Dreaming in Cloud 9.....

Walking my dream... 2012....

2011-12-30T16:40:00.006Z

These few days had been bothering me a lot. Worrying about my future, worrying about my how can I survive myself for the rest of my life, worrying this and worrying that. Hadn't had that insecure feeling for so long and now it's all coming back. I'm not sure whether it's right to walk my dream now, when I'm not so well prepared yet especially financially. However sometimes I ponder, if not now, then when.

Came across this article in a blog, which struck my mind and answer my frustration - maybe my forever insecure feelings come from too much of expectation.

On this very last day of 2011, my resolution for the next year 2012 will be to eliminate my expectation so that I can be brave and confident enough to step forward and walk my dreams without hesistation.

Life is just like a poker game. Why bother worrying about what card you will be drawing next, winning and losing is just part of the life.

Expect NOTHING.

i SMURF u!!!

2011-10-12T16:19:00.001+01:00

Just finish having fun with the little blue smurflings. Honestly, the trailer haven't been giving me the urge to watch this movie, especially when it's a combination or real life with 3D. One reason is I'm still attached to the past memories and I'm worry that it would spoil my beautiful childhood memories of smurfs that I'd have.
Well I'm half right and half wrong. The movie hadn't been able to take me back to the same old feelings that I had when I watched them before, however it gave me some different insights. Kind of like the message that it tries to portray. 'Every single moment is just like the blue moon, once in a lifetime - appreciate every single second of your life as it won't come twice. '

Now I wonder where can I find the old 2D cartoon of my smurfs, la la la la la la, anyone?

I'm getting my life back!!

2011-09-27T04:52:00.004+01:00

Am going to claim my life back in 3 more days. Hadn't been quite myself. Everything just go so slow and doesn't seems to have any challenge for me. What's left instead is the anger that is created when people just doesn't seems to care about their job, or should I say, why do I have to be angry on people ignorance. Hence, I decided to leave this, decided not to be angry on other's ignorance any more. Just let them be.

I'm not sure what's the next step for me. Just have a guts feeling that I should put everything to halt now, rather than just thinking to change but haven't yet. This had been dragging for years. I need to do something different NOW!

How professional are you?

2010-11-26T02:49:00.001Z

Was chatting with one of my co-worker yesterday in a discussion about the whole production environment in Malaysia. Was debating over the issue of professionalism vs. versatility. In here, we are all expected to be an all-rounder, we were all taught to be an all-rounder ever since we studied in school. Ever since one came out to these social university, every boss expected their employee to know everything under the sky, the more the merrier. In that case, they wouldn't have to spend extra to hire another person to do the work. However, whenever we said that to the specialist overseas, the only remarks we got is "You are not professional enough in your career" But whenever you tell a boss that you only specialized one skill, the remark you will get "You are not versatile at all."

So when reality kicks in, what's your pick?
Professionalism OR Versatility

I'm back..finally

2010-10-24T14:20:00.002+01:00

I had been keeping quiet ever since I'm back from UK. Not many people knew about my return, especially my relatives. For the past 4 months, I hadn't had anytime at all to catch up, to organize my photos from my last trip....tonnes of that due to the project that I had been involved in since I touch down. Well, now everything is over, and one last step and I should be able to totally put them down and never ever touch it anymore. But you still have to wait for me to start digging out the photos and to edit them before I could post it up here. Stay tune....

2010-08-17T11:47:00.004+01:00

I'm supposed to be happy at this moment but I'm not. I did not know why I still stay on, I kept thinking the whole day yesterday. I only know I am still here just because I had made a promise, other than that I can't find any reason why I must continue. 1 more month to go. Can't I just be a irresponsible one just for once and walk off like that? I'm so mentally tired....

tired....

2010-06-28T19:04:00.002+01:00

It's always harsh to be back in reality. Only 2 months back to KL and I feel like running away again. I know I told myself that no matter how hard it is I need to face it with all might. A friend told me I might look tough outside, but I'm very weak in there. I totally agree with it. I do not know how long I can stand this being in the situation of a 'sandwich'. I'm really too tired. Not physically but mentally....

Back to reality

2010-05-09T16:54:00.005+01:00

The moment I stepped out from that flight, I'm surrounded by metals and concrete. No more of small streams, greens and white cottages. 14 and a half months passed so quickly. Looking at the places that i had been to and the friends that I had made past half the globe, I'm glad and relieved that I actually spent these time doing nothing except travelling and taking my time to relax. Back to home is kinda weird for me, everything in front of the eyes seems a bit too bright. Mainly because British or European house decorations tends to have small little things around the houses with woods, bricks etc, but back in KL everything is so minimalist and white. No more of bright cloudless blue sky and no more of sunset at 2200 and no more of twilight. Everything should be back on track once again.

I swear my mom did not email my bedroom photo to me

Last sunset in UK

Nasi briyani on the flight - finally the true malaysian flavour

.Stop.Look.Listen.

2010-03-09T17:38:00.004Z

The homeless journey doesn't really homeless at all. Instead I was greeted with generous hospitality by friends. I'm glad and grateful for all the help.
Walked little Hannah to school this morning and she had a class presentation performance to the moms in accordance to the Mother's day this coming Sunday. It's amazing kids if her age at 5 could learn so many things as compare to us last time. They performed a play, songs and dance-song performance too. Surprisingly her class teacher is a guy, which seldom you will find male kindergarten teacher in Malaysia.

This is one of the performance clip dedicated to the Supermom.

------------------------------------------------------------
Found a series of posters at Hannah's school reminding the children:

Stop. Look. Listen. Think. Do.

How many a times do we stop our paces to look, listen and think before we continue moving? It's not easy to do the first three even, don't you think so with our busy pace of life?

Thing that occupied me for the year

2010-03-04T01:49:00.011Z

Over the past year, being here in UK give me easy access to library with lots of free books to read. And with the lots of free time that I had, I have read the most books ever in my life within a year. Among all, the author that I like is Cecelia Ahern. Her words are so touching and intriguing. To share some with you on this book about friendship

"She had reached her goals by being in control, maintaining order, not losing sight of herself, always being realistic, believing in fact and not dreams, and above all applying herself and working hard. Her mother and sister had taught her that she wouldn't get anywhere by following wistful dreams and having unrealistic hopes....Alone because love was one of those feelings that you could never control. She had loved before, had been loved, had tasted what it was to dream and had felt what it was to dance on air. She had also learned what it was to land back on the earth with a cruel thud. She had learned not to lose control of her feelings again.

Imagine not meeting someone because you loved them so much. Imagine hurting someone, making them feel lonely, angry and unloved because you think it's the best for them. ...all were possible, but with possibility comes impossibility.....

When you drop a glass or a plate to the ground it makes a loud crashing sound. When a window shutters, a table leg breaks, or when a picture falls off the wall in makes a noise. But as for your heart, when that breaks it's completely silent. You would think as it's so important it would make the loudest noise in the whole world, or even have some sort of ceremonious sound like the gong of a cymbal or the ringing of a bell. But it's silent and you almost wish there was a noise to distract you from the pain. If there's a noise, it's internal. It screams and no one can hear it but you. It screams so loud your ears ring and your head aches. It thrashes around in your chest like a great white shark caught in the sea; it roars like a mother bear whose cub has been taken. That's what it looks like and that's what it sounds like, a thrashing, panicking, trapped emotions. But that's the thing about love - no one is untouchable. It's as wild as that, as raw as an open flesh wound exposed to salty sea water, but whe it actually breaks, it's silent. You're just screaming on the inside and no one can hear it.

We saw the heartbreak in each other without having to talk about it we both knew. It was time to stop walking with our heads in the clouds, and instead, keep our feet on the harder soil of ground level we should always have been rooted to.

All her life she had run from shedding light on those darkened corners of her mind. The cobwebs and dust had settled and now she was ready to start clearing them. Something was trying to crawl out of that darkness and now she was ready to help it. Enough running.

She thought long and hard about nothing and everything, allowing whatever was niggling her mind to have a chance to step out of the shadows and show itself. ....she caught sight of her reflection in the glass of the conservatory and froze. Gone was the composure, gone were her emotions, she looked like a possesed woman hiding from the truth, running from the world.
And then she knew.
And the memories that lurked in the dark corners of her mind began to creep ever so slowly into the light.

At least twice a year we met special people who consumed out days and nights and all of our thoughts, and each time with each person, we had to go through the process of losing them. Opal liked to teach us that it wasn't us losing them; it's a matter of them moving on. Without having any control, any ability to make her hold on to me, to still see me, she was slipping though my fingers. What did I win? What did I gain? Every time I left a friends I was as lonely as the day before I met them, and what do our friends get out it?
A hapoy ending?
Remember the detail, Opal always tell me. I supposed what had changed in her life was her mind, the way she was thinking. All I had done was plant the seed of hope; she alone could help it to grow. And because she was starting to lose sight of me, perhaps that seed was being cultivated.

It's not anyone fault that I don't feel I fit in. It doesn't matter where you are in the world because it's about where you are up here, ' she touched the side of her head lightly. "It's about the other world I inhabit. The world of dreams, hope, imagination and memories. I'm happy up here,' she tapped her temple again and smiled,' and because of that I'm happy up here too.' She held out her arms and displayed the countryside around her...She spoke aloud to herself, her voice was firm and confident.

