Honeymoon in Bali

Everyone is busy with Chinese New Year - be it busy eating, busy playing, busy meeting up or busy with the preparation. :P. And that's why my update on my honeymoon trip delayed till now.

Overall, it was a great trip. Well, it is always fun to travel with EG to explore new things.

The beautiful island

Few good things to be thankful:

1. I booked our trip through Air Asia which includes the ticket & accomodation. Since this is a honeymoon, we chose a better hotel and better facilities (even though we know we might not use it) so that we have a memorable honeymoon. The hotel doesn't provide airport transfer for any package book thru Air Asia. However, since I chose Garden Villa (i.e. room with a small garden) and the hotel provides free airport transfer.

2. When we checked in to the hotel, for some reasons, we were upgraded to family suite. Ah well, we don't really need that because family suite has 2 single beds and 1 double bed. But anyway, the room was really spacious and comfy.

The comfy bed

The extra single beds

3. We went to Kuta and engaged a tour on the second day to visit around Tanah Lot - Uluwatu - Jimbaran. This is risky as I have read a lot about guides trying to get more money from customers during visiting. However, our tour guide that we engaged is really a nice guy. And we paid much cheaper. Even though he can't really speak English very well but since we could speak BM, it helps a lot in our conversation. He even told us how to bargain, how to order food and what to do to get good deals.

4. We got another tour guide contact from a friend before we went to Bali and he brought us to Ubud area & the other sides on Bali. The sight seeing was good. Food was very good too. He charged more expensive but he told us a lot about the place, the people and Bali culture. That's something that I really enjoy a lot in an overseas tour.

5. This honeymoon trip was free and easy. We didn't do much plannings before we went since we were busy with wedding preparation. A lot of the things were ad hoc and were decided there and then. Anyway, I referred to some other Bali traveling packages in some brochures on my way back, to my surprise we visited most of the places.

6. It was raining season in Bali during end of Jan. But during our trip, it only drizzled once when we were driving to the volcano, and the rain stopped when we reached there. Amazing. So we still had a great trip and didn't miss anything!

A lot of Balinese mistaken us as Japanese and kept telling us Konichiwa. Both the drivers told us that EG looks like a jap who has been in Bali for 1 month as we got tanned in the trip. The weather in Bali was really really hot. I have never sweat so much in my life before - probably only if I play badminton, that's like N years ago. :P. I put a lot of sun block on my face & my arms, but i still got tanned a little.

Again, I am not going to talk much about the details during our trip. I'll let the pictures do the talking. I have also uploaded all the pics to facebook - the latest & hottest trend thing. :P

The offering on the streets in Bali

30 minutes Horsie ride around Kuta - it was too hot

Art Village

Tanah Lot - Can you see the temple?

Very nice sunset @ Uluwatu

Unfriendly monkeys @ Uluwatu

Famous Kecak Dance by the sunset

Very delicious though expensive seafood dinner @ Jimbaran

Bali version of lion dance - Barong dance

Yum yum roasted pork @ Warung Ibu Oka

Spectacular Rice Terrace

Volcano

Lake Batur - old volcano crater

Romantic smoked duck dinner @ Bebek Bengil

I am never a shopping person so I didn't do much shopping in Bali. On the other hand, I enjoy finding out the culture of the place everytime I went traveling. A note to those who intend to visit Bali, for all shoppings esp. the stalls on the street, try to bargain AT LEAST 50% (Note: It's AT LEAST). If you could, go for 70%. Normally you can get what you want. Some girls enjoy the bargaining thrill, but for me it's stressful. However, EG enjoyed it very much as he found his favoraite and bought a lot of souvenirs for his friends, colleagues & himself!

Souvenirs from Bali.
There are a lot of Jap in Bali and that's why there are a lot of cat figurines in Bali.
Somehow the arrangement reminds me of transformers, i don't know why :P

My BIG Day

Since young, I like to do things in sequence. I'll do what comes first. That's why if you see my album during University time, you can see pics arranged in chronological order. And that's why, I am going to blog about my wedding first, even though I am more excited to share on my honeymoon to Bali - which shall be the next entry in my blog.



I hope you enjoy the video. I did. Great job by Perfect Moments - great pictures, great capturing on everyone's expression, great music, great slideshow. I never see my dad smile so naturally in front of a camera before. Ah well, I guess he didn't know that the camera was shooting at him. Good work! I wasn't there during the game session but I could imagine how fun it was. I couldn't stop smiling even though I have watched it over and over again for the past 30 minutes!

Finally, my wedding is OVER. I am not going to brag about it or talk much about it. Well, it's fun to prepare a wedding (we spent 1 year in preparing it) and so much so, it's stressful as well. Many things can go wrong within that one year - several sales reps left, changed of the venue, changed of plans, etc etc. All these added extra stress to my life. Just imagine, I lost 3.5kg in 3 months before my wedding. Well, I can't blame it all to wedding preparation, work added extra stress as well.

Anyway, I thank God that everything went smooth. I am not a perfectionist. I believe I do what I need to do, the rest I'll leave it to God. Things are sometimes out of my control. No wedding is perfect, things went wrong - I was stepping on my dress while marching in with my dad; presentation with overlapping music; photographer that accidentally stepped on my dress during my dinner march in; etc. But still, I enjoyed it.

