happy independence day

i do not fly the jalur gemilang nor do i have any at home or in my car. nor do i intend to get one just because you told me to.
i do not plant the hibiscus in my house compounds nor do i plan to do so.
i go out of the country for my holidays when i can afford it but i do not mind going to the beautiful beaches and islands in malaysia.
i do not like wearing baju kebaya as i feel it is too stiffening and hot and too covered up. but once in a while, i do not mind the flowy baju kurung when i can just slouch and bend whichever way i want.
i read fashion magazines but i do not look out for local designers' work. instead, i scrutinise works by the international designers and wonder all the time when i can afford to buy their pieces and the coveted 'it' bags. however, i think i do have almost half of my closet filled with clothes from local brands which i usually wear to work. oh, my shoes are usually from local brands.
i feel bitter when i see those who achieved excellent results in public examinations are not given the same chances as those of another race.

but....have i ever thought of leaving?? no. my grandparents who survived the Emergency never instil that urge for us to leave nor my parents. do all my grudges and imperfections make me less malaysian and patriotic than you out there who decorate your car with endless flags hoping others will notice them??
i have heard the now infamous modified 'negaraku' (yo! yo! yo!) and when you asked me, "don't you think the lyrics ring a bell? oh, i hate the situation in the country!" i will just say, if you really hate it, then just leave. why suffer in this country and think of all the so-called unfair treatments while breathing in the air of the soil and taking in everything given to you??

well, this is just my 2 cents...or maybe more than that for this merdeka. happy independence day everyone and may we be blessed with continuous peace and harmony. there is no other country out there which can boast such integrity when there are countless numbers of races and skin colours living on the same soil. going out to see the world does make a difference and you will know how lucky you are if you have gratitude in you. i will always be proud to answer:
i come from malaysia.

world badminton championship

i am sending this batch of photos out first,

my first world badminton championship live in front of my very own eyes at stadium putra.

it was totally different from watching it in front of tv, but then sometimes you get nice close-ups on tv. so there are pros and cons to both. watching it in the stadium, you can join the fans cheering and rushing here and there to catch the players if you are lucky enough.

and the stadium was cold. brrr...

there were plenty of food stalls outside the stadium and you can actually bring food in. so you get a whiff of food smell now and then. my cousin and i brought banana fritters the maid made that morning. yummy! just the kind i like...using ripe bananas. i still miss it!

lindan and zhulin leaving after the autograph signing session. i was just behind them when they came out of the 'zone'. could have stopped them to take a photo but then no one could help me hold the camera!! not that i am really a great fan of lindan. haha..just for the fun of it.

this is my favourite! gosh....i really zoomed to the max. haha....bao chun lai! he is cute. someone was asking if he was a basketball player. he was really tall and fair. much better looking than lindan i think :P




the empty court once it was all over. fans went down to the court, autograph hunting. i followed also lah.




united korean fans cheering their men doubles players. many fans in the stadium cheered following their beat too.


a korean player signing tee shirts for fans.


lindan and zhulin at the autograph zone.



mixed doubles final.


lindan and sony preparing for their final showdown.


this one is for cousin lah, who is a big fan of lindan. taking a drink during the match.


korean doubles coach, cannot remember his name.


cameramen, trying to get the best shots. and once nearing the match point, they would move to the winning player corner to cath the victory shoutout. then they rushed straight to the podium to get to best shot.

lee wan wah, one of those who stayed back to sign autographs for fans. everyone was clamouring for a photo or an autograph. i also got his autograph. haha...

men's singles players on podium.

women's singles final. zhulin from china vs another chinese player from hk.

the crowd. most of them chinese. chinese malaysian or chinese china ka...i am not sure. indonesian fans came with their flags and whistles too. a group from denmark was seen as well. attendance :80%.

big apple down my throat

just something to start blogging again after 1 week. still have to wait for those cambodia photos. really a headache labelling them because i need the guidebook by my side.

ok....a delightful find at the curve last saturday. yum yum! my new favourite doughnut!!! dunkin donuts, you are out! sorry!

someone said it is even better than krispy kreme but since they have not brought krispy kreme into malaysia yet, i will just have to settle with big apple for now.

big apple doughnuts are smaller but crispier and really melt in your mouth. my heart melts with it as i take in the one coated with chocolate. simply blissful.

i tried the original glazed one as well, but according to cousin who has tasted krispy kreme's it is not as good. but dun buy the original one then, you have plethora of choices for you to pick from and trust me, you will be in a daze trying to choose 2 so you won't feel guilty putting in too much calories. but the glutton me and cousin, we took 4!!! well if you divide that 4 doughnuts between 2 of us, we still had two only each. not guilty yet.

i am looking forward to my next trip to the curve. big apple, wait for me.

after one week of absence, i am back on malaysian soil.
back from the land of temples ruins. the landscape of paddy fields. succulent pork in every meal. hot and sunny weather.
and i brought back with me a bad flu!!! boohoooooooo!!! the air-cond in the hotel rooms were the menace.
still not feeling well.
uploading of photos will take some time. have to get rid of this irritance in my respiratory system first. till then, have a good merdeka week.

world badminton championship

found in the newspaper :

more malaysians should buy tickets to watch the games in the
stadium and support malaysian players.

