~caught in de forest of life~

Temptation by fried chicken

2011-10-31T21:43:00.001+08:00

I lean against the train walls, taking in the fragrant smell of fried chicken. A plate of KFC chicken thigh comes to mind. I'm torn! I just started my gym workout again today, after what seemed like eternity. How can this happen to me???
The very smell of food sends rambles in my stomach. Hunger signals sent to my brains & automatically the mind associates with KFC! Virtually mapping the way to the food chain at the interchange i'll be alighting at, i'm torn. Giving in to my craving would mean defeat, of time mind over my new found motivation to continue my gym workouts. Should i or should i not?
One part of me says "it's just for one day" another debates "don't give in, look for a healthier option".
In the midst of all the debates going on within my head, i sniffed the airconditioned coach i was in & alas, no fried smell, only foul smell or sweat & foul swears heard. My cravings creeped out of the station we last stopped at, as it's nowhere to be smelt now. Adios temptasion!

New day

2011-09-14T08:06:00.001+08:00

I took the premium bus today. Its been a very lovely sunshiney day so i wanted to be as close to it as i can. The premium is an 18 seater bus and no one is allowed to stand. It has wide windows so you'll get a beautiful city view together with the sun if you sit in it. Doesn't burn your pocket as much as compared to taking a cab since it only costs $4!
On a regular note, i'd usually take a bus to the interchange, alight 3 stops later, walk 4 mins to the MRT, queue & board the train, alight 9 stops later & walk 5mins to the office. If i'm lucky & get to sit on the 1st bus, that'll be my last chance to sit throughout my 30-40mins journey. I'd usually board at the tail of the train as there's usually some quiet standing space. I cannot imagine standing anywhere near their door for getting squashed is a must.
So comparing both experiences, i must say the latter is a luxury... At an extra cost of $2.21.
I'd say its definitely worth it.
For those curious about this comfort bus, lookup ComfortDelgro online & search for a bus nearest to you. If you happen to board a 523, you'd be lucky to bump into me :)

2011-09-13T08:01:00.003+08:00

They're not walking too fast but too slow?
Really? I think not. When you are on a fast lane, everyone around you will seem too slow for your pace. Try getting out earlier to head to work one day & see the difference. Try it on a weekday when you're not working. A variety of ways & you will see the difference. The world around you is your very own perspective. You see what you want to see.. Try it with different moods & energy.
A more apparent sample is with Mondays. One of the most dreaded days to many. Mainly due to the 2 days of rest, most people would drag themselves out of bed. Exception are the ones who are truly springs with excitement with the thought of work.

The 'Break'

2011-09-13T08:01:00.001+08:00

Everyone talks about 'breaks'. Big-breaks, taking a break, on a break, break a leg... The list goes on.
As for me, 2011 started with promises of a 'big-break'. I took a long break at the end of Jan & flew to Cambodia for a holiday. That signified January for me. Now, in February, I was making a mental note of taking a break at the end of the month to go on a quick holiday. Somehow, my subconscious mind worked faster than my actions.
It was the 20th of Feb, on a Sunday afternoon. I had absolutely no plans that morning. Not wanting to waste the remainder of my Sunday, I decided to return the Spanish book I borrowed from the National Library. The kids were crying from wanting to follow me & the tension from hearing both their screams and crying was building up. I had to leave as fast as I could.. The sounds were deafening. Run!!!! I recalled telling myself. In that speed of moving around, I walked into my mums' room & in avoiding my mother who was standing on my way, my leg angled to the edge of the king sized teak-wood bed and hit it with a fierce bang! I immediately broke down on tears. The pain was unbearable and looking at my toe, I knew it was broken. I cried in pain while I tip-toed my way to my own room where I laid my head to rest. In that instant, the next 1 week of home rest flashed in my head.
There was no one at home to take me to the doctor for an x-ray so I waited for vj to finish class to take me to the doctor. Waiting for a cab on a Sunday was not even an option. It was 1230pm when he finally called. I was very calm by then as I just lay still on the bed, not moving the broken toe at all.
He arrived 30mins later, took me to Lourdes medical, I had my x-ray done & the doctor advised me to admit myself overnight or come early the next morning to meet the orthopaedics.
Decision.. Decision.. Decision..

2011-09-12T08:57:00.001+08:00

Singapore trip

2011-07-28T17:06:00.001+08:00

From all my times of travelling to Singapore, I've used a few modes of transport. Drive, train, fly, bus. Among all those modes, driving into Singapore has been most convenient. Of course you'll need to have a place to stay and buy parking coupons if you choose this option. The first time I drove, we stayed in hotel 81 in Chinatown. There was an open parking closeby to the hotel. Parking overnight doesn't require parking coupons but we had to buy some from 7-11 the very next morning to display them in the car. Of course there is a free ERP entrance at least 10 times in 5 years or something (I can't remember the details now).

Flying into Singapore via budget flights are a good option too. Air Asia has a space in Terminal 1 surprisingly but Fireflyz which is the budget arm of our national carier, MAS is in the budget terminal. I find terminal 1 to be an easier exit compared to the budget terminal as one needs to endure a very long walk from the air site to exit.

This time around, I did this differently, flew in via Air Asia and then took a bus back. I was supposed to take a bus to transit from my different locations : Robinson Rd to Orchard Rd (Takashimaya) to Suntec City (Temasek Boulevard). Unfortunately, due to time constraint, I ended up taking taxis instead.

Taxis here are very efficient. Unlike in Malaysia, there's little haggling and negotiating. You can just get into the cab you've hailed and request to go where you want to go. They'll turn the meter on and off you go. It's very safe to take the taxis at night too. I still recall my experience of taking a bus down and arriving at about 2 am and having to take a bus from Novena to my friends place at Simei.

After all my set appointments, I jumped into my last cab and asked to go to Golden Mile Complex to catch a bus back. I was just in time as there was one bus leaving for KL in the next 5 mins. The fare was about SD25 (i think). Considering that i've not eaten anything since breakfast at 6, I decided to grab a bite, bought a pau and got onto the bus. Being a weekday, the bus was half full. Only the first 5 seats were filled and the entire back rows were empty. So I could sit wherever I wanted. I lowered my seat and slept throughout the journey. From 2:30pm, we arrived in KL at about 7:30. The bus took us to the TBS terminal at Salak South. It's a transit terminal which connects to the Star LRT, ERL which takes you to KLIA and KTM Komuter which takes you to town.

If you are planning to take a flight upon arriving in KL, this' the best option.

It's quite a long walk to the train station from here though. But once you're in the train, you can relax all the way till you reach your destination. Beware of pickpockets though while you're walking and always be aware of your surroundings.

On the theory of planning and conspiracy

2011-07-28T16:58:00.000+08:00

Date: 23rd March 2011. Its my 3rd xray check up at Pantai Medical Centre. While waiting for Vj to arrive at 830, i decided to do a few things. Firstly i cut my long nails, read my bible, chat with Mum. There's a girl who is used to parking her Car right in front Of our house. Usually we never see her & the same happens in the evening wen she returns. However, today, by luck she was still in her car putting on her makeup when I spotted her. I told mum casually that the girl who has bought the parking spot on contract has arrived & she's still in her car! Mum was adamant that I should go & talk to her & so I did! Funny and rather sarcastic conversation I had. Anyway she asked for a contract extension till next Tues. & I said ok & came back in. Shortly after, VJ came over & I hopped into his car. Following that were series of un-meaningful events.. Drop off @ lobby, VJ goes to basement to look for parking while I hop to the x-ray dept to register, VJ joins me, I have my x-ray taken, collect result & hop on to have breakfast before doctors appmt at 10am. Then it was English Muffin, Kapitan chicken pie & mocha @ Starbucks & then we were off to the doctors visit. Very brief xray explanation & I was given another 3 weeks of MC!!! Wow now that totals up to 6 weeks of sitting @ home?? Sheesh... I felt funny, mixed emotions & I wasn't sure why because just minutes before going in for consultation, I was hoping for an MC extension! Why? Coz CSC was where I was supposed to go to report for duty on the 24th (tomorrow). Unfortunately, Muhan SMS me the night before & said that they refused to pay for me to go there. This disappointment is what held me back. But another 3 weeks is tight rope too. What if there is no longer a position in PJ office? My heart was no longer with Subang office to go back there. After speaking to Muhan, we agreed that I will inform him on the 28th whether I can join or otherwise.. On another note, I decided to go over to KL office to meet Mel & speak to her directly about the situation. This needs to be done on Friday (Tom). So after appointment events were surrounding us looking for parking at MidValley. VJ who is usually patient had his patience tested to the limit but still endured it. After a painstaking 20mins or so we finally got one spot. First stop was GSC. It was Wednesday! Half price tics!! Unfortunately no nice shows worth watching was playing so movie plan cancelled. Next was Jusco to redeem his birthday gift vouchers. Oh yes, prior to that, I randomly walked into A Cut Above to enquire on the rate for balding. RM115 for any type of restyle. Then I left to follow VJ to jusco. Along the way, vj kept commenting on my funny balding idea & said that i'll look really sick since i was also limping then. He even said tat he will not see me for 3months after if i do cut my hair.. Funnily, while we were walking back to the car VJ suggested we go bald anyway. I was taken aback since by this point I didnt want to do it. I thought I'll drop by another day & get it done since I was totally cashless the whole day! I gave all the money I had for mum to buy gas that morning & the other balance amount was used to buy groceries when I took mum & the kids to Giant on Tuesday. I was supposed to withdraw from the ATM but smartly I left the card in another bag!! As I felt awful to ask VJ to go eat, I suggested we head home instead. He insisted tat I go cut hair instead & I agreed & went! He walked me in & left to wander around. In between I had to decide on the exact length I wanted & if a little short is enough.. Tough calls to make & with the fact tat VJ wasn't next to me, my gut feel was that this is my decision, I shud make the call myself. True enuf he told me the same thing when we met.. Hair turned out fabulous! I began to grow loving it more & more as we kept walking & talking about it. My crowning Glory was chopped, trimmed & shaved off for a cleaner look. A lot of mixed reactions and comments but it didn't matter at all to me. Today, being the 23rd also counts down to my turning 30!! Wow how momentus this moment is... Thanks to VJ for making today happen since if it wasn't for his insistence & my boldness to agree despite all his stupid remarks, today wouldn't have happened! & finally, after cracking my head for so long on what I should plan or do for my birthday, everything fell into place.. So what's the plan you may ask? Well, read on and the answers will unveil itself to u...

Know thy enemy

2011-06-20T17:19:00.000+08:00

So, why is it so important to know what you eat?

You can tell a healthy perspn from one who is not based on what he / she eats. Try it. observe or ask someone you know about their eating pattern and see if it correlates to their fitness level / physical appearance / health condition.

Now if you'd just google up these information, pull out a food chart, nutrition chart and diet page, all the facts figures and ideas would come flooding your mind. Now, here's a simple straightforward page which gives a basic run down of what are the basics of what you need to know. Taken from About.com Guide.

Updated May 13, 2011

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

Here's How:

Eating breakfast will help you refuel after a long night's sleep and start your day with more energy. Choose some protein and fiber for your breakfast and it's a good time to eat some fresh fruit:
- one serving of oatmeal
- one-half cup strawberries
- a tablespoon or two chopped nuts
- glass of orange juice
A mid-morning snack is totally optional. If you ate a larger breakfast you may not feel hungry until lunchtime. However, if you're feeling a bit hungry and lunch is still two or three hours away, a light mid-morning snack will tide you over without adding a lot of calories:
- One serving of plain yogurt mixed with one-half cup blueberries and a little honey
- Water or diet soda
Lunch is often something you eat at work or school, so here is an idea for a portable lunch you can pack and take with you:
- A sandwich made with two slices of 100% whole grain bread, two or three ounces of lean turkey breast, a little mayonnaise or mustard, a tomato slice and lettuce
- One-half to one cup raw baby carrots
- One can or bottle of sparkling water
Or if you eat at a restaurant:
- Order a vegetable salad with the dressing served on the side
- cup of soup
A mid-afternoon snack is also optional. Keep it low in calories and eat just enough to keep you from feeling too hungry - dinner is just a couple of hours away.
- One apple and 12 walnuts
- Glass of milk
Dinner is a time when it's easy to over-eat, especially if you haven't eaten much during the day, so watch your portion sizes. Mentally divide your plate into four quarters. One quarter is for your meat or protein source, one quarter is for a starch and the last two quarters are for green and colorful vegetables and/or a green salad:
- One serving of baked or roasted chicken breast
- One small baked potato with salsa or low-fat sour cream
- Large portion of steamed asparagus
- One small 100% whole-grain roll
- Small glass of white wine (optional)
A light complex carbohydrate-rich evening snack may help you sleep, but avoid heavy, greasy foods or foods high in refined sugars.
- Six whole grain crackers
- Two ounces sliced cheese
- Piece of fresh fruit

Tips:

Drink several glasses of water throughout the day.
Choose whole-grain breads and cereals.
Serve lean meats instead of high fat processed meats.
Avoid foods that are high in fats and added sugars.

Gym - Identifying the enemy

2011-06-20T16:28:00.000+08:00

After so much soul searching and thinking done on my part, i've decided to put pen onto paper and set my goals.
As it is with any goal setting writing it down is definitely more effective than creating the ideas and goals in our head. So i'm setting it out in a book to document every single progress, inch by inch, exercises done and food taken. Also, you need to know who your enemy is before you step onto the battlefield.

Generally when you starts on a journey to loose weight, you'd naturally hit the gym or the park, start running and exercising, more frequently in the first few weeks and reducing it to once or twice in the next following weeks, reducing it to once a month and then to none while you see yourselves back at square one.

When starting an exercise regime itself, you'll naturally feel more hungry and tend to eat a lot more or the same portions you used to eat before consoling yourself over the fact that you've exercised and thus the food should be digested faster since you're increasing your metabolic rate. Now here's the hard fact or truth - it doesn't work that way.

Sadly, when you start off your exercise regime, be it to loose some obvious love handles, reduce your waist line or even to tone your body or to be healthy overall, food control works hand in hand with your exercise. They co-exist, not stand alone!
So, in order to combat your excess fat, know the source of it - "the enemy"

Read on to what is your enemy all about and how to combat it...

Gym Again Part 3

2011-06-17T18:25:00.000+08:00

As mentioned previously, when I first joined the gym, I was motivated by the feel good factor it gave me when I attended the 1 hour classes. And then there was the jet-shower which had good pressure which gives you a good massage feel. Those were my reasons.

Most of my friends who initially joined the gym did it for these reasons:
1) Check out good looking guys
2) Have something to do after work - to kill time instead of being stuck in a traffic jam
3) Join dance / yoga classes
4) Loose love handles
5) Go together with office colleagues (the more the merrier)

Among the whole lot, one or two stay on for another month or two before terminating their membership. This usually happens under 1 year of joining. Why exactly does this happen? Is the gym not equipped enough? Not enough motivation to keep going? Lost of interest? Gym fees eat into expenses and becomes too expensive?

Actually, the REAL reason behind it is their own self. Going to the gym is seen as a social activity with friends from work. And friends do fall out. Even if you're best of buddies, it's very uncommon to find a common ground in exercise. We're all built differently and just as our bodies respond differently to different medication, the same goes to exercise. Something I do is not necessarily sufficient for the one next to me, in many ways.
The fall out usually happens when these expectations we have inside is not met at the gym.

Gym Again Part 2

2011-06-17T18:13:00.000+08:00

Notice that I didn't think twice when terminating my gym membership the first time? It was easy because there was no real motivation in the first place. Nothing that I could relate to, I didn't see any "real" physical changes except for the feel-good factor after a good 1 hour dance workout. The feel-good feeling was not strong enough to keep me going to the gym.
By this time, I concluded this few mistakes I must never repeat:

1) Never join the gym just because
a) your friends are asking you to
b) the whole office had a group discount and you get a cheap membership
c) your friend who "needs" to lose weight pulls you in with her to buddy and go together

WHY? Because the above reasons are not values you hold close to you. They are others' motivation. Not yours.

Do YOU feel fat and ugly?
Do YOU feel unhealthy or facing health problems such as difficulty in breathing or walking caused by overweight?
Were YOU advised by the doctor to lose some weight to keep your heart from getting clogged by fat?
Any reasons which relates to YOU are the only reasons you should use to join a gym. The decision to join a gym should be only about you, not about your friends / neighbours / siblings.

The only exception to this rule is NONE. Do it only when you have a REAL need to either keep fit or lose weight or tone your body. Only then will your efforts pay off.

I have REAL reasons to why I'm claiming the above. Read on to know why..

Gym exposure

2011-06-17T17:56:00.001+08:00

The first gym I enrolled in was California Fitness (CF). This was in 2005 and I joined because the dude who signed us up was good looking. Actually the main reason was also to accompany my friend Roc who then was very determined to start working out. Notice that it wasn't purely "MY OWN" intention. They were intentions of my friend and a cute guy who was a total bore anyway and none of those were concrete enough reasons to keep me grounded to stay on.

