Half of 2012

A week has come and gone since I sat for my last exam in my entire life (unless I decide to continue studying). Reality hit me in the head: 1. Half of 2012 is gone. 2. I'm 70% done with my Masters. 3. Questions that bugged me a year ago is coming back to haunt. Just this time, I have no choice but to get job but landing myself a job is easier said than done. 

As of now, I have decided to enjoy the last few months of my time here while I can, but I have been enjoying my time here since I arrived :x . The rest, I shall let it run by itself. 

Back to Basics

About a month ago, I went on a Biochar Workshop in Swansea. Where? Swansea, South of Wales. It was one heck of a long ride down from Sheffield.. a good 6 long hours.

The workshop was run by an organic farmer who doesn't believe in fertilisers and the conventional fuel. He designed some cooking stove that could produce fire, capture the heat and produce biochar at the end. Nothing is left unused; which is a good thing for the Earth but there are sceptics.

But leaning a side, Swansea is well known for its beaches. So of course I went, but at 6am with a bunch of 20 year old kids. The weather was so cold and we took a long way there because we were lost. I was walking in the cold with an empty stomach which wasn't too great but the view and the peace at the beach at 7am was worth it.

 This was the meal that I had at the farm. Everything is organic and cooked with the wood stove. The black rock is actually baked potatoes covered in soot. Simple but so delicious

Two of the horses at the farm. We practically slept next to the horses.

This is a wild garlic leaf. Tastes exactly like garlic!

Peaceful beach

Sunrise

The trip was a good reminder that sometimes, the simple things in life are the best. I did not even think of work or stressed any deadlines during the trip. Getting exposed to people from different places and courses also have their perks. 

Another year

Last year, this time of the year, I was busy writing up my final year dissertation and blew off 23 candles on my cake. Fast forward a year, I blew off 24 candles last week and am still stuck with assignments. Seems like nothing much changed but a lot has indeed taken place over the course of a year. I am a year older (hopefully a year wiser) and far, far, far away from home. I've come to the final 3 months of my postgraduate studies and again about to meet another crossroad in my life. Looking back, I've never felt like I grew since I was 20. Maybe it's just me  in denial but time went by so fast that it felt like it didn't move at all.

Compared to last year, I had a very much toned down birthday affair. Just a nice small dinner with my flatmates and friend and a nice birthday cake to go with it.

Well, here's to wishing myself a very happy 24th. May I grow up well, strong and mature with a bright future.

Travels

Since I arrived in the UK, I didn't do any blog on my travels.

The first pit stop I did was Paris with my dear friend who flew all the way here for a month's holiday with me.Paris is beautiful as every tour book tells you and lives up to all the pictures I've seen on tv, brochures etc etc. We did everything touristy and took loads of pictures.

For me, my favourite place in Paris would be Versailes. The palace was just gorgeous and grand. Best part was, because I am a student in the EU, I got to get in for free, saving €14.

The 5days 4 nights trip was walk walk walk, take pics, walk walk, more pics and dinner + a bottle of wine every night. Yes, wine is so cheap; cheaper than a bottle of Evian. We stayed in an apartment in Trocadero, one of the high end residential areas in Paris without even knowing about it when we book. Although the room was rather small, it was sufficient as a place to camp for the night after a long day out.

However, the downside of Paris is the price and the weather was really cold when we were there. On pictures, it might seem warm and nice, but in reality it was about 2 degrees everyday and we have to walk 10-12 hours a day out in the cold. Everything in Paris was relatively expensive. Trains, food, entrance fees and accommodations too. And talking about trains and metro, they are old and poorly maintained although punctual and efficient. Gets you where ever you want.

There are 2 themes park at Disneyland. We booked our tickets online for a bargain price. Disney never fails to amaze me but it was toooo cold + wind + rain...making it a not so fun day. Queue for most of the rides were really long and took up to an hour or two which made it really difficult to bear in the cold. But Disney is Disney none the less <3

The trademark of Paris... Eiffel Tower. We went up the tower the previous night and came back for a photo the next day. As with all attractions in Paris, queue is always long, unless you choose to walk up to the observation deck which did not have any queue. But it was an experience being up in the tower. Great view of the entire city. The Sein River just right below the tower. Everything looked like it was from the 50s when blended together.

This is escargot. I love it! One of the best entrees I have had. We loved it so much that we had it 2 nights in a row.