I can be a worrier - worry for everything. It happened during my pre-wedding shooting which I regretted for being too stressed up. Thank God the pics are great as well! So before our wedding day, I kept reminding EG and myself that we will trust all our helpers and vendors, and we'll just enjoy our day & night.

Friends - made A LOT of difference. My zi muis & EG's heng dais came all the way from KL to Penang - some took a day leave, some came after work, some even left KL at 3am to reach PG at 7am to start the pick-the-bride session. I wasn't involved at all in the games planning as my zi muis worried that I would betray them and told the groom about the games. I was even prohibited for making calls & sms-ing EG to prevent any information leakage. Anyway, everyone had fun in the morning session - both the girls & the guys. EG has been telling me what happened on that morning when I was inside the room and everytime it never fails to make me laugh. It's just FUNNY! The gang is still the same from Uni time till now! EG couldn't stop praising his heng dais as they did everything the girls asked - pumping, eating, body touching, singing, etc - without any complaints! You can see it from the video!

After the morning session, the stressful part was the church ceremony & dinner reception as the execution is totally out of my control. I have passed down all the information to my helpers. Again, lovely friends from Jireh Unlimited CG & EPCC came as early as 3pm for the setup and checking, all the way till 11pm to make sure everything runs well. EG and I were so happy with everything and we were really relieved when we see everything is going on smoothly as we planned.

Next thing that amazed me is the em cees. Both EG and I asked our best friends from MMU to be our em cees - without considering that they had never been one. At a point, I was worried that I was giving them too much stress. But to my great surprise, everyone was so entertained with both the handsome & pretty em cees - with their jokes, their speech, their actings. It was really out of my expectations.

Followed on the list is the music band led by Pak Lang - EG's guitar teacher. He's such a funny man. He knows EG's taste in music and he plays all his favorite music. Everyone praises on the music during the dinner as they were really nice & relaxing. I saw my uncle who doesn't listen english songs moving along with the music, my father in law kept watching the band with a smile on his face, and my em cee even turned back to me and showed me his thumb to tell me - nice song!

Another thing that touched me was friends all around came for our wedding - friends, ex-classmates, ex-colleagues, ex-bosses & ex-housemates from Penang, KL, Sarawak, and all the way from United Kingdom. We felt so touched, so honored and so happy to have so many friends around us on our big day. Our wedding will not be as fun if not with so many good friends around us!

EG has always been trying to do his best for our wedding to make sure I have a good memory on it, and also to make sure I don't bug him for the rest of his life. *LOL*. After the wedding, he couldn't wait to ask me if I am happy with everything. My answer to him was - No regret on anything, everything was good.

So now, wedding is over. I AM SO RELIEF! I haven't been sleeping well & eating well for the past few weeks before my wedding. 1 week before my wedding I lost another 0.5kg! Tell me about slimming program - I don't need it! Now, I sleep with peace, eat relaxingly and laugh over things happened on my wedding day.

Now, I am very anxious for the photos from my photographers from Perfect Moments. I am supposed to get the pictures this week and I hope they will turn out really nice. And I'll post them up here once I get it, I hope. :P.

Overall, it's fun to prepare for a wedding. I have to agree with EG that luckily wedding is only once a lifetime. We only need to go through this once. LOL. For any bride-to-be or groom-to-be (I have a list of wedding dinners waiting for me in 2008), get ready for the fun and enjoy through the process. Trust me, it'll add so much fun into your life. Good luck!!!!

Why Do You Blog?

Blogging is becoming a trend. Most of my friends around me are doing blogging.

Why do you blog?

I remembered when I first moved to PG, I don't have a lot of friends (yet) except EG. And that's why I started a blog and shared with my good friends in KL to

keep them updated on what is going on.

But later on, my blog becomes a place where I can pour out and express what I think and how I feel - about work, vacation, people around me, etc.

As I moved on, it became another place for me to record the funny moments between me and EG. As time goes by and as we're growing older bit by bit, my memory has been very bad. Blogging is a good way to remember the incidents that happened between us. I always tell him, how funny it'd be when we still read about our stories and jokes in my blog when we are 40, or 50, or even 60 and go on.

I even think that next time, when I have my kids, I'll want to start a blog for them too - to remember how they grow up and stuffs - if I have time.

If you blog, so why do you blog? If you don't blog, you might want to consider to start one.

ThanksGiving for 2007

Time flies. I bet everyone agrees with me.

Year 2007 didn't start good for me. A very bad shocking news hit me early of the year and left me in darkness helplessly for almost a month. I prayed and prayed, and with that, I grew closer with God. I prayed hard and studied hard on His words to find strength in my life to be able to rejoice and live joyfully again. Joshua 1:9 says "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go". I was enlightened. The words gave a boost into my life and my heart and somehow, I could smile and laugh again.

There's a chinese saying that says "A year's plan start with Spring". We always believe things will be good if we start it well. A negative thought hit me when I thought that Year 2007 started bad for me, and hence it will be a bad year for me. I shook it off and live on. Today, on the last day of the year, when I looked back to year 2007, I had a fuzzy feeling in my heart. It was just... Great! I couldn't stop giving thanks to God for all the blessings in 2007.

