Finally

Finally, I have ended my exams for this semester. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), it is not the last paper of my university education. This exam has been a long drag for me. I have papers right from the first day of the official exam period to the last day of the exam period. And to make matters worse, my last paper is on the last slot of the official exam period. LOL. I am not here to whine about my long study/exam period. I know I should be thankful that I don't have 4-5 papers crammed within 2-3 days. Oh well, thank god everything is over now.

Since I am so bored now, I shall dedicate this post to all the warriors who fought diligently with me. First of all to all pens that have sacrificed their lives for me to write legibly on all the answer sheets. Next, all the papers that allowed me to scribble with all my chemical equations, calculations and whatever not. After that to Taylor Swift and Jay Chou for giving me awesome songs to kill my boredom in the midst of study. Your songs are really one hell of a stress-relieving songs. And to all the countless games that help me take away my mind from the studying.

Now to all my human warriors. Boyfriend, thanks for accompanying me all the way, although you finished your exams one week earlier than mine and you should have went out for a huge celebration. And to my love ly roomie Chin Yun, sorry for staying up so late :D

Home. I'm missing you

I can't really show this but I can't take it anymore. I really want to be back home, this instance. Missed everything at home. At least, my neighbor will not slam his/her door every single they. Yes. I really want to go home! Like everyone else after exams next month. But I know I can't go home without the Europe trip. I can't even whine about it because it is an act of being weak, as interpreted by somebody! I really really want to go home now *sigh* I didn't realized there are still 73 days to go.

The day when I turn old

On the 23rd of January. And everybody was actually happy for me. Haha. So celebration started one day earlier with boyfriend coming all the way down to Seremban from Ipoh. Such a surprise that I cried because I was too happy. :P

After he arrived, we went for a dinner and he bought me a cake from Secret Recipe. Yeah! My favorite. :P After dinner, we went for a movie. Everything seems to be so simple yet romantic. I am very very contented to have such loving boyfriend. Ethan Ow, thank you for everything you did for me.

So I celebrated the first half an hour in the cinema. And Joyce called me all the way from Singapore. I was surprised and that was my first time receiving an "overseas" call from a friend on a birthday. Really appreciate that. Wish that you'll have a good time in Vietnam and learn to eat some veges.:P

When we returned back to my house, it's shower and bedtime. Before going to bed, I found that little Care Bear got strangled by something on it's neck. Hehe. My present from boyfriend. I really love it. I am still trying to find out how much he had spent on this watch.

On the actual day, boyfriend have to leave for Singapore for some work. We had lunch with my family in Kensington. The food was surprisingly nice. Boyfriend wanted to treat all of us but was stopped by mom. Haha plan fail once again :P After lunch, it was mom's turn to give me a present. Change my image, from a straight, silky (:P) hair to curly, and still silky hair. Hmph... I still prefer my straight hair. But still thank you mom for this pricey present.

I would really like to thank everyone who wishes me, phone, facebook, heart, or in any other way. I am such a lucky girl to be blessed with so much love. My only wish this year is for my family to be healthy and boyfriend and I to have a safe trip to UK and Europe.

Most of the photos are with boyfriend.

Farewell Part 2: Girls affair

14th January. After graduating from high school, we seldom met each other. I think the last time we meet each other was in 2008? Anyway it has really been a long time since we met. Cai Xuan is my friend since I can ever remember. Our mom's are colleagues. So despite being in different primary school, we used to get to meet each other and play. We went to the same secondary school and from then on she went on to pursue her accounting degree and me, well ended up in Singapore. For the sake of her future, she decided to quit her job in Malaysia and go to Singapore. So we met in Singapore, City Hall to be exact and had a simple lunch. Really had fun catching up with you Cai Xuan. I hope, if you get to read this, that you'll settle down real soon and complete your ACCA with flying colors.

22nd January. Today I met with another two important people in my life. Hui Qian.

She's my best friend from secondary school. She was the one who was there for me when I had troubles and difficulties, sharing my tears, my laughters and my happiness. I hope I did the same for her too. So, we met in Mid Valley for lunch and had Korean food. The food was so-so but having her as company was great.