We went to a lot more places but I'm just too lazy to post pictures. Arc de Triumphe, Champs Elysee, Notre Damn, Sacre Couer, Montmartre and Louvre. The architectures are awesome especially Notre Dame and Sacre Couer.

A side note, entrance to churches are free i.e. Notre Dame and Sacre Couer but Sacre Couer doesn't allow anyone to take pictures because they sell photo books of the place as an income to maintain the church. If you watched the Disney movie, Hunchback of Notre Dame, you might remember the bridge above the church. That you have to stand in a queue 100m long and pay €8 to go up; which of course we didn't go.

On a different note, I now understand why it's called the most romantic city in the world and where the word french kiss got its origins. The french are surely romantics and kiss a real passionate kiss where ever they are... you'll understand when you step foot in Paris some day ;)

Number 365 and counting...

One year ago today a question was asked and it changed many things in my life. 365 days later and counting.. the question still puzzles me

Catching up

Seems like time doesn't fly any more. It zooms by at lightning speed. One moment I was anticipating somewhere and in the blink of an eye, it's over and I have to wait for my next anticipation to come.

February was a great month for me. My good friend dropped by for a month and we went places, ate lots of food and finally watched a real football game. Who would have guessed that England has better dim sum than Penang.

March descended upon me without me having any preparations for it. Reality reappeared in my life and I have literally tonnes of work to get off my back. It's so hard to get back into momentum to work my ass off... and that reminds me that I need to shed off those extra pounds that I put on while on holiday. Easier said than done though. ('¬')

Glimpses of 2011

Another has come and gone... and because I was inspired by a video I watched on youtube called move where the guy took 1 second footage around the places he backpacked around the globe, I'm gonna do it with a lil twist to my yearly looking back post with a picture for each month that went by in my 2011

I kick started the year with my dear family all around the world.. Call them quirky, weird..young and old, I still love them non the less.

The highlight February... 10 years of friendship with my dear Kiddies.. I hope that our friendship will continue for many more 10 years...

It might a lil too late for some people, but love found me at age 23. We're never too old for anything if you ask me.

I finally turned 23! Time flies. I feel like I haven't grown since I turned 21

Saying goodbye to my coursemates of 3 years and bye bye to undergraduate life

Sekinchan with a not so familiar yet familiar gang of fun people

Taking the lead as Head Girl, she took the big leap forward in life in July 2011

August took me to 2 polar opposite countries. My almost yearly pilgrimage to Singapore except this time with an addition ;)

A weird but fun combination of family travel to Hatyai in August

Hello UK! Continuing life as a student once more

My dearest family in UK made my arrival even sweeter.. I just love my cute niece so much!

Experiencing the true Halloween spirit for the first time on 31 October 2011

Seems like I've always been in weird combinations.. This time 4 guys and a girl as a laboratory group.

Finally, a great ending to a roller coaster 2011...Christmas in London. A real western affair.

2011 was an interesting year. Things happened. Things that I wouldn't have imagined happened. But altogether, it was great and I will definitely miss it. Come to think of it, I happen to go somewhere every year. And crossing my fingers, I hope this tradition will continue on for many more years.

New Year's Resolution: Be happy in spite of what people might think about me and just be me. I realise as I grow older, I strongly feel that nothing is more important than being content. So simple, yet so difficult to attain sometimes.

P.S. Looking back at the resolutions I made last year... I achieved all of them! Woohooooo! *pats myself on the back*

Random Part 2..

Realised my writing has been sporadic and with not much content.

Today I'm gonna write about bring away from home (Although I've been away from home for 3 years, but nobody bothered).

When I came, I was excited..felt that it's great to be in the UK. I like the place, the people, the school and even the gloomy but always cool weather.

And then, I met my flatmates, which turned out to be really nice people. Friendly and

responsible..Small chit chats to pass time and occasional flatmate dinners for get together and socialising among ourselves. It's a wonder how a house of American, Chinese and Malaysia can get along so well.

Going to classes are sometimes a bore, but interesting at the same time. They give a different feel to what I experienced back in UMS. Students are more interactive (except me) but still as last minute as ever. Guess students are all the same all over the world.

Partying? No..I've not been to any parties...Strange but true. Someone told me: But you are in the country with the highest density of pubs! Maybe I have not found a clique that will do those things with me.

Inside, I feel a little tad cut off from the world. I don't have much friends which can be a little lonely at times but I don't look at it as a bad thing. I enjoy being alone.. or rather I've gotten used to being alone.. just like how I went through my undergraduate life. Apart from that, life's been treating me good here I guess.