CF then was in Midvalley and I used to work at Central Plaza along Jalan Sultan Ismail. My routine was to be up by 7am, take a commuter train from Sentul to Mid Valley to attend their 8am yoga class. I did this religiously for at least 3 times a week. Work starts at 11am then (Middle East timing) so I had ample of time to continue this schedule. After workout, I would take a bus to KL city centre near Central Market and switch to another bus which heads to Jalan Raja Chulan where i'd get off and walk to office. Looking back, I'm surprised at my own perseverance to endure the waiting time (public transport services back then wasn't so great as the waiting time was usually between 20-30 minutes and can go up to an hour sometimes).

I still think that a bulk of my keeping fit was contributed by my walking stint. Eventually, CF moved to Menara Standard Chartered which was right next to my office building! What a great timing it was. Roc and I used to meet a few times in a month (the number of times can be counted by hand) at the gym to attend a yoga or pilates lesson together. I used to hate the machines so we'll attend a class, sit in the sauna room while chit chatting and then shower and head home. So gym activity for us was a social meeting. Sometimes we'll walk to secret Recipe for dinner and at other times we'd head home. The routine of going to the gym in the mornings before work continued on for me and i'd go in the evenings when i'm meeting Roc.

Eventually I started getting more busy at work and gym took a back seat. Therefore gym sessions were reduced from 12 times a month to 4 times a month! I didn't see any more reason to go there to do a 1-hour dance class since I also started taking up salsa lessons outside. Salsa was a long pending plan so I took it up in fear that my knee will be too weak to dance as I grow older. So I dropped out of gym and terminated my membership without second thoughts thinking my money was being wasted. Sigh.. this only marks the beginning of an even longer ordeal.. Read on.

My exercise history

2011-06-17T17:39:00.000+08:00

I'm not exactly a very health-or exercise concerned person. Even in school, my only "active" involvement in sports is during PE when we used to play hand ball, did some warm up, long jump, sprint and such. I was very interested in playing badminton so I joined this club and went through intense training with the team coach who was hired by the school. So my Friday noon activities revolved around badminton practise and then i'd head home.

The more important point to note here is the non existant motivation from anywhere to pursue such an interest so young. Even form 6 was the mundane racquet games and running sessions to contribute marks for our sports group. A proper coach was never there to guide, unleash and polish our talents. Be it a talent or a non existant one.

Nearing school sports day even, my stamina is so low that I usually can't run all the way without panting half way. Emphasis in sports was never really given to me. No one at home were actively involved and in turn it wasn't exactly became a habit for me to keep up. The fact that my parents were small framed, never too fat but just right, and we were always walking from anywhere to everywhere kept us in our shapes. We never had an urgency to keep fit or get into shape because we always were in shape.

However, in growing up and being exposed to the real world and outside food, realisation hits. It's not all rosy and healthy food outside where control in salt, MSG overuse and sugar content is out of our hands. When exposed to these, having been accustomed to home cooked food all my life, the stomach had to adjust readjust and also rebel.
Once the turmoil was over, I could mouth and digest anything I wanted including spicy food with loads of ice water and tissue at hand. And then comes the exercise conscience since bad fat keeps adding up and as the age adds a year getting rid or back to shape gets even harder and requires more effort.

In my case, it's literally starting from scratch considering my zero exposure to exercise since birth. I'm going to dedicate the next few pages to my getting back to shape ordeal. This is no easy task as I'm struggling just as every normal individual would to get rid of fat without the aid of steroids or medication.

Keep following.

Back on the roll again

2011-06-17T16:41:00.000+08:00

After a long series of silence, I am coming back to this site. It's not good to leave something dormant for too long. Like a garden. When you leave it dormant for too long weeds grow longer than your own hair and getting rid of it will be one hell of a mess!

The same applies to relationships. Leave it without effort or work and see it crumble and fall right before your own eyes. So what has happened in life surrounding for the past 1.5 months that i've been missing?

Well, to start with, I've resigned from the job I held since 2009. Well this transition is rather weird considering that I was based in Subang office for 1 year, was offered to move to KL office in beginning of 2011, plans changed before I moved, offered to be transferred to PJ office instead, I ended up breaking my toe and held on MC for 2 months. Thank God that I went for my Cambodia trip before the incident. Chronologically, the timeline goes something like this:
End of Jan 2011 - Cambodia Trip with Nim & Esther
End of Feb 2011 - Break Toe from kicking bed post
Entire Mar 2011 - Bed rest and home based doing absolutely nothing but catching up on reading & watching movies
End of Apr 2011 - Back to work at PJ office
End of May 2011 - Tendered resignation and served 1 month notice
End of June 2011 - Jobless (current)

In between changes were some new habits introduced: Gym activity. I started going back to workout to get rid of excess fat accumulated throughout the period of being dormant since the only activities done then was eat-sleep-watch movie.

The next series of post will be about the gym workout, the whole work of it. Some mind-boggling revelation and also self awareness. Stay tuned!

30 years of existence

2011-03-18T19:12:00.000+08:00

Finally the long awaited big 30 has arrived. In another 1 month that is.

I have been cracking my head over this matter as I must do something to truly remember this day. Started off with throwing a salsa party bash then came down to travel to some island, COVERING my South East Asia trip before I move on to Europe, hang on, that plan is not due until Mar 2012 anyway. And finally finally finally, today I realised that there is something I have not done in my life before - that is to travel on my own!
Okay i've been to Singapore on my own before but that is a "safe" city. Doesn't count. The reason for my feeling this way is to achieve some self satisfaction.
I've not laid out a 30-year plan in my entire life. All that I have achieved and done thus far has resulted from a decent amount of rebelling and efforts with God given strength. Although it is Easter Eve on that day, the 23rd of April, I have decided that I will be at another beautiful church this Easter for sure. I was thinking of Medan. But I'm not too sure. Well let's see what happens.
Anyways comparing myself to me, some of the things that I have come to hold in my life are as follows:
1) Career.
2) House
3) CC
4) BF
5) Family
6) No kids. Not that I wanted any but I do have another 5 years to go before I decide to have any.
If it's any later than that, there are too many risks - down syndrom, and other unavoidable issues.

Well, that is some stability there and I think I have done okay. That is what the one and only audience we had during the workshop told me. I think your slides were okay. Not that great, not that bad.

I guess my life has been just that, not that great, not that bad. There are many things to be grateful for. And maybe i should plan something for the next 30 years for a change. If my plans are in line with HIS plans, then good and well. Otherwise, the Lord will eventually work out a way for me. Which will be for my own good too.

So let me log on to AirAsia and try to lock in my next trip (considering finances of course) and after which I shall update this here again.

A trip down history lane

2011-02-27T12:32:00.000+08:00

a long awaited trip has always been.. Cambodia.

The idea came up 3 years ago or so. The group of friends I was supposed to go with backed out due to the political issues that were ongoing then. And then the idea kept lingering around in my mind. Come 2011 I thought I must make this trip no matter what, even if it meant travelling alone.

During one of our weekly breakfast routine with the duo, Esther and Nim, the discussion came up again. And this time, it was yes, go ahead, look for the good deals and book. It was at the edge of being cancelled again due to various issues. Initially the plan was in December and then I realised that my passport was expiring in Nov and i am yet to renew it. But they kept watch and the budget travellers as we were, the deals came up again and prego! We booked it. Thanks to the watchful eyes of Nim and easy accesss to the Internet Esther had, we confirmed the flights at RM260 (to and fro)!

Thanking God and lucky stars for the wonderful deal, the dates we had were end of January.

The long awaited months became weeks, then days then hours and finally at 5am on Jan 24th, we all met at the KL Sentral to board our bus to LCCT.

I had less than 4 hours of sleep that morning. Met up with Sumi at about 3smtg and went to McDonalds for breakfast. Unfortunately, since breakfast is only served at 4, I had a fish fillet instead.

Sumi volunteered to drop me off at the bus terminal. At that hour, it took us less than 10 mins to reach. I bought us a return ticket since we were all going to have our pick up from the terminal. On the bus, I chatterred away with Esther, boring her to death. Next to our seat was a well dressed guy who looked like he was the captain. (Our thoughts on the same were confirmed when we heard him on board the flight when he made the announcements and we saw him get off the flight.)
We reached just in time to board the plane and there was very little checking done at the exit. Nim managed to grab some coffee and sandwich while I used the wash room and prep for the 1.5 hour flight.

We were one of the last few to enter the flight. Took our seats and prepared to doze off.

We arrived at Siem Reap to beautiful weather at 23 degrees. After clearing the immigration, we went on the lookout for a cardboard with Nim' name on it. We found none and there were quite a number of tuk tuk drivers who were offering us their services. We ignored them all and sat at a small closed cafe to wait for our own driver. His name was Bora. A very hospitable bora.

He found us within minutes after we sat down. Introducing ourselves, he hurried to load our bags onto his tuk tuk. A tuk tuk is a motorcycle that pulls a wagon-like seater. This seater can handle at least 6 small frame people at any one time and in our case, it was 3 of us seated in one row and our luggage loaded in front of us.

Finally! I'm virtually connected!

2011-02-20T00:12:00.002+08:00

The date is 15th Feb 2011. A day that goes down in history for me... My plans to get an iPhone had been sped up by my beau... This goes down the list of the sweetest things he does ... So finally I can relate to his obsession of looking for wifi enabled areas, downloading apps, keeping a keen eye on new apps, comparing notes and a lot more that comes in a package.. Thank u VJ..

Cherating trip

2010-11-08T09:15:00.000+08:00

10-10-10 (Sunday)

Planned to do something different on this particular day since I missed out on the McDonalds Olympic run and a few others. The plan was to launch phase 1 of a long over-due road trip. Okay not exactly that. Road trip is supposedly with my GF Sumi. This is supposed to be a relaxed break away from the city husle..

Decided to drive instead of take the bus and hassle around. Had an itinerary planned out. Looks something like this but didn't follow through much of it.
(for some unknown reasons i can't seem to upload the file after much effort of converting the pdf file to an image.)

Anyway, ended up doing the following:
Day 1:
4pm Arrived at Holiday Villa & checked in
Couldn't locate the Restoran Kamar and decided to try again the next day.
Popped by the beach to check out the area
Drove out to look for food. Unfortunately, out of the many list of places recommended online which i took down, not all were to be found. We ended up in a restaurant where the mosquitos and flies were more than the people there. (They arrived after we ordered our food.)

Definitely not recommeding this place to anyone. One commendable dish must be their grilled sting ray. The fish was undoubtedly nice, edible but not good enough to counter the part where the flies ended up crowding the place more than humans.

Wine session followed.

Day 2:
Supposed to be up in time for sunrise at Teluk Chempedak but arrived at around 8 something, just in time for breakfast at McDonalds :)
The McDs here has a nice view of the sea with seats outside. Although the place could use some face lift, the area was clean in general. Do expect the staff to be a little slower in responding to you though. I'm not sure if this is the effect of the sea giving it a holiday mood or the fact that it was too early in the morning.
Following breakfast, we walked up the ever famous hanging bridge to the other side of the beach. The view there was AWESOME! It's like a private beach where the water was clear, clean and plenty of shady areas to chill. We went crazy with photos!
Supposed to go hiking up the hill but since we weren't well equipped, we didn't even attempt it. We walked back to the other side and got ourselves ice-cream (actually I got myself an ice cream). There were some shops opposite the parking where there were souvenier stuff and clothes on sale. Shortly after, although we weren't hungry, we thought we would buy back some food for lunch since getting good food in the hotel vicinity was not possible.
We were craving for some good chinese food and curry mee in particular for me. Just a few shops up from there was this chinese restaurant where there were even Malays eating there! We were surprised as this is not a common view in KL.
We had a drink while waiting for out curry mee - to be ta pau-ed. Food came up to about RM7-smtg with loads of fish ball and chicken slices. (We ate this back in our room)
We left the restaurant (can't remember the name but they have 2 stalls at the front of the shop - selling chicked rice, wan tan mee and mee curry - dry and soup.
On our way back I noticed the Batik Village signboard on the other side of the road. We turned in here and walked around for about an hour or so. The Batik Village is a tourist attraction where one can see batik prints being made - the traditional boil & wax method. We captured a few girls in action. They must be used to visitors as they continued to work as usual despite us going around their work station and sniffing over their art work.
Some pictures to follow here.

There were a few other souvenier shops in the same compound but they mainly were stuff from other parts of the country like Sarawak and Sabah which has become a common sight in any part of the Peninsular. If you've been to Sabah or Sarawak, you'd understand why I wouldn't buy these stuff from over here and would rather get them from the place of origin.

We got really tired from walking around and decided to call it a day. We went back to the room, took a shower, ate our curry mee (it tasted really really good!) and took a short nap.

When we got up, we got ready and drove to Kuantan Town which was about 30mins drive from where we were. The roads are actually very very narrow and some don't even have street lights. One has to be very careful in driving down these roads especially at night.

We arrived in town at about late 6pm. It was getting dark really fast in the past 2 nights we were there. Our first stop was the Berjaya Megamall. Looks pretty run down with mainly eateries in the ground floor and some IT gadget shops in the upper floors. There is also an IT hypermart at the back of this mall.

We left shortly after getting some famous amos cookies for the road. The next hard task was to find some chinese food. GPS wasn't much help. Eventually we came around to the East Coast Mall (EC) and spotted some stalls at a food garden a stone throw away from the EC mall. The way I like my food - a lot of options. We had tom yam soup with mee hoon, ais kacang and chinese style ried rice. Food was decent. Nothing to shout about though. Following dinner, we walked across to EC to look around. Ended up getting another bottle of wine for the night at the Carrefour and left after.
Another round of wine session and we were all totally zonked out after till the next morning.

Day 3:
Slept in till late. Woke up, packed and walked out to the beach since we haven't been there yet. We played by the shores for a bit, lied on the hammock, took more pictures and waved goodbye to the beach.
We checked out and left by about 12 (if I remember clearly). Upon reaching KL, we went for lunch at Stevens Corner, washed the car and then got home. Time well spent. I must admit this was one different holiday we will be trying again.
But for Kuantan, I'd want to try to trace my steps back to Club Med Cherating the same way we went the last time so that we can locate the famous and super nice beriyani restaurant we ate at the previous time.. Till then..

summary of the week

2010-10-01T11:11:00.001+08:00

Well, it's been a painful, agonizing week to conclude. Finally the weekend is here to stay. Sometimes, I wish weekends will stay on and long... Sigh.

It's been agonizing having to wait all week to blog as well. Don't seem to have the time nor motivation to start with. Finally, it's a quiet day. I got it back. Not too sure if it's a result of an early day or McDs breakfast or working out wit Handsome chap..

The days gone were pretty much boring. Some or should I say the only interesting details were my studies application - last minute run around & venturing new places - wit Sumi & VJ

Firstly, Sumi & I were supposed to meet for dinner as usual after her class. I was inspired to try out the nasi lemak goreng in Jalan Ipoh - apparently famous for that and their shake drinks.
Finally set it on Wednesday to go. It was at Jalan Kolam Air. A shop by the road side - all painted in yellow. It's called Kawan Lama Corner (KLC). Parking isn't all a breeze as we had to park along the road side but we managed to find 2 slots some few feet from the shop. It was drizzling when we got in. The owner was very very friendly to us. Extremely in fact. He gave this all too familiar feel to us, makes you feel all welcome and comfy with his warm gestures. There is a TV fixed with Astro! We ordered their famous dish. Now for the verdict - it must've been the time we ate because I was literally struggling through my meal. It was about 11pm then.

The food? Well, I'm not that big a rice-fan to begin with but it was nice. Something different. A lil' too spicy for me. As Sumi said, if they loose the peanuts, it'll taste better.
As for me, wen I order the next time, I need to ask them to reduce the ikan bilis, peanuts & onions. At the end of my meal, quarter part of my plate was filled with those 3 stuff. It was overwhelming for me.
The drink? Milo shake was a bomb! Sumi found it too sweet but I thought it was nice. Thick milo that is. However, at the end of the eating ordeal, I ended up flushing down the spiciness with my drink that I was thoroughly full to the brim in the end.

We left shortly after. The nasi lemak goreng cost us about RM5.50 per plate. I think the drink came up to about RM2.50 or so. Decent meal. Something I will try again the next time when i'm famished perhaps?

Now, the event prior to this eating session was something dramatic. My preparation to submit an application for masters. Most of my certificates were missing. Including the original files. I was going bonkers at this stage. I left for home early that day to look for these. Bearing in mind that the application deadline was on the 30th Sept. At the back of my mind, I was thinking that it is on the coming Friday. The rude awakening call came the next day - when Sumi called to inform me that the deadline was that same evening!

Anyway, my timeline was to be done by 9pm since my date was at 930pm. I picked up an empty box, and started getting rid of all unwanted papers- mainly brochures, papers from events i've been to. At the same time, I was also scaling through my memory, recalling the pink file in which my certs were. Just a few days prior to that, I saw my degree cert lying on the table and I kept it safely in a file but I couldn't find even that.
My degree of stress and anger was increasing. I kept the kids at bay by warning them not to bug me. Of course it didn't quite work but I kept insisting that I was busy, to leave me alone.

The fact that none of the other aunts were not at home didn't help either. Beings kids, they will always demand the attention they want.

Finally! I found the pink folder with all my certs in it, original ones including the photo copied ones, certified. :)

The search ends. I compiled the whole lot after a quick checklist and kept it away in a bag to bring along to work the following day. After shower, clad in my most comfy outfit, I left to meet Sumi. Timing was perfect. And then the story above follows.