Condiments before meal

Our Lunch

The too sour iced lemon tea and too sweet peach shake

After that, we went shopping. Such fun time. I remembered we used to go shopping and buy the same shirt. Hahahaha...Anyway she's sick now, I hope she will recover faster. Thank you for your lovely present. And friends forever.

Friends forever

In the night, Xin Yu came over to meet us. I know Xin Yu when we were in A-Levels. I guess I was her first friend. She's one year younger than me so she's more like a little sister to me. Haha but in many ways, she's more mature than me. Sometimes, she's the one who offered me advices regarding life's matter. Such a shame of me. Well she had just finished her exam that day and rushed down to meet me in Mid Valley. We went for dinner in this cute shop called Reminisce. The interior of this shop is pretty interesting, decorated with things that we used to know from our childhood. Matches its shop's name Reminisce. The food is value for money. The taste is that familiar taste you will get when your mom cook. So, if you are studying far, far away from home, you could drop by this place in Mid Valley for a reminiscence of mom's cooking.

Reminisce

Chee cheong fun

Nasi Lemak

One of the decoration with gasing and "lao fu zi" comic

Both of us looking pretty

Desserts

For Hui Qian and Xin Yu, good luck in your final semester. I wish both of you will pass with flying colors and got hired even before you graduated. I will miss you guys when I'm in UK. Having crazy friends like both of you really made my life my colorful. Haha. No offence.

2011

2011. New year new hope. However, I chose to not set any resolutions because I do not want to feel guilty later for not being able to achieve them. But there are certain things that I will continue to hold on to, such as
1) Always, in my own capacity, make people beside me feel awesome and happy
2) Always, in my own capacity, try to help my family out. (Arghh I think this wouldn't be the case this year due to my UK exchange which I need to loan large chunk of money from my parents)
3) Always take good care of myself so that my family would not need to worry about me
4) Always be the best girlfriend boyfriend will ever had (Hahahaha...)

Anyway, this brand new year started off with SICKNESS! Damn! What a way to celebrate the new year. Down with flu! Just hope I will recover soon so that I could go meet my friends and enjoy all the delicious delicacies before flying off to UK.

Have been spending loads of time with my family for the past week. Very happy and contented to just to be able to chat with them. And I think the happiest thing of all is to have mom's cooking nearly everyday. When they say mom knows best, it is not wrong at all. My mom just know what I like to eat and how I like it. Of course, I do helped out and in some ways pick up a few dishes which hopefully can be applied when I go over to UK.

2011. Getting a year older. 2011 will definitely be a good one because of exchange! So looking forward to fly off next month. I wish everyone will achieve more happiness, more success, more prosper in 2011.

Farewell Part 1: The DSA affair

23rd December 2010. So, the dance club that I've joined since Year one-DanceSport Academy (DSA) has take up a large chunk of my uni life. Most of my friends are dancers. And so I guess they are the people that I would really like to say so long, farewell to before I fly off. Therefore, I've planned a dinner, in Holland Village. Although there were only 8 of us, but I am sincerely very happy. Thank you Chek Lee, Duy, Hanh, Bao, Joyce, Chin Yun and of course Ethan for making yesterday's dinner so fun.

It started with Bakerzin Lunch with Chin Yun and Ethan. We had pastas! Some were nice, some were just so-so.

Seafood Pasta

Pork loin Pasta (Taste like sweet and sour pork)

Oglio Olio with crispy bacons and mushrooms

Brastwurst Pasta

Then we headed on to Orchard for some winter clothing window shopping and also to meet Joyce. Chin Yun suggested it but in the end, only Ethan and I bought it so winter wear. Haha anyway we gonna miss Chin Yun after this because she'll be flying off to the US on 31st December. Hmph..Joyce was still no where to be found.
To Chin Yun: Do take care of yourself in the US.

Chin Yun and I

We walked and walked and walked, from Orchard to Chinatown where we had our KOI bubble tea and also to meet Joyce. Oh I guess I'm gonna miss KOI when I'm in UK. And guess what, Chin Yun had her first KOI ever. After bubble tea and some shopping at Chinatown, we walked to Tanjong Pagar. Ethan managed to capture some interesting photos. But we still couldn't find Joyce. And we rested in Tanjong Pagar where we started to look at maps of Europe, UK and US. Such exciting thing to do when you are really travelling there, looking at places you are going to go, probably going. And it is also very exciting to be able to locate the places that you have heard before but never ever know where are they. I am sure that I will have so much fun.