..that was two days ago. and now, as of today, the only malaysian players left : lee wan wah and chong tan fook ...the only doubles pair still left standing and will be battling it out for a final spot in today's semi-final match in the world badminton championship.
aiyor...am keeping my fingers crossed lah at least i will have someone to support in the stadium when i go there and watch the matches live! lemah semangat ah if i just go to watch all foreigners playing here in malaysia. and we thought our team was the strongest this year. ;(
come one lah. i am not going to do any post-mortem here. anyway, not an expert. the players themselves know better...yeah..blame the management or the coach like what lee chong wei did. always pointing fingers. improve lah.

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

lines from 'if' by rudyard kipling

...if everyone can do that.

the little prince

school syllabus should include THE LITTLE PRINCE in their reading list. it is such a delightful read...and i guess can only be enjoyed by those who choose to read it with their hearts. hahaha....i did. i remember the first time i flipped through the book years ago, and i found it to be kinda weird and i stopped after a few pages. i guess i was not ready for that yet.

and now i have my own copy courtesy of KAI XIAN, KAI WEI and PEI ROU (thanks you guys) who bought it for my birthday this year. i think it is one of the best gifts you can give someone who loves reading and has not read this book yet (but then again, those who love reading would have read this since it is so famous).

my favourite lines from the book come when the little prince had his conversation with the fox.

One sees clearly only with a heart. Anything essential is
invisible to the eyes.

i think these lines are one of the more famous ones as well.

you can get the whole translated version of this book online as well. i do recommend it. they have even included the illustrations done by the author. the version that i have is not the same as the online version because it is translated by someone else. mine was done by richard howard and the online one was by katherine woods. richard's is more contemporary i think. anyway, just hit the button and go read it! you won't regret...remember to bring your heart along while reading.

sharing

just wanna share this. i subscribe to paulo coelho's warrior of the light newsletter and receive them every fortnight if i am not wrong. there he wrote anecdotes of different things about life. this issue is about conversation with children and i have included one.

In search of rain
After four years of drought in the little village, the parish priest gathered everybody to make a pilgrimage to the mountain; there they would join in communal prayer to ask for rain.
In the middle of the group the priest noticed a boy all wrapped up in warm clothes and covered by a raincoat.
"Are you crazy?" he asked. "It hasn’t rained in this region for five years and you’ll die of the heat climbing the mountain!"
"I’ve got a cold, father. If we are going to pray to God for rain, can you imagine the climb back down? The downpour is going to be so heavy that it’s better to be prepared."
At that very moment a loud roar was heard in the sky and the first drops began to fall. The faith of a boy was enough to work a miracle that thousands of men were praying for.

jolted and sleepless

i cannot be jolted from my slumber by anything!!! sms is one of them. not trying to blame anyone here. blame myself for being such a light sleeper. an sms came in at 11 yesterday...then i was turning and tossing for more than 90 minutes later trying to catch that moment when i had fallen asleep. it happened 2 nights ago too. will it be a good idea to just switch off the sound before i go to sleep every night?

reading

Finally, I finished these two books. Well, the first one is not counted because it is just a catalogue of advertisements so I sort of browsed through it.

Let’s talk about the first on the right first. It is a Japanese translated errr..chat room log called ‘train man’. It is quite a popular book in japan and has been made into a few series and movies. I watched one of the produced series when ntv7 or what it 8tv (??) aired it last year. I enjoyed the show and brother told me that they had it in the book form. So I went searching for it. Initially I only found the Chinese version (apparently the book is quite popular) but in the end I found it in mph. the book has been laying around for few months before I had time to finally pick it up. It was weird reading all the compilation of chatroom log and seeing the whole story unfolding. I am not sure if it is based on a real story. But basically the story is about how a geek who saved a few

ladies from a drunkard on a train. They took train man’s (the geek) address because they wanted to send him gift for saving them. Train man received a pair of hermes (!!!) teacups from one of the gals and they started corresponding. The gal was pretty and train man had to start changing his image and think of dating strategies to ‘get into’ the ‘hermes’ heart. He did all these with strategies and suggestions given by the netizens in the chatroom he frequented where he reported the whole incident and brought them along the journey of finding love. It was quite heartwarming to learn that even a geek (who had a huge collection of anime stuff) found love in such a tastefully rich gal. but I guess all this is possible in a book. Life is just so much a fairytale I books.