The rush

Came Thursday, it was work as usual for me. I went with my bag of certs and all other docs. Everything was slow and easy going until I received a call from Sumi. She started with - do you know what is the date today?
Me- 30th
She- Do u know when is the deadline for submission?
Me - Friday
She - Babe, it's the 30th - TODAY!!

Thank God she called during my lunch time & I was done with my meal by then. Rushed through the remaining 30 minutes to prepare all my online documentation, arrangement and was done by 2pm. Left the office and reached main campus at about 245 or so. Submitted the 2 envelopes by hand to the officer in charge and left. The place was crowded with international applicants.

Went to do my threading after that in Bangsar and left for home. A certain sense of accomplishment came over me. Not sure if it was the thrill of running on a tight deadline or that the application has gone to the right hands. Now, nothing to worry about for the next 1 month ;)

Follow up

2010-09-27T14:33:00.000+08:00

SATURDAY

Wen to the Brothers in Ampang. Earmarked a few accessories i wanted to get for my car. This included a stabiliser and new mats. Another accessory would be new head-lights. Of course my trust-worthy consultant was with me to explain everything I wanted to know.

Went to SPCA after that. A long pending thing to-do. We walked around the kennels. Most of them were adult dogs. Some of the older ones who were not for adoption were left to roam around freely as they were harmless.

While we were on our rounds, suddenly there was a commotion. Every single canine was on full alert and was barking away. We were surprised and looked at the direction they were looking at. I noticed a man carrying one of the dogs out of his kennel. All the others were barking at him - the man and the dog he was carrying. He kept him in a cage at the back of his van and was getting ready to go. We approached the man and asked him what was going on, where the doggie was being taken to. He said that he is sending her back to where she came from - the Batu Caves neighbourhood. They usually pick up the stray females, spay them and send them back to their habitat so they do not continue multiplying.
All the other dogs were aware of this practise and were barking - in acknowledgement or distress or simply sending off. The guy in the cage was silent... And looked sad...

SUNDAY
Supposed to go for the Walk of Hope on the 26th of Sept at 630am! Confirmed with frens, Sunan and Sumi. Even called to check if they were both up and ready. unfortunately both took a rain check. I wasn't exactly looking forward to going there alone, given that the place was very new to me. I didn't feel good. I followed my gut feel and continued sleeping.

Woke up at around 9-ish and decided to go workout at the gym. A very good decision made as it was fruitful in the end. I started with a few warm-up rounds of yoga. Continued to running.

Completion: 30minutes + 230 KCal + 3.5KM on an average of 8.0km/h

I pushed myself on this one as a self-punishment for not making it for the 5km walk. It worked. I continued on despite a slight pain on my left. It went away after that. It felt awesome after that. A pleasant sense of achievement.

This was on Sunday morning.

Domestication era is here again - part 2

2010-09-19T00:51:00.000+08:00

I've told myself tht I was going to spend my Saturdays cooking alongside mum to learn some basic culinary skills. Although I can cook to save myself, I am still a copy cat. I replicate recipes I find from the net, from AFC from friends etc etc. Never really tried to tweak recipes that much except to replace certain ingredients if the exact one is not avail.

An aunt who came over the other day told me something that got me thinking - or should i say - woke me up coz I still remember her words till today whenever I think of a recipe tryout. She said - the recipe is just a guideline. You should experiment with your own ingredients, adding and subtracting to create your own taste. Not all tastes are the same. A lil bit of chemistry there.. Add and mix and have fun! After all, cooking is a lot to do with chemistry lesson. The soda bicarbonate which gives rise and sodium which gives taste..
(Of course I added my own version into the line above)

It made a lot more sense and tracing back to my own cooking when I was younger, I think I was more daring to experiment compared to as I was growing older... It awaken some nerve in me which was the inquisitive, always trying to do something in the kitchen persona. Never someone who liked to watch and learn, I always wanted to do things my way. So much so that whenever I am going to cook that day, mum will stay out of the kitchen to let me do my own stuff. Of course she was always there as my go-to person when i've messed up.

Today, Saturday, mum made crab curry. I started to be the helper. After having my roti canai breakfast, I busy-bodied my way through the kitchen. Since the meat and stuff was still being cleaned, I was told to bathe the 2 babies. Had a good splashing time with the 2 and once done, I was back in the kitchen again. I observed all the ingredients she added into the curry. I asked her questions, tried to understand.

WHilst doing all this, we shared stories. It was bonding time for us. That was special. A time that is irreplacable. I should do this more regularly I thought. And above all that, mum was very sparing with her knowledge. And more than eager to share all that she knew... I think my love for her has grown so much more in the recent years. I think the thick that we go through is making us closer.

I will try to post the recipe in my next post. Didn't take any pictures this time. I sure will when i try the recipe again ... soon!

Domestication era is here again

2010-09-19T00:39:00.000+08:00

The past week has been filled with a lot of planning.. Planning for trips, things to do, pending follow up, this and that and everything else. Some of those plans took off, some well, and some others flopped.

One good day was Thursday - 16th Sept (Malaysia Day).
Planned to take the whole family to Genting and back - a short trip, an early one to avoid congestion and home by noon. Since the 2 kids were still below the minimum height required to play the games in the parks, we weren't planning to spend too long up there. All was planned well until the night of the 15th when mum decided that she didn't want to follow us. She wasn't keen at all with the idea! What a contrary to her reaction when she first heard about it. Well, i was frantic and upset and a host of mixed feelings came to me. Took a step back and said, never mind, I'm sure this' for a good reason and slept it off.

The day came, of course no one made any other plans. I had plan B to do some long overdue spring cleaning,.started with my car. Took almost an hour to get rid of rubbish and all sorts of things from the car. Thankfully no rats or roaches jumped out..

Sent it for a wash and even washed the carpets. Since the sun was really hot, we call it a good day :) , I left the mats out in the open to dry itself. Did my 1-week old laundry, made my long over-due butter prawns. Mixed a few recipes - Butter prawn + nestum. Turned out to be nice! I'd give it a 80% improvement from attempt 1 - in which i burnt the prawns.

I saw that i still had some time, another long overdue plan was to make some cookies. I bought a set of stencils for cookies, included an icing set in it. Bought the butter some 1 week earlier but haven't got around to doing it. So i started the preparation and the dough was ready to be baked. One BIG mistake i made was to not blend the sugar. The coarseness of the sugar was annoying to me. So, i crpss checked with mum a quick fix to the solution. SHe said - blend it!

Excellent, never tried tat before so let's do it. So i blended the dough, added some milk and cream into it for some liquid and took it out. Added another egg into it too.

Turned out to be a lot more liquid and adding a bit more flour didn't quite help the situation. I still used the cookie maker to get some shape but when i took it out of the oven, it has risen and became shapeless.

After 2 trays, i decided to dump the entire dough into a cake baking tray and put it to bake instead.

Turned out fixed eventually, some crunchy taste with a bit of choc cake moist to it. Well, not too sure of the adults but the kids love it. At least some1 does.

Getting back on track

2010-09-15T10:05:00.000+08:00

15th Sept 2010
7:15am
Checked in at the gym again today after a long week of being idle, or was it longer? I don't know, can't remember now. As you can tell, I've lost track. Went on a mission to do something / anything.. Ended up running. WITHOUT my knee guards!

I haven't ran without my knee guards since I last ran in school - some 18 years ago! Well, the result - wasn't bad at all. I did feel a slight muscle pull at some point after my 2km and i slowed down then but tat was it. I finished my run eventually!

Time: 12 mins
Distance: 2.5km
Calories burnt: 82

My motivation has left me all alone

2010-09-14T14:30:00.000+08:00

Life has taken a slow-pace this past few days. In fact, in the past 5 days! Roads are super clear.. Candidates are non-existant and my motivation has also taken a break! no mood to work or do anything else but cruise..
Yea - that's the right word - cruising. Thats' what I, together with the 5 others who are in the office been doing. It's considered a lucky day to have 5 people in. Most of the times, there is some casualty or another.
Flu, fever, car, late, mum, dad, sis, baby etc etc... the list can go on and on.

Can't wait for my motivation to come back now... The rest of the crowd can stay where they are. Those who are back in their kampungs can stay where they are.. Find jobs in your own villages even if it is has to do with farming.. Don't worry about coming back.. The city is doing excellent with the extreme decrease in traffic congestion and less pollution. Take a long deserved break... ;)

in a cross-road yet again

2010-09-14T10:26:00.000+08:00

In a cross-road yet again.. Which route to take?

12 o'clock or 3 o'clock or 6 o'clock or 9 o'clock...

As wisely said - it's the walk that matters not the arrival..

Hari Raya 2010? Or did it ever happen?

2010-09-13T14:08:00.000+08:00

Raya is no longer the same as it used to be. Especially felt it this year. Awfully quiet, less advert and hype, everything has sort of quitened down. Many reasons to it I could think of, none I can verify...

Could it be the economy? Less money, no mood to spend?
Or the racial tensions around us has been brewing bad air and has remained?
Or could it be that I was simply not in-touch with the "hip" & "happening" issues around town that I only see the bleak side?

Either ways, the break was worth it. No regrets, no looking back.

Mc Donalds Breakfast crave

2010-09-03T09:42:00.000+08:00

As usual, one of my crazy McDs' breakfast craze attacked me this morning. With a growling stomach and VJ on the phone I rambled about the lack of drive-thru McDs in my office area and more depressingly, there is a small until in Menara Summit itself but they don't serve breakfast unfortunately. So sad... But the good thing is that if they did serve breakfast, they will get good business from me & all my gym efforts will be washed into the drain of wastage.. :)
So it's a blessing in disguise.

They now have a breakfast special - Coffee / Tea + Sausage McMuffin = RM4 only. Okay the tax is about 20cents. (Minus Hash Brown)
I drove thru SS15 McDs - the nearest point according to my trust-worthy GPS. Asked for the usual set #3 & opted for the special breakfast option instead of the usual which comes up to about RM8. I'm not that BIG a fan of hash brown anyway...

Asked for tea but only realised that i was given coffee instead - once i got to the office. The only slack thing about this detour was that i ended up at Persiaran Kewajipan on my way back and the traffic was horrendous as usual. I couldn't resist or wait till i got to the office so i started biting into my burger in the car while waiting. Every bite was precious & satisfying... I satisfied my craving in less than 5 minutes.

Managed to reach the parking lot just in time & in the office at 830 sharp!

Conclusion - 30 minutes drive to arrive at a 5 minute craving satisfaction! Worth it...

Taiping escapade

2010-09-01T17:52:00.003+08:00

3 years has passed so fast

2010-08-11T09:34:00.000+08:00

6th of August 2010 marks 3 years since we first agreed to be together. Still feels like yesterday one more time...

Somethings not changed though, he remembered and I didn't...

Random pictures of the 2 kannekuttis....

2010-08-11T09:12:00.000+08:00

oh no... what's wrong?

Oh boy...

Phew... finally it's over..

oh oh....

My yogic journey continues

2010-08-10T14:00:00.000+08:00

Yoga lessons were starting again at Cobra club. I received an email some weeks back and suddenly decided that I will follow the lessons again. I went there before.. Left during intermediate lessons. Sometime towards the end of the lesson.

It was a Sunday - the day after SHAPE RUN. I had no other plans. I went for the beginners class - 330pm. I saw some familiar faces - asst instructors I knew. We chatted for a while. Her sister was in the same batch as me when i was taking the lessons. Eventually we fell out of touch when she left midway during beginners lesson.

My sir came. I spoke to him and asked if I should continue in the beginners lesson or intermediate class instead? He asked how long ago since I last came for class and suggested I join in the intermediate lesson. I still went through the beginner lesson. A brief introduction to yoga and the health benefits were given by Mr Perumal. What was different this time around?
There were some warm-up exercises for the entire body.
There were more assistant instructors around to assist.
Bigger class with more male participants.

We continued on to about 5-6 sun salutation exercise & corpse pose. By then it was already 5pm. Time for my 2nd class - intermediate.

This back to back session was a real killer for me. I didn't experience any body ache from the run but I did after yoga.

15 rounds of sun salutation back to back incorporating alternate breathing was done. I thought my limbs were going to come apart after this exercise. We continued on with other exercises and poses. We even did head stand! Something I haven't done in more than a year! Class ended at 6:30pm. I felt much better than I did earlier. But the next day was bad. My entire body was aching. Aches I have never experienced before even when i went to the gym for workout. Usually gym workout would cause me ache during the moment but there is no aftermath.

I suppose this is expected... Internal organs which has never been awaken before is suddenly shocked. It feels much better these days..

SHAPE Night Run 2010

2010-08-06T10:13:00.001+08:00

Finally the day arrived! I blocked off all plans for Saturday morning & rested. Slept in, woke up close to 11am. Did some chores. My laundry, drying, washing and cleaning the house. Managed to do some last minute google search on food preparation for a night run. No one was home that morning. One sis went to work and the rest went to Port Klang to St Annes church for the feast.

Planned to meet Sumi at about 330pm - 4pm. We had to be at Putrajaya by 7pm. I fetched Sumi from her place and we went for half boiled egg in Old Town. This was in preparation for the race. Earlier at home, I drank some salt water as well. At Old Town, the services was unusually slow. I literally walked over to pass my order at the counter as no one was paying attention to us.

Apart from half boiled eggs, we also had a single toast and a polo bun with some hot water to flush it down. We left and headed to Sumis place again as she left her Breathe-Easy at home. Detour didn't take that long, the rain and traffic condition did. It was pouring cats and dogs all the way from Ampang to MRR2 right up to MEX. Midway on MEX highway, the rain was completely gone.

AT PUTRAJAYA

We reached at about 6smtg or was it late 5smtg... (can't remember exact time).
We tried to park as close as we can to the start pit but the parking nearest to the pit was reserved for staff only. We stayed in the car for a while, listening to music and chatting until it was near 7 and I wanted to go to the toilet (In either order).

WARM-UP
The crowd was already building up by then. I was getting bored of waiting. Honestly bored until I just wanted to get on with it. We warmed up at abuot 730pm. Ran a few laps to and fro near the start pit. There were thousands of people there with many booths with redemption goods and freebies, including drinks and fruits and food. Our goodie bags were to be collected after the race.

I borrowed VJs head phones to connect to my MP3. I thought I should try to inject some music to my run since I stand a high chance of getting bored on my way.

START-PIT

In high spirits we jumped into queue at about 7:50pm, 10 minutes before flag off time. A lot of other kiasu people jumped into the queue in front of us and cramped us all in. Some were very inconsiderate as they not only invaded our space but placed their hands on the hips, taking more space and hitting us on the way. I told off this one guy who did that but he was clearly oblivious to my plight. Ignore!

I began to say a short prayer, asking God to give me the strength and stamina to continue my journey. I also prayed for safety that there will not be any injuries or mishaps. In the last few minutes, I and Sumi held our hands and said a quick prayer together. I believe we both prayed for safety.
Once the gun went off everyone ran. I kept up with Sumi - for about 500m - 700m? Then we were on our own. The journey was very vibrant with so many runners running past me. I managed to keep my pace for a long while, probably for about 1.5km before I started to slow down. I started to see more and more people run past me. I eventually started walking. A small voice kept nagging me to stop walking as I could feel my body cooling down. Picking up the pace will be a trouble.

I kept cursing myself for signing up. I even asked myself- why WOMENS OPEN?? Why not just take part in the FUN RUN instead since that is only 5KM?? Crazy thoughts kept crawling in. As I kept going, I began to feel alone. Despite the hundreds of runners all around me, I still felt alone. Random thoughts on life were haunting me.

At one point of the run, my stomach began to growl! I was actually hungry. I began thinking of a hot plate of nasi lemak with chicken from Old Town Kopitiam. wow.. I was salivating for a bit. And then I stopped myself. This must be the devil on my left shoulder tempting me.

I was too stubborn to listen to any voices except my own during the run. Even the techno music I downloaded didn't work. There were so many fast-beat music that took turns to motivate me but nothing worked. I refused to run to the beat, instead I walked. I walked quite a bit. Picking up the pace after a while wasn't as hard as I thought. I sprinted whenever I had the energy and slowed my pace when I couldn't. I went on the same rotation until I saw the distance left to run reducing. When it was 3 KM to go, I was estatic. I was too tired by then though to run any faster.

WATER

They had water station along the way but it was only that - WATER!!! I needed more than that! I was craving for 100Plus or REVIVE or any isotonic drinks but none to my avail. In fact we even checked with the organizers if there will be water alone or revive provided along the way and they said YES. sigh....

STOP PIT

I was nearing the mosque which looked familiar and I knew we weren't far off from the stop-pit. I began to sprint then and upon reaching the final leg, I saw that most people were already slowing down. By this point, I knew I didn't stand any chance to finish and win a medal but my aim was to finish. A medal would have been a bonus. But the fact that I completed the race was something I was happy about. The target time I set for myself was 2.5hours. I couldn't wait to check my time. Time check - 9:37pm. (I checked with Dharmein whom i saw on the way)

Upon passing the stop pit, they handed over a certificate. I was frantically looking for Sumi whom I spotted ahead of me! She had 2 Revive cups in her hands for me! WOW!!! the joys of enjoying the drink then is undescribable. Fresh cold supply of minerals! I thought to myself - this must be what it feels like if I came out of Hell and entered into Heaven :)

FINALLY....
I was so glad it was over I just wanted to lie down and die. Sumi forbid me from doing so and urged that we cooled down our bodies. We did some stretching and post mortem and then headed to the stalls nearby.