So, we still couldn't meet up with Joyce. And we decided to head on to Buona Vista to meet everybody. Well, as expected, everybody was late. So the three of us waited, waited and waited when finally everybody arrived. And we walked to Holland Village, takes about 10 minutes to have our Mexican Dinner at El Patio. They have free Nachos.

Free flow of Nachos

Yes, free flow of Nachos if you can eat 10 buckets and still stuffed down their Buritos, Quesadillas or Fatija. The food are worth trying but they are quite pricey. This is what I had.

Tex-Mex Crispy something 

So we talked and laughed and cam-whored while munching away our Mexican delights. On that night, I actually picked up a few interview skills from everyone. I hope the next time I have an interview, I'll be able to nail that interview and get what I want.

Chek Lee and Joyce

Bao, Duy and Chin Yun

Hanh and Bao

Although not all friends that I wanted to meet were there that night, I thought the night ends well. But everybody was too tired to stay on and accompany Chek Lee for a drink, maybe due to long hours of shopping and may be due to energy drain from exams.

DSA has been a big part of me and will continue to. DSA is a one big family that I will miss and never forget when I go to England. I hope the juniors will continue to improve their dancing and that DSA will reach further milestones in competitions and performance during this half a year. So long farewell DSA.

Pre-Post-Exam post

Okay so after two weeks of battle, sleepless night, zombie-like days, I am finally down with one paper. Yes! One final paper on Wednesday! This is getting really excited as the semester seems so so long this semester. During exams, I sort of had a "reunion" with my family...on the virtual world that is. So, off they went to places that are so familiar to me such as Kedah and Melaka and savor all the delicacies that I miss much (Kedah's assam laksa, chendol, ais-kacang.....the list never ends). And off they went for chats and laughter and cam-whoring session without me. And I shouldn't continue on because I'll only sulk, sulk, sulk and sulk. Haha. I never knew how much I missed all of them. It's been a year since we've all met. And it will be another year when we meet again. *Sigh*

And within two months time, I'll be leaving home again but this time to a place which I am clueless about. For all my life, I've never taken airplane for more than 5 hours and now I'm gonna take a 14-hour flight to England. I am going to travel around countries where people might not even speak English. Yeap. I am finally leaving my comfort zone and I am finally reaching out for my dreams, to study in a Western country. This still seem very surreal although everything has been confirmed. Nonetheless, I am still very very excited about it. Too excited until all the study mood has gone. Too excited that I want to just pack up everything, wind the clock fast-forward so that I will be on that plane the next day. Too excited to go through four seasons (But I think at most it'll only be 3). Yes there are so many excitement lying ahead for me and I am really really looking forward to go.

After exams, it is gonna be party, meet-ups, good byes and back onto the dance floor. Yeah I miss slipping into my dance shoes, listening to Latin musics and move around with my partner. Miss the days that all dancers would just hang out in the dance studio and dance, laugh, argue, cry, sweat...

Every back home holiday is a rush one. This time, I'll finally have the time to meet up with my friends that I've never met for a long time. I've made a list on who to meet, who to say good bye to. Topping the list are Hui Qian and all my other girls as well as my A-Level mates (I think it's been two years since we've met). Next will be... Only then I realised, I actually have friends that can be counted using all my 10 fingers. Haha such an antisocial I was last time. Anyway, really hope to meet up with more people that I've missed for long time before I fly off.

I shall hit the books again. Merry merry Christmas everybody.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Exams

Tomorrow marks the first day of exam in NTU (I am lucky that I only start on the 14th and lucky enough to only have 5 modules). Anyway, this sem is a haywire one. Maybe it's the effect from YOG. But I am so dreading for this semester to finish. My daily life gone upside down. From sleeping at 3 am and waking up at 9 am to at times sleeping at 11 pm and waking up at 6 am. Haha, yeah crazy. I am still a normal person. Some people, example boyfriend who has paper for nearly everyday (and goodness sake on a Saturday--never before in NTU since we were here), is leading zombie-like life. Really impressed by boyfriend who managed to cope with such heavy load and still a first class scorer.