EG and I have been planning for our wedding for the whole 2007. It was HELL HECTIC. We were running around almost every weekends. We used all our free time to prepare for our wedding - meeting up vendors, preparing power points, wedding agendas, and etc etc. As usual, everyone has a dream - be it big or small - for their weddings, so as EG and I. With financial constraint, we have to be careful with everything that we're going to spend. Again, we see God's blessing in all our plannings. We managed to get all the things that we wanted within our budget - they came WITH GREAT DISCOUNTS!! I just couldn't put all of them in words. For both of us are not from Penang, we really have no contact for the vendors, but rather we depend on our own surveys and friends' reccommendations. With that, we're really blessed that we could get good offers for almost everything.

I remembered while we were planning for our bridal studio package, I told EG I wanted to have a video on how we took the bridal pics. Due to budget, I had to let my small little dream off. Little do I know, 1 month later our bridal shoot, we won a competition by Whizarts & WeddingStory. We got extra photos and video session - FOR FREE!! What can we complain some more when it's free?! And they were great!

Another recent incident, I was quite stressed up with wine supplier for my wedding. We have been driving pass Roo's Cellar near Crystal Point and
few times it was closed. I was desperate and went to find another wine suppliers - but their price were rather high. One weekend, we went back to Roo's Cellar again, and it was open this time. As usual, the price shocked me. But somehow, we stayed back and learnt a little bit on wine tasting and story on red wine and white wine. And guess what, the sales rep told us later that they're closing down and all their wines are going at 40% off! And the price dropped to EXACTLY what both EG and I had in mind! What if we found our wine suppliers at other places? What if we signed up with them much earlier before December? EG said, "Got so ngam (co-incident) or not? When we go they are having stock clearance!". I said, it's God's blessing. I don't believe there can be so many coincidents throughout our whole wedding preparation.

Other than wedding preparations, other good things that happened in 2007:

• Settled in EPCC as my church
• Had my family trip to China for sight seeing during Chinese New Year and experienced winter with less than 10 degress for the first time
• Travelled to Philippines two times and met a lot of new friends from the other side of the globe
• Travelled to US and visited one of the Wonders of the World & did a lot a lot A LOT of shoppings!
• Won my first lucky draw in my life
• Signed up so many many courses in Jourdeness - without going bankrupt :P
• Bought sofa, air-conditioners, and setup our home for a better place after marriage
• Had my first manicure and pedicure in my life and found out that actually I also can have nice nails...
• Went back Miri two times - with 30 cents ticket for the first trip
• Broke my life record by working in the same company for >2 years!!
• Changed a new phone after 4 years
• Signed up gym @ Priority Fitness
• Completed EPCC pre-marital counselling and nursery duty 1 month before wedding
• Had a great wedding ceremony in Miri

I will be lying if I tell you I have no dream for 2008. In fact, I have so many many dreams - big and small. In 2008, I wish to:

• Have a blessed wedding together with my friends and family in Penang
• Have a wonderful honeymoon in Bali
• Plan for a holiday trip with EG
• Curl my hair again
• To pick up my piano skill again
• Serve in my church - EPCC

I am anxious for the arrival of Year 2008. I want to see God unfolding His blessings for me and see Him making my big dreams as well as my small dreams come true.

Time flies. It's time to bid goodbye to 2007, and say HELLO to 2008!!

For my friends, a very happy 2008 to all of you also. I hope all of us had a great year in 2007 and will have a even greater year in 2008!

Happy new year DUDES!!

Happy Birthday

EG and I don't really celebrate birthdays, valentine days, anniversaries or any special event. We normally just stay at home and spend time with each other - watching tv, or doing housework. We don't like the crowd - probably a sign of getting old? Some think that we're really weird couple but I am perfectly OK with this. We are already doing or experiencing new things together always so I thought there's no need to do extra on special events.

However, this year, it's a little different. EG has decided to bring me for some nice dinner on Christmas day - a day before my birthday. I am not sure why. Probably we both wanted to take a break after we completed our wedding reception in Miri (50% of work done!!). And probably EG wanted to treat his girlfriend (still) real nice before we both upgrade our status to husband and wife in less than 1 month time!!

Tao Christmas Decoration

EG has been to Tao restaurant for his teambuilding and he always wanted to bring me there. Since both of us like Japanese food, we decided to try their japanese buffet @ eGate today. Good that even though it's Christmas, the rate remains. And we're free to order anything in the menu.

Tao Menu

Both of us had a heavy breakfast today and we skipped lunch. EG placed our booking while I was having my afternoon nap. There are two sessions for the jap buffet, i.e. from 5.30pm - 8.15pm and from 8.30pm - 11.15pm respectively. To fight off the crowd and the traffic, we reached Tao sharp at 5.30pm with our empty stomach.

Waiting for food

Since both EG and I are small eater, we have to be smart to order the food so that we can try different varieties and fully utilise the $$ that we paid (yaya, call us cheapskate :P). We avoided the dish served with rice or mee. We started our meal with Miso soup, and followed by two big plates of sushi with soft shell crab.

Spider sushi and Fire Cracker sushi

I am not going to describe all the food as those are quite a standard japanese food. Below are some of the pictures that I took during the dinner.

Both EG and I are big fans for grilled salmon.
We ordered total of 3 plates of grilled salmon during the dinner

Yummy sashimi

Scallop with cheese - it is a little too cheesy


Their chawanmushi is really small

EG is enjoying his food

Since it's Christmas, all tables are served with a free Christmas meal. It's nothing too great but it tasted ok.