We picked up our goodie bags and were given a green apple each. There was so much going on. The stage was occupied by the DJ-s who were busy entertaining the crowd - or whoever was listening. They gave away the prizes for the winners and the rest of us were allowed to leave if we wanted to.
We left after a while. We chatted with Dharmein whom we spotted while walking. We drank so much of REVIVE until we felt like throwing up. Eventually Sumi did when she reached home. She felt too sick to do anything. I dropped her at her home and went to a nearby mamak to ta pau some food for her and myself. Original plan was to dine together but she was not well to eat with me.

When I was reaching the restaurant mademoiselle calls and said that she was feeling much better, ready to eat. She joined me a while later at the restaurant. I ate an extremely spicy mee goreng mamak and finished the last 2 bites of Sumis' tosai while she helped me with my plate of mee.

I reached home at about 2am or so.. Had a quick shower before I jumped into bed. It was a very satisfying feel. Thank God its Sunday the next day..

Latest Workout Update

2010-07-29T14:45:00.000+08:00

Wednesday...

Went for a jog at Lake Gardens. It was a great evening but I was feeling unusually lazy. I almost changed my route and gone home! I pushed myself to go because I know I have to acclimatize myself with running on the road. I ain't gonna run on a threadmill on Sat! It's a run on the road. I took my changing bag into the toilet. 20cents per entry with free tissue. But must remember to take the tissue from outside, there is only a drier in the toilet. a very basic unit. All floors were wet. Found one that was more dry than the others and got in to change. I reminded myself not to ever go there to change again as it was very very inconvenient.

I warmed up near my car. It was about 7:15 when I started to walk. about 500 metres into walking I bumped into an old friend Dharmein whom i've not met for ages! We chatted for a while and I found out that he was also going for the SHAPE run! He was with 3 of his colleagues there. I asked again - 12.3KM? He said yea.. so not the fun run ah? Yes, fun run is 5KM.
WOW what a coincidence i said. He asked why i haven't been coming out these days. I had no idea! I guess being in Subang has been a little inconvenient unless prior plans were made and we never made such plans.
I excused myself after a while as it was getting darker then. I didn't like the idea of running in the dark.

So I ran. One full round ONLY and I was already tired! I am soo screwed this Saturday I thought to myself.
Bad bad shape!
One thing that made me happy was to see my sweat. I had trinklets of sweat which appeared on my hands and forehead and body when I was cooling down. That felt good. To see and feel my own sweat. As my history goes, I am not used to sweating before. I also have never ran in my entire life except in school during P-Jasmani lesson for warm up when we used to run around the padang and in preparation for sports when we had to sprint for our sports team. Even then running was never a priority to me. I dreaded it and never really got off with it in the right foot.
It carried on till today. Until 2010 came about & Sumi came to KL. 2010 came with a lot of new plans and changes and Sumis' presence eased the transition period as well as she was the one who loved to run (IF I can say that. Altho she'll KILL me for saying it)
At least she was someone who was used to running, unlike ME!
I used to hate running alongside her because she doesn't allow room for being tired. It was military rules with that woman! Anyway as much as i resisted, I also started to see it positively. I read a great deal about running, on how to improve my stamina, different running methods etc etc. Bugged VJ a lot. And then the gym membership came along. It was very timely as we used to go to the park at least a few times in a week, after work for me and after class for her. It didn't quite work because our plans were subject to weather conditions. If it rains or drizzles plans had to be cancelled. So gym treadmill was a good alternative and I began frequenting the gym more than I ever did in my entire life.
I relieved my previous 2 gym memberships with the idea that gym was not ideal for me. I'm not a gym or equipment person I used to say.
And I still signed up. I must say that in the past 2 months, I have frequented the gym more times than I have in the 3 years of being a gym member. My push factor has been the goals I had in mind to achieve - at this point of time is to be able to participate in the SHAPE run without dropping DEAD!

I'm going again today. We'll see.

Readers Digest Prize Money RM250,000

2010-07-29T11:57:00.000+08:00

Received an email with Readers Digest letterhead a few days ago. It was a brief letter stating that I am one of the lucky winners to-be for a RM250K cash money. They asked me to wait for another email with details of the same. 2 days later the detailed letter arrived. It even had a car key attached on a piece of paper. I wish it was a "real key" for me to use. There were 3 cars to choose from: 2 Hyundai models and a Honda Civic. I was eyeing on the Honda but there was a number etched on the key which corresponds to which car you will be getting. 2638 - Honda Civic! Wow, what a coincidence I thought.

I had to verify the legitimacy of the letter and the names it had on it. SO I did a simple search on the names mentioned. This included the address of the actual RD office in Malaysia.

Checking on the Finance director, E Courtney I came across this link which is from the RD office UK which clarifies that it is a SCAM. There's nothing more assuring than hearing it from the ORIGINAL https://myrd.readersdigest.co.uk/misc/Fraud.htm . Apparently there has been other names used as their Fin Director.
They even have some basic tips on avoiding scam here https://myrd.readersdigest.co.uk/misc/Tips.htm

On further investigation, The contact details of RD Malaysia Customer care centre is the exact one provided in the snail mail - with a legitimate email add : friends@rdasia.com.my (What a clever cover up!!)
The numbers were also correct BUT the names and other details aren't. In fact it is a very clever marketing cover. They didn't write as I am a guaranteed winner BUT it's written as Unrestricted Access to a special prize opportunity worth up to RM145,000! They were also giving away a FREE Piercarlo D'alessio watch and an opportunity to win RM250,000 or more.

And the Piercarlo D'alessio watch actually costs about RM35 up to RM70 depending on the face and wrist type. Upon checking that out, I ended up at Coupon snapshots at which then led me to the Malaysian version at http://www.shoppy.com.my/ for goods of all sort and http://www.foodpromotions.com.my/2009/04/wendys-online-coupon.html for food promo coupons.

I think I'm sliding off topic here, so back to the initial post, I did check again on the scam activities by RD considering that this isn't the first time I came across such a promo bearing their name. I was led to this site: http://www.scam.com/. I've registered myself in it to have more access to their forums and post some of my own 2 cents worth where it applies. Good to visit it since it also covers scams in Malaysia and worldwide.

Long short of the matter is, in this internet age where information is indeed power, it only takes at least 10 minutes to google such an information to confirm it's legitimacy. In my humbe opinion, I think it is time well spent. As the saying goes... A stitch in time saves nine, I have my own - a google in time saves 10!

On Death...

2010-07-27T11:58:00.000+08:00

It's funny how we miss someone whom we love even after they've passed on in life.. The memories alone is not enough to feed our thoughts when we think of our loved one... The absense of their presence still leave a hollow space in our lives.. But for how long?

It's been 4 years since Anya left us. Although I am rest assured that his physical suffering is gone and he is tending to the gardens of Heaven, I still miss him daily even until now. There's never been a single day he has not been in my mind. Memories of him coming back in his bicycle, calling my name to ask for coffee, scolding if the water is not hot enough and even giving me money from the very little that he has.

I don't have the opportunity to give him money in return.. He is long gone. I miss his presence dearly. The physical presence of him talking to me, walking with me and taking me in his bicycle to school when we were much younger, carrying all 4 of our bags on his shoulder and walking us back in the evenings, plucking jasmine flowers together with us in the afternoon when he comes home for lunch..

Those are fond memories of the past which still lingers on. Times that has long passed but I live it each day by thinking of it. Some experts might analyse my situation and say that I am clinging on to my past. I beg to differ. I am not clinging on the the past but merely memories of those which has my anya in it.
Memories which remind me again and again why i loved him so much.
Memories which tells me how a fatherly love should be and remembered..

He may not have left me many riches in the material world but he left me with so much of fatherly love and care... Something no money can buy or trade for.. An experience I can only pass on to the generations to come.... In the hope that they cherish it as much as I did.. I still love you anya.. Rest in peace.

Hurry burry weekend

2010-07-27T11:46:00.001+08:00

A very long, tiring weekend led the path to a long tiring week...

Missed 3 days of running now. Very bad momentum to kick start a 12.3KM run this Saturday.

I need some divine intervention... Dire need indeed. . .

10 style secrets to looking slimmer & Why you can't lose that extra 10 pounds

2010-07-22T14:44:00.000+08:00

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/loveyourbody/why-you-cant-lose-those-last-10-pounds-1964849/

- taken from Shine!Yahoo!

http://www.wowowow.com/slideviewer/465383/2

- taken from The Women on the Web (WOWOWOW)

Workout Update - Wednesday

2010-07-22T11:19:00.000+08:00

Wednesday, 21st July

Supposed to meet the girls for dinner after Sumi finishes her class at 930pm. I finish work at 6pm. 3 1/2 hours to kill before I meet them. Instead of heading off to the gym immediately after work, I stayed on in the office till about 710pm. Smugly I thought I can definitely avoid all the usual traffic jam. How wrong I was. The roads were still full of cars even then!

Anyway I reached gym at about 8pm. Just right, 1 1/2 hours to kill. After changing, I did my usual routine. Gym was unusually empty. I suppose the rainy, damp weather isn't very appetising to be held in the gym. My Sun salutation routine was longer this time. I realised that I have been so complacent in doing this routine that I haven't been paying attention to the progress, IF ANY. I still couln't have my feet flat on the floor when I am bending front for one. I was more focussed this time. The entire stretching area was MINE :)

I stretched my head-knee as well. My head should be touching my knee once I have mastered this pose. And everytime I do it, I should aim to achieve a smaller degree. I am still at about 35 degrees angle with my knee. I am determined to achieve this. I realised that by breaking down my goals to smaller chunks as such, it is more satisfying and attainable than having a general big picture such as I want to do 10 rounds of yoga or loose my baby fat.

I stretched my time for staying in the pose from 3 to 5 minutes. I am sure I can achieve the final goal if I keep raising the bar each time. If I stay at the same pace, I can be doing it for the next 4-5 years and nothing would have changed.

As for my running, I decided to follow VJ advise on a technique he proposed. He asked me what's my pace the other day. I was blur. My pace.. as in my speed or my time or my distance or a division of either or?
What do you mean? I gave him an idea of how my speed increase would correlate with my feeling, if I feel like running faster, I would increase my pace. Usually I would hit 9.0 and start panting for breath before I reduce my speed. And then I would maintain at that. I have written previously that I increase my speed gradually but this wasn't tied to a specific time. So he told me his technique and asked if I wanted to try something different. I agreed. So this time, I started at 5.0 with brisk walking, increase 0.5km every 3 minutes at first till I started to run at 7.0. By then I have walked about 600m.

As soon as I started running, I kept tab of the time and every 5 minutes, I increased my speed by .5. This way I was not concerned about stopping in 30minutes alone. My challenge was to keep going. SInce there is no hard or fast rule to this, I also did maintain at 7.5 for more than 5 minutes.

I stopped at 30minutes at 9.0km/h speed. And the only 2 reasons I stopped was because the machine reached its maximum time and i had a runny nose. As I was telling Sumi and VJ, i start having my phlegm running down my nose after a certain time while running. I thought that this must be because of the blocked nose I had some days earlier. It was worse initially that it just flows down like a broken tap even 10 minutes into my run. This time it was after 30minutes so it wasn't so bad. But i'm not too sure about how to deal with it. Perhaps I should try taking anti-histamine? I don't know.
Let's see it another day.

Challenge for speed

2010-07-21T14:40:00.000+08:00

I am faced with a challenge at the moment.. A challenge for speed. In the internet age that we live in, I must admit that I am always seeking for speed! In the virtual as well as real world. I am always walking fast, driving fast, thinking fast for answers, searching fast on google and I expect my machines to be up to speed when I need to look for something. This is especially crucial since the nature of my job requires me to work with a lot of data.

I'm currently being placed on site temporarily for a few weeks. The challenges I had to overcome were countless. From day one up to week one - chasing up on telephone lines. (unique codes are required to call out). Week 2 till week 3 now: my workstation is changed from a laptop to a desktop. I have no issues with going back to basics but I've been given a machine I would have likely used 15 years ago. It's a data entry PC I complained to the MIS guys. He kept quiet. No mention of how I can escalate the issue and demand for a higher level PC. Once my anger subsided, I looked at the situation again. My colleague said that I need to issue a ticket to the help desk and the IT team works on those tickets. These are their KPIs.
The turnaround time to solve an issue is about 2 weeks! 2 frieking weeks in which time I will not even be in the office anymore. I brought my own laptop on days 1 & 2. A lot of changes and data corruption due to the different Windows version in each OS. SIgh....
Day 3: I decided to just use the 1960's machine and get my work done. Now this is a usual scene for me at work:
8:50am - Switch PC on
9:00am - Log on to Windows
9:10am - Open Lotus Notes
9:20am - Lotus notes opens & I replicate for new emails
9:25am - Open Internet Explorer
9:30am - IE opens. I need to wait for a few more minutes before I can type in jobstreet.com.my and monsters.com.my (Have to wait for a while as doing it simultaneously can cause the system to hang).
Bear in mind that speed typing is also a challenge here as the system hangs. Too much of words gibberish!

FinallyI am able to start work at 9:45 or so after making sure that there are no urgent emails to follow up and I work on the applications.

That's all for me in ONE DaYs work until the 28th at least.

Workout update

2010-07-21T10:09:00.000+08:00

Despite the heavy downpour on Tuesday evening, I managed to reach Manulife by about 640pm. Started off with Yoga. The area was crowded but managed to wait around until it cleared and did 10 rounds of sun salutation and head-knee post. Proceed to run. Unfortunately I experienced pain on my left side near the stomach & right below my chest. My pace was walking from 5.0km/h, increased up to 6.5 then I started running at 7.5. I ran for about 10 minutes until the pain came around. Usually massaging the area works and the pain disappears. But this time it continued and I was forced to stop. I walked for about 5 minutes or so until the pain went away.
I continued on after that, with an average speed of 7.5 moving up to 8.0, 8.5 and then 9.0. Managed to clock up to 30minutes, 3.5KM.
Slight increase of about 5%. There's still more room for improvement. Went on to the bicycle for about 15 minutes. Clocked 5km there. Time was already about 9pm then. Showered, had dinner and then back home. Time well spent. To-be continued again today.

The joy I feel within

2010-07-21T09:53:00.001+08:00

I find it undescribable.. Can't seem to put my finger on the right words to explain the way I feel right now.. I am in love.. Totally in love again... I've experienced this feeling many times before with VJ and now I am going through the same with HIM. I recall back to my childhood days when I used to sit in my garden in the evenings and compose songs of praise to HIM. I have always been fond of HIM and his wonderful works around me. I have found myself back in this relationship with HIM again. It feels great. I have drifted away and I have come back. As the story of the prodigal son goes, HE accepted me with an open arm. I can feel HIS hands wrapped around mine as HE walks me through the carpet of life. The journey is long and weary and there are many troubles along the way but it feels secure with HIM by my side. I am not worried about the journey anymore. I can surrender it all to him and let his plan take place. I do try what's within my might to go through it all because I am assured that HE will not bring me to it if I cannot do it.
IF I really can't go through it, HE will help me. But the lesson in the journey is what will make me a stronger and better person. I have to do it HE says. And I listen.
I listen willingly because I have seen all the goodness and wonderful things HE has done for me. I have taken it upon my human self and relied on my own strength before, ignoring HIS voice and going my own way. Disaster upon disaster came upon me. Again I thought, this must be part of the plan. Since I am so stubborn like a mule, this must be the only way for me to learn.
In fact, I am feeling more and more love and compassion for those around me, even more for the kindred soul, VJ.. HE has blessed our relationship and I believe HE has greater plans for us together which is why we are now stronger than yesterday. There has to be a reason I thought. Our souls relate to each other in a way I cannot explain. And this feeling surpasses everything physical and worldly.
I am writing this entry in words as the thoughts flow because I experienced HIS wonderful handwork in the beautiful morning.. Showers of blessing that poured so early this morning and continued to pour as I left for my car. The roads were full of puddles and it was wet everywhere. Nice condition to be in bed I thought. On 2nd thoughts, maybe not. Something great is about to happen today and I am not going to miss it. I will go through it, another day!

Unregrettable decision - ALPHA

2010-07-20T13:17:00.000+08:00

Of all my days of attending ALPHA, I was feeling a little lazy on this particular Monday. I entertained the little voice of the devil in my head and told my sister that I might not make it for ALPHA. But I wasn't 100% firm. Surprisingly, I left my office building at about 6:10pm and the roads were clear. A very unusual sight on a Monday i thought. Hmm... I'm sure there will be a jam at some juncture. Surprise again.. Damn... I got hold of VJ on the phone and checked his co-ordinates. At Curve meeting a friend and gym afterwards. What happens if you see me I asked, what changes? He will not go to the gym he said. Well, no worries then. Go ahead with your plan and I will go home. Still not decided on ALPHA i headed home. I reached at about 645 or so. Plenty of time I thought. I took my own sweet time to shower, had dinner and took the kids out with Rita to fuel my car at Shell Jalan Ipoh.
Time was 8:25pm when I got home. Just right for me to go for ALPHA and I left for church after dropping them off. The unfortunate part of the matter is that I also told VJ earlier that we could do dinner together once I was done. This was approximately at 9:30pm.