Anyway, shall give myself a little treat after all these. Good luck to NTU peeps, happy holidays to the others and Merry Early Christmas :)

It's just so easy to be happy

After watching this video, I just realized how easy it is to be happy. Look at the mom. Although her son was born deaf but the cochlea implant brings so much joy to her because she knows her darling baby can hear her now. The baby, Jonathan, was also so amused (that he dropped his pacifier) and happy to hear the mom's voice.

Yeah, sometimes as we grow older, we actually forget how lucky we are and how easy it is to be happy. At least, we have perfect hearing. Unlike Jonathan who needs to rely on his cochlea implant probably for his whole life. Well, one good thing his he can switch it off when he does not want to hear anything. (That's supposed to be a lame joke).

Sometimes, going through my social networking friend's status is just so depressing. Everybody is complaining. The tests that are coming, the heaps of assignments they need to do, not enough time, not enough money, stress from work and study blah, blah, blah. Everybody is "FML"-ing. But little to none of us (including myself) actually thinks that we are so lucky to have all this (although it's not positive). Imagine you are not born who you are now, I guess there will be no more exams, assignments, friends, shopping, clubbing, etc etc...Work, yes there will be work, more work in fact, labor jobs since young and even high level of stress when you can barely feed yourself with 3 meals a day.

So the next time anybody thinks that their life is so miserable (including me), do take a second and think about other people that are more miserable than you. Our lives are not so miserable after all, with shelter, food and bed.

A date to remember

Ahh~~~ Yes, 3/9/2010 a date to remember. I finally had the chance to meet up with that someone that I missed a lot. Best friend from high school. We shared so many things from the past, studying, Girl Guiding, gossipings and fooling around. She never fail to make my life colorful. Both of us had our fair share of ups and downs time and I was so lucky to have her by my side when I needed someone. Hui Qian

So,met her in Mid Valley the other day, with her BF. Had a simple lunch at i-Dragon, Cititel. Simple lunch short meeting time. But that's enough. I just missed the days when we would sit down and talk and laugh, but well after high school, we went separate ways and it's tough for us to meet. However, we still do make effort to meet up once in a while and have a nice lady/girl chat:D

A date to remember is also the day when I realized that my home country, although trying hard to improve everything, still facing trouble with the lack of cooperation by its people. Why do I said so? Well, to Mid Valley, I took the "almighty" KTM (sort of like MRT in Singapore). I was very happy to see one whole carriage dedicated to ladies only, called the "Ladies Coach". But throughout the journey, to and fro, I do not understand why there are men/boys on that particular carriage. It's like they have the other two carriages to choose from, but they still love the middle carriage. While they are inside the ladies only carriage, don't they feel embarrassed/weird as all eyes are on them? Don't they feel that it is inappropriate for them to be there, since it was stated that it is for ladies only? Or is it that they don't know how to read the instructions at all? Or whether they are some transsexual/ lady man?? Well I don't really know the answer but, I think the company should take note of this. Isn't it ironic that in the first place you want to avoid all the sexual harassment  and to protect female commuters, but there's noone who's actually there to observe/enforce the whole idea? If there's no improvement after one year of launch, isn't it better to abolish the ladies only carriage and revert back to the original carriage?

Anyway, I have never had good impression on KTM. But that's like the only transport I could take to KL (apart from bus) when I do not have my own car and no one is willing to send me down. I understand that change cannot be achieved in a few years time. But I was thinking if only people are willing to be cooperative, think a little further, observe a little more and be more considerate, maybe everything will change. But, I know that ideal conditions can diverge pretty much from actual conditions. Until one day people start to change, I guess many of us still have to cope with the public transport conditions here.

Girl, I am still very happy to meet you. May we meet again in December. *Loves*    

P/s: All the pictures are with the friend. So, no pictures this time:D

A new DSLR experience

I confess that I am a techno-noob. Let me give you a little history on my tech-gadgets history.