'To hell with you all. I do believe.'

Life is made up of meetings and partings. People come into your life everyday, you say good morning, you say good evening, some stay for a few minutes, some stay for a few months, some a year, others a whole lifetime. No matter who it is, you meet and then you part. I'm so glad I met you. I'll thank my lucky stars for that. I think I wished for you all of my life. But now it's time for us to part.

No matter how hard you try to wrap yourself in cotton wool, you can still hurt yourself.

With every cloud there's a silver lining but, the truth be told - and I'm a firm believer of the truth - for a while I was struggling with my experience with Elizabeth. I couldn't figure out what I had won, all I could see was that my losing her was one big black stormy cloud. But then I realised that, as every day went by and I thought about her every second and smiled, I knew that meeting her, knowing her and above all loving her, was the biggest lining of all.

Ekam Eveileb.
Make Believe

~~~ excerpt from "If you could see me Now" Cecelia Ahern
Ivan elbisivni & Elizabeth

Soul cleansing time....

2010-02-25T13:43:00.007Z

Am trapped in a cafe while waiting for the rain to stop out there. I have nothing with me except my iPhone. So I decided to pen down some thoughts here while waiting.

Have you ever seen yourself, whom you used to be in the past on someone else? Have you ever seen your present self among your friend? What I meant here is in terms of the personality and character. I had and have been seeing these for the past whole year at my stay in UK among the people and friends around me. Recently, I had been in deep thoughts, having my private and silent days all to myself. As I'm finishing my working holiday soon and in search of my next steps, I had been talking to myself a lot. I'm not getting crazy here talking to myself or trying to be in any self-pity mode to be alone, I just wanted some personal time to deal with my emotions, my inner self. I told my roommate that it had been so weird lately that pieces of memories in the past ten years just suddenly struck my mind out of no where, without me asking for it to recall. And most of the time, they are the places that I had been or people that I had met but they are not anything significant in my life. Roommate was laughing at me asking if I doing some sort of mind defragmenting. I sort of like this idea - Mind Defragmenting. I guess it's the time to dig out all the memories that lies dormant and subconsciously in me for the past 10 years. It's just like recalling them and to arrange them accordingly, the wanted ones, the unwanted ones, the important, the not so important, etc for a cleanse of soul. I regretted I hadn't been doing this much much earlier as I realized I don't really have any private time of my own while I'm in KL. All the time, I'm either worried for my job, worried for whether I'm able to secure on any next project, having family pressure, worried about this and that. Being here alone in a foreign land, give me time and space away from all these. To me, the main purpose of the whole trip is not about travelling. It's about searching myself again, putting me back in confident to face myself again which over the years all things had make me losing them bits by bits without me realizing it. Deep down in there, I think I'm about ready to return with the courage to take up further challenges. I promised myself that I will finish all the unfinished that I had put myself into, to stir up my passion again in things that I like and to give myself a second chance to try everything again in my life and most important to make mistakes. All these while, I had been too careful in dealing with my life, afraid to make mistake, till I missed the chance to enjoy the process. I'm glad I had friends that are frank to me on this past year to tell me what they think of me, to lead me indirectly to face myself again.

p/s: I am still in the midst of exploring more and am interested to know what do you think of me in the past, or at present. Friends out there, please give me a shout, be it good or bad, I will take it with an open mind.

听说

2010-02-18T19:03:00.005Z

been doing nothing for these 2 days in the room, listening to music, reading novels, reading blogs, living in my own little world. It hadn't been so relaxing in my world so far, to be able to do nothing. Been introduced to a site to watch movies online, and manage to catch a touching movie - Hear Me. It's a Taiwanese movie, about a girl who's normal in hearing taking care of her sister who's deaf and supporting her dream to be the best swimmer. Yet she herself was mistakenly thought she's deaf too by another guy. And the story evolved on how both of the pair started with this misunderstanding and how he fell for her. 90% of the movie is silent, no dialogues spoken except sign languages and subtitling. Yet, yet, it's as powerful as words spoken. And it touches me on the message that it wanted to send.

爱情和梦想都是件奇妙的东西
不用听，不用说，不用翻译，
就能感受得到；
只要不轻言放弃
Love & dreams are both something miracle,
one can feel it without listening,
without spoken words and without any translation;
as long as you are ready for it.

Are you ready for your dreams?

1st Anniversary for me!!

2010-02-14T18:58:00.009Z

Haaa, sounds like marriage anniversary. Don't get me wrong. I'm neither married nor I'm attached. It's just the day when it marks my existence in UK a year ago. Time flies so fast. Last year this date was still fresh in my mind when I'm flying across the ocean, excited over this Working Holiday Visa in UK. And now, it had been a year since I am here in UK. 2 more weeks before I met my quota of working in UK and after that I will have to live with my own savings in UK without able to work anymore. Had gone through a lot for this whole year, meeting lots of people from different walk (not really a lot), different culture and learning from each and everyone of them. I would not dare to say that I'm now a better person, but at least, I had learnt something about myself, see things about me that I was refusing to know all these while and decided to overcome it. For the past few weeks I had been struggling on thinking what's best for me after this. Thinking whether I should live up to others expectation or to my own. Although I hadn't have a very concrete answer to all these, I know I'm on my first step to overcome my own obstacle by deciding to take up the challenge to do something that had been a 'taboo' to me all these while. I'd tell myself, give myself another 6 months to live up with my own expectation and if I had ever fail again, I will have no regrets after this. Wish me luck!

To think about it, this is my first year not spending CNY with my family and friends. Feeling kind of weird. Anyhow,

Gong Xi Fa Cai/ Kung Hey Fatt Choi & Happy V day!!!
May you be blessed
with abundant health, wealth and lots of luck!!!

You gotta be creative even when you're dead in Milan!!!

2010-02-06T14:25:00.003Z

My first ever trip to Europe - first one Italy started back on Sept 9th, 2009. I know it had been months since I am suppose to put these photos up. Had been very busy after the trip as more trips had been coming along =). First destination, Milan. Many will say there's nothing in Milan, just a fashion city, as I'm not a fashion person, it could most probably be boring to me. Well, since I had that extra two days before I meeting up with my friend in Venice, I still gave it a go to make a trip there, at least I could loudly say I had been there. And unexpected experience came when you least expected it.
Not only this is my first ever trip to Europe, it's also the first time I had to spend overnight on an airport bench, and bear in mind alone too. The experience was not that bad after all. Ride on the earliest flight the next morning to Milan reaching there around 11 in the morning. It's a bit excited and at the same time scary for me too being alone in a foreign country and moreover a country where less or no English direction is available. Due to this, I had spent at least half an hour wandering in the train station trying to find where's the connection to their metro. Tried to ask someone but they can't speak English and kept giving me directions in Italy which obviously I couldn't understand a word. Spent more than an hour plus before I manage to get myself to the hostel which it's only suppose to be 15-20 mins metro ride, if only I could find the station earlier. Highlight of the two days trip in Milan was the cemetery (yes it is, it's the most special one that I had ever seen). Passing through cemetery had been a norm for me since the place where I'm staying now in Littlehampton, everytime I need to walk to the town, I will have to pass through one. It's not scary at all since they are very well kept and tidy. What's so amazing about the cemetery in Milan? I never expected myself to visit a graveyard during holiday. Just so happened that the moment I got the city map, one of the few city attractions is Cimitero Monumentale, and since I have two full day here might as well I go visit it after reading the guidebook that I can find a 3D Last Supper over there. And unexpectedly it's a large cemetery, and each graveyard is unique with their own different sculpture. Some are even massive like a whole building, housing all the deceased family members. Another unique thing that I had discovered in Milan is their building architecture. The outer facade all looks similar with balcony and windows, but once you step in, passing through the passage door, you will be come to a courtyard.It's similar to the feeling of a 四合院 in China. Photos explained better with that. And the hostel that I had stayed is still using an antique elevator, it's so small that only one person with a luggage can fit it. Being alone travelling also let me had a chance to know new friends from the hostel. We even had a wonderful dinner in a bar in Milan experiencing their "Aperitivo" - Milan is the native city of the Aperitivo which means you order a cocktail at the happy hour (special price) and you can eat for free as much as you like. Made friends with travellers from Barcelona, China and Switzerland. Had fun chatting with strangers all night.

Find the whole Milan album here

Next destination will be on Venice, not sure how long it will takes this time......