When I got to the seminar room, I saw that Nikki Gumbel has already started. Damn.. I mis-calculated my time I thought. Anyway the topic of the day was "Does God Heal Today?"
As usual, Nikki held my attention well with his animated talk and jokes throughout the session. Unusually though, after the session, we would usually break into our own groups for discussion. Time check then was about 9:15 or so? I thought okay, 15mins to go. I can run away now. The lady who got up to do the announcements gave a short summary on how to allow God to heal us and led us into prayer. I was lost in prayer and lost track of the time. SInce i put my phone in silence - no vibration or notice when the phone rings or messages come in. We all got up from our seats and grouped. This time we joined another group since there was only 4 of us who came. This shouldn't take that long I thought. I can finish it by 945 i thought and sent VJ a quick sms and joined my group. What followed was an express session of praying for each other. We all observed silence and in the moment of having invited the Holy Spirit into our midst, we continued praying for everyone in the group. As a group and individually after. For my part, when I stood in the centre, I lifted up those I know who needed God's healing. I was glad I took that center space because I know something moved within me that night.
I felt awfully guilty about keeping VJ waiting though. As soon as we sang praise and final thanksgiving, I left the room heading to my car. I was worried that VJ might have come over and waiting for me downstairs. Fortunately he wasn't downstairs but unfortunately he was upset. He waited for an hour he said. I felt guilty for not having told him earlier. But as I told him, I didn't expect the healing session, no one did.
Anyway, next week will be my last ALPHA.
It was testimonial time and we were encouraged to bring a friend who would benefit from the program. I thought of VJ since I have been asking him since day ONE. I also thought of Rita, Janice and even my mother. In fact anyone and everyone must attend the ALPHA. It was an eye opener and simplified version on how we can approach our own faith.
So, there goes - an unregrettable decision. I'm glad I went that Monday.

Count-down to SHAPE run

2010-07-19T12:48:00.000+08:00

Its 19th of July 2010. 12 days to go before the SHAPE 2010 run at Putrajaya. Me and Sumi signed up as part of our plan this year to get back into activity-to be active.

It all started off with the Tioman Eco-Challenge race 2010. As part of our preparatory exercise, we used to run at the park on weekends. Sunday mornings were our usual time. Regardless of how lazy or tired we were, we both pushed each other for training at least for 4-5 weeks until we moved into our own training. This was when Sumi left for Singapore. We met again at for the race at the bus station in Mersing.

ABout the SHAPE run on the other hand, i came across the registration details on the SHAPE magazine. I bought it immediately. Reading through the details, i called Sumi and checked if she wanted to proceed. Dates were okay, registration details etc. We made a trip to the menara OCM in KL to submit our registration forms directly.
This was sometime late June?

I have joined the gym since and my fitness activities revolved more around the gym than the park. However, I did make it a point to run in the park whenever I can.

At present my training regime starts with 10 sets of sun salutation and a few other yoga posts for the legs including head-to-knee stretch and rabbit pose. This is my warm up session.

Following that, I will get on a treadmill and start with a 3-5 minutes of brisk walking, increasing my pace every minute and eventually i would start running. My run has not lasted for more than 30 minutes so far. My ranges are between 8-7 minutes per KM. In total, I usually clock 3KM for about 30 minutes (including walking & resting time). Resting time here refers to the short walks I will reduce to if I am experiencing shortness of breath or any form of pain.

Following my run, i will get on the bicycle for about 10-15 minutes. I do allow a break of at least 3 minutes between each activity.

Next, I will get on to doing weights. My usual weights or other exercise will depend on what my focus is. I've been alternating between my stomach and legs for exercise. If VJ is exercising with me, I would ask for a customized training instruction. He operates as my gym trainer as and when needed. These times are quite rare so I make the most of my training times with him so that I can learn some new exercise and improve my skill. I will then do these exercises when I am on my own.

Approaching the heavy weights and machines in the gym can be rather intimidating. I always shy away from there in fear of being ridiculed as not knowing what to do and how to do it. But, it is totally different when you approach it with someone else who confidently teaches you the methods on using it specific to your capability. I believe that I set my own limit and exceed it. The best way is to keep raising the bar to reach maximum capability.

In this next 10 odd days, I need to raise the bar higher as I am running out of time. I have a total of 7KM to reach and I also need to time my pace so that I am not caught off guard.
My schedule for gym so far looks like this:
Mon - Alpha program in church
Tues - Gym
Wed - Gym
Thurs - Gym
Fri - Gym
Sun - Run in the park
With the above, is there a possibility that I might collapse and die out of too much of muscle activity? Perhaps I will allow rest on Thursday. Let's see.

In terms of expectation - I ain't aiming to come up as the 1st. I am aiming at completing the race. Regardless of the time but I don't want to spend too long on it. Not till midnight at least :)

So, there goes. I will update this blog again on my progress.

2010-07-14T11:23:00.001+08:00

Random shot... at a Healthy-Chinese restaurant in Summit USJ

It should be World Cup Finals everyday :)

2010-07-13T09:56:00.000+08:00

Driving back home was a breeze for me yesterday. When I left my office building at 6:10pm, I headed out to the main road and was caught by surprise as there were no cars at all. It looked like a Sunday! No complains, I drove on and reached home at 6:20pm. From Section 13 PJ all the way to Sentul. WOW! Amazing, record breaking time I thought. I suppose most people were still catching up on sleep after staying up late for the once in a 4-year game finals.
I'm happy for Spain that they won. I love the some of the countrys' architecture, landscape, the language, the people, their dances... Above all, after browsing thru FIFA.com on the team write up, I learnt that most importantly, their indominable team spirit never died. They gave their best! Bravo Espanyol!

On the different branches and brunches of life...

2010-07-12T13:21:00.001+08:00

I was inspired to write this entry thanks to one of the resumes I was browsing through... This line tickled me.. "...Also supporting for **** brunch at 4 other location in Ipoh, Melaka, Johor and KL."
He must've been hungry at noon time while writing this resume I thought.. As brunch - food between breakfast and lunch is chosen instead of the different branches / offices..
Similar to the line above, I have come across MANY of them. Some which I can vaguely recall are as follows:
- I'm preferred to work in KL
- Thank you for your respond.
- We are looking for post of sales man or representative
- she’s looked for permanent job
- Here I attach my resume for your l looking for job HR perment job or any tempory job in shah alam area. If they are any please call me .

If you still cannot find any fault in the above lines, you shouldn't continue reading this entry. I hurt everytime I read such lines. I see them everyday, in cover letters, professional resumes, in emails and the list goes on. These days, I even catch one or two of such errors on national newspapers!
I stopped keeping tab of such mistakes and tried to look beyond the words, for the benefit of doubt. Unfortunately, I am 99.99% accurate when I follow up, only to be disappointed with very basic few lines of conversational English and reverting to ... "boleh bercakap dalam bahasa melayu tak?"

To be honest, I am open to being a Malaysian. I am proud of my country and the languages and the rich cultural heritage we bear as one nation. However, I do believe that in the advent of globalisation today, we need to be armoured. All rakyat or Malaysian citizens need to make an effort to master some basic communciation skill in order to interact with the society around them. This is especially true for the youths of today. No one is an island. And the youths are the future pillars of the nation and there are millions of them out there who cannot hold a decent conversation in English. No doubt Malay is our Bahasa Kebangsaan but learning a new language doesn't mean adapting to the cultures of the language or losing foothold of their mother tongue. If anything at all, it gives one an added advantage amongst the rest where the workers of today are no longer a local but global worker, open to opportunities worldwide

Going back to the grassroots of the issue, ultimate importance has always been given to the subject Malay language in school. You could have achieved A1 for subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English. BUT if you fail your BM, you will need to repeat the paper or else you will not be considered for a full pass in your final secondary year exam. And the reverse applies where you can have an 9F for 8 out of 10 papers in your SPM with a B for your BM and you will be considered pass. This is the reality. If I can scan all the resumes of the latter I have seen, I can draw out a statistic on the same. Sad but true .... The weight of importance is misappropriately placed in our education system.

Recently there has been a massive debate on the validity of continuuing PMR and SPM papers. I believe all students are praying really hard so that the bill will be passed to scrap the papers altogether. Well, here comes another trial-error. Let's see the result - are the students screwed up at the end of graduation or are they fine, in fact better on hands-on experience or SME (subject matter experts) on concerned subjects.

In this climate where even the fundamental basics are not laid and sorted, we are trying to fish back the local expertise who have left for overseas to work there given a better and more conducive environment for growth.
I wonder what lies ahead for the children of our future. Home education? Private tutoring? Or Private schools, following Britsh of foreign syllabus?

What about those who cannot afford the luxuries of private schools? Those middle income earners? What about their rights to choose the best for their children? Do they have to leave their children in the mercy of the education system which is on a reverse-forward and trial-error mode?
I am praying that I will not be in a situation where my kids will be forced to become voluntary guinea pigs.
That God will enlighten the leaders of today to pave the education, financial and governing system in a way that will be able to progress children of all layers of society and it will truly be an education for all.

How to make more money online?

2010-07-09T17:51:00.002+08:00

Skill replication. Copy cat methods that have worked for others? I am ephasizing SKILL replication i.e. the process & tools used & always try to improve. On another note, why not pay attention to your current job & enjoy it. OR look for something you are passionate about doing. You'll never need to worry how much money comes in after that as you will be passionate and the work becomes your 2nd nature ;)

Any thoughts?

Alpha retreat at the Golden Sands Resort.

2010-07-09T12:05:00.000+08:00

Pictures first., the stories to follow.

Thai Food at Flying Chillies

2010-07-09T11:51:00.001+08:00

After a gruelling 1 hour++ drive from office to MidValley, I finally arrived. Late, depressed and upset for making him wait for soo long. Anyway we headed to have dinner. Flying chillies - for Thai food. This should repair the damage I made the night before, I thought. Had Green Curry at this one fancy joint in Telawi street and yucks! It was really bad. And I'm not that much of a foodie but that was one recipe gone totally wrong! Never again I told my friends to order that dish. In fact I think they should remove that food item from the menu right away and stick to their specialities - pasta and the like.

Food at Flying Chillies was waaay better.

The menu looked very similar to the Just Thai restaurant at 1-Utama. Price was also almost similar. They had those huge red chillies everywhere. It's almost like their trademark.

We had Green Curry (Chicken), Egg foo yong (omelette with prawns), Kangkung fried with Belacan, ice lemon tea and chinese tea in a pot.
Total: RM 68 for 2 persons.
Thumbs up for ambience, food and service.

We shopped around for a wedding gift for a friend and ended up getting memorabilia champagne glasses for them. Had it wrapped and ribboned. Task 1 down. One more to go.
I've been scouting around for a block of Parmesan cheese for the longest time. Didn't find any at the Tesco in The curve the other day so have been wanting to look it up in Carrefour instead. Of course they had it there. So finally my pasta will have its flavour again :)

After that was home and I stopped by my sisters office to fetch her back. Time we got home: almost 10:00am. Time well spent.

Salad for breakfast

2010-07-09T11:40:00.000+08:00

Yummy!

Looking back

2010-07-09T11:05:00.001+08:00

I just browsed through some of my posts for the past 2 years and realised that I had a few un-recorded major events! How could I do justice by not having these important momentos put to paper. This will serve as a memory jog when I am old and gray and my memory fails me..

1. Gua Tempurung Trip
2. Salsa adventure
3. Road trips to a few places

-- and a few more that i will be sure to write down when I remember.

On Bamboo

2010-07-09T10:37:00.002+08:00

BAMBOO

- Is part of the grass family

- The fastest-growing woody plant on Earth

- Unlike trees, all bamboo have the potential to grow to full height and girth in a single growing season of 3–4 months

- Bamboos seldom and unpredictably flower, and the frequency of flowering varies greatly from species to species. In fact, many bamboos only flower at intervals as long as 60 or 120 years.

- Once flowering takes place, a plant will decline and often die entirely.

- Bamboo's long life makes it a Chinese symbol of longevity, while in India it is a symbol of friendship. The rarity of its blossoming has led to the flowers' being regarded as a sign of impending famine.

- In Japan, a bamboo forest sometimes surrounds a Shinto shrine as part of a sacred barrier against evil.

- The pine tree, the bamboo, and the plum blossom (song zhú méi 松竹梅) are also admired for their perseverance under harsh conditions, and are together known as the "Three Friends in Winter" (岁寒三友). The "Three Friends" is traditionally used as a system of ranking in Japan, for example in sushi sets or accommodations at a traditional Ryokan (inn). Pine (matsu 松) is of the first rank, bamboo (také 竹) is of second rank, and plum (ume 梅) is of the third.

- In Chinese culture, the bamboo, plum blossom, orchid, and chrysanthemum (often known as méi lán zhú jú 梅兰竹菊) are collectively referred to as the Four Noble Ones. These four plants also represent the four seasons.

USES of Bamboo

- Animal feed (i.e. Panda)

- Commercial Timber: Timber is harvested from cultivated and wild stands and some of the larger bamboos, particularly species in the genus Phyllostachys, are known as "timber bamboos". Bamboo timber (image)

- Construction: In its natural form, bamboo as a construction material is traditionally associated with the cultures of East Asia and the South Pacific, to some extent in Central and South America.

In China, bamboo was used to hold up simple suspension bridges, either by making cables of split bamboo or twisting whole culms of sufficiently pliable bamboo together.

- Ornament: collectors desiring to grow specific bamboo typically obtain their plants as divisions of already-growing plants, rather than waiting for seeds to be produced. Furnitures are also made of bamboos and sprayed or painted with shellec to give it a shine

- Culinary: The shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of bamboo are edible. They are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths, and are available in supermarkets in various sliced forms, both fresh and canned version.

Preparation of lemang - cooked over coal fire

Lemang

- Medicine: Bamboo is used in Chinese medicine for treating infections and healing

- Textiles: Bamboo fabric is known for its softness and boasts strong absorbency and anti-microbial properties, though the chemical process in bamboo rayon destroys any anti-microbial quality.
In addition, the fiber of bamboo has been used to make paper in China since early times. A high quality hand-made paper is still produced in small quantities. Coarse bamboo paper is still used to make spirit money in many Chinese communities.

- Musical instruments:

Bamboo's natural hollow form makes it an obvious choice for many instruments, particularly wind and percussion. There are numerous types of bamboo flute made all over the world, such as the dizi, xiao, shakuhachi, palendag, jinghu, angklung. In India it is a very popular and highly respected musical instrument, available even to the poorest and the choice of many highly venerated maestros of classical music.

Transportation

Several manufacturers offer bamboo bicycles & can be knitted together to form a "rakit" - In asian regions, drifted on rivers

Well I learnt something new from this research. Hope you did too! Thanks for reading.

Note: ALL IMAGES IN THIS POST IS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES.

Greener fresher look ;)

2010-07-09T10:08:00.001+08:00

I couldn't stand the sight of my blog one day. It's had the same look since it's inception. Boring.. Why not give it a facelift I thought. And thanks to blogger, there was a small message box with added features and new designs on bloggerdraft. I ventured a little, custom-picked the design I wanted. But the spread of choices left me with Hobsons choice! How to choose. Re-align your thoughts, I told myself. Back to the core of the blog - Caught in the forest of life? Forest, green, nature.. These were some of the themes that came to mind. I initially wanted to create a background myself from scratch but I never got around to doing it so this was the next best option and then I stumbled across this forest full of bamboo trees. Looked up some facts about Bamboo from Wikipedia & a few online sources and I'm putting it together in my next entry called On Bamboo..

It would be great to get some feedback on the new look. If you are reading this now, and have something to say about my blog, new look or any of my entries, please feel free to comment. ANY comments will be accepted with a pinch of salt.

On my way to work

2010-07-08T15:55:00.000+08:00

Thursday
My new route to work for the month of July =
MRR2 -> Mahameru -> Jalan Bangsar -> Jalan Kerinchi -> Federal Highway -> 3rd exit up to Asia Jaya LRT station, right turn into Section 13

Time: 8:10am
Usual traffic along Mahameru was clear.

Time: 8:15am
Road turning into Jalan Bangsar has a long queue lined up. I immediately swayed into my left road and took back into Jln Mahameru. I had no clue of an alternative route I could take. Followed the road into Jalan Duta and turned into Pusat Bandar Damansara.
Thank GOD the road was clear.
Followed the road into TTDI, KGPA and took that road. I've made this mistake too many times to not remember - if i'd gone straight, I'll come to a toll. I keep to my left and I arrive near Section 16. The Star building is ahead of me. From this point onwards I am familiar of the route. I follow the road ahead and I find myself at the traffic light I usually wait at on my way back from work. My new office lies a few stone throw away.

Time: 8:35am.
Arrived at parking.

Not bad at all. Was that luck or coincidence? Either ways, Thank you God.