Ok, moving to the book in the middle. It is lonely planet: Cambodia. Yup, that is my next holiday destination (ok smack your head, I know I have mentioned that a few times :P). been preparing myself for the trip by reading this book. And before going there is already one stupidity discovered. Oh why oh why did I book return flight to phnom penh?? I could have booked one way ticket to phnom penh and then return flight through siam reap!! That would have saved a lot of traveling time to and fro pp and sr. it will take about 4 hours from pp to sr. now I have to spend extra 4 hours traveling back to pp. sigh!! I hope none of the furious tropical storms that had been hitting china, hong kong, India and Nepal will reach us. Flood could be common in this country, who knows. Am growing quite apprehensive about the first and second day I am in pp because I will be there first with my housemate. Yup, only two of us (gulp!). the rest will only join us on the second day in the evening. I want to roam the city on the second day instead of spending the day idling in the hotel lobby doing nothing. I hope it is safe enough and ppl won’t rob us in the broad daylight.

Maybe I am just making a mountain out of a molehill. I am thinking of cycling around the city to soak in the sights and sounds (plus the smoke I am sure). Ppl there start the day early so I want to join the early birds. Anyway, it is better to exercise precautions. Can’t wait. I dun want this trip to be a stressful one. NOOO!!!! Enough of stress. Fyi, the eye twitching is still here but not that frequent now (hmmmm?? Is it?) have started jogging again these few days. Want to be fit to climb the wats in Angkor. Like I am going to some vigorous adventures. Haha…better be safe than sorry. After all, I will only have 1 day to browse through whatever I can. You will know more after I get back. The itenary is still quite a mess.

water woes: solved
now i can leave for holidays. yeah...cambodia, here i come.

water, water everywhere

this is not what you want to come back to after a weekend at home!!! water dripping down all the way and it flowed out of the pails, out of the room and dripped all the way downstairs!!! i came back to a flooded house! luckily the pails were there, they managed to hold some of the water. imagine two pails full of water dripped all the way.

at first i thought it rained heavily in the weekend again when i was not around, then after some considerations, i realised it was the water tank. the 'stopper' (i dunno what you call it) is not functioning!!! it happened 2 weeks ago too when my housemate and i were not around for the weekend.

i have called the landlady and she said someone would come to fix the problem today. luckily it is not any of our rooms. it is just an empty room upstairs unrented. i will cry bucketful of tears if it happen to my room.

cross my finger everything will be fixed today. dare not imagine what would have happened if i did not realise the cause of the problem and leave the house for one week for my holidays!! it will be titanic i guess. AAAAA!!!!

get real!!!

remember when i wrote about my aunt almost car-jacked experience? the same thing happened to an indian female dentist in this small town and she was also driving a toyota camry!!
she was using the trunk road to slim river when she was hit from behind. unfortunately for her, her car was successfully taken away. dad related this story to me and asked me to be careful. toyota is a popular target it seems.
sccarrreeedd!! how safe is it nowadays? why must everyone still live in fear and we are talking about our 50th year of independence so proudly this month?!!
people are just so lazy and take everything for granted now. they dun want to work, they dun want to experience the sweat and pain in making ends meet, blah blah blah. u think the sky is going to rain gold and silver?? dream on!
get a living! get real! sacrifice...u can only reap the fruit of your labour. have never been one who trusted on luck (except the occasion where i was selected to study my course...that i think was sheer luck). no windwall is going to come my way but it does not mean i dun hope something will come along. hehe...being able to dream and differentiate dream from reality is something we need to know. get real!

treasure trove

hey hey hey, see any new addition to the blog?? look to the left. see it? nice eh? decide to add that treasure trove there to add spices and colours to the blog.
the photos uploaded are things and experiences that matter to me a lot. all photos are selected with upmost care and they are glimpses of my life and things i treasure so far.
there are other photos which i would really upload, but i dun have them in digital form. so i might start asking here and there for them.
i am still testing the site and am wondering how you can let the photos in the slide to come out randomly instead. so if anyone can help or give me the answer, please drop me a mail. thanks.

