out of the house and go to somewhere else. It doesn't matter if I go to the same shopping malls each week, but at least I get to see different things other than ABCs in computer!

That's one of the things that has changed since I'm an employee. What I used to hate in the past, I kindda like it now. It's the same thing, but the feeling inside me is different. It has changed. All I can say is, "It's life". When we are in the different stage of life, the feelings and opinions on certain things in life changed. No one knows it changed for better or worse as I think it depends on how a person enter a stage of his life. It's all in the mind of the person.

As for now, I can only think back what I used to do in the past and why I did that. I may do differently now and in future if my perspective on certain subjects have changed. All I can do is accept the new me and to be a better me!

Hello 2011!

While everyone started the first day of the year by celebrating either went for holiday or shopping, I started off by attending my high school mate's wedding ceremony. It's the second wedding among my high school mates and I guess there will be more (hopefully!) to come! Congratulations to Atiyah Azmi and her husband!

Met some school mates there but only the four of us we went for a drink at Starbucks after attending the wedding kenduri. Spent about 2 hours with Yasmin, Ezzah and Fadilah, chat about our lives so far. Well frankly speaking, I listened most of the time as I don't talk much. =.=" But then, it's good because it's a gathering!

Right after I came back from the small scale gathering, my family and I went to Seremban to attend a relative's son 1 year old birthday party and to pay a visit on my aunt who had just given birth to a baby girl yesterday. So, yeah, it's a triple wonderful occasions that I was celebrating in the first day of the year!

Happy year 2011 ahead! =)

From my left: Yasmin, Fadilah, Ezzah

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.