Damages of being bold on social media

2010-07-08T13:08:00.001+08:00

I just read the World News on CNN.com and was sad to read this piece: CNN Editor Sacked Over Teary Terrorist Twitter Tribute!
If she, Octavia didn’t explain further to defend herself that the statement she made is not a reflection of how or what she felt over the terrorist life work, I wouldn’t have a clue. But the damage has been done. Whether she likes it or not, she has to step down as CNN does not take her reasoning. Twitter has become a very powerful networking tool. Most influential figures – political or rockstar alike subscribe to a twitter account and they tweet about their daily life, whereabouts etc. Ardent fans who wants to keep up to date on what their super stars have been up to add them to their twitter account and follow them very closely. Octavia is one leader in a sense as she did contribute to the entire world a glimpse into the Middle East series of events. And the one who passed away is not exactly a pro-govt or the nation or US, in fact, he was very much against it.
Now, I don’t know the entire full account of what happened out there but this piece of news is somewhat an eye opener to corporate figures out there. Akin to posting private pictures on Facebook only to be discovered by your boss and senior management, I think Twitter tweets pose similar threats. Personal stands, views and ideas posted on any social networking media needs to be filtered. A few days back, my own corporate communications guideline on dealing with media was released internally and some of the points I came across was rather shocking to me.
Being consultants representing the organization, we are not allowed to speak on behalf of the organization in views relating to the field of expertise. This can either be to a personal friend or a reporter or anyone at all who might quote our names without permission and land us in trouble. Likewise if someone intends to put you into trouble, all they’ll need to do is to hack into your system and type something that totally damages your career and reputation. In this progressive world of media revolution, it doesn’t hurt to be wary of our actions as these speak louder than words.
So the next time you post a remark or update your status – think again… is this remark really necessary? What will the consequences be if your boss reads the comment you’ve just posted? Do you risk losing your job? Pause and think for a moment before you click on the send button!

Race Day

2010-07-01T12:35:00.003+08:00

We were up as early as 530am. Breakfast is served from 6am onwards. We were among the few early birds who were up so early. Boat-uncle has been waiting for us since 630am - he told us afterwards when we met. We had a hearthy breakfast as we needed all the carbs, protein and energy we could ever have. We were given a banana each from the kind chef :)

I was having small butterfiles in my stomach on my way there. But the wind against my face somehow blew those uneasiness away. I enjoyed the boat-ride till we reached the race pit.

We ran 2X around the field and did some more warm ups to get started 30minutes before flag off time. The track was pretty straight-forward as explained but we learnt the hard way that it is not as easy as mentioned.

There were altogether about 3 main tasks in the race: 1st leg: Run for 2km until the foot of the jungle.
2nd leg: tracking into the jungle. In this leg there are many other challenges such as climbing, going down-hill, passing river and more. And mind you, this challenge is in a virgin-jungle. There is no track or trail. Red-white plastic ribbons were tied around trees as landmarks to follow. If one loses track of any one of these, for sure you will be lost and there were at least 20 over people who were lost on the race day.

Thankfully Sumi and I stuck through it together. We met a few of them along the way at times when we needed some help i.e. when we were totally clue-less, not able to find the next marker or to get over a huge boulder. But we were alone most of the way. We were not aware of what lay ahead of us. There could've been snakes / monkeys or even tigers for the matter but this is a case when ignorance is bliss. What we didn't know didn't hurt. We climbed up tree roots, wen over a river full of rocks, stopping by for a drink, climbed over huge boulders with no foot-holds to step on. And we thought the worst is over... Until we arrived at the 5th checkpoint! I couldn't see flat ground anymore - where we were supposed to continue and the marshalls at this pit stop told us that the next leg of the journey is to climb all the way where your knee will come up to your chin!

That totally put me off. We or at least I was not prepared for a climb as such. My feet by then was already aching very badly as I put too much stress on my feet whilst climbing downhil earlier. My Nike shoes were made for running not climbing and they were not particularly helpful in my up and downhill attempts.

We sat for a while, and I analysed myself honestly from all perspective. (Bad)
1. My mind was willing but my feet was really weak.
2. I knew that I will get myself bruised and hurt since my feet was pressing against my shoe front and was aching.
3. Time then was already close to 1pm. The sun was high up my head and I was very dehydrated. My rate of dehydration was faster due to the loss of energy along the way.
4. The next pitstop for water station is at least another 5 km. I didn't have proper tools to carry my water bottle. And since the next leg is climbing all the way, i will need to use all 4 limbs and no space for water bottle!
(Good)
1. I MIGHT be able to finish the race & receive a certificate BUT I MIGHT be too hurt or bruised or worst - DEAD to take it
2. Bragging rights - Won the first ever race in my life but again I MIGHT not be alive to brag about it

Having gone through all the pros and cons, I decided to call it quits. I and Sumi walked down another route - a road that led us to the Berjaya Resort grounds again.

On the way we were given a ride by one of those managers who was on his way to pick up some food for his workers. We picked our bags, chatted with the organizers for a bit and then left. This' not the end. Initially our plan was to stay back for the night of Dinner and Prize Giving where the Sultan will be present together with the media etc. Since we didn't complete the race, and it was still early then, Sumi suggested to walk back instead of taking a boat ride to Paya beach. Now that we knew how the tracks connect to the beach.

I agreed without realising that the way to Paya also had some climbing to do, which meant going back into the jungle. I was cursing and swearing that Sumi made me go through the jungle all over again despite my deteriorating feet condition.

However, I was relieved at the end of the journey when we arrived at Paya beach in no time. She saved us both RM40 each per boat trip! The money which we used later on for a decent meal.

Ragging-issues-rugged up again

2010-07-01T08:39:00.004+08:00

Todays newspaper had at least 5 to 6 articles on the issue. Ragging - an ongoing issue that has always been undercover has surfaced up. If you notice, ragging issues are most prevalent in the local universities. Or maybe the incidents in the private U-s don't surface due to the strict rulings and "expensive" consequences they might need to face.

Relating to my own experience, entering into a well-known local uni, I was told the scariest stories about how seniors will rag the juniors, things they used to do, and I was even told to bring along punjabi suits (traditional Indian costume) to be worn throughout my 1st semester. I was horified at the stories - not so much for the ragging bit but for the part where I have to wear punjabi suits everyday for the next 3-6 months??

The bigger problem was - I didn't have that many suits to use. My cousin sister offered to pass me some of hers. So, 1 bag full of suits and another full of my own things. Being the rebel that I am, I wasn't at all bothered to adhere by the punjabi suit rules. I wore my baggy jeans on day 1, 2, 3, 4, until the end of orientation week and then at my faculty, I did the same. I only wore my own punjabi suit (I took a personal favourite just in case) for the Malam Suai-Kenal - a get-to-know dinner night with speeches from the top management & lecturers.

Looking around me, majority of the Indian students were clad in Punjabi suits. Most of them came from the small towns of Ipoh, Malacca, Kedah, Pahang etc.. They all spoke in Tamil all the time, giggled at the sight of any Indian male and was very shy - looking to the ground.
I wore my fav one on Fridays alone when I had 1 class and we had to meet the Indian seniors for a get-to-know session. Out of respect and to have a feel of the group, I wore my red suit. I sat aside a friend who ended up glueing herself to me throughout most semesters and eventually dropped off.
Then the orientation took place - where everyone was supposed to think of a joke or sing a song or act out something. When it came to me, I had no joke, no song to sing and coming to think of it, I can't even remember what I ended up doing. I think I was told to think of a joke in the next meeting which eventually went forgotten.

And then, the Indian male seniors will crowd our supper stalls at night. All the Indian female students were required to be present during this "supper-stall-session" but I always had my excuse.. stomach ache / gone back home / sick / exam or assignment etc etc.

I finally came down one day - to check it out for myself. The female seniors were not notorious at all. They were very kind in fact, some of them. Some others were rather rude or cruel. But there'll always be good and bad apples.
I used to wonder if the seniors had nothing else to do since they were all so free to be there at that hour to get to know us. But those who were very quiet and submissive had a bulk of their teasing. I was rather bold, probably too bold in fact that they didn't quite find me an interesting subject for teasing. They did attempt to ask me to follow them out with them in their cars etc. But I knew it better not to follow any stranger, at night, alone in a car!
The fact that I came from Sentul - which is known as a very notorious area in town did help me quite a bit. Some of them were cautious to tell me to do stuff or tease me too much in fear of being beaten up by thugs from Sentul.

Only I knew the reality of the matter as those stories were not exactly true. Sentul has been stripped off its mafia-status many years back. And as for me, growing up in the area where drug addicts roamed by and street gangster-wannabes drove about teasing and disturbing girls, I have seen the worst of teasings and learnt the art of avoiding them.

I made some very good friends during this time. Some of which I am still connected to. I think when the rod comes out from the furnace, it is made stealthier and stronger than when it went it. This was my experience. I was trying to reason out the logic behind every event that took place then but to no avail. I suppose God above all else has his own plan in the work of it all. We are merely the players.

Perhaps mine wasn't the worst case of rag that can be. The worst is being locked in a room with 3-4 seniors in my faculty and all my other friends were told to go back. Probably locked was not the right term, I didn't attempt to run out or try opening the door. I just sat in the room, bravely looking them all in the eyes, watching them do their work, some were merely playing games, asking questions etc.

When they were done asking me questions and trying to get to know me, I was allowed to go back. In fact i asked to be excused due to an exam i had the next day. One senior even offered to send me back when he was on the way. That's it. In fact, the next days and week, we were back to normal. No teasing or disturbs. In fact, they appreciated the fact that we looked them up whenever we needed some help. Occasionally when we bump into them we exchange the usual hellos, how are you. Apart from that, campus life was back to normal. Majority of the events were forgotten.

The ones we clearly remembered were those in which we were actively involved or played a role. One particular friend was always the bait to knock at the senior door whenever we were there to ask them anything at all. She was the most outspoken one among us who didn't mind the attention and speaking up. I on the other hand, couldn't really be that bothered about any one of them. We all had our own strength and weaknesses.
But if there is any one thing I can go back and change, it will definitely be to take up my studies more seriously as I wanted to do initially.. Some things might have changed, as I am at present at a junction where I am knocking myself hard for not paying much attention to score the 3pointer. Anyway as I've mentioned earlier, God has better plans for me. I thank you Lord for the wonderful gift of life and eventz in it.

A check list on trust

2010-06-08T08:38:00.003+08:00

I came across this article on TheStar dated 8th June 2010 - Lifestyle Section; taken from McClatchy- Tribune Information Services. Found it very useful as a check list for myself. In the advent of this new age, where rates of marriage and divorces are on the rise, perhaps we should take a step back and think before getting onto a straight "YES". And 5 months down the road, realise that you can no longer stand the smallest details such as BO or lateness or his pets! And this was you = 5 months earlier going all puppy-doll-eyed at his lil' chihuahua.

Women are more liberalised at this age and time, with the freedom of speech, and doing what they will. Imagine having had your way all your life and suddenly there is this one man who walks in, sweeps you off your feet and before he had put you on the ground, it is already too late to realise the blunder you have made. It's good and well if you were not all that blinded during the courtship period but when reality sinks in and you are not too happy about the outcome of it then your life is at stake.

Anyhow do read on and you might find it useful if you've missed out the news article... It is not the entire article but excerpts from it.

1. Have I observed this person in many situations over an extended period of time?
(from the paper) For the trust-wary, there is no substitute for time. you have to see someone in many different situations over a long period of time before you know what kind of stuff they're made of. Let a new love interest know you need a lot of time to get to know who they are and who you are together before you are ready to commit. The right person will appreciate where you come from and won't push you.

(from me) The journey together as a couple shouldn't just consist of happy and joyous moments but a bulk of it has to be stressful, pain-staking with loads of arguments and disagreements. I believe that arguments are good in a way to iron out issues. I always believed that dust swept under the carpet doesn't disappear into thin air.. It remains until the carpet is lifted up one day. So, the best is to sweep it away while you're at it.

2. Is this person available for family events and holidays?
(from the paper) If not they may already have a family they're not telling you about.

(from me) In my case, I find it hard to make any social plans which include my other half as his weekends are usually packed with classes which usually stretch till late at night, However, when there are the occasional, important events, if and whenever he can he makes it a point to turn up. Holidays are to be planned way ahead prior to the date so adjustments can be made. And when he is flexible to allow room for these adjustments, it reassures you that he is responsible and serious enough to make room for family time.

3. Do they frequently work late/ weekends / take business trips?
(from the paper) Hmmm... perhaps you should find out where they're going and what they're doing.

(from me) Well, we share almost every detail of our daily life with each other at the end of each day and if we really can't talk over the phone due to travel reasons or whatever, we will make it a point to sit through a long detailed gossip session to tell all about the week that has passed or events that transpired. Transparency helps.

4. Do they tell you the important stuff right up front or do you find yourself being blindsided by deal-breakers?
(from the paper) Telling the whole truth, whether it's about sex or health or money problems builds trust.

(from me) Totally agree. Being "best-friends" helps the process as you would naturally confide in your bestfriend in every thing you do, right? That's how we have become. Important stuff, not-so-important details, the whole lot of information is shared. I was listening to a talk on the local radio station this morning about a colleague who gossipped about her co-workers to their boss. And the question was on how and what she can do to make ammends. A caller made a good point = not everyone can take the entire truth. Sometimes if you have to tell 5 facts or truths, tell the whole 3 and tell the rest 2 diplomatically. Which dampens the effect in a way.

5. Are they sincere or do they placate you by telling you what they think you want to hear?
(In the paper) While this tip is closely related to tip 4, it's more about how they operate in the present than whether they've messed up in the past. Learning to ask for what you want and need right now, rather than merely parrot back what you think the other person wants you to want and need, allows you to be transparent in a relationship.

(From me) I firmly believe that transparency is utmost crucial in a relationship. Crucial being the word i've chosen to use due to the weight of the consequences should this rule be broken.
As someone with a history of other bad-apples-experience, I have always felt inadequate and had the need to tell him all about it so he knows it from the start. But the other half thinks otherwise, I love you in the NOW not your PAST. It took me awhile to comprehend this statement. I've learnt to live by it now. By being the best you can be in the present, leaving behind your past and truly doing it, not merely saying that you will. This further builds your firm relationship foundation

6. Are they reliable?
(from the paper) Do they call/ arrive when they say they will? if they say they're going to do something, do they actually do it? This shows respect and consideration for other people. Reliability is important and is very very sexy.

( From me) - totally agree. If anything, I should be the one guilty of non-reliability. Being someone with a high sense of discipline and keeping time, I am the total opposite.

7. Do they share their emotions?
(from the paper) If so, they;re comfortable in their own skin. A good sign they have nothing to hide.

(from me) Not too sure if we can expect much of this from the men in our lives. Being Asian makes it even more hard as Asians are generally not very verbal with their feelings or emotions.

8. Do they remain rational?
(from the paper) No ranting, raving, yelling or screaming, please. Such out-of-control behavious is a smokescreen and what's behind that smoke-screen isn't something you want in your life.

(from me) - Rising to the occasion is definitely a very sexy thing, I feel. Women might want to be in control of everything they can have their say in but deep down inside, at some down point or another, we do want to take a back seat and let someone else drive. In any crazy-hectic-demanding situation, when I am out of control, I need someone to cool me down so another negative charge will definitely be bad news to me.

9. Do they think in terms of "me" or "we"?
(from the paper) In the world of the narcissist, everything is about "me" and that leaves no place for "you" or "we". You want someone who is over themselves. Look for someone who can focus on, care about and make choices based on the well being of other people while at the same time, honoring their own needs.

(from me) Very true, the last thing you need is a mirror or bathroom hogger. Genuine concern will go a long way especially when it comes to golden years.

10. Are they willing to earn your trust?
(from the paper) New relationships are wonderful opportunities to find love - don't hold them captive to the sadness of the past. At the same time, once you decide you're willing to consider trusting someone, remember: he/she has to be willing to earn your trust

(From me) Transparency leading to trust as a basic element is definitely important.

Eco-Challenge part 5 - The journey continues

2010-05-30T16:48:00.002+08:00

Ferry was to take off at about 5pm. Our briefing was between 5pm till 7pm the same evening. We still had about 30 minutes before our ferry takes off. We walked into the waiting area to wait for our ferry. We paid RM5 per person for the island wildlife conservation fund. This fund is supposed to manage the wellbeing of the island, keeping people away from poachers and illegal fishing. However, from what we hear of from the few locals we met, nothing much has been done for the past few years to preserve the island. In fact, it has become quite dirty on the contrary over the past few years. We witnessed this ourselves while on our ferry trip as there were plastic water bottles floating around.

Whilst at her office, our agent explained to us that we will need to charter a water taxi to commute to the berjaya resort on Saturday as there is no land transfer there. The thought of a water taxi was fun minus the cost! Its cost ranges between RM30 to RM5o each trip!! What a rip off I thought.

Not an option to skip though, as we have already booked our accomodation at Paya and we need to be at Berjaya by 8am the following morning. We agreed to talk to the boatmen once we reach Paya we thought. While waiting for our ferry, another thought struck my mind. Our drop off point was Paya which is stop #3 and Berjaya is stop #4. If we continued on we will be doing a pit stop at 3 to drop our bags off, get a water taxi for stop 4 and once briefing is done, head back to stop 3! Thats an additional RM80 per person in one single night on water taxi alone!

Too much a rip off I thought and we checked with Ms Lim (agent) if we can get off at Berjaya with our luggages, go for the briefing and then check in at Paya once we were done. She said that is fine and advised us that the taxi rates might be more expensive for travel at night. We took that into account & got off at Berjaya stop. Once there, we asked one of the boatmen for a water taxi and thankfully a boy lead us to his brother who ran the water taxis there. He even offered to send us to the school for our briefing while he contacted his brother.