'八'

2010-02-04T00:10:00.004Z

八个句点；
八个回忆。

就这样；
傻傻的八句钟。。。

An extraordinary artist

2010-01-24T00:51:00.002Z

Three of us who came from Malaysia got invited last night by a co-worker, Sally in my job-place for a pizza dinner. I get to know her only for like 3 months ago when they warehouse start hiring more workers to cope with the Christmas period orders. Honestly, I didn't get to know her well since when she started working in the warehouse, I was in the midst of my holiday in Central Europe with Mei. A remarks I get to know from my roommate was she's a miniature doll maker , running her business at home. Until yesterday, when I went to her house for the dinner, only I got to know bit more about where she comes from-an extraordinary artist of its kind i would say. This is the first time for the past whole year that I had got the chance to visit a real English home, to interact with an English family. After the dinner, we had a tour of their lovely house. Sally's family welcomed us so warmly that they show us each of every rooms in their house just openly without fearing that it's an intrusion to their privacy. At that moment, I was thinking even we Asian wouldn't have welcome any friends whom we had just known for 2 months to their houses and showed them everything open-heartedly. The most interesting part of this gathering was when she showed us her working place, where she makes her miniature dolls for the dollhouses. Looking at the miniatures, I was in awe how detail she can go making the dolls clothes, hair even animals like dogs, sheep etc. While she was showing us the vast materials that she has in order to make those dolls, all neatly organized in cupboards and boxes, I can feel her strong passion in what she's doing. Even her husband and children have been very supportive as well as are interested in that hobby too. She told us she has been doing this for 20 years, most of the time she got her inspirations of making different characters through characters from the kid's program, or even teddy bears.

For years, I had been forgetting what I used to like or what I used to dream of. I can't even answer a simple question on 'What's my dream?' Sally's passion towards what she likes left me thinking for the whole night: Where had my passion gone to all these years?

Last entry for the year 2009

2009-12-31T17:07:00.003Z

It's 7 hours till the new year begins. 2009 had been and exciting year for me. A chance to step foot in the foreign land, moreover to travel to Europe countries that I had been dreaming of. It was also filled with all sorts of happy, sad, anger, Loneliness,friendships etc emotions. Like the Chinese saying 应有尽有. First time ever in my life too I experience a white Christmas in a European country, watching the snow fall in front of lovely cottages. What else could I asked for other than gratitude for what had been given to me. A year of relaxation and no stress for me. My only resolution for the coming year is to move on, to come out from fantasies and back to reality. Hopefully 2010 will be as good as this year with good health to all my families and friends too. Happy New Year 2010!!!

知足, 珍惜, 遺忘

2009-12-09T00:01:00.007Z

Found this from a friend's FB status, quite like it, hope you like it too.

懂得知足的人找到《快樂》; 懂得放下的人找到《自在》;
懂得珍惜的人找到《幸福》; 懂得放心的人找到《輕鬆》;
懂得遺忘的人找到《自由》; 懂得關懷的人找到《朋友》

Translation:

One will find Happiness if one learns to be content; One will find Comfort if one learns to let go; One will find Fortune if one learns to treasure; One will find Relaxation if one learns to be relieved; One will find Freedom if one learns to forget; One will find Friendship if one learns to be caring.

Dear friend(s),
Have an open mind, and an open heart
to face the ever changing world.

Happy Birthday to me!!

2009-10-04T09:44:00.004+01:00

Stepping into another journey of life, it's a happy one to start with.
The most presents that I had ever received over the years, and the most 'red eggs' that I had eaten too, 3 to be exact.
Thanks everyone for the wishes, and thanks to my friends/ buddy/ colleague for the wonderful presents.

Made a wish on the day of my birthday, although it doesn't happen on that day, but it sort of comes true on the next day. Although till now I have no idea where it might leads me to, but I am already satisfied enough at this point.

今年的生日，还算不错啦！
至少不是一个人的度过。有朋友的陪伴。
许了个愿望，没在当天实现，
但总算第二天少许实现吧！
虽然不知道往后会有什么的结果，
但这一刻我还总算满足了！

谢谢！

Tourist or a Traveller?

2009-09-30T01:02:00.002+01:00

Read this in one of the guide book while doing research for my next trip. To share with you the excerpt,

" Why on earth should you go out of your way to try some sport or activity you've never heard of or will never do it again? Why bother with the slow, less comfortable modes of transport?.....
Because if you're not doing something new, you're doing something you've done before. If you're not taking local transport, you're taking Western style transport........It's often the inconvenient and uncomfortable elements that give travel its extra dimension, and separate the Sphinx in Las Vegas from the one in Eggypt, ....and tourists from the traveller."

totally agree with it, to travel is to get some new insights rather than staying back in your comfort zone. Just finished my 11 days Italy trip and I had a fabulous time. I haven't got time to sit down to organize the photos yet since I had been busy moving house and planning for my next trip real soon. Please bear with me for a month or two before you got any photos here. I'll try to see if I can put up some kind of sneak preview before I go for my next trip.

September..a busy one...

2009-09-03T00:46:00.002+01:00

Someone had been complaining of me not updating my blog lately. Sorry folks as September is quite a busy month for me. Well, it started off with not a very good sign having sweet dreams for the whole night. Friend was curious having me complaining about sweet dreams. All my entire life, things dreamt always happen by the opposite in reality. Although in the dream, everything seems so real; I doesn't wish to have more of it as I wish it is true in reality and not mere dreams. Well, well, I just have to start my September anyhow.

Today, a weird and funny question was being asked when me and my roomie went for house viewing. Yes, I will have to shift, and this time house rather than just room. Landlord is having problem maintaining the flats with only 2 double rooms rented out and suggested that we move to his other flats in another area which is 20 mins walk away or we pay higher rent. Back to the funny part, most double rooms here are furnished with double beds and the landlady just popped up with a question asking "Are you both partners?" when she show us the room with that double bed. I startled for awhile trying to figure why would she asked so before I answer "No". Then only I realized she wanted to say there's only double bed in the room instead of 2 single. Sometimes people just tends to come up with a conclusion too quick on what they see.

6 more days before I fly off to Italy. Getting excited. Can't wait for that =)

60 years....

2009-08-15T22:06:00.002+01:00

How could a couple manage 60 years of marriage together? That's the first thing I think a lot of people will be asking. Me too, when I heard one of the regular customer of the restaurant which I part time in having their Diamond Marriage Anniversary celebration over there today. And both of them are still so healthy and loving. Salute to them. There's one thing funny about human relationship. In one end, couple can live together in harmony and lovingly for more than 60 years, in the other end, some couples can't even break through their Paper marriage anniversary! Human relationship can be so strong and yet they can be as weak!

tick tock....tick...tock....

2009-08-14T20:52:00.004+01:00

Just realized from the ticker that I had been here for 6 months already.....gosh.... Another 5 month plus before I can't earn money to survive myself here. Finally starting to plan my holiday after all these while. First stop, Italy! After researching, I think Italy is one of the expensive country to travel around. Expected to have a big hole burnt in my pocket. But bother, at least I'm still able to earn now, rather hit the expensive one first and go for the budget one later. days are ticking.....life's short.....time to move on.....

August!! August!!

2009-08-07T23:30:00.005+01:00

August have just started and it's already filled with lots of unexpected 'events', sad one, happy one. Let go the sad one, the happiest one is my sis just gave birth to a pair of twin girls yesterday!!! And I'm still yet to have a peek at my nieces. Dad sounds so happy today when parents told me about the happy news through skype today. And I still coping with being an 'aunt' before I stepped into my big '3' very soon. Sigh!!! Suddenly feel very old now. Am wondering whether my nieces will recognize me a not when I see them one year later.

August also should be the month I visit London more often for an internship in a film office which they are running a program for the teens to create documentaries for the Olympic 2012. Unfortunately, things are always not as I wish, or should I said 'never' as I had wish. After being just one day in the office, and the planned called off as they aren't able to afford my train expenses weekly. Now I'm back to square one, having too much free time if I'm not working. Maybe this is a sign to ask me to move on, to start planning for my holiday!!!! Hmmmmmm.......where should I go first? Germany? Italy? Austria?

Lost....

2009-07-31T22:13:00.006+01:00

Having mixed and complicated feelings while writing this post. Recently had been receiving too many of bad news, sad news around me. And tears just trickled down without me realizing all these while the pessimist in me never stop haunting me. Is this really the symptom of being a middle child? Having split personality, one minute I can be very happy, another minute I can relate to something sad and feel moody for the whole day. Not knowing what's the next step should I take, I'm heading nowhere; I'm lost....

London Revisit 080709 ~ 100709

2009-07-12T23:43:00.005+01:00