project runway malaysia

watched my first episode of project runway malaysia yesterday (8tv, 9.30p.m., friday). am a real sucker for reality shows...my brother included because he was the one who tuned into the channel and got me into watching. we watched janice dickinson models inc as well following that. hahha.
back to malaysia's version of project runway. it is interesting to see budding stylists and designers undergoing tasks after tasks to view for the title. however, what i want to talk about here is not the designs (what do i know anyway...shopping for clothes that suit me i know lah). what caught my attention was how haggard bernie chan looked on the show. i dun mean to be mean here, but i just can't help noticing how droopy her skin is. ok..maybe she just did not look taut in this particular episode. today she is featured in star section2 and you can see her nicely touched-up photos there. how different they are from the real her in front of the camera. i guess all those photoshops did wonders on anyone. will see how she is in the next episode.
one irony of the show is, they are trying to make that very bilingual. the Q & A session with the contestants is done in mostly BM. heck even bernard chandran and bernie chan asked questions in the national language and one can imagine how careful they are when articulating the questions and phrasing them. haha.

bernie chan said "tahniah, anda melayakkan ke pusingan seterusnya."

however, when it comes to discussion time among the judges, they are soooo much more comfortable in english and this discussion among them is carried out solely in english alone. why not have this part in 2 languages as well??
anyway, at the end of the show, it is the designs and the winner that matters but all these flaws make it more interesting to keep watching the show. haha. how ironic.:P

:) :P :( :D XD

the technology-unsavvy me finally figured out how to include all those smileys, different fonts and different colours in my yahoo mail. hahaha.
called SOS but cousins and siblings could not help. i see everyone having fun punctuating mails with smileys here and there especially jason's. abundant of them. now it is my turn for revenge.
for those who are lost like me, (maybe we started with yahoomail donkey years ago) here are some steps to take to change your composing mail mode.

1. go to options on the right corner
2. then click general preferences
3. scroll down and you will see composing emails- mode
4. choose compose messages as colour and graphic
5. lastly, scroll all the way to the bottom and click save.

voila! it is done. you will see another extra function bar with all those buttons for you to click on when you want to 'decorate' your mail.

how simple and how dumb of me not to figure that out earlier. you can even custom make your own signature to attach at the end of your mail. i did mine. heheh..just can't help it after discovering all these extras. mails will get colourful from now on.

can someone tell me why???

my left eyelid has been twitching on a very frequent basis since 2 weeks ago.
why is that?? will bad luck befall me or will it be the opposite? superstitious!!!
it is not as serious as winking ...only i know it is twitching and others will not notice it. and the twitching only comes during weekdays. when i get home, it stops twitching. i am not allergic to work, am i??
i googled some reasons for this and found some answers:

1. tiredness
2. lack of sleep
3. anxiety
4. eye strain
5. corneal irritation
6. neurological disorders
7. possibly hereditary

so which category do i fall in?? i think i have been getting enough sleep these few days...could be job related stress. hopefully once work is smooth again, then the twitching will move away. so for the moment, dun be surprised if you suddenly get a wink from me. wink! wink!

evaluation time

time to review 07's resolution...time to check the progress after more than half a year. hehe...below are all the resolutions made in january. let's see....gulp!! scary....

1. stay healthy, stay fit
2. work hard, earn more money
3. enjoy life, do more travelling
4. stay happy, wish everyone else is
happy as well
5. not doing something that i will regret
6. stay cool,
clear and focused
7. last but not least, get a boyfriend? (GULP_i can't
believe i am spelling this out) ;)

here goes...i have no problem with fulfilling no 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. hehehe...so 5 out of 7 is not bad eh.
as for number 2...er...money is never enuf right? plus, there are some obstacles in the earning department now, i guess i have to save more and spend less, then it will balance things up i guess. but me saving? hahaha....i am going to singapore in october ah...after cambodia in august. how to save?? car road tax and insurance to pay in september. all pay pay pay. will save in november and december. hehehe.
now to the last one...no 7!!! AAAHHH!!! i dun think i will ever get this one done. i am too timid to try out. it takes a lot of courage in this department i think. i am an introvert!!! can you believe that?? one wrong approach and then you have to hide for your life. hehehe...i mean like you started chatting up with a guy. then you guys started communicating (e-mail, sms, one or two meetings), and the more you know him, the more revolting you feel about continuing the thing. what do you do next?? flee for your life!!! that was just so mean right? but it was the only thing i could think of. no point continuing when you hated him for what he is and things he does. hehehe...so how to get a boyfriend? maybe they should come out with a movie...ten easy ways to get a boyfriend or a book with similar title. or they already have?? but what is the point when i am a hermit...always scurrying into the shell to escape. yeah!!! how appropriate the name of the blog...escape!!! that is me.
now i am done and over with the evaluation. time to think of ways to make no 2 a reality.