1. Never had a computer at home until I was almost primary 6 (note that that was year 2000).
2. Never had a mobile phone until I finish my secondary 5 ( year 2005) and my mobile phone was still a hand-down by dad. Guess what's the model? It's....the....legendary...Nokia....3310. Yep!
3. 
4. My first lap-top was when I came to university (year 2008).

So, as you can see, I am not the tech-savvy person. And oh did I mention, my first digital camera was when I got together with boyfriend (Year 2008)? Well I guess some of you are ROFL (roll on the floor laugh)-ing, and wondering am I joking or what. But no, I am telling the truth! 

When Boyfriend borrowed Joyce's DSLR, I was quite scared to handle it. I am supposed to be his photographer-of-the-day for his scholarship receiving ceremony, graced by Ms. Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State (National Development & Education). I only had one night to practice how to handle that big camera. I was really, really worried that I would somehow clumsily dropped the camera and....well, thank god everything went well. So below are the photos that I took on boyfriend's "historical" day. Yeah. 

Disclaimer: Not that my skills are good, but the lens is superb. It's what they call the prime lens. I did learn something. The lens that I used was a 50mm, or so called the potrait lens. It'll make everything look oh-so-awesome, including my not-so-pretty face. 

Venue: Orchard Hotel, Singapore

Pretty little flower

Boyfriend and another scholar from the same sponsor

The scholars of Capitaland

Receiving the award from Ms. Grace Fu

The scroll, up-closed

Yummy fruit tarts. Had about 10 of them :P

Looking good ;)

My not-so-pretty face

So finally I've settled my hand on the high-tech camera. But if you asked me, I will not invest money on this machine. No doubt it produced pictures that can take thousands of breathe away, but I thought that I am not any creative person who has great ideas to transform a normal look into a beautiful masterpiece. I just need a camera to lock up all my memories shared with my loved ones. Of course different people has different thoughts. Just a piece of my mind.

Hope you guys enjoyed my photo and my not-so-pretty face. :D

P/S: As I said, I am not a tech-savvy person, it was my first time playing L4D2 the other day. It reminds me why I've hated computer games, PS games or any other games so much. I am always a game-noob. I was last when I played Need For Speed with my brother and now I am still last (killing only 12 zombies) when playing with my friends. *Sigh* And that was my first time going to a LAN shop:D

Four Months and A New Year

Wow...Another three more weeks and my 15 weeks summer holidays is gonna be over *Open eyes wide*. It's so amazing how the time moves. 15 weeks *poof* it's all gone. For 15 weeks, I do hope I have utilized my time well. Let's do a recap what I have done for the pass 15 weeks.

Working -- 1st in Library and then in a company outside of school. Earn my pocket money and also enable me to save up for my exchange. That's pretty good.

Travelling -- To Vietnam. Got my diving licence and get a taste of how Vietnam is like. Spend some money but worth the experience. Of course it's priceless to spend quality time with my boyfriend in a foreign land. So yeap, this is definitely good :)

Friends -- I met Magdeline, my best friend from A-Level. Went over to Holland Village for dinner. Spend a whole lot of time with DSA people, went museum hopping, kite-flying, picnic, dance competition, numerous dinners, stay over at Joyce's house and completed her 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, have heart-to-heart talks. Next week we are going over to Bintan together!!!!

Family -- For these 15 weeks, I only went home for less than 10 days. I felt very guilty. I miss home yes, but working here makes it quite impossible to go home. Furthermore, my house is a 5 hours ride home. Although my family don't mind it at all, but I still hope that I could spend more time with them. Writing this actually makes my heart ache, I miss home so much. But I know I gotta be strong as this is what everyone will need to go through. So, thank you my friends for filling me with loves and cares so that I would temporarily don's miss home. I love my mom and dad :D

Study -- Well, I think my brain is gonna rust unless I start using them now. 15 weeks without studying is really awesome but 15 weeks after that will means I have to start my engines harder. But, who cares. I shall enjoy my remaining three weeks and then put all in for my studies. My aim---CGPA increase.

Well, I guess my 15 weeks are fully-utilized. At least, I think so. Hahahaha...but I sure know that my body already has it's ample rest and I am ready to face my Year 3.