Revisit to London after two months. Main purpose to London this time was to visit my pregnant friend, Irene and we hold a small gathering in a Malaysian restaurant, SEDAP. It's Penang nyonya style and the food was not bad. Most of the chinese restaurant here in UK follows Hong Kong/ Cantonese style even though some are opened by Malaysian. Hence, it's a blessing being able to taste authentic Malaysia food right here in UK. This trip up to London was fulfilling, in terms of my craving for food. Apart from the Malaysian food, Siew took me to a Spanish Restaurant on the first night. Nice environment and accompaniment with nice food. Siew said I must be a European in my previous life that makes me craved for Western food rather than Chinese food. I kinda agreed with that as even in KL when I was to bring my mum for food outside, I'll choose to go to a Western restaurant, be it Italian, German etc rather than a Chinese restaurant. Just thought that there's a lot more other countries food that I haven't tried. Now, in addition to the long lists, two more down. To-date, I think I had tried Italian, German, Belgium, Spanish food, and hoping for more different one to come =). After our dinner, Siew took me to a special ice-cream shop where they have the ice-cream made to looks like spaghetti, lasagne, fried eggs etc. We had one of the Chocolate Lasagne.
Ah, forgot to mention too, I finally got myself a Starbuck Ice Blended after 4 months. Missed those time in KL that I can easily drive up to Starbucks with my laptop and enjoy my ice-blended there for hours. Got myself a Dark Berry Mocha Blended, something different from what I can get in KL, taste not bad though and the price is almost the same as a cup of coffee in other cafe in UK, around 3 pounds.
To sum it all up, here are the photos.

You make my Day!!!!

2009-06-23T21:56:00.001+01:00

This morning, when I was out walking to the swimming centre crossing through the residential area, I got lost. With a map in hand, the first thing to do is to refer to that. Unfortunately, the map is quite a brief map with only the main roads, that explained why I can be lost. Just as I seem so helpless, a voice came up asking if I'm alright. To my surprise, there's a lady in her 40s stop by her car and ask me if I need any help. At that spur of the moment, it was such a great relief. People around here have been so nice. How many a time will you stop at a tourist and ask whether they will need help. How many a times will you smile to a stranger on the road. It's just amazing how a simple human touch make me feel that I'm not alone here, even if I'm surrounded by strangers. Recently, I realized how I can be easily contented. A simple phone call or a simple note of care already can make my day and put a smile on me whole day or even days. I just would like to say, thank you for making my day!!

Have you make someones day today? Or have someone make yours? Tell them and I believe this is contagious and it will definitely put a smile on each other for the rest of the day.

To whom who have been reading this, thank you for giving me the support there and I hope I had make your day too!!!

Desire Path

2009-06-16T08:59:00.010+01:00

Just finished reading the book 'Thanks for the memories' by Cecilia Ahern, a sweet and nice story of how two people without crossing paths get connected. In that book, the author mentioned about Desire Line/ rather a Desire Path.

As defined, Desire path: A term in landscape architecture used to describe a path that isn't designed but rather is worn casually away by people finding the shortest distance between two points.

To my interpretation, this should be the path where we ourselves chose along our life, and the path changed every seconds on every decision made. I strongly agree to the concept of this and think everyone should have one on their own rather than letting yourself to walk on the path that had been laid down by someone else. Thinking back, maybe I hold too strongly on my own desire path, maybe you think I'm rebellious. But I wouldn't think I will enjoy walking on a path created by someone else to get to a destination, I could and should choose my own way to get to the point I wanted. Although sometimes you might say those are the proven shortest route to the destination; although sometimes the path I took led me round and round and I might take a longer time; but it's the process that counts more than the results right? I have no idea right now where my desire path will lead me to, but I am willing and ready to take the challenge to pass through every obstacles that occurs along the path......

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

In other words, create your own Desire Path!!

Think...think...think

2009-06-06T02:17:00.007+01:00

Working in the warehouse had given me the opportunity to think a lot. Why do I say so? Cos everyday since early in the morning, although the hands are non-stop repetitively working, the brain doesn't process at all on what the hands are attending to. Everything is just like a routine. And this is the best time for me to be alone; with my own thinking, talking to my own inner self. Recently, I had been reading on a book entitled 'Thanks for the memories' by Cecilia Ahern. The words in it quite pictures the situation I'm going through right now. Living in my own thoughts, diving into my own past memories, reasoning out those unhappy ones and moving on, reminiscing those happy ones.....I guess sometimes, things happen for a reason, be it good or bad, it makes us a tougher person. To share with you....

5 days out of reality...

2009-05-31T01:38:00.004+01:00

A sneak preview before I bombard you with my fabulous 5 days =) Part of the album here ...

My promised past week update

2009-05-08T13:29:00.010+01:00

** Gosh, apparently I fell asleep while typing this for the first time and mistakes are all over. Here you go with the ammended one....

19th April 2009 - My first week of volunteering in East End Film Festival started with a very early train to Victoria. Although it had been tiring at work for the past few days, having the first breath of fresh air walking 30 mins to the town to catch the train was indeed a mind refreshing one. Train passed through a few calling stations before reaching London Victoria. The places around south england countryside had weird names such as Shoreham-by-sea, Durrington, Ford, Goring-by-sea, etc.

Some scenic view from the train....

As for the film festival, I had been helping them with flyering and some office work for the first week. Also had delicious Belgium food with Siew which I had blogged before.

27th April 2009 - It's raining hard while rushing time to catch the train to London in town today. Being in UK, although raining here is only drizzling, but it's rapid and dried away fast due to the dry 'air'. This was the first day in UK under the rain that I had to use a raincoat. Reaching the train station, exhausted, then only I found out that the train was delayed due to some technical problem in one of the stations. While waiting, I got a chance to had a long chat with someone on the train who's from Sri Lanka and had been working in UK since 2002. I asked him about the places of interest around South of England and he recommended me some which I will try to make my holiday there. Later on also he told me about how beautiful Sri Lanka is but he can't be able to live there due to the political situation over there. He mentioned that there's one hotel in Sri Lanka that has a pool with water source directly from the waterfall, and you could imagine how cooling and refreshing the water could be. Also there's a place with 7 wells, each with different temperature, some is hot, some are cold, some with different color etc, and best thing is they are not man-made. There's also a mountain that you could climb up to the top and sometimes you can see rain pouring from your feet down to the earth while it's dry up there at the summit. Sounds interesting and makes me want to visit there some day. I was surprised myself that I can actually talk to strangers. I remembered a few years back while I was in Singapore, a friend asked me whether do I talk to stranger when I'm on flight or on the bus. I remembered very clearly that my answer to her was 'NO' at that time. This time, my travelmate asked me again when I mentioned on my chat topic in the train to her. Thinking back, I'm shocked too. I actually did change. But I find it quite nice to chat with someone you do not know without having any commitment putting on each other. I guess I'm also like what rainstorm said, I put trust on someone until someone betrayed the trust, as long as no harm is done during at the point of conversation, why not?
Going into the Film Festival Office for the 2nd time, I got the chance to meet some real Britons and see how they work. I had been helping them in the office for 3 days consecutively with the designing of layout for their closing night brochures. Being in the office environment, see how they solve problems, it's indeed very different. Some of the 'colleagues' seems like knowing the whole festival in and out for the fact that they are also volunteers like me, and they only got into the office 3 weeks ago. It's amazing the speed that they pick up at work. And when problems arise, seldom blames are put on, but instead worked together to solve the problems. It's quite fulfilling also when I was stationed at different cinema around East London each day for different screening which enables me to see different part of the city where I hadn't been before, as those are not tourist attraction places. And isn't that what my main purpose is - to see the cultures and places that is not the main tourist attraction but instead the real Britain. One of the screening put up documentaries of the old London in Rio Cinema, Kingsland, London. The screening is free for all over 50s year old people and the whole cinema was having full house in that afternoon. Most of the 50s were accompanied by a carer/ several carer in groups. There's quite a lot of job opportunities of carer over here in UK in fact, taking care of the old, and some even on disabled people. Even guys in mid 30s become carer. One of the difference between London Cinema with Malaysia's is each cinema is equipped with a nice bar/ lounge for the customer to linger around before they go into the cinema for their movies. During the festival, I managed to catch some documentaries which some are quite good with mind boggling on the question/ issue/ message that was conveyed. I haven't got a chance to snap any pictures as I'm on shift and not able to bring such a big SLR around. Maybe I should start thinking of investing on a small digital camera...