Complementary Christmas meal

In total, we ate 23 items from the menu (some are repeating). Finally, we ended our dinner with a green tea ice cream. I was too full to eat anything so EG finished it off.

Green Tea ice cream

After the dinner, we were really full. Initially, we wanted to get a piece of cake from Secret Recipe next door as my birthday cake but I told EG I really couldn't take it anymore so we cancelled our plan.

Finally, you must be wondering where my birthday present is. Well, we don't normally give each other surprises for presents to avoid any disappointment (:P). We choose our own presents. So, I chose a handbag this year while we were doing some window shopping in Midvalley during our 9 hours flight transit to come back to Penang last Sunday.

My birthday present

I always tell EG that he's very lucky as I am quite an easily pleased girlfriend. This is my 3rd birthday together with EG. A simple present with a nice dinner like this are more than enough to make my day.

It's a great day!

Wedding Ceremony in Miri

I just had my wedding ceremony & dinner in Miri, Sarawak (my hometown) for my friends and relatives last Friday. If you know me well, this wedding news shouldn't be a surprise for you. Both EG and I have been planning for our wedding since end of 2006.

We went back to Miri on Tuesday. Dinner on Friday. Came back Penang again on Sunday. It's very hectic, worse for my parents. Well, good thing is, most of the stuffs and plannings are settled by parents and sister. I just need to make sure I do what I need to do - i.e. my manicure, and etc. I was searching high and low for nail trimming & painting in Miri. In Penang, it only costs RM10 for that service. To my surprise, Miri price is higher - it ranges from RM15 to RM20. So, I went to one of the popular shop where most brides in Miri will go (according to my sister) and did a weird color. Well, it looks weird at first, but later I think they are not too bad eventually.

It looks like french manicure but it's not.
The girl told me that's the new pattern. Hmm...

My mum managed to find me a makeup artist that came to my house to do makeup for me at a reasonable price. I slept at 12.30am and woke up at 6am to get ready and makeup session started at 6.30am till 7.45am. I was tired, but guess what, my parents slept for ~3 hours and started preparing the food at 3am for relatives during the tea ceremony. They were more excited than me. First time being in-law i guess. :P

Makeup from 6.30am

The tea ceremony is very much simplified. We only serve tea for my parents. For the other uncles, aunties & cousins, we just need to nod to them to introduce the new member in our family (EG!!) and they will then put ang pows into EG's pocket. Luckily that his shirt has a pocket at the front.

Tea for parents

My parents didn't decorate much in the house but they just did what the others told them to do. There is a shop in Miri selling all wedding stuffs. One of my aunties told my mum that there should be a pair of candles lighting up during the tea ceremony - symbolising that there is light - ???. I don't understand but it looks nice anyway. And guess what, the stupid candles cost RM20. Well, wedding ma, once a life time.

Some nice candles

Anyway, all in all, it went on well. Thank God that everything went on smoothly as planned. Below are some of the nice pics taken and I love them lots!

One of the switches in my room

My wedding band & the bible
Creative shot by both my brothers (apparently copied from some website :P)

I am still waiting for the other pictures during the wedding dinner. I had a glance at them and they were great! Hopefully I can get them soon and blog about it here!

PS: I wanted to be mysterious on who the photographer was during my wedding in Miri but I couldn't hold it anymore! It was my brother. I am amazed by his camera and his slightly improved skills. Of course he has lots more to improve on but I am rather happy with most of the pics so far. Not bad right?! :D

PPS: For more pictures, check out my wedding website. :)

Cat & Bear Talk

Cat: (While washing dishes in kitchen) Bear, so today where did you bring your US colleagues for lunch?
Bear: (Replying emails in the next room) Oh, since they're vegetarians, we brought them to Tan Hsiang for Chinese vegetarian.
Cat: Tan Hsiang ah... Is it the one beside CCOP one?
Bear: Where is CCOP?
Cat: The one beside Tan Hsiang la...
Bear: What the f***... What you talking....
Cat: **Laughing** What's wrong?!
Bear: It's like you asked me where is Chung Hua, i tell you it's next to St. Joe. And you ask me where is St. Joe, i tell you it's next to Chung Hua... What the toot you talking man....
Cat: **Laughing till losing breathe** Do you know that you're very funny?!
Bear: WHAT SO FUNNY?!!

Note: CCOP - Charismatic Church of Penang

刮痧 aka Gua Sha

Did the picture scare you? Don't worry, that's not me in the picture!

Quoting from Wikipedia:

Gua Sha (刮痧), literally "to scrape for cholera", is an ancient medical treatment that is still widely used by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine....

Gua Sha involves repeated pressured strokes over lubricated skin with a smooth edge.
The smooth edge is placed against the pre-oiled skin surface, pressed down firmly, and then moved down the muscles -- hence friction-stroking -- or along the pathway of the acupuncture meridians, along the surface of the skin, with each stroke being about 4-6 inches long...

This causes extravasation of blood from the peripheral capillaries and may result in sub-cutaneous blemishing, which usually takes 2-4 days to fade. Sha rash does not represent capillary rupture as in bruising...

The color of sha varies according to the severity of the patient's blood stasis -- which may correlate with the nature, severity and type of their disorder --appearing from a dark blue-black to a light pink, but is most often a shade of red. Although the marks on the skin look painful, they are not. Patients typically feel immediate sense of relief and change.