ouch ouch

woke up with a strained neck today and the discomfort has been nagging and persisting the whole day till now. turn left, cannot, turn right, cannot, look up, ouch, look down, ouch ouch.
so my neck is pretty stiff due to the non-rotating position i am in. how robotic can i get?
any remedy? grandma rubbed some oinment and did a little massage this morning, but it din work. one superstition...go and make the pillow stand straight. hmmm... let me consider if it will help.
will try on yoko-yoko after this. hope it works because i will have to bear with the smell after applying it...and not to mention the heat.
please stop the pain. it will be difficult when it comes to monday. it is not a day of rest and i will be going up and down. the stiff neck is not going to make monday anymore bluer.

birthday fairy

the birthday fairy is still hovering nearby. i am still receiving belated birthday present and one which has just arrived is this yoga mat. hehe...pink in colour. and someone is going to say...NIKE again?!!!! hehehehe.

i promise i will make good use of it. wanna do sit-ups lah (damn how to get megan fox's abs?), whatever yoga poses i know lah, stretching exercises lah, etc. it is something convenient to have on a rainy day. hehe...i hope i won't turn it into a comfort mat. well, discipline is the key here.

another almost birthday fairy here asked me if i want ther book 'secret' by rhonda brynes. i have heard a lot about the book yes,but no, i dun think it is a book i want to keep. it is one of those self-help books out there teaching you how to achieve the things you want in life. if it is so easy to perform miracles and achieve dreams, then everyone can stop working and just own a copy of the book, right? i think everyone knows the 'proper and right' ways to go on the path to success, it only takes strong will and discipline and people who support you. a book can only do so much. i still think that human touch is more important. am i straying here? heehe.

ok..will end this post. have to concentrate on my grey's anatomy. such intriguing plot.

today

the content of the 'briefcase' shall be spilled out and the die will roll. fate is in your own hand or how good you are with numbers. i will definitely suck. but hey, it is an exercise for the brain. dun want to get bonkers too early in life.

yesterday...

I am depressed.
Blame it on PMS or whatever work-related stress you want to call it.
The days are empty and there are so many gaps that you can fill the whole universe in them.
All I can think of is binge eating. I want to eat ice-cream, jelly, chips, crisps, and have icy drinks with pearls or jelly (again!) in them.
But it is only my thought. I could not force myself to open the many packets of junk food I have as seen in the photo below. The only thing that has been ravaged is the packet of jelly. I guess I find solace in food. Jelly is not that fattening except for its sugar content.
So it is ok.
Solace is also found after and while running a few rounds on the field. Want to push the body to go and the heart to just pump all its might.
At night, a sound sleep is awaiting but the next day, when noon comes, it is all back to the empty vast space. Sigh.
At least I have transformer to look forward to on Friday. Have bought the ticket and and will watch for the 2nd time. That will be able to fill the void for one day.

three days ago...

Never will I imagine the day when I will shout ‘I HAVE TOO MUCH JUNK FOOD!’. Can you imagine that coming from me? I can’t either but if you look at the picture, isn’t that my scenario now?
I have just won a hamper and the packet of prawn crackers and pudding are from that. The others in the hamper are left in the work place and they are mostly biscuits.
The two packets of locally made prawn chips are from a colleague who went for a course in Terengganu. Yeah. Actually each person only get one each but I got another because a colleague of mine does not like hers and knew that I love it. Haha. The others I bought myself that day when I went to Watsons. Crazy. I thought of stocking up for some nibbling during my leisure time. But mana tau, suddenly it is like durian runtuh (a windfall).
I hope I can control my urge and not be tempted to gobble all up in 2 weeks. Am supposed to be health conscious, so maybe that will help me from opening packet after packet. But the first to go now is the packet of pudding. That I cannot resist. I told you I lurve jelly ;P
I think my excitement now is comparable to jason’s when he first noticed my rocky (chocolate coated biscuits). Yyiiii!!!! I want!!! Haha, I can’t help from making him pop up into my mind. For those who have followed my story with Jason, well according to him, he has gained 2kg!! and he does not care!! Horror! He said he still ate more than his parents. Dunno whether to believe him or not. His weekly e-mail is something to look forward to because it just oozes his cuteness. Hahaha. He is taking a break from writing to me this weekend as he has to study for his exam. Oh such discipline. Let us wish him all the best yah. He got number 2 in his class in the last exam. Let’s hope he will do better and get an A for his bm.