There goes my 2 non-stop busy weeks; work, volunteer, work, volunteer.....tiring but fulfilling one. I'm glad I realized some improvement in me after all these years; I'm glad that I'm able to volunteer at my own expense, which means that I still have the ability to earn =)

Something true - C'est La Vie

2009-05-07T10:10:00.003+01:00

转载 : 人生就是这样吗 ?‏

我们一出世，就被教导做个好孩子

拼命的读书，好了读完书了。大学也毕业了。
拼命的做工，赚多多的钱。。。
拼命的存钱，买房子，车子，保险
不小心找到了老婆，好了，结婚了，钱也用完了

再拼命的做工，好了30岁了，开始瓶颈。。。
再拼命的读PARTTIME，好了，学位高了。。。
拼命的抚育孩子，好了，孩子读书了。。。
拼命的灌输孩子要努力读书。。
自己拼命的做工。。。学位高了，压力也高了。。。

回到家，妻子照顾孩子，不得空理你。。
孩子忙着读书，不得空理你。。

月头，样样都是钱。
孩子和你拿钱。
妻子和你拿钱
房子和你拿钱
保险和你拿钱
车子和你拿钱

过年了，更加多钱
除了以上，
母亲和你拿钱
红包和你拿钱
旅行和你拿钱
NIKE，LEVIS，PRADA ，GUCCI，REEBOK ，PADINI。。。和你拿钱
海外天也可能和你拿钱

40岁，男人危机。。。
拼命的工作，保住职位。。。
成了大家眼中的势利同事。。。
开始害怕失去工作，开始留意年轻同事。。。
想读书，钱，没有了，想换工，薪金高，岁数大，难讨新工
想尽办法，还是不能爬上经理职位，还被一个年轻人上了位。。

孩子开始读中学了，和你拿更多的钱。
父亲节，拿你给的钱，买了你没有用的东西。。。。
房子! 还是和你要钱
车子旧了，开始不听话了。。。还是要给钱! 妻子也是一样和你拿钱，旦绝对没有收条给你看。夫妻要信任

好不容易熬过50了，要退休了，无风无浪。。。虽然压力大，新上司意见多多，不要紧。我顶！

就要拿公积金咯！但是孩子要出国读书-- <>

好了，公积精拿完出来了，一大半给了孩子，剩下的给了妻子

还是回到零。。。退休了，不用做？？？不能
几十年没有呆在家，忽然和妻子相处。。。
妻子看不顺眼丈夫无所事事，命令丈夫开始学做家事，！

扫地，抹地，剪草，洗车，样样都要做。。。

好了，房子供完了。。。车子也没有什么架了。。。

开始觉得人生很无奈，自己从一个提款机，最后变成了一个佣人。

孩子出国回来了，拍了一些照片。。。开始找工了。。。

毕业=失业，工难找! ，最后找到一份只可以养活自己的工作。还是要住在家里。。。吃，交通。去的薪金的一大半。。所以只是意思意思的给 RM100给父母做伙食费。。

3年过去了，孩子好不容易累计的工作经验，薪金高了。。。但是却开始要买辆汽车代步。。。母亲帮助 + 自己储蓄，给了头期。。。有了汽车，费用也多了。。还是意思意思给 RM200作伙食费

好不容易的工作开始稳定了，但是却认识了一个女朋友。。。开始了人生计划。。。要买房子了。。。

由于车子+ 女朋友费用太大，还是不能给伙食费太多，而且女朋友说 3? ?计划，全部钱要储蓄。。。

2 年后，终于买了房子，买了房子，开始要结婚了。。。

我终于有用途了，被叫去提亲。。什么都不可以多说，全部老婆讲。自己讲些客套话就行了。。。

摆酒，婚礼，旅行。。。用了一大笔+ 母亲储蓄+我剩下的公积金

我还是回归零，。。。继续的剪草，扫地，做家务。。。

结婚了后，孩子很少会来了，忙着自己的家庭。。。偶尔假日才回来看看父母。。。每个月意思意思的给 RM200 。孩子自己也困难了。要维持自己的家庭

好了，30 年前的计划希望能够开始，旅行！！

大事不妙，媳妇怀孕了，生了个孩子。。。母亲代抚养，因为媳妇孩子都做工

本来平静的退休生活又再次起了涟漪。。。每天就要照顾孙子，晚上他哭我就跟着醒，开始学习新的技术，喂奶，包尿片，唱歌，拍手掌。。。

孩子每个月意思意思的给多RM300 ，当着是孙子的伙食费。。。

照顾了5 年后，孙子大了，孩子抱回去了，一切回归平静。忽然想起 30 年前的约定，决定和妻子去旅行。。。。

还是去不成了，妻子年级大了，病痛也多了。。。自己的腰骨也常闹别扭。。。医生说要多休息。。。

惟有呆在家里看电视。。。。一天早上，妻子看见为什么老头没有起来扫地。。。想去房里骂我，但我已经回到天国去了。。。

孩子为我做了后事。。。
最后我成了一张照片。
人生就是如此讽刺。。。呵呵

=========================================================

所以我说，朋友啊，
趁年轻还没什么家庭负担的时候
就要把握机会出国旅游
不要每次那句：＂以后再说吧＂
以后也不懂还有没有机会了

人生看起来似乎很无奈
但我并不觉得如此
心态很重要
一个很富有的人买了一栋大洋房
但他生活得很不开心
因为他一直想要买更大间的洋房
一个小康之家的人买了一间单层排屋
但他一直生活得很开心
觉得自己很幸福
一家大小有个栖身之处
大家都相处得和蔼乐融融的

人生短暂
知足常乐才算不枉此生啊
朋友
珍惜身边的人事物
感恩
愿你健康平安喜乐 :-)

Feeling down...

2009-05-03T20:32:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was my best friend wedding and I'm not able to be there to share her happiness. Was still alright while chatting with her online while she show me her wedding videos and photos. Not until the last video that I had seen and it made me cried. Timing is always wrong for me and her on her wedding, and even her registration day 3 years back. I never got the opportunity to be there.

I feel bad.

Let me mourn for a day before I update my blog about what I had been busied on these 2 weeks....

Dearest Mei, congratulations on your big day and hopefully the present that's flying in the air now will find you both love to last an eternity...

Running out of Ideas....

2009-04-26T18:01:00.004+01:00

It's the most tiring time when it comes to meal time. Living in UK now, I have to prepare my own meal for each and every meal as still can't afford to 'pack' from outside as it's very very expensive. Most of the time during lunch at work I'll just prepare sandwiches with ham and sausages. Simple and easy. But when it comes to dinner after work, I hang out quite long in the room, not knowing what to cook for myself. That explain why I only had my dinner at 9pm or 10pm everyday. As everyone knows, I'm not someone who like to cook...haha, Having bought some frozen vegetables, some ham, chinese mushroom, tuna in a can, most of the time, I'll just fried rice, or cook them with pasta and mayonnaise. Or even porridge with vegetables pickles. Now that I have had those food rotating for 2 months, I'm starting to get bore with them. Arrghh....now I need to think what to cook tonight.

Volunteering...

2009-04-21T18:09:00.006+01:00

These 4 days off are so far the most fruitful one I have had since I came here. Had been volunteering in a Film Festival Office in London from Monday. Met up with some locals British, interact with them, I quite enjoy it. Frankly speaking this is my first time in England that I had truly interact with the local. As I told you, most of the time, friends that surrounded me are either my primary school mates, or colleagues from Eastern European.
The first day I was there, I was to help them flyering leaflets and putting up posters on a busy streets. They gave me their film festival shirt - a short sleeves t-shirt to wear during the flyering. And that's the very first time I had ever wore a short sleeves t-shirt in London or even UK. Although it's already spring, with sunshine, but it still colds when the wind blows. Surprisingly, I survived. Maybe because there're a lot of people on the streets that make the surrounding warmer. And the next two days, I am in the office helping them on whatever the team needed. The actual film festival only start this coming Thurdays and volunteers will have to be involved in the front desk, ursherer etc. Hopefully this is a good start for me to gain industry contacts in UK.

Besides, Siew gave me a treat in a Belgium Restaurant in Covent Garden called Belgo Central. According to Siew, their mussels are the most popular one. Both of us had Fruity Belgium beer (4.3% of alcohol). I had the strawberry flavour and Siew had her banana flavour. It's just like fruit juice and doesn't taste like beer at all. Didn't get drunk, but feel very sleepy after that. We shared a main course of Lamb Shank and it's delicious. Tried parsnip, a turnip like vegetable (the outlook of it). Love the taste (it taste a bit sweet and a little crunchy) and will get that for my next home-cooked meal =) Waiting for Siew to pass me the photos on her phone and I can upload them. (Click here for the photos - 5 mins after I type this I got the links from her, we have telepathy don't we? heee) Hmm...now I owe both you and Irene quite some meals...keeping finger cross hopefully I could be able to give you a big one soon.

Can't wait for the actual days of Film Festival next week now. London here I come again soon!!!

Devil's horn growing!!!

2009-04-16T23:01:00.004+01:00

This morning, our supervisor asked all new comers to be at the front stations when doing checking and packing of products as he wanted to evaluate how fast we can check (scanning of products and putting into different packs according to order). The target is 220 units per hour. Before this, I had never achieved this rate, the most I achieved was 180+ units per hour.

Let me explain the checking process. One boxes is one order. And each order includes a few customers orders. When doing checking, we scan each products and put them accordingly into assigned locations. One location is one customer. After sorting the products for each order into locations, we had to pack each locations into one bags each. And those bags are to go into one big boxes to be dispatch to the main consultant (it's just like direct selling with a consultant selling products to customers at home). After a few weeks there, the tips to get that 220 units per hour is to do orders with as much units at one time. Normally the packing process is slow, depends on how many bags we need to pack into one big boxes. Hence, to have a higher checking rate, it will be good if we can have more units in one order and fewer locations. And only the front few stations people gets to choose which boxes they wanted to do, as the boxes reached them first. And all this while I am always the unlucky one to be assigned at the last few stations. And those boxes that came to me, were usually the 'unwanted' ones from the front stations, which were mostly only few units per order with many locations.

Well, since I need to survive in UK with a job and some money at the moment, today since I get a chance to be at the front few stations, no matter how unwilling I am, I have to become one of them to "snatch' the big order boxes. And for the first time, I got a check rate of 219.39 per hour. But it's definitely not a good feeling for the whole day. So sorry for those who are at the stations after me. But I have no choice, I can't afford to get kick out from the job at the moment, not until I get a proper one.

I feel so devilish.....the horn will continue to grow for the next few weeks until i pass the challenge.......ish.....

Easter Monday

2009-04-13T16:28:00.008+01:00

Went over to Brighton this Easter Monday. Easter here is not a big celebration here. Without any public festivals celebrations. According to a friend, easter is just for the kids, to hunt for hidden eggs/ chocolate. However, it's a long holiday for all British including the weekends. Bear in mind, UK has a lot lesser public holiday (they called it bank holiday over here) as compare to Malaysia. Hence this 4 days are regard as long holiday for them. Also, living in a small town, I had to bear with having less access to public transport. There's only one bus running from Littlehampton to Brighton daily at an interval of 10 mins. The cursing part is on Sunday and Public Holiday, the bus only come once in an hour. And the last bus from Brighton back to Littlehampton is at 4pm. Obviously, I didn't manage to catch the last bus. And there goes my journey taking bus to Worthing (half way of the journey) and train to complete the other half. Luckily the train still operate till late, and most importantly it operates during Public Holiday.

Visited Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. Nice sunny weather. It's getting a lot warmer but at times when there's wind blowing, it's still cold.

Got this from one of the art book found in the Gallery.

"The way we see things is affected by what we look at"

"To look is an act of choice"

Do you choose to

look?
to perceive?
OR
to understand what lies beneath?

before you came to a conclusion on what you see?

Ignorant. A bliss or a Curse?

2009-04-09T22:45:00.001+01:00