We took his offer, landed at the school, midway through the briefing and listened out to as much as we could. We were faced with a moment of decision again. After registering, we enquired about the timing to be there the next morning and possibility of having any accomodation at Berjaya for one night alone. We were put into contact with the liaison person for the race who called some of his contacts to check on the availability of rooms. Unfortunately there were no rooms available on such short notice and he advised us to find any other motel rooms on the berjaya side itself for convenience the next morning.

We toyed with the idea and thought about it for a while. At the end, we decided to go back to Paya and take a water taxi back the next morning. When we told him our decision to stay put with our original plan, he was kind enough to even offer us to bunk in with the organizers at the Berjaya if we changed our minds as he was very concerned on the travel time and safety at that hour. Given that the accomodation in Paya is already paid and we have already fixed all plans at that time, changing or looking for a last minute bunk-in place didn't sound viable. We told him that and thanked him for his help, agreed to meet him again the next day for the race.

Eco-Challenge part 4 - The journey in a nut shell

2010-05-30T16:17:00.002+08:00

I left on Friday morning at 7am for my bus which was scheduled to leave at 9am. I've made my ticket purchase online and had my e-ticketing receipt as proof with me. Took an LRT to the Bukit Jalil LRT station and walked across the road from there to the temporary bus station. Stopped by at the kedai runcit on the way for 2 Snicker bars.

Upon arriving at the temporary ticketing counter, I found out that there was no electricity. It was already 8:45 and to my horror, electricity was still not up yet. At the counters, the agents were already issuing manual tickets to walk-in passengers. I went up to the counter and asked again and they just told me to proceed to my bus with my e-ticket proof and board the bus. Thankfully, there was a Transnational staff member who was standing next to me who asked me to follow him and he took me to the bus and asked his boss to acknowledge my ticket. The boss was even nicer to explain the situation, apologize and allowed me to board and told the bus driver to ensure that I have a seat on board with no issues.

I thanked God for their kindness and for not giving me any issues on the matter. Since I didn't have a proper seat number, I sat on the single seat at the back of the bus on alert to make way if anyone comes over to sit there. As i've guessed, a malay girl came to claim her seat with a proper ticket with the seat number on it. I quickly moved over to the 2-seats next to it. When the bus took off, the back row was only filled with 2 people and since no one came to claim my seat, I had both seats for myself. Excellent for leg space I thought and i slept all the way through the journey.

I was supposed to meet Sumi at the bus station at about 3pm and my bus arrived shortly after she arrived. Met her as planned at the Mersing bus station. Upon asking around, we found out that the jetty was about 500 metres away from the bus station and our ferry was leaving at about 4smtg. WIth ample of time in our hands, we decided to grab some food. We walked from the bus station to the main road, and came to a row of shop houses and restaurants and even a Public Bank!

While Sumi went to withdraw money, I waited by the side of the bank with a few police officers who were in the lookout for some pick-pocket guy who escaped them.

What more security can one ask for?

The safest bet for food we could think of was KFC which was 2 doors away from the bank. It was about 38 degrees hot by this time so air-cond was a good option. We had some burger, fries and drinks at the fly-infested place but no further complaints as we didn't have any stomach problems after that & the toilets were also clean. Beware when walking up to the upper floor or the toilets as the steps are rather steep and narrow.

After recuperating from the extreme heat, we continued our journey and continued walking towards the jetty. We were supposed to meet the travel agent there as well. As we were reaching the jetty area, our agent spotted us and called out for Sumi. Good guess I thought. After a brief introduction, we proceeded to her office to collect our ferry tickets, accomodation tickets and settle outstanding payments.

Eco-Challenge: Part 3 - Confirmation

2010-05-30T16:00:00.004+08:00

Over the weekend of 1st of May, Sumi & I were frantically searching for hotel bookings online and packages we can take. Countdown by now was - 6 days to race day!

We resorted to travel agencies & I ended up bumping into one contact online who offered us a package at an affordable price but was rather sticky on the fine details such as arranging for bus transportation and other logistics we enquired about. By now, Sumi, on the other hand also had the Paya beach resort hotel contacted and she found another contact who offered us the same package but were more flexible to changing details.

As her contact person was able to confirm the details on Monday, I held the booking I had initiallised with my contact and waited for SUmi to finalise her finding with the resort contact. On Monday, she came back with a better deal with the flexibility of giving up the snorkelling and packed lunch option which came together with the 3D 2N package. So we confirmed with the same lady who later turned out to be more helpful in so many ways and made our entire trip smooth and easy.

By then I've already booked my Transnational bus tickets to go to Mersing or else she would have been able to book the same for me. As a point to note, if you are considering Tioman as your holiday destination with no frills and a smooth ride, she is one person worth considering. From the booking of your bus tickets, up to the bus station in Mersing, she arranges for transit to the island via ferry, gives you valuable information on the island itself and most importantly friendly and conversant in English.

Why Paya Beach Resort?

Well, we knew tat the race was to flag off from the Berjaya Hills resort in Tioman. Of course accomodation at Berjaya itself was rather pricey for us so we looked for other alternatives. Paya Beach resort became our mutual choice for a number of reasons, namely
1) good reviews for me
2) decent toilets for sumi
3) affordable prices for both of us

The map shown online had land connection between Berjaya resort and the other neighbouring resorts in the island. Little did we know how this land connection was until we arrived at the island.

The adventure is about to begin..

Eco-Challenge part 2: The training

2010-05-30T15:36:00.003+08:00

The training

Training for me was tough as I have been physically inactive for more than 5 months by now. The eco-challenge race which came around was a kick-start motivation for me. I was visiting my 2 gfs at Desa Kiara pool for a "float session" irregularly on Wednesdays so I converted those floating sessions to a jogging session instead at the Taman Tasik Perdana. So there I was on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays jogging and on the few Sundays we had, we hiked up to Frim and Mont Kiara Park.

Sumi left for Singapore on last week of April which left me to train alone on those days while she did her set of training back home.

Due to my lack of stamina, I pushed myself to an extreme out of fear.
Fear of being left behind during the race. I had to keep up as I knew that Sumi had the strength and long-lasting ability like that of a Duracell-battery.

When I first started, I could hardly mover 5 metres without stopping and grasping for breath.

During training, I was also not allowed to drink a drip of water until I finish the entire course around the lake. This helped me a good deal as I am usually as thirsty as a lark!

By the end of my 2nd week of running I could already complete half of the lake without stopping. This boosted my motivation further and I kept pushing myself to achieve more. My goal then was nothing else but to complete a full round about the lake without stopping at all.

Something new which I also began to experience was sweating and a faster heart beat. I experienced palpitation and I was excited with this new change. I checked with my GP on whether this can be of any danger to me and he told me there was nothing to be worried of unless I was fainting or felt nausea or anything to an extreme, out of the norm. Thankfully none of those happened to me and on the contrary, I was feeling healthier than ever! Training continued till day 0 - race day!

Eco-Challenge

2010-05-30T15:16:00.002+08:00

Date: 16th of April 2010

As usual I was early in the office and was waiting for someone to open the door. While waiting, I flipped through the morning papers and came across an interesting cover on something called eco-challenge. Reading on, it was about the 2009 Challenge which was held in Tioman Island and the one this year was to be held in about 1-months time!

The write up was interesting enough for me to google them up and upon gathering more information, I was already keen to sign up. Registration fees was only RM30, location in Tioman, and hey why not! Firstly I was interested to be part of the race, secondly, I wanted to visit Tioman since I have not been to an island off the coast before. In the excitement, I rang up my good girlfriend (gf) and asked her if she was keen. She was having her holiday break at hometown then.

Her initial response was - no... I've got a meeting at my centre the next day and I have to register for my next semester by then. Ah well, got to do it alone then, I thought. Continued on with work afterwards and applied for my leave the very same day!

Sometime later the same day, my gf calls and asks if I have found someone yet. I said no. Told her that i've promoted it to my office mates by then but no one seems to be solid keen to take part. So I was probably going to do it myself and she said she can come with me afterall, given that the trip was to return the same day after the race. I thought for a bit and said, yes. Why not. The actual race is on Saturday morning. Scheduled to finish by 4:30 pm. And we can take the next ferry back and catch the next bus back to KL. See, that does sound do-able right?
If you are not already laughing at me at this juncture then you must still be clueless as to what exactly we were looking at. Well, read on & in the next few entries, you will know why the wish-ful thought was not so practical after all.

So all agreed on, I went online to register for both myself and gf to go for the eco-challenge the same day during my lunch time. It was too much excitement to contain and without wasting any more day, I decided to start a jogging-routine for at least thrice a week.

We held off the logistics arrangement until we had a black and white confirmation from the organizers that our participation is confirmed. Confirmation email came in 2 days later. By then our exercise plan already took off and we were already scouting for a hotel and to confirm other details.

As usual, the procrastinators that we are, confirmation of hotel, transport and all other details we only done 4 days before the race day - 3rd of May!

an act of kindness and who's fault is it anyway?

2010-04-14T09:50:00.002+08:00

It's officially approaching 1 year since i started driving on the streets of KL. It has been a barrel of mixed feelings to describe, one i can't quite put a finger on and say aha--

Since i started commuting to Subang for work since 2010 started, i am out of my home by 7am. Latest i've left home is at 650am with the intention of heading on to Federal Highway before the crawl starts to build up. The early hours work fine with me, dealing with sleepy and slow-ly annoying drivers on the road has helped to build up my patience.

The only times I am stopped on the roads are when I don't make it to the traffic light in time before it turns red. During which time I usually ponder and wonder about the things around me. Mornings work great for me. I am most alert, happy, resourceful and peaceful during these times. I don't even feel the stress of the traffic jam or honking drivers unless I am absolutely late which I try to avoid at all costs.

This morning I was driving behind this motorcyclist - an uncle who was delivering papers. He was driving extremely slow and was in the lane I was driving on. He had some space on his left lane but he kept swerving to the direction where my car was heading to. The traffic on my right was full of vehicles. So with no choice I followed him behind. Traffic light is about 50 m ahead of me and the moment I was reaching, the light turned red.

The motorcyclist now, already swerved to his left lane continued on his journey as he made it there when the light turned yellow. Alas for me... I was stuck till the light turned green again.

This situation struck me like a bolt! I was trying to be kind enough to not honk at him and when it was convenient for him, so conveniently he swerved on to his lane and he was well on his way. Where does that place me?
What could I have done differently to change the circumstances and in turn made it on time at the traffic light?
Would that have affected the motorcyclist and even if it has or not, would I have stopped to even think twice about it?

And last but not least... why do I have to be so kind and allow these people to go ahead of me?
Would the law of Karma turn around and work in my favour at times when I need it?

the struggles on our path..

2010-03-31T09:29:00.002+08:00

oftentimes the most difficult thing to do is take a first step.

Thanks to the ignorance of....

2010-03-24T11:39:00.002+08:00

- the road contractors who forgot to remove the road barriers at a construction site, a massive traffic jam is created (The overhead bridge along Jalan Bangsar)

- the level 2 technical support who refused to attend to my query on improving their service, they've lost a potential client

- and more??

On the different rivers we stride on

2010-03-01T08:22:00.002+08:00

The wind and tide decide where the current takes us to. Who controls the wind? What about the current?
What if there is a huge waterfall ahead of us?

Usually, once the boat hits off the waterfall edge and drops all the way down to the connecting river below. For sure the boat will sink in due to the impact of the fall and might even toss out a few of the boat passengers.

If one survives this fall, manages to find the boat again and crawl onto it, the next set of sail is smooth for sure. This is the reality of life and the best analogy that nature can offer us.

The hidden message or "isi-tersirat" (as we used to write in our malay karangan during school days) God is trying to convey is straight forward in His creation.

Wonderful and magical indeed... for those who go about in life looking for miracles, they are simply overlooking simple miracles that take place before their very own eyes...

On those who lurve to 'hog' and 'block' our roads

2010-01-21T08:09:00.002+08:00

HOG Definition: To take more than one's share of.

Being on the road more frequently, being exposed to Malaysian drivers and the whole works has opened up many ideas and thoughts in my lil head. Thought provoking-important-matters that is such as - WHY this and WHY that.

Looking out the window from the 18th floor of my office, i get a birds eye view of the Kesas highway. What I can see more clearly in the usual morning jams are very long unending queues of people on the roads. all 3 lanes will be filled with cars. But one important point to note will be the fast / 1st lanes. In that view, one can see gaps in between a few cars ahead of the others. Behind them there'll be 100s' or even 1,000s of cars but these drivers wouldn't budge. As a result, those who get on the fast lane for the obvious reasons - to be fast are stuck! Since they can't even move to the left, considering that all 3 lanes are literally sandwiched.

I go through this in person every morning when I am on the Federal Highway and on my way back on the Jalan Duta. So, be it a free-way or a high-way paying toll, you still face the same bunch of drivers. I don't understand why do people even hop onto the fast lanes if all they're wanting to do is cruise along...

All i do know is that these people need to be more sensitive to the other drivers on the road with them. Remember you're not alone. There are reasons why the roads are built for all and not one person alone. Unless you pay more tax than the rest of us, or bought over the road, i think it's unfair that you hog and block roads meant for use by general public.

Have some driving-sense...

We'll move on to the signal light usage in the next post.. till then ;;

Christmas Tree OH Christmas Tree...

2009-12-22T20:03:00.002+08:00

It's the time of the year again to put up the decorated holiday tree & deck the dolls at home. Having kids at home, the joy of celebrating is even more felt compared to previous years. After 3 years of having a white Christmas, it was time to get back to the natural way of the festivities - a green one! What i mean here is the Christmas Tree. We're used to using "real-live" trees as we were growing up. Anya always made sure we had our tree up on the Eve of Christmas and sometimes, if we're lucky, 2 days before the day.

This tradition carried on till 4 years ago, until his physical strength started giving up on him. We had to endure this painful period with a heavy heart and this was when i decided to break the tradition and bought a white tree for a difference. The tree stood for 3 years, with the exception of the year anya passed away.

Now it's turned brown and the stand is nowhere to be found and this has made us get back on the road to look for a replacement tree again. Charlie decided to sponsor the tree and with a budget of RM150 i got on the road to find the 'right tree' for our home this year. It's 3 days before Christmas now so time is not on our side either.

With a list of errands to run, my first stop to look for a tree was in Petaling Street. My first time driving there, I found a parking a little further away across the road and walked into the street. The first time I bought my tree there, i literally carried the tree on the LRT trains till home.

I thought my search will not be so long but I was so wrong. The first few shops had trees which were exhorbitantly priced. Prices were ranging from RM199 till RM599. Some even had fully decorated trees and the price before and after are RM255 & RM699 respectively!

My ordeal doesn't end here as i continued walking further into the streets of Chinatown, eyeing on ANY shop that had more than 1 Christmas tree on display for sale, walking in to check the price and the tree itself.
Most shops were already filling up their door fronts with Chinese New Year decorations while a handful still had their Christmas deco in the fronts.
Some were not very friendly to assist, so much to an extent that one shop helper asked me to check the price on the tree itself. She insisted I checked the tree even after I've explained that the price tag was not attached.
Sigh... I even walked up till the top floor of UO (Uda Ocean) to no avail.
After walking into at least 15 shops, I finally bumped into this one last shop called M&K Party house. This was on my walk back, the last leg of my journey since I was running late to run my next errand.
Although it was a chinese shop, they still had Christmas decorations in the front and welcoming helpers. The price was reasonable for a 6 ft tree, at RM100. It was similar to our previous white tree and I even found nice white ornaments and lights to match.

And then i'm off... till the tree goes up, i'm leaving for now

What goes around comes around

2009-11-19T20:34:00.001+08:00

I believe in the title statement above. But what is the time frame of the "return" really?

OUM 7th Graduation

2009-11-19T20:29:00.002+08:00

An exciting day for all of us, two people from home will be receiving their scrolls on this day. Sharal & Charlie (sis & bro). Of course it took much persuasion to get Charlie to attend the event but he eventually made it and it was great to have them both there!

The whole event gave me goosebumps and memories of my own ceremony came flooding in. Felt honored and special to be present there, even more special if i was the one walking up to receive my scroll.

My education aspirations have not come to a halt, in fact, they've developed even more! I am more inspired to continue my studies at some juncture in this lifetime. Be it in any part of the world, this is a sure reality, yet to come true.

Education is lifelong, not a full stop at any juncture. From the cradle to the grave, we are all forever studying. This is amazing. EVen more so when I do it myself.

Pics of the graduation is to come. Look out for it.

Random ANN-TONY shots

2009-11-17T21:34:00.005+08:00

Tony has his first "orange-feel"!

2009-11-17T21:17:00.005+08:00

" Yummy... since no one is watching, I might as well savour every bit of the orange..."

Caught in the act (Below)

An angry - WHY-ARE-YOU-STILL-LOOKING-AT-ME look!

Tea-Break-Snack : Minced Meat Patties

2009-11-17T20:50:00.004+08:00

Result of my tea-time-snack : Baked Minced Meat Patties. It was a mixture of a few readings on other recipes but with a few added ingredients here and there, it turned out tasting fantastic!

Ingredients include: potatoes, carrots, chiilies, spices

Healthier tea time snack option than the usual famous goreng stuff ;)

A well said article - For the women of ages 30 and above..