Mourn oh mourn for my iTouch

15th June 2010. My iTouch DIED. I can still remember vividly how everything happened. It was raining heavily that Tuesday morning. Yeap it was also the day that Orchard flooded. Well, was rushing to work in the rain that morning and didn't realised that my water bottle joined in the rain feast. By the time I realised it, half a bottle of water was gone! So quickly on the bus, took out all my belongings and after that I reached my iTouch, it was pitch black all over. Oh no! my heart broke into pieces. I feel so bad that I didn't realise my whole pants was drenched!

Boyfriend then took it to the office, in hope that when the water dried up, the iTouch will revive again. But after a whole day's work, iTouch still have no signs of improvement. So, we thought off buying drying agents and put it into a ziplock bag. I prayed, prayed so hard that it will regain it's life the next day. But, the iTouch was no where near to being alive. I was so devastated. I want it back. Days without it are no music and entertainment. *Sigh* Now I can just blame myself for my own carelessness.

iTouch, we still can't find a suitable "hospital" to admit you in. I know you are also suffering. I promise you'll be ok soon and you'll regain back your every ability to bring entertainment to me. I miss you iTouch!

Wonderful Wide World

Everyone after the closing ceremony

This post will be dedicated to the 8th ASEAN Cultural Youth Forum which was held in National University of Singapore, Singapore from 7th to 12th June 2010. So to start offmy experience, I did not quite volunteer myself to join this forum as I need to work. But after asking around, we still can't get anyone so I decided to leave my job (for one week) and sign up for this forum. My initial mindset was it'll just be another of your average camp. Everybody will be assigned into a group with all the cheers and stuff. But slowly I realised I was wrong.

First of all, this forum was not like any other camp. Just judge by our accomodation and you'll know the difference. We, for one whole week, stayed in Prince George's Park Residence in NUS. This residence deemed to be the most high class on-campus accomodation of all and in deed it is. Our room is a single, en-suite room, with your own toilet, air-condition and only you. Next, it comes to food. Normal camp will have packed mixed rice, but ours is buffet spread after buffet spread with various ASEAN cuisine (we even have sausage mcmuffin for breakfast haha). Well definitely no cheers and the most interesting part is, we have a lot of free time! (well that's not the important part).

The theme this year is "City, Traditiona and Technology". For opening ceremony, we witness how different countries merged their traditional dance with modern musics, or how technology could be used to improve the aesthetic values of their different dances. For NTU, since the school chose our dance club, we performed Latin dance. No link to tradition. But if you think harder, you'll realise that Singapore is a cosmopolitan city, an international hub. And people around are getting more and more interested to social and ballroom dancing. So, we are potraying the modern side of Singapore(Crap!) Hahaha. Anyway, we have people from different universities of ASEAN countries. It was so interesting chatting with people from a different world and a different culture. If it's not for this forum, I wouldn't know that in Philippines, it is a norm to have a driver to drive you around. If it's not for this forum, I would't know that Thais are great dancers. If it's not for this forum, I wouldn't know how friendly people are (although for some nationalities, we have problem communicating in English). And I wouldn't have known the history of Singapore and I wouldn't have the chance to make so many new friends:D

For the closing ceremony, two universities will be paired up to come up with a performance. We need to incorporate all the things we learnt (the technology part) into our traditional performances. We were paired up with Vietnam National University, Hanoi. They were really sweet people. Friendly and helpful too. We end up doing the Vietnamese bamboo dance with five different types of songs (Chinese, English, Tamil, Malay, and Vietnamese). We even add in some acting. We thought our performance was quite playful and the feed back from organizers were good. They said our performance was very relax and refreshing. Hahaha...But the Vietnamese were so sweet. The girls even gave us their traditional hat as souvenirs. :D

The five days to me was too short. I hope the others could stay longer in Singapore. Now that I flashback, I hope I could still be in PGPR, with all of them. I wish we could still walk around together, chat with each other about our own country and culture. All of it was so fun. But it ended. I am back to reality and back to work(new internship!). I hope I could meet all of them again. I promised myself that I will go over to their countries to visit them when I have the ability. It's such and eye opening event and thank god for "forcing" me to sign up. If not, I'll missed all the fun:D

P/S: We even get to learn how to do Noh(Japanese traditional dance), Wayang Wong and Beijing Opera!