People always say ignorant is a bliss. But to me, it might be a bliss to you but it is definitely a curse to the others. Because of someone ignorance, another had to clear up the mess for the someone. That's why I think it's a curse to the others.

I love my name, Yikyu!!

2009-04-01T19:39:00.007+01:00

After all these years, since I'd graduated from the Uni, I am glad that there's someone who can actually pronounce my name right and use it to call me. Yes, call me by my actual name and not my nick or initials, and in fact he's an English. He's my supervisor in the warehouse. Today he told us (me and my friend) that our names are the easiest to memorize and pronounce as compare to the others. For your informations, the other colleagues mostly are Polish. Hence, you can imagine the weird english names they have, even I can't pronounce them properly when I read their names on the sign-in sheet.

So, friends out there, can I have my name back?
Don't ask me again for my initials or English name/ nick name,

can ah?

I lost an hour time!!!

2009-03-29T11:29:00.004+01:00

Daylight's saving started today, meaning we had to move our time an hour later. That means yesterday night I lost an hour of good sleep. Now UK time difference with KL is just 7 hours behind.

Had been starting on a part time waitress job in friend's chinese restaurant for the 3 days. Find it hard memorizing the dishes in English, at the same time to put it down on order for the chef, I'd to translate them to simple Chinese. Hence, having hard time translating between them. Also, as I'm not a regular drinker, I find it hard to learn all the wine, liquor name as well. There's a lot to learn. But I'll take it slowly, but learn it fast in order to be on track.

Oh, I still missed my 1 hour time !!! =)

Life.Journey.Life

2009-03-21T17:53:00.000Z

Does the person create the journey?

OR

Does the journey create the person?

A journey is life itself.

Can't recall where I found these quotes. Something worth pondering.

More sense of gratitude = less suspicious in mind?

2009-03-20T18:40:00.005Z

Came across this sayings from Jing-Si Aphorism

It's so tiring when you are surrounded by suspicious freak, which not only putting stress on you and at times making you pissed off at some point. I myself trying hard not to be one, and trying hard to have more sense of gratitude from now on. =)

Today is the officially first day of Spring but it's still windy and cold. At least it's not as cold as a month ago now. Also, today is the last day of my work training and on Monday, I'm starting officially as a warehouse picker packer. This is not a stable job for the moment, but I won't be moaning over it here, as I'm already glad at least I got some income for the time being (remember, some sense of gratitude? ). On the journey home from Kent today, scenes of Spring arriving can be seen everywhere - farm starts to be ploughed, sheeps, cows and horse are grazing at the open field.

It's definitely a lovely day for a new season to come by.

Lovely weekend in Oxford

2009-03-18T21:22:00.006Z

I had a fabulous weekend in Oxford with my primary school friend, Siew throwing her 'advance' 30 year old party. It's a 1 week in advance to suit the guests timing due to next Sunday is Mother's Day (March 22nd) in UK. And I took the chance to spend a day earlier in Oxford to explore the city. We reached Oxford around mid-day, and it's nice of Siew and Stephen to meet us up and took us for a short tour walking around the city. Travelling and photographing has no meaning when you doesn't understands the histories and stories behind it. We are lucky to have Stephen, who is a historian to explain bits and there about the places/ building that we walked past. With the half day on Sat afternoon and half day on Sunday morning, we managed to explore around the city, except going into museums (we can't get the time to go into that as most of the museums only open after mid-day on Sunday) . We gets to visit the famous Oxford Castle, which was used to be a famous prison since the 16th centuries, capturing photos around the cities of different architectures in Oxford colleges were interesting too, also the picturesque Christ Church Meadow with the serene scene along River Thames that flows past it. Overall, Oxford is full of Colleges with unique architectures and lots of churches as well. It's not a very big city but it's a very interesting and busy city with scholars all around. Photos and description can be found here

Siew made us nice Italian dinner with Italian Chicken cacciatora(Chicken stew in tomato puree) with Risotto rice with the guidance of her fiance. Stephen loves to cook and we for the first time gets to eat traditional western food other than the usual 'chinese' food we cook in our flat. Forgot to take pictures on that though.

The BBQ party was great as well, with catching up of old primary school friends. It's just like a mini-gathering shifting from KL to UK. Life's great....

Quality vs Quantity

2009-03-15T22:45:00.005Z

Have you ever wonder this question when you travel? This just came up into my mind when I was on foot today. It's weird that lately I found myself thinking a lot when I am walking on the street, talking to myself about stuffs around me. Today, I'm asking myself, when ones travel what will they be thinking about, to get to as much places as they can but just be there without understanding what you are looking on; OR to visit one or two places one at a time, taking time to understand the culture, histories etc behind it? The same applies to whether you are getting something at the same prices with more quantity less quality or more quality but lesser quantity. And I realized something too when I'm at training last week doing checking of stuffs and packing them. As this position will be the last stages of preparing the individual packs for the customers, it should look organized and nicely pack. At The Same Time, we are expected to meet certain target by getting to have at least 220 units pack in an hour. And use your imagination when one need to meet that target at that hour restriction, how good can they pack the stuff without having the paper bags get crumpled or stuffs not putting properly with that speed?

Hence, comes again the question --- Quality or Quantity? To me, I rather prefer to go for Quality rather than the latter during traveling or at work But to go for Quantity at times when it comes to food/ things selections.

What's yours?

I'm a Warehouse Picker Packer now...

2009-03-10T09:31:00.006Z

Yes, I'm a warehouse girl now with safety boots on everyday......It's not a hard job and I started training today at a warehouse for a supply chain logistic solutions company. Bodyshop is their main client, where UTI is responsible to pack the products according to orders. Bodyshop operates like direct selling over here in UK where members order stocks from Bodyshop and also there's online orders as well. Hence, our jobs as a picker packer is to get those orders, pick the products and pack them accordingly to order for the customers and consultants. All jobs has to be done by human, there's no machine involved in the warehouse. Jobs is not that boring as compare to factory process (I think so, though I haven't been in a real factory before) since it's rotating between picking products, packing products, and checking of product packed before it's sent for despatch. 2 weeks of training and after that we'll start working in real. At least there's cash flowing in now while waiting for a better one....well, if there's chance I'll get you a photo of my steel toe safety boot...it's so clumsy walking with it every morning to work. Luckily, I stay just opposite the warehouse. Oh, did I forget to say I have shifted out from London, and now staying in Littlehampton, a small seaside town.

I've found a job...I hope so...

2009-03-06T00:56:00.004Z

Yes, after 2months and 20 days jobless since from Malaysia, I finally got a temporary job in a small town called Littlehampton. It's a job in a factory doing picking and packing. Went over to the small town yesterday going on the train all the way down south out of London for an interview. Got it straight away without much interview, partner say since it's just labour, normally they don't question much. We are due to start the job training for 2 weeks on next Monday. So, our initial planned trip on Brighton didn't work out, since we need the next day to secure a room in Littlehampton for us to shift in before our job start next Monday.

On Wednesday, right after the job offer, we tried to ask around seeing whether the locals know anyone renting out rooms. The locals are extremely helpful and they gives us lotsa suggestion, asking us to check out from the agents, from the local newspapers etc. Since by the time we finished the interview is already 3.30pm and we have to be on foot for around 30 mins before we can reach the town center to collect all the information. Can't find much from the letting agencies as all of them only rent out whole properties which is out of our budget. Most of the shops closed around 5pm and we can't get much infos. The only thing we did was popped at the shops' window and trying luck if there's any notices pasted. At that night, we got hold of two appointments to view the rooms.

The next morning, we had to sacrifice our Brighton sight seeing plan and went back to Littlehampton to try to get hold of a room to rent. The two appointments that we made, turn out to be quite good, just that it's a little far from the factory. Fortunately, we remembered one of the helpful local told us to try at the town council where they had housing development board. Hence there we went to try our luck. Finally we found one which is near the factory and includes all the bills plus with broadband as well and best thing is it's the cheapest among the 3 options we had got. Got some deposit paid and told the landlord that we are moving in this Sunday.

And there goes my little story on job and rooms search. At least it's still not too hard and worth sacrificing the sight seeing plan in Brighton. Since we are working on shift, I had 4 days of work and 4 off days. And I'm going to utilize that 4 off day for a short trips all around UK and maybe Europe....Keeping finger cross...

It's XTRA Windy Today

2009-03-04T02:48:00.005Z