OK enough of facts, but I guess the above more or less gives a better idea of what gua sha really is.

I signed up a gua sha + back massage course in Jourdeness - a facial saloon - @ USJ back in 2004. The saloon offered a trial session and the moment I tried it, I know I won't be able to resist its syok-ness. And true enough, I have been in the same saloon for 3 years. In the 45 minutes session, they will do the gua sha, and followed by a massage on your back. Working ladies normally have stiff shoulder and they will normally apply extra pressure on the shoulder and that feels REALLY GOOD! While I was going to move from KL to PG, one of the items in my checklist was to transfer my facial account from Subang to Penang.

I enjoyed the "pain" during this gua sha treatment. The first time I did it, my back was in dark blue black. But HOLD, it's not painful! I felt GREAT as my whole body was lightened and my muscles were relieved. And believe it or not, after doing it for 3 years, I never get dark blue shades anymore (probably only for the first few times). Most of the time I only get a shade of red or even light pink, no matter how hard the girl in Jourdeness pressed down. They said because the toxic in my body was cleared.

I always like to show to my girlfriends on the dark red shades on my shoulder after the session. And most of the time they'd get scared and worried as they always thought I am a self abuser! Gosh, it's something really nice, OK? :)

I just did my gua sha today after work. I had the same feeling just as the first time I did it. Anyway, I think my health & complexion has improved a lot after I make an effort to visit them at least once a month. Good thing is EG never stops me for going or signing up, instead he always encourages me to go. He always tells me, if this treatment is good for you then go ahead. So nice, right? But of course, if he could sponsor the cost that'll be even better. :)

I wanted to take a picture of my back now but I thought that might not be a good idea. Hehe... Anyway, now it looks exactly like the girl in the above picture. If you have chance, really you should try gua sha. Trust me it's really not painful!
I love it!

Priority Fitness

After considering for almost >6 months, EG and I finally signed up Priority Fitness near Ivory Plaza, Penang. Some commented that: Hey, dieting for your wedding huh?. But in fact, I always think it's too late to do that when we only have less than 1.5 months to our wedding day.

So, if it's not for wedding, then why? EG is always a very health conscious person. Recently, due to the stress and heavy workload in work place, I was having constant headache everyday. I get frustrated & irritated easily, lost my temper easily, couldn't focus in any meetings or projects, feel sleepy all the time, and etc. There's once when I didn't wait for the lift and climbed up the staircases to my place (I stay in 2nd floor), I couldn't catch my breathe and my heartbeat doubled. Knowing that I really need to workout, and knowing that I'll never go jogging (*Note: I could never run), after EG's persuasion and a lot of calculations, we finally paid to Priority Fitness for 6-8 months membership.

Since both EG and I are working in MNC, the Gym offered us great deals. We paid around RM50+ per month (after prorated) and we could use the facilities in the Gym unlimitedly. Besides that, the Gym has at leats 2 classes every evening - be it Yoga, Belly dancing, Cardio, Aerobics, Modern Jazz - and we could join all of them.

So far, EG and I are making it a habit to go at least for an hour for each visit for twice a week. So far, I am just trying to run and do some cardio exercises. I haven't tried out any of the classes yet but I am planning to once I got my stamina built up to a better level - Or else, I'll just join for 10 minutes and rest for 1 hour.

It feels good to workout. It feels good to sweat out. My headache is now gone and I feel more fresh on the next day after the workout. I am not sure if it's psychological effect or it's really the effect after workout. But knowing that I always get bored of things fast, I hope I'll keep going for the next 6 months - not for beauty or looking good, but more for my own health.

朋友

每一个人一生中都有很多朋友

但是

又有多少人有多少真正的朋友？

朋友不需要每天见面

但是

一旦见了面 又能天南地北的谈个不停

彼此能摊开心扉 毫无避忌的分享大家
开心的 伤心的 无奈的 压力的 心事

朋友之间

没有妒嫉 没有彼此的是非

只有关心 关怀 祝福

有人说

当你伤心失望时

你一定可以找到朋友分享

但是

难处是 但你幸福开心时

你不一定可以找到朋友分享你的喜悦

一直以来

我很庆幸 我有一帮能为我分享一切的

好朋友 好姐妹

摄于1998 年为Pre-U Final Exam 博杀前

摄于2000年于UKM合唱团比赛

有些朋友

只是我们人生中的一个过客

可是 有些朋友

却能在你的心中留下脚印

愿 我的朋友们

永远健康 永远幸福 永远快乐

Penguin~'s Historical Day

After almost 4 years of using my old T630, TODAY I bought a new phone!

My old phone used since 2004

My new phone starting TODAY!

My old T630's key pad is not sensitive anymore. I had a hard time typing the sms. Initially, I wanted to get a more stylish and girly phone - maybe a slide phone or a clamshell phone, but none of the Sony Ericsson's model caught my eyes. And yes, I am a Sony Ericsson fan - I don't know why.

Anyway, I traded in my old phone and bought K530i after visiting the same phone booth for 3 times since it's quite a descent phone and it has 3G features (even though I am not sure whether I'll use it), and most importantly, with a OK price. Funny, EG is more excited than me, especially about the 3G features.

Nothing much to brag about I know, but I thought I wanted to remember this "special" day since I am never a person who spends a lot on phone. (Yeah, call me cheap-skate! :P).