Tonight, we had another flatmate dinner, a Thanksgiving dinner and it made me reflect on what I have and I felt thankful for them.

Picture of the church opposite of my house on a rainy autumn day...

Random..

Since I have not blogged for some time, I think it's time for an update.

Life in Sheffield so far has been plain..like plain Jane plain. I go to class, cook, do some work and sleep and the whole cycle restarts the next day... True, I in the highest pub density country in Europe and yada yada but I haven't got the right friends to spend some fun time with. Everyone's always locked behind their room doors or either not a social butterfly. I am not a social butterfly too but sometimes, I need to have fun too. This is the only downside to my university life here.

In my 6th week now, and I am liking my life here although there are things that I do miss back home. Realised that no man is an island. Even more when I went to visit my aunt over the weekend. The town was small with nothing fun but I totally enjoyed my 24hour stay there because of the company. Miss the foods at home as I have to make dinner for myself here and sometimes just doesn't taste right just not as delicious as what I get at home.

Weather's turning cold here. Gets colder by the day but I'm liking it. I can walk and walk and walk but need not sweat and pant. And I enjoy the autumn breeze and colors of the trees. Overall, I'm taking a liking to UK :) *hoping to befriend some fun people soon*

A new beginning....

Finally the long wait and uncertainty is over. I am once again back on the studying path, but this time in a totally different setting. I'm currently writing this from my flat in Sheffield on my 3rd day here. Sometimes I wonder why I subject myself to studying all over again (I can't get a job; hence studying is better than being unemployed)

So far, adapting to life here has been good. There's not much adaptation needed; I speak as much mandarin as I did in my previous university...just as the Chinese said: China Chinese are everywhere.

The weather and the people are nice. The only thing that I still have not let go is always converting the amount of money I spend back to RM. But hey, this is only natural as I am paying everything at 5x more expensive than the price tag. In actual fact, if you don't convert the money, things are considerately cheap here. Maybe I should get a part-time job to sustain myself.

Just because I enjoyed it

Last night, I went to a David Archuleta concert. So, I decided to blog about it because I enjoyed it so much and he gave an awesome show.

For the first time at a concert, I wasn't busy clicking away on the camera. I was just relaxing and enjoying the show. The experience gave me a totally different feel to enjoying a concert. Maybe in the future, I will not bring a camera to a concert to fully enjoy the show.

Anyways, back to David...He really indeed is an American Idol. All he did was sing..His voice was powerful, not once did his vocals failed the crowd. And the more the crowd reacted to him, the more powerful he became on stage. He improvised as he went along, running up and down the notes and interacting with the concert goers. Everyone was so excited and all jumpy.

I may not know the words to every single song, but David really got me starstruck by his vocal. No costume changes, no back-up dancers...just pure 1.5 hours of good singing. Leaving the concert, I have a totally different perspective of David Archuleta now.

His fans were great...They go from as young as 5 year olds to 50 year olds....and surpisingly (maybe not), adults were partying harder than their younger peers. However, speaking of aggressiveness, the younger crowd wins hands down. There's this instance, when the concert ended, the band (apparently the band is very popular with the fans as well) interacted with the crowd while packing up their gears, they were throwing their drumsticks and score sheets to the remaining fans and all these young girls were fighting with their life to get those souvenirs...And their screams...totally deafening I tell you (think I'm getting old to get into fangirl mode).

If you ask me: will u attend another David Archuleta concert in the future..My answer's a definite Yes!

This and That

I just realized that my previous posts were words. So today I've decided to put up pictures instead of more ramblings.

I took this in Sekinchan ( more like grabbed from facebook). This was my first time in a paddy field. I love how the picture turned out. The color of the sky and the green paddy fields.

This was on top of some KL hill in Ampang. The place has quite an awesome night view of KL city.

Finally, the long awaited wedding. The wedding was wonderful to say the least. Good food, good music and best of all good company.

Half a year over

In the blink of an eye, half of 2011 is over and done with. Time flies like nobody's business. And so many things happened! The goods and the bads but I truly hope that the second half of 2011 brings much more excitements and goods rather than bads.

Things are still looking hazy for me and it is hard to be enjoying the present but I am trying my best.

And as for my internship, there's still 3 more weeks to go. Like I said, time flies. It seems like I just came to Kuala Lumpur last week to start my internship. Lo and behold, I'm in my 7th week already.

p.s. just a random blog from my office on a boring wednesday.