Following my previous post, today weather is extremely cold and very windy. It drizzle all evening till night non stop. Although raining here is only drizzling, you can easily got soak up also if you stay out there for 10 mins and above. And the strong wind make it worse which can really chilled me down the bone. Newspaper predicted that the weather will turn colder and London might have another snow falling towards the end of the week.

Visited Victoria & Albert Museum today. An interesting museum to visit and it's free. It's so big that I can only manage to finish two sections. Partly because I love to learn about the history behind all those displayed antiques and stuffs that make me progress very slow when visiting the museum, reading the captions for each items.

Tomorrow I'll be heading off to Littlehampton and stay overnight in Brighton. Brighton is a very popular tourist attraction during summer situated at the south of London. Lots of people visited here for its beaches as well. I wonder how would the place be during winter time. Will update soon.

the Window

2009-03-03T02:27:00.003Z

Every morning when I open my eyes, the first thing that I would want to do is to run to the window and pull the curtains - to check what lies beneath the window, whether it's a blue sky or a cloudy one. It had almost been 2 week plus since I'm here and I had only seen 3 days of blue sky.

This morning one the sky is extremely blue and sunny. We re-visited St. James Park & Trafalgar Square before heading to National Gallery. And to our surprise, the park is filled with flowers blooming all around. Though it's still windy and cold but it's so happy to feel that Spring is arriving soon!!

Anticipating what lies beneath again tomorrow....I'm anxious!!

What If...

2009-02-28T21:49:00.006Z

Saw this interesting words on a wall in Portobello Market today.

"What If We are all Living in Someone Else's Dream"

Something worth spending a minute to ponder. As usual, there's always two ways of seeing this.

1st: Wouldn't you feel great if you are able to live on the life that what others have been dreaming on?

2nd: Why would you want to live on someone else dream rather than your OWN dream?

Life's always contradicting, don't they?

旅遊了 28 國才知道的

2009-02-27T12:22:00.002Z

Got these courtesy from a multiply friend: esther
Kinda true and funny , enjoy =)

p/s: I'm too lazy to translate, any taker?

1.到了中國，才知道只生一個孩子好。

2.到了臺灣，才知道罵祖宗還可以面帶微笑。

3.到了香港，才知道明星都戴著口罩。

4..到了日本，才知道死不認帳的人有時候還會很有禮貌。

5.到了韓國，才知道亞洲足球使上帝都差點瘋掉。

6.到了泰國，才知道看見漂亮妹妹先別慌著擁抱。

7.到了新加坡，才知道為什麼四面都是水，還向別人要。

8.到了印度，才知道多貴重的人都得給牛讓道。

9.到了印尼，才知道為什麼華人夜裏睡不著覺。

10.到了阿拉伯，才知道做男人是多麼的驕傲。

11..到了法國，才知道被人調戲還會很有情調。

12.到了西班牙，才知道被牛拱到天上還可以哈哈大笑。

13.到了南斯拉夫，才知道為什麼有人不願回到祖國的懷抱。

14.到了奧地利，才知道是個乞丐都能彈上一支小調。

15.到了瑞士，才知道開個銀行帳戶沒有十萬會被人恥笑。

16.到了丹麥，才知道寫個童話其實可以不打草稿。

17.到了義大利，才知道天天吃比薩臉上都可以不長膿包。

18.到了希臘，才知道迷人的地方其實都是破廟。

19.到了梵蒂岡，才知道在其境內任何地方開槍都可以打著羅馬的鳥。

20..到了美國，才知道不管是誰，亂嚷嚷都會中炮。

21.到了加拿大，才知道面積比中國還大的地方，人比北京還少。

22.到了巴拿馬，才知道一條河也代表了主權的重要。

23.到了巴西，才知道衣服穿得很少也用不著害臊。

24.到了智利，才知道火車在境內拐個彎也很難辦到。

25..到了阿根廷，才知道不懂足球會讓人暈倒。

26.到了南非，才知道隨時會被愛滋吻到。

27.到了撒哈拉，才知道節約用水的重要。

28.走遍非洲，才知道人吃人有時候也是一種需要...。

extra
到了马来西亚，才知道牵手也会接传票

Alive and kicking...

2009-02-20T01:46:00.019Z

I know it had been almost a week before I updated here. These few days, I have been thinking how I would like to set this blog to be; finally I decided to settle down with having this as a space for me to share my experience in London with occasionally some photos to it rather than updating everything I did day-by-day.

Have been busy with the settling down and shifting from hostel to my friend's flat. I'm lucky that I have a friend traveling together with me and also have friends here locally that help me bridged the gap between the local culture and what I am accustomed to. Hostel is good, clean and cosy. Highly recommended for those who are visiting London, affordable for the price we got. We have to stay in the hostel for the first 3 nights as my friend whom I'm renting rooms from was out for a camp. The first night in the hostel we stay in a single bed in female dorm and the 2nd and 3rd in a mixed-dorm with double bed. Parents are worried when I mentioned about mixed-dorm but it turns out to be good as most of the room mates are couples or either travel buddies like us.

The first day as we were here, we went out of the hostel, walking past the streets with maps in hand, strolling past Regent's Canal in order to reach Camden Lock Market. We saw lots of British walk their dogs along the canal, there's even trace of dog buried at the bank of the canal.

Tourists use the waterbus service to get to Camden Lock Market while locals who have their own boat can moored at the bank for maximum of 7 days free.

Reaching Camden Lock market after quite a walk and it's filled with tourists. The markets are full of foods, ranging from South Africa's food, Chinese food, Italian food; most of which are 4 pounds which you could mixed anything you like into one small bowl. Food here are cheap, you could easily filled up with a meal with merely 2 pounds or less. The only thing that's expensive here is transportation and accommodation. Went over to their local market as well, they put those fruits, vegetables, onions, garlics into a bowl separately and each bowl cost only 1 pound. 8 small apples, over 10 medium size tomatoes, 4 medium bunches of brocolli and even cherries, all for just 1 pound each basket. We could buy our groceries with only 5-8 pounds each by sharing which lasts us about 5 days for our lunch and dinner for two.

Got our first experience boarding on a London double decker, didn't notice that the bus route is not like back home which have to-and-fro routes. Hence, the first time experience, we ended up terminating at the last stop without having gotten to our destination.

Life's great to see London, such a big and huge city. Everyday is new to me and everything is new to me. Every morning when I open my eyes, I ponders - I wouldn't be here if I am in that Piccanto; I wouldn't be here if I'm still waiting and I'm glad I decieded to take that big step forward although roads in front is an unknown.

Went to the National Potrait Gallery today and saw this scholar Edward William Lane, who was the translator for "Arabian Nights". He describe Egypt when he first steps in:

"As I approached the shore, I felt like an Eastern bridegroom, about to lift up the veil of his bride, and to see for the first time, the features which were to charm, or disappoint, or disgust him. I was not visitng Egypt merely as a traveller...I was about to throw myself entirely among strangers; to adopt their language, their custom and their dress."

A quote that help me express mine when I first step out from that MH004....

Reporting from UK

2009-02-14T22:37:00.003Z

Dear all,

Thanks for all the wishes either through sms, email or the blog. I had reached safely in UK after a 12 hrs 30 mins long flight. Just had a long tiring journey getting myself from airport to the hostel, through trains, tubes and of course the deadly staircase. Carrying the heavy luggage up and down the staircase is really killing us. I'm so lucky there happen to be a helpful one to help at one of the tube station. It took us almost 2 hours to get to the hostel. TIll now, the hostel seems satisfying in terms of cleanliness, facilities and the friendly staffs. Will update more on the 'Valentine's day' trip later when I had finished processed the photos. The time now is 10 40pm UK time and I'm heading off to the bed very soon as it's only 6:40am in KL!!! Had enough from the heavy luggage and back pack today!

Before the flight...

2009-02-13T20:31:00.002Z

Already forgotten how long since I had packed for such a large luggage and countless time of packing in and dumping out things in the luggage to make way for those heavy winter clothes. The weirdest part is I don't really feel very excited about it when people asked me, maybe because I'm still struggling thinking anything that I have left behind or maybe too tired after whole day of packing and running around. I'm trying to make myself tired now so that I can sleep on the plane as I'm going to have a 13 hour direct flight. Thought by doing this I can also minimize the jet lag effect as by the time I reach London is already 12am midnight over here.

It is 2 hrs before I leave for the airport now. Thanks to all the farewell lunch/ dinner organized. Though during these few period with my clumsy foot/ leg, I insists on meeting up with friends as I'm not sure how long before I will be meeting them again. I will definitely missed all of you especially when I'm in the cold weather using all the 'warmth' gifts. Sorry to those that I didn't manage to meet up before I leave, as everything clashes at the same time, thanks for all the wishes though. I hope all the best to you all too just as what you have wished me. Happy Valentines Day to the 'new couples' and old one of course, also as 'the penguin' said Valentine is also for friendship as well. So for all my singles friend out there, Happy Valentine Day to you too =)

p/s: Checking on London weather with a friend and she told me it snowed yesterday and today's weather is 2-6 degree. Hmm...the next entry that I'm writing, I'll be freezing in cold.

Walk along with you...

2009-02-09T11:43:00.003Z

What would you say if someone ask you how can they pay back the kindness that you have done to them? To me, I never expect any return. I will just be happy and contented when my little help can make someone happy. I will only hope that I can walk along with you forever as a friend =)

Bride War

2009-02-07T17:37:00.008Z

I'm not writing a review here, just wanted to let out some feelings. Click this for a better synopsis / trailer. The story is about two best friend Liv and Emma, who played, lived and dreamt their life together since their childhood. Their biggest dream is to have their wedding held in June, at the Plaza Hotel, and an accidental mistake make them rivals when both of their weddings are clashed at the same date, at their dream venue. Their lifelong friendship is put into test when both of them are not giving in to each other. Apart from the main plot, the sub plot towards the end shows Emma finally admitting that the man she's supposed to marry is only in love with the '10-years ago her'.