Let's hope that my old T630 will find its new and nice owner to take care of it. Anyway, it's still a not bad phone. *Miss it*. :)

PS: OUCH to my saving account!

古人云云

古人云：
己不所欲，勿施予人
意：不想别人怎么对你，就不要怎么对别人

古人云：
以治人之道，还治其人之身
意：别人怎么对你，你就怎么对他，亦： 以牙还牙

古人亦云：
人不为己，天诛地灭
意：人是自私的动物

以上乃我经过漫漫五年的工作经验，自我研发的商场生存之道。^_^

但是，
圣经说：
要爱人如己
意：要爱别人，如同爱自己一般

很难。。。 很难。。。

Raya Break

I am in a mood of blogging tonight! :)

During Raya break, I had almost 4 1/2 days off. My boss was kind enough to let us work from home on last Friday after lunch. That means, I could come home earlier and do some stuffs at home. During the weekends, I have been sleeping for >10 hours a day to compensate my sleep after a very hectic month in September.

On my trip back to Taiping this weekend, EG's mum gave me a new non-stick pot and a new non-stick frying pan. It looks really tempting and I wanted to start cooking. However, frying / cooking is prohibited in my place as EG always complains it will make the whole kitchen oily. The only thing that I can do is boiling soup or some "tong soi". So sad right?

Anyway, after begging and persuading for sometimes, FINALLY, EG allows me to cook for Tuesday's dinner. Yippppie... I was happy because I could try out the new pots.

So, we bought some chicken, potatoes, carrots from Giant, threw it all into the big boiling pot together with a big onion, garlics, salt, etc. And taaadaaaaa.....

I don't know the name of this soup.... I learnt it from EG's mum

EG wanted to just have the soup for dinner initially, but I insisted there should be at least a vegetable. And I rejected his proposal to boil the vegetable together in the soup (YUCKS!). I chased him out of the kitchen. I boiled some broccoli, put it aside. Then, chopped some garlics and fry it together with some minced pork and oyster sauce *with the new frying pan*. And taaaadddaaaaaaa......

Broccoli with minced pork

OK, I know both the dishes are really simple and they don't look too appertizing in the picture. But anyway, to my surprise, EG finished the whole pot of soup (approx 3 big bowls) so I guess it wasn't too bad. And he said the broccoli was nice. I was quite surprise that he actually could eat so much for dinner! But I was happy that at least my cooking passed his fussy taste buds!

Anyway, the new pots are really nice to use - maybe it's because they're new pots. Hehe... And today, I used it to boil barley again.

Now, you guys know where did EG's tummy come from? :P

Btw, just another sharing for fun. EG took a real cute pic - soft toys that EG and I bought for each other. You guess which one was from me for him and vice versa.

Good friends

Couple Lifestyle Trailer

Continuation from my previous blog entry on Couple Lifestyle Photography.

Finally, the long awaited Couple Lifestyle Video trailer is up in Weddingstory website. I have never taken any video before and I have been kinda anxious to know if we'll look awkward in front of the video. However, to my surprise, we turned out to be quite natural!

Check the video out. It's actually a documentary of how Whizarts took our photos. A cool concept.

We just got our free photos and our photo montage from Whizarts last weekend and now, we're waiting for Weddingstory's turn!

Facebook

I am addicted to facebook. Hopelessly.

Facebook - A friend asked me, is it a book where you can put your face at? Well, sort of. In fact, facebook is just another social networking website - just like Friendster or Multiply. However, Facebook has much more functions and features that will make the user addicted to it.

The first thing that made me addicted to facebook was the adopted FLUFF FRIEND. There were a lot of animals or even tofu that you can choose to adopt. And you can buy food with your munny from the fluff shop and feed your fluff friend so that they have better mood and to increase their speed. However, fluff friend might not like all the food. So you got to trial and error, and buy different food for fluff friend till you find the food that he/she/it likes. For my penguin~, she loves sweet rich things like the TACO, Choco-Mango Delight and Cookies. And she hates brocolli the most!

My Penguin~'s feeding history

There are several ways you can earn the munny. By petting your friend's fluff friend, you earn 5 munny for each. However, the most interesting one is to bet on race. And that's really addictive. Funny thing is, for every hour, fluff friend will feel tired after 8 races. It needs to rest before it can race again for the next hour. Interesting....

OK, the winner is EG's smelly cat!

Facebook allows the user to add in as much application as you like. There are thousands of application where you can incorporate into your facebook profile. There are games, walls, virtual gifts, calendar, horoscope, and much much more to be included in your profile. You can upload videos, draw a graffiti to your friends, or you can also be naughty to get your friends' attention by throwing a cow, kiss, hug, slap, moon, wink, wave, smile at, party with, kick, bite, give a flowers/beer to them and etc etc.

Last night, EG and I installed Scrabulous in our facebook. And we played 2 rounds with each other. Again, we had a great time and good laugh as both of us were being cheeky and funny to tease each other and to beat each other. Well, the game is fair. We won one game each!

My winning game. :P

Another application that made me stick to my laptop for the past 2 hours was PACMAN! Gosh, that's such an old game that we played while we're kids. I never expect I could actually be addicated so much to it. In Facebook, PACMAN shows the top 25 friend's scores and EG had the top score, and I was just 300 points behind him. For the past 2 hours, I lost count of how many games that I really had, but finally, I BEAT HIM! Ah, that feels good! I am sure he'll try to beat me again! If not in PACMAN, it'll be in other games!