Someone's getting MARRIED!

The first among my good friends to get married. And since it's a first, everyone's s-u-p-e-r hyped up about it. We had a bacherlorette party for her last weekend. But's she's a goody-2-shoes so there weren't much wild stuff that we managed to do. But it was fun. The club that we went to was practically empty but as the saying goes, it's not the club but the crowd that you are with. We had a good and crazy time among ourselves injected with hilarious moments in between. Some unexpected things happened but it was all in good fun.

CONGRATULATIONS TO MY HEADGIRL. Muaks! Can't wait to attend your wedding ;)

OMG It's Week 5 already?

This week has entered my fifth week in Kuala Lumpur. And I've practically spent it doing nothing much. Just going to the office and staying at home, not much exploring done. It's so untypical of me but I guess I just want to enjoy the laid back time that I am getting here. Some peace and quiet which I don't usually get elsewhere.

Just a random candid shot that my gfs took of me and I like it :)

Bye Bye For Good

3 years in Sabah has finally came to an end. I will definitely miss those days of fooling around, studying, rushing assignments and also sitting for exams (yea, call me crazy).

Before I left, I went to have some fun with my friends (Duh!). Enjoyed it the way we did when we first arrived in Sabah.

Looks familiar? This was exactly the same spot we took picture when we were in our first year.

These are the same people that I have been hanging out with since first year.

Some of my coursemates that I often hang with and team up for assignments. This is also one of my favourite lecturers, an eccentric person.

However, all things have an end to them (or else there would be no beginning right?)

Everything that I've saw, learnt and got to know will be cherished in my brain.

The Next Phase of Life

Location: Office

and what am I doing in the office?? Blogging...after a long time..

Currently I am standing at the crossroads of my life. I finished my undergraduate studies. Doing my internship right now; with another 7 weeks to go. Now the tricky part is deciding the path which I will thread from here. Everything in front of me is covered by a veil of mist. I know the paths are in front of me, but I fear for I cannot see clearly behind that veil. The typical 'what if' questions bog my mind daily (I tend to analyse things).

I've tried my best.Put my best effort to walk the path that I want to. But until the mist clears, I guess I'll just be standing at the junction for some time to come. But where ever I go, I try to make the best out of everything. The cup is always half full; I believe so.

What ever will be will be :)

Finally, I'm home

As the title reads, I'm finally home for good. I finally finished my three years in uni! I'm about to graduate. I'm bound somewhere which is yet to be known.

I'm currently enjoying the last few perks of being a student. Lazing at home. Sleeping time away and go on a feeding frenzy.

My future path is still in a daze. There's no clear picture what's awaiting me. This leaves me a lil scared of the unexpected.

But I just received some good news..and I'm SO EXCITED!

The best is yet to come. I hope this phrase is what is coming for me in the future.

Final Final Exams

Currently, I'm in the midst of my final exams in my final year for my undergraduate studies. A lil excited and a lil scared. I'm all excited to graduate and finally be done with my bachelor studies but at the same time I'm a lil scared of what's to come. There's just so many uncertainties. Where am I heading after this? What do I really want to achieve from here onwards since studying and graduating are in my grasps.

Everything is mystery. However, like I previously blogged...the only thing and the right thing to do at the moment is to enjoy the moment and be in the moment. There's no point in thinking too far ahead although planning ahead is good.

With 2 more weeks left in Sabah, the land below the wind...it's becoming bittersweet for me. Let's just take in as much as I can before I leave. Come to think of it, it just seemed like it was only yesterday when I blogged about coming to Sabah to start my bachelor studies. Time just zoomed by me I guess. A blink of the eye later, 3 years (almost) had gone by, many things changed, I matured (sort of, I think) and I'm leaving soon.

Reality Check

April's here. I've gone through a quarter of 2011. My uni life ends in 2 weeks. Exams in a month. 5 pending assignments. Life's just treating me 'great' at the moment. Lack of sleep, lack of rest and lack of appetite. I'm so caught up with work that I don't have time for myself to stop and think. My routine: Wake up > Go to class > Lunch > Stare at laptop (min. 10hours/day) > Sleep and the cycle repeats.

But, I digress. I want to be happy in my last 2 weeks of uni. I want to enjoy it to the max. My three years of undergraduate study is going to be up real soon. So, no matter how hard it is, I want to enjoy every single moment to the last of it.

Before this chapter closes, I hope to make the best out of it. Reality...touche!