2009-11-16T19:20:00.002+08:00

CBS - 60 Minutes lemondrop:
Here is a piece written by Andy Rooney - CBS 60 Minutes.

As I grow in age, I value women who are over 30 most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:A woman over 30 will not lay next to you in bed and ask, "What are you thinking?" She doesn't care what you think.

If a woman over 30 doesn't want to watch the game, she doesn't sit around whining about it. She does something she wants to do. And, it's usually something more interesting.

A woman over 30 knows herself well enough to be assured in who she is, what she is, what she wants and from whom.Few women past the age of 30 give a damn what you might think about her or what she's doing.

Women over 30 are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won't hesitate to shoot you, if they think they can get away with it.

Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it's like to be unappreciated.

A woman over 30 has the self-assurance to introduce you to her women friends. A younger woman with a man will often ignore even her best friend because she doesn't trust the guy with other women.

Women over 30 couldn't care less if you're attracted to her friends because she knows her friends won't betray her.Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to a woman over 30. They always know.

A woman over 30 looks good wearing bright red lipstick. This is not true of younger women or drag queens.Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over 30 is far sexier than her younger counterpart.

Older women are forthright and honest. They'll tell you right off if you are a jerk or if you are acting like one! You don't ever have to wonder where you stand with her.Yes, we praise women over 30 for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, it's not reciprocal.

For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed hot woman of 30+, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 22-year-old waitress.

Ladies, I apologize. For all those men who say, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free." Here's an update for you. Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage, why? Because women realize it's not worth buying an entire Pig, just to get a little sausage.

Tony in action

2009-10-20T19:51:00.004+08:00

Ann looks out for lil bro as much as she can. Childlike behaviour - is what we all need sometimes..

caught off guard

Mud-Fun @ Sepang Gold Coast

2009-10-09T15:25:00.002+08:00

Too much mud to handle in a few hours! Ann completely drenched in mud being washed by mummy.

ATP World Tour 250 Series

2009-10-09T12:38:00.005+08:00

This is probably the worst way to start this blog - I'm NOT an ardent fan of tennis but I went for the recent ATP World Tour tournament. With very little or no time for research into what I was going for, I relied fully on my pal, Sumi to be my narrator.
Our tickets placed us on the front row. Which was too close for comfort even coz the balls hit the spectators a few times. But I'm not complaining... It was good exposure - physically during the game and for my 1st time in a real-life-international-tournament.

With a basic understanding on scoring system used in badminton games, I could grasp the game enough to enjoy the show. With wanting to really know more about this game which has driven my pal crazy, I decided to google it up. Some of the basics I feel I should know be4 watching the game itself are the info as below.

To begin with, the ATP is the Association of Tennis Professionals (1972). Since 1990, the association has organized the principal worldwide tennis tour for men, the ATP Tour, which was renamed in January 2009 and is now known as the ATP World Tour. (source - Wikipedia)

The ATP Tour comprises Grand Slams, ATP World Tour Masters 1000, ATP World Tour 500 series, ATP World Tour 250 series, ATP Challenger Series, and Futures tournaments. The ATP tour also oversees the World Team Cup, played in Düsseldorf in May, and the ATP Champions Tour for seniors.

Now, the one held in KL this year was one of the 250 series. Being the first time Malaysia hosted this event, the reviews were good as in no player drop out, organized well enough to keep out trouble. HOWEVER, there's much much more to be improved for future events, from the court management, to ticketing, marketing and the event itself. But kudos to the organizers for a good start!

Here's the player ranking since September 28, 2009

1) Roger Federer
2) Rafael Nadal
3) Andy Murray
4) Novak Djokovic
5) Juan Martín del Potro
6) Andy Roddick
7) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
8) Nikolay Davydenko
9) Fernando Verdasco
10) Gilles Simon
11) Robin Söderling
12) Fernando González

More about the game will come up in the next few entries. Below are some pictures for the memory..

For some1 whose not seen or known or heard about F Gonzalez, it will come as a shock wen he smashes his racket or sits down in the court, waiting for his opponent. Yet, he was adorable..

Truly an unforgettable memory!

a mini reunion @ the Gardens

2009-10-09T12:30:00.003+08:00

A yummy-licious food fiesta at the Gardens.. No price for guessing but this is a very famous Taiwanese food restaurant @ The Gardens.

We had to queue up for our turns and even whilst eating, the queue was getting longer. Take note it's only cash term accepted here...

Below: The girls dig in (PW & KW --> clockwise)

a day out at the mall - ANN

2009-10-07T23:31:00.006+08:00

~i'm Ann Rhittika... Here are my pics on a day out at a mall. Not many kids my age can get to drive one of these vehicles. I could. YAY :)

kept looking around to check if i've missed out any passengers who are waiting to get onboard :)

based on rock solid Foundation, here's my finding...

2009-10-07T23:16:00.002+08:00

A phone booth is uprooted from the ground! This scene is near the boulevard office area in Sentul...

Now, imagine yourself as the telephone booth. Built on an iffy foundation.. Anything or anyone leaning on you will surely fall together with you.

Gunung Datuk Climb

2009-10-07T22:41:00.011+08:00

21st of March - Gunung Datuk Climb with Roc & her Kinabalu climbers troop. It was a steep climb and for me - it was an impromptu trip. I have already quit gym during this time and the only physical activity I was involved in actively was yoga.

But the climb was worth it. Here's some pictures to show for it.

(1) wrappin' tape around one of the boys shoe sole. (2) 200m above sea level

(1) & (3) at the peak (2) a small stream at the foot of the hill.

After tat, we drove back to Roc place in Malacca. After a hot shower, i took a bus back to KL while the sisters stayed back to rest at home. As how we used to write in our karangan during school days... walaupun letih, saya berasa sangat gembira...

Phone overload!

2009-10-07T19:54:00.002+08:00

It's about time!

Finally transferred all images from my trustable Sony to the pc after what seems like months!
Why after so long?
Misplaced the transfer cable AND the card reader. But haven't quite got to looking for it till today :)
However, I still need to locate the transfer cable to take the pics from the phone memory since I've only managed to clear the memory stick. Well, another spring cleaning is underway i suppose. Now i need to start documenting each images be4 my memory fails me. adios!

On drivers in Malaysia

2009-09-15T14:00:00.003+08:00

I was forced to buy my first own vehicle when we moved office this year. As a "new" driver on the road, I came across many F1 drivers wanna-be. They all are merely living their dreams of what COULD-HAVE-BEEN and cheating themselves by practising their old "road bully" tricks on regular roads, populated by the vast majority civillians - women and men alike and occasionally children.

Some of the irky moments i have encountered on the road so far are as follows (take note this is an inexhautible list):

- tail gaters, flashing their lights on any lane you're on, cutting into many lanes with no indicator light
- perhaps most cars here don't have a functioning indicator?
- driving up so near to my bumper so close you can kiss the bumper - which I have no issues of because I can always make a police report and make the driver face the music
- bullies who threat to see your IC or driving license as if they're working with the police force! (Although they are at fault in the case)

Then there is the long-end debate on women and men drivers - who is better? I don't think this debate will have an end to it. But most of the times, the ones who tail gate or flash at my car are the men. & there has been an equal number of women and men who has given way to me when i'm at a junction or so. Which gets me to think - at this age and time, when humans are generally more civilised, a single act of driving on the road, using the vehicle man-built, with good road manners shouldn't be that difficult can it? Why should we allocate gender discrimination to the tab of "bad drivers" when the traditional men and women roles are interchanging these days?

this remains a puzzle...

Saturday morning

2009-09-12T13:28:00.002+08:00

It's a wet Saturday morning. Rushed out to run some errands n now checking my mails at the famous old town kopitiam. It's been a fruitful day so far, with some flips but it's all turned out to be fine. It's pouring out there, rain is getting heavier. So cosy and nice to cuddle now... And be under blankets. How i wish, i could. Hey wait a minute, i actually can... It's the weekend :)

Choices we make...

2009-09-11T13:41:00.002+08:00

Our daily lives are results of choices we make.

I choose to sleep in early to get enough 8-hour sleep. Wen I open my eyes in the morning, I can choose to continue sleeping or jump out of bed. I can choose to sulk and stay home or I can go to work. I can choose to take the NPE and pay RM1.60 or I can take the Sungai Besi road. I can choose to be negative and talk nonsense all day or I can start off my day with a list of things to do and do it all with a positive mind. Even in writing this post, I can choose to sit or I can stand.

For all the above, I choose the latter... & that makes all the difference.

I was inspired this morning wen I made a choice, turned out to be a "bad" choice. It was a simple choice of taking a route to go home. Had to drop by the office in Kuchai for a bit to collect some documents and head to KL. Took the NPE instead of the other 2 roads - Jalan Istana & Mid Valley. Paid the RM1.60. Not very far from the toll, all cars were stalled.. How could I have forgotten?? It's heading towards KL. Of course Bangsar will be jammed. Unfortunately, whether I like it or not, I am already there. I need to get thru the jam somehow.

Switched on to Serena C & Piedro. Sat back on my seat and didn't think about the jam at all & I was in Jalan Bangsar in no time! How relieved I was. Eventually reached home in time to run my errands and start off my day. What a wonderful experience on choices...

Random entry

2009-09-11T13:05:00.001+08:00

Men love to play with kitchen utensils

On dis-illusionment

2009-09-03T11:13:00.002+08:00

When a man is overcome by emotion and clouded by huge ass "ego", he'll only "listen" to things he wants to hear....

This leads onto losing focus on the goal at hand, in the best interest of all parties involved. Why do human beings become selfish and self centered, refusing to think of the others in the battle field - the innocent ones?

These are classic psychology profiles of power crazy humans who refuse to give in until they win - explains why war never ends and never will. As long as humans as such exist.!

---- disillusionment.

Business Ethics

2009-09-01T15:56:00.002+08:00

Practise what you preach! Do not tell others to do something which you will not do yourself.

It's been an amazing 9 month long journey since I left the arms of an employer and became one myself. It was not easy and it still isn't easy yet. It has been a long struggling period for everyone and we still are.

However, in the midst of it all, I have learnt that there are many lessons to be taken away from this situation. Changes in people, attitude, behaviour and character which all sums to relationships with fellow humans. Surprisingly, so-called ethical and decent people I have come to know has turned around to a 180degrees and become somewhat Godzillas - people I wouldn't want to have known in the first place. But, I guess this is part of the lesson too. We all need to thrive through the pace and win the race.

One main thing to remember is - the sea water only looks calm on the surface. But underneath it there is a whole world of chaos going on. And getting to the centre of the ocean cannot be done without proper equipment and clothing. Armed with the right tools, one can surely conquer the ocean too. The same applies...

Preparation is the key to any battle. Without it, a soldier can be wounded and dead within seconds if not minutes in enemy' hands.

On caning and pointing fingers

2009-09-01T15:27:00.002+08:00

I was shocked to learn about this girl Kartina who has been sentenced to caning because she was caught drinking in a club! I guess the religious authorities managed to find a scape goat to point their finger at.

My only thoughts on this matter was a chapter from the bible about the crowd which wanted to stone a prostitute woman to her death because of her "sins". And at this point, Jesus asked the one who has never sinned amongst them to be the first to throw a stone. And the crowd dispersed.

This story was a lesson - which makes sense even at this age. I find it very much related to what is happening these days - finger pointing and blaming game. A classic application is the above mentioned story of Kartina. Any club in any part of the world surely has patrons of all race and religion. WHat is to stop them from drinking? Religious authorities don't sit around the clubs screening the patrons to put a stop. Clearly they are trying to set an example and show the world what happens if you are a muslim and caught drinking at such public places.

One question I have to everyone out there - can you all testify that you are all clean from the so-called sin of "drinking" or "smoking" or "adultery"?

Everything done in moderation should be good for the soul. Eccessiveness is what causes the pain. A very simple teaching I follow which is only for the short time we spend on earth. Why point fingers and blame the other when we don't even check ourselves first?

Another sentence comes to mind - why do we humans constantly try to remove the speck from our neighbours eyes when we can't even see the log in our own eye? Think about it...

A true merdeka celebration

2009-08-31T12:00:00.003+08:00

I recall writing about the merdeka celebration I had for the past few years (ref to my previous posts). This year, one of my 1st cousin (dads' youngest sis son) tied the knot during the Merdeka weekend. This led us to travel up north - the whole bunch of us, including sis n her babies - all of us jumped in to my baby car and went on our long road trip.

It was a great trip. The function went well despite the low number of guests. Dinner was at Cinta Sayang Golf Resort. Theme was traditional. The best part of the entire function was we could spend some good quality time with our long lost cousins, aunts, snapped loads of pictures, and ate a lot.

Booze came as an after party exclusive invitation only... I went home and slept with 2 cranky babies :)

End of Day1

the next day started with mass at the Christ the King Church nearby their home. Following that, an excellent breakfast for a king served at home - food from the function last nite and some of us went to the hotel for breakfast.

Packed and ready to leave, we left their home at around 12. Headed towards Tambun Ipoh to visit mums side relatives. Her eldest sister lived ter with her son and daughter in law who happens to be my cousin and her 3 children my nieces. Haven't seen them since she got married - which is more than 18 years ago. Now, the eldest is around 18 and the youngest 10.

A good quality bonding time with them took us to 5pm which is when we left for KL. Since it was tea time, we decided to go to the original old town coffee shop in Ipoh town. Unfortunately, the shop was closed. Of course! How could I have forgotten? It was a Sunday evening!

Anyhow, we walked up to another shop which was a few steps away and had white coffee nevertheless.. Not what we wanted exactly but a substitute for that moment.

Left shortly after and reached KL at 8pm. Excellent and fulfilling trip. Can't wait for the next one.

On the realities of life

2009-08-18T11:27:00.002+08:00

It's a rude awakening to the truth of the moment... the world in all its cruelty. How can i survive this jungle of wild life?

On a rough sea at the moment

2009-07-13T15:18:00.002+08:00

The waves and tides are pushing me into the deeper end of the sea... It's so overwhelming, i'm struggling to keep my head up high. But my will is too strong, I will not give up too soon. As long as my eyes are on my Saviour, he will bring me out of this storm. Of course, I have to keep paddling and swimming for effort on my side.. I'm not expecting a rope to drop down from heaven, but a boat will do...

It's not about me - it's not about you then what's it all about?

2009-06-22T18:45:00.001+08:00

Seriously... Does this make any sense at all to you??

On being emotionless

2009-06-19T17:51:00.002+08:00

Excitement that is built over a gradual period of time has been killed and buried immediately with just a shrug or cold shoulder...

in seconds... the passion and excitement that i have felt came to a halt with no reciprocation from the other one concerned! Such a bummer, waste of energy and mental space.

Now, i've passed onto the emotion-less boat.. in a very quick span of time! Need a break &

Yay it's Friday again!

I'll Be Happy When...

2009-06-16T16:50:00.002+08:00

We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, when we are able to go on a nice vacation or when we retire. The truth is there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges.

It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.

Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with ... and remember that time waits for no one.

So, stop waiting ... Until your car or home is paid off.
Until you get a new car or home.
Until your kids leave the house.
Until you go back to school.
Until you finish school.
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married.
Until you get a divorce.
Until you have kids.
Until you retire.
Until summer.
Until spring.
Until winter.
Until fall.
Until you die. There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money, love like you've never been hurt, and, dance like no one's watching.

------------I received this article as one of those forwards, can't remember by whom or who the original author was. But I found it to be very very true of us humans, at some point or another. Some of us have come out of it yet some of us are still trapped in this "i'll be happy when.... " syndrome.

So, if you are reading this, can you testify if you have honestly broken free from this syndrome or share if you are really waiting for something to happen in order to be happy?

Yoga experience 2

2009-05-18T12:10:00.002+08:00

As the many asanas of Yoga starts to unveil itself to me, i began to marvel in this amazing journey in my path of life....

A wonderful YOGA experience

2009-04-17T10:33:00.002+08:00

it began in January 2009 - until March 2009... Came to a pit stop for about 1-month, despite the weekly classes I was going for on Sundays.

Last class was on last Sunday - for beginners. The next step is the intermediate class which i will be officially starting next week :)

I was overwhelmed when my instructor said I can proceed to the next level. I was hesitant initially due to my lack of daily practise of all the asanas. But this is green light to the next level. However, I should not take this lightly. I need to keep practising and improving my flexibility since my head still doesn't touch my knee for the head-knee position and still can't touch my feet for the posterior position.

Too many back logs

2009-04-07T12:35:00.001+08:00

There's too many stuff to write about. Will revisit this place soon...

2009-02-18T14:13:00.003+08:00

It's a brand new year of the Ox, with brand new visions and goals to achieve to make the most of the new year.

Some might renew their previous year goals, some others might come up with near ones which I believe most of these will go along the lines of - improving health, reduce weight, join gym, quit smoking, change jobs etc. By mid-year, if none of the above has been actioned on, they will just stay where they started - on paper.

And a very handful others - might not even have any goals at all.!

I am one who flactuates between having goals and not. Not being much of a disciplinary myself, i find it hard to keep at goals, leave alone achieve them. So, i usually yo-yo between coming up with a goal and not year in, year out.

2009 - is in!

First goal - in progress is YOGA. To my very own surprise, I have begun to like this activity. My following few posts will explain why. For now, I need to grab a quick lunch.