I am the top scorer in PACMAN! YAY!!

Besides all these, I also have tetris in my facebook profile. It helps a lot in helping me to kill my times and keep myself awake especially during those boring meetings. *ssshhhh... *

You might think that I am really silly to be addicted to this. Well, I thought so too. But it's really interesting. If you don't have a facebook account yet, give it a try. But, don't be regret if you get addicted too! And remember to feed my penguin~ if you have a lot of munny and challenge me in PACMAN as well! >.<

Yummy Pan Mee @ Kin Kin

I always have something for pan mee. I missed the Seri Kembangan Auntie's pan mee a lot but I heard the standard has deteriorate after they moved to a new shop. I tried to find nice pan mee in Penang but I couldn't get any. Then, when I read in Yengs' blog on Kin Kin spicy pan mee, I couldn't help but salivated while looking at the pan mee pictures. Yum yum...

When we went to KL the last weekend, Yengs brought ZX, EG and me to the famous pan mee shop.

The famous Restoran Kin Kin Spicy Pan Mee

It took quite long for them to serve us the pan mee as the shop is forever full. But it's definitely worth it to wait. The pan mee is standard - serves with minced port, some vege and ikan bilis. One thing different is, all the pan mee came together with a 70% done egg... For an egg lover like me, it's definitely a BIG Yum yum...

Look at the yolk... Yummm....

So, the way to eat it is to mix the egg with the mee. The mee will then become sticky with eggie taste. It's really delicious. Quote from my penguin~ flufffriend - It's exquisitely delicious, a meal for kings and gods.

You must be wondering why it is so special about the pan mee. Egg is just something that works for me but the other most important attraction to the customers is none the less but the hot burning CHILLI!

I have to admit that I am not that good with spicy food and I put a decent 2 tea spoon of their famous chili into my pan mee and I couldn't eat anymore after eating 5 mouths. And I had to order extra drinks to cool my tongue down.

My pan mee - Yum Yumm...

But, look what our Bravo Yengs did! He put almost 7 spoonful of the chilis into his pan mee!

Look at the amount of chilis in his bowl. This is before he eats.

When he almost finished, he was already sweating like nobody business! Besides, did you realised the lips size has double? :P

While I was driving back from KL to Penang, I couldn't control but keep thinking about the pan mee. The portion of the mee is very small, so most people will take 2 bowls. In our case, 4 of us took 7 bowls of pan mee. Besides, it's not cheap too - RM4.80 per bowl. But then again, it's really something that you should try!

You think the story ends here? Neh... The most interesting part is... After 4 hours when I reached Penang, my stomach started to growl and gave me some hard time as (I think) I am really not that good with chilis. And the best part is, after I came out from the toilet, I told EG that I felt as if my arse is being fed with chilis! It's really ASS BURNING HOT!!!!!

KL folks, esp. my CDC gang, go try it. Check out Yeng's blog for the address. You won't regret! :)

Trip to San Francisco & Phoenix

I just came back from a business trip to Phoenix, US for 2 weeks. This is the first time I spent almost a day in a plane and flew over the other side of the world.

All these while, except while I am flying home, I hate the feeling of sitting in the plane. I feel very restless while waiting for the plane to reach its destination. Even my previous trip to Philipines which only took 4 hours frustrated me as well. This trip makes no difference, just worse!

On the way to US, I flew for 1 hour from PG to Singapore, later 4 hours from SG to HK, followed by 12 hours from HK to San Francisco, US. And the night mare is, throughout the 17 hours on the flight, I could only close my eyes and slept for 4 hours! And I had to sleep with an eye mask for the first time in my life! My trip back is not much better. The 12 hours from Los Angeles to Tokyo (transit), I couldn't even close my eyes for >10 minutes. So I watched 7 movies on the plane! Such a night mare!

But anyway, the only thing that I enjoyed the most in my trip is, of course, the vist around the places. My friend and I (2 girls!) transitted at San Francisco before we go to Phoenix. We planned out trip around, reading map and asking for direction all around. It's such a nice experience. It's a nice placae with fanstastic perfect weather, around 22 degrees. Cool wind, but it is really sunny. This is when I feel that my Oakley is really useful! :D

Clockwise from left: Me with cable car; in SF Cable car Museum; the famous Lombard Street; SF Ghirardelli square

Clockwise from left: Golden Gates; SF Fisherman's Wharf; Aquarium of the Bay; Famous SF Pier 39

After we left San Francisco, we left to Phoenix. It was US labor's day so it's public holiday. One of my PG friends drove us to Sedona for sight see-ing. The weather is terrible. Terribly hot and stuffy. I put layers and layers on sun block on my face and my body. One thing good is that it's dry in Phoenix, so we don't really feel sticky.

Clockwise from left: Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona; Bell rock (?); @ some national park; Me with a pine tree and Sedona view

Last but not least, I also paid a visit to one of the seven wonders in the world - Grand Canyon. Again, the weather was hot and the trip was tiring. We drove 6 hours to reach Grand Canyon, and another 6 hours to reach back our hotels. However, the view is just AMAZING. I was totally speechless looking at the wonderful creation of God.