This is supposed to be a comedy, but I feel sad when I see them hurting each others when they are supposed to be each others maid-of-honor; when I see Emma finally have the courage of bursting out that her supposedly husband-to-be was only in-love with the old her.

I cried....
because I feel the same for Emma, moving forward but the relationship still stays at the past;

I cried....
because I will not be able to become my best friend maid-of-honor and attend her wedding which is coming up soon.

The final movie quotes:
"Sometimes in life there really are bonds formed that can never be broken. Sometimes you can find that one person who will stand by you no matter what. Maybe you will find it in a spouse and celebrate it with your dream wedding. But there's also the chance that the one person you can count on for a lifetime, the one person who knows you better then you know yourself is the same person who's been standing beside you all along."

And what I thought of at the moment after their fight in the ceremony; when they realized that they are supposed to be lifelong friends and not rivals is this quote that the wedding planner mentioned at their first meeting:
"A wedding marks the first day of the rest of your life. You have been dead until now. Were you aware of that? You’re dead right now."
It's more on their friendships which are dead until they'd gone through 'the' test...

Thinking Mode...

2009-02-02T17:10:00.002Z

Since I started blogging about my going-to-happen WHM trip, I started to realize how my minds think. I remembered when I was in secondary schools, I used to think in English. But recently, as years go by especially out of the college into the real world, I realized that I'm now thinking in Mandarin/ Cantonese more than anything else. Partly because I used to either speak Cantonese/ Malay/ English - or should I say 'rojak' to colleagues/ friends (We are Malaysian mah) or Mandarin to my parents and seldom use English nowadays after I graduate. Guess I have to think more in English now, since I'm going to the land where I will rarely find someone to speak to me in anything else except English.....

What a 1st Day for CNY

2009-01-27T09:38:00.002Z

What a 1st day to start the CNY. I'm supposed to enjoy all I can for the last CNY here with my families before my absence for the 2 years. Unfortunately, I got myself fell down from the stairs due to missed steps and sprained my left foot. Just got back from the hospital after X-ray, luckily there's no bone fracture or crack. Else, as my sis said, I might not be able to fly to UK two weeks from now and have to wait for at least 2 months.. Thanks goodness, nothing happened. Now I've to wait for 2 days to see whether the swollen area subsides, praying hard for it as I want to enjoy the new year with my friends as well, some of whom I haven't been seeing for ages.

Counting down..

2009-01-14T17:51:00.002Z

It's a month before I leave KL now. Had been busy cleaning up my stuffs for CNY and also for preparation before I leave. Met up with a senior before he went back to HK and this will be the last time I see him before I leave. Guess as I grew older, my emotions get weaker. I've started to feel the grief that I'm leaving my parents and good friends behind very soon.

Stress or Overworked?

2009-01-10T17:51:00.000Z

There is a very, very tall coconut tree and there are 4 animals.
King Kong, an Ape, an Orangutan and a Monkey pass by.
They decide to compete to see who is the fastest to get a banana off the tree.
Who do you guess will win?
Your answer will reflect your personality.
Think carefully . . . Try and answer within 30 seconds

Got your answer?

Now scroll down to see the analysis.

If your answer is:

Orangutan = you're sick

Ape = you need a break

Monkey = worse, you suppose to be in the hospital right now..

King Kong = I think you better take 1 year leave..

Why?! ????

......

A Coconut tree doesn't have bananas!

Obviously you're stressed and overworked. *** And that explain why I'm taking a year holiday. =)
Take some time off and relax! ☺

2008

2008-12-31T10:16:00.004Z

It's now 22 hours counting down to 2009. 2009 would be a very challenging one for me, with changes of environment and all the unknowns. However, this time, I'll leave the unknown to be unknown and to celebrate the new year to come, I'll do something different in looking back at what 2008 have brought for me in this entry.

2008, travelling from having my 1st election time, addition of 50mm lens to my camera collections, 1st ever trip to Redang Island with finally able to snorkel with a 'swimming' knowledge (I know I'm too old to just learn that) after all these years, 1st ever Tequila shot, 1st ever mini skirt in front of you-know-who-you guys-are, 1st ever met up with Big time International Big Star-Michelle Yeoh and a lot more....appreciate a lot what I've gained from it. Thank you to the colleagues and friends who have been giving me support and encouragement during my down days. I'm having fun to get to know you all better through all the fun & chatting session that we had. Not forgetting also friends from my childhood who had been accompanying me through the whole year with loads of fun and activities that kills my time whenever I'm bored. I will definitely miss all of you when I'm away.

The best thing that I had was I finally manage to realize the dream that I have been yearning for the past 10 years - a Working Holiday Visa to UK. Yes, I'm going to stay in UK for at least a year starting from February 2009, and also taking the opportunity to travel around UK and definitely Europe as well. Also, this will be a good life experience and memories that I'll be having and at the same time a very great challenge for me. But with the supports from friends and family, I'll strive hard with courage. Lastly, thanks also to my parents for always being there and for your good health so that I'm still able to chase this dream without much worries. Thanks also to my siblings who have been supportive as well, especially my sister who had been supplying me with the winter clothing which I'll be very much in need for the trip.

All in all, life is still not too bad to me. I'm content. Looking forward for another fruitful year, 2009.

Short Attention Span

2008-11-14T04:58:00.002Z

Have been seeing these phrase for a long time which had inspired me to pen down something about it in my blog. Why is it so? Partly because I know I have a short attention span. I'm interested in everything and would love so much to learn everything that I could if given the chance, at the same time, I get bored easily. Someone reminded me that I never had a permanent job before since I graduated 8 years back and looking at my resume, ya, it's so true. I can't imagine myself sitting in the office going from 9-5 everyday; and going on every week and every year. But as usual, when human grew older, they tends to seek for more stability in life. I guess that goes to me as well. In one hand, I told myself when I'm there in UK, I'll have to go through what normal person have to go through on their career life -- to cope myself in a a proper timing job. I wouldn't have the luxury of flexible timing as what i have been practicing over all these years. In other hand, I'm quite unwilling to let go what I used to have the flexibility of timing in work. I just wish someone up there would just take away my 'split' personality and grant me a clear single mind to focus on what I have to focus on. Just wish me luck in the process to lengthen my attention span !!

Departure Date 14/2/09

2008-11-11T04:59:00.001Z

I finally bought my one-way ticket to UK and I'm leaving on the 14th February 2009. Yes, it's on Valentine's day!! Why this day, actually it's just an coincidence, as we planned to depart on Saturday to leave a weekend for us to settle down, to look for rooms when we reach there so that we can start looking for jobs when the week starts. Since both of us does not have a 'valentine', this is just another normal day to us......And now the next step is to start looking for jobs online......

Changes...Unexpected Changes....

2008-10-24T17:24:00.001+01:00

A friend once said, the unexpected is what changes our life. Frankly speaking, all these while, I don't like changes, in fact I hate it. Because I'm afraid of it and would by all means to avoid it, if I can. Hadn't been in stress with CHANGES for quite some time; the first biggest one came 3 years ago and the 2nd one just ended a year plus ago. Lately, I can feel the stress coming back again especially when I have got this planning of UK trip bundled with the economic downturn. Moreover, with unexpected life and changes of environment that I will be facing makes me feel even more in dilemma. Is it wise to make such a big steps at this time? Is changes good for me at this time? Will I be able to cope with the CHANGES that's coming along? Will I make it through? I asked myself and I'm still in fear....

Is it too late?

2008-10-19T15:14:00.001+01:00

With the knowing of being away after the next 3-months, I'm starting to think that I'm gonna miss my family and friends over here. The feelings are even stronger whenever there's a gathering and everyone is just there so relax and chit chat for hours over topics and topics. Had been to a colleague Raya Open House recently and have a chance to sit down with colleagues and everyone is just brought to the past talking about the good old days. At that spur of moment, I was thinking, I'm still so NEW to the industry with only 2 years of experience while everyone with at least over 5 years of experience on the table are talking about people that I'd only hear from for the first time ever. And YET, I'm leaving in 3 months time. Thinking back, I'm starting to be in doubt whether is it a wise move to leave my career behind and go for my travel dream. Everyone had been asking me what I'd be doing there. My answer is always the same - "I do not know, I'll see what I will get". I just do not wish to plan and expect too much as Expectation always follows with Disappointment. Sometimes I just feel, is it too old and too late to 'chase' for a DREAM? with the things that I need to sacrifice over here?

My best Birthday Present Ever...

2008-10-08T20:31:00.001+01:00

the best birthday present in my life, the working holiday visa to UK finally gets approved today! And if you would like to know what does a Working Holiday means, kindly click here

Anxiously waiting for the day to fly....