A few views from different side of Grand Canyon

Overall, the trip was good. I did a lot a lot of shopping - probably 20 pieces of branded clothes, for EG and my whole family of course. I went with 3/4 full bag, but I came back with 2 full luggage plus one extra bag pack. *wink*. Anyway, I am looking forward to visit US again together with EG one day - that'll be the most fun trip. :)

Sea Lions @ Pier 39, San Francisco

Couple Lifestyle Photography

I have been looking at wedding photography posted in the photographer's blog such as Louis Pang, Whizarts, Weddingstory, Andy Lim, Perfect Moments, and etc. I have always imagined how I'd feel one day if I see my own pictures posted in one of these blogs.

EG and I recently joined a contest by Whizarts and Weddingstory. Since we have a lot of "cute" pictures, I have submitted a few of them from our Langkawi trip last year. And Viola, we won it!

Our Winning pic

We got stressed up when we knew we won it. We just took our pre-wedding bridal studio photo shoot few weeks ago and we had an enough stressful time as we're rushing to buy all the apparel for the photo shoot. To cut the story short, at the end, we have decided to go on casual and we're not going to do anything extra - no hair-set, no manicure / pedicure, no makeup - and go for natural shoots.

The whole experience was fun. Since we already have an intensive training from our pre-wedding shooting, we knew what to expect this time. EG was especially enjoying himself as he just loves to pose in front of the camera. Comparing to me - I am more of a camera freak, and feel awkward when we have to do some intimate "actions". So he did a good job in leading me for good pose for the pictures. Besides, both the photographer & videographer did a good job in breaking the ice. We had great fun in that 3 hours of photo shooting.

As efficient as Whizarts always be, all the pictures are up in his blog a week after the photoshoot. Check out all the pics here! We have been sharing it with our friends. What happened next? Compliments coming into our mailbox non-stop. My sexy piggy even called me up and wanted to ask me more about this. I didn't pick up since I am currently overseas. Roaming is expensive!! (Sorry piggy!!)

My favorite shoot

Some promotion for Whizarts and Weddingstory - They're the professional Photographer and Videographer located in Penang and they fly everywhere to take photos. If you're looking for photographer & videographer, you can consider both of them - not necessary for wedding!

Bear & Cat Talk

Cat always says the Bear has a lot of funny sound effect. After some time, the Cat got influenced as well.

Cat: Do u know there's another bus crash incident and caused the loss of another life?
Bear: Yah, I read about that. Where is it ar?
Cat: It's near Kelantan there.
Bear: Maybe we should think about our plan to take bus down to KL at the end of September for Papakochan's wedding.
Cat: No, don't take bus... Let's just drive down to KL.
Bear: Oh if you're willing to drive then it's better. More convenient ma. I scared tired only.
Cat: Can la... We drive down la.. [Doing the driving action] Onk onk onk onk onk...
Bear: Hehe... Ei Cat, why is driving sound onk onk onk??
Cat: [Grinning] I don't know leh....
Bear: Cat, the driving got onk onk sound, is it because the steering spoilt already?
Cat: [Started laughing] Maybe the absorber spoilt la... Hahahahaha....

Chinese Learning

EG's mandarin has improved a lot ever since we were together. Now, he could communicate better. The most recent "exam" that he took - fetching & talking to 4 uncles & aunties from Miri without me in the car - has also proven that his Chinese level has improved tremendously. Thanks to ME!!!

There are a lot of incidents when he realised that knowing how to read has a lot of advantages. He has been talking about learning how to write and the plan for the learning has been delaying and delaying, until we walked into Popular last Sunday.

I remember when I was in primary school, I used to write a lot of chinese words in a kind of exercise book that also taught you the strokes of the words (笔顺）. I thought that will be a good start for EG. I was browsing through all the exercise books that I could get from him at Primary 1 section. To my surprise, kids nowadays are very smart. Primary 1 books now are very much more difficult than my time! They have comprehension with questions to answer. 20 years back, I think every chapter only has les than 15 characters

But anyway, I found two books that is quite useful for him to start.

Cover of the books

Contents - Looks Familiar?

EG started writing one page last night, and seriously speaking, his hand writing was not too bad and he's really paying attention to the strokes & the vocabulary.

EG's hand writing - Not bad right? :P

So, I am his chinese teacher at home. He called me "deng lao shi" (邓老师), made it funnier and more interesting. I tried to be strict and told him I'll give him spelling test anytime. And if he didn't write it well, I'd ask him to erase all and re-write everything.

But being as cheeky as he always be, he started to ask stupid questions...

EG (with hamsap look): deng lao shi, ni you nan peng you ma? (邓老师，你有男朋友吗?)

*FAINT*...

Happy 10th Birthday, EPCC

EPCC - my church in PG - celebrated its 10th year anniversary last weekend.

I couldn't make it for the celebration. However, I had a glimpse on the program of the anniversary celebration. I could feel the excitement of the whole church for celebrating the day.

I watched the EPCC 10th year anniversary video done by our Media Ministry Team leader posted at his website. I was truly touched by all these people who never gave up on the tough job - growing EPCC from 5 members to 700 members as of now. That's definitely not an easy job.

One of the many many things that I have always been grateful after I moved to PG was that, finally, I am back to church again after almost 10 years.

Happy Birthday EPCC. YOU ROCK!