How can I not talk about this Twilight frenzy which has practically taken over my fantasy world right?

Edward Cullen (just in case those “logical” thinking people are unaware)

My twilight frenzy started in Melbourne at Susi’s place – few months ago – well to be exact, in October. It was just one of the ordinary nights with Susi and the whole family. All girls except for Oppa – Susi’s husband. Susi asked: “Hey Joanna, have you watched the Twilight move?” No I had not, at that point. I heard about the movie. So we watched the movie, me, for the first time, and Susi, the second time.

Oh my Gaaawwwddd ! I guess it’s the same with most girls all over the world – you’d fall in love instantly with Edward Cullen. By looking at his face alone, I would gasp – literally every single time. He (Edward Cullen; not Robert Pattinson) is just terribly beautiful – perfect features like how Stephenie Meyer has put it in her book.

Later on, I bought the whole Twilight Series books! As everyone always repeatedly saying, reading the books is so much fucking better than the movie itself; though watching the movie really helps with your imagination while you are reading the book. I finished these 4 books in a span of 3 fucking weeks! I couldn’t stop, especially when I am reading Book 2 – New Moon and Book 4 – Breaking Dawn. I needed to remind myself to sleep if it was a working week day. And if it was a weekend, God! I could go on and on and I could literally do nothing – not ironing my clothes, not working out – but only read these awesome books!

I watched “Twilight” the first movie 3 times. And yesterday, I finally get to watch the long awaited “Twilight: New Moon”. The best past was – despite the fact that Edward Cullen and Jacob Black are so damn attractive – Mom, Dad and Sis were all up for this whole Twilight Saga. Dad even made a remark saying that, of all the men in this movie, Carlisle Cullen (Edward Cullen’s foster father) has the most charming face; I couldn’t agree more with Dad. Well I just have to say that my parents have just been so cool and “supportive” about this Twilight frenzy!  I know for sure that my mom and dad would never say things like: Stop reading those stupid books and be real! nope never!

Though Dad did say that Edward Cullen’s body is not as great as Jacob Black’s. Then I explained to Dad, saying that when Edward Cullen was still human and dying, he was sick and hence the less built body. And guys, have you seen the Jacob and his wolf pack? Oh my god! Oh My God! Oh My God! Like what my sis said, everyone in the pack is so damn cute! My sis is team Jacob – the wolf team and Iz is team Edward, And myself, I am a greedy person, I love both and want both.

I have to salute Stephenie Meyer for creating such amazing fantasy story! The details, the dialogues, the conversations, the incredible power that certain vampires have etc etc! How could she even come out with such imaginations? Like at all? I love you Stephenie Meyer! I love the way your imaginative brain works.

Then there are some comments or critics given by these so-called “logical” thinking bunch of folks. They said that the story was illogical or that it didn’t make sense. Fuck-wit! HELLO!! It’s a fucking fantasy fiction! It’s not supposed to be logical! It supposed to be totally out-of-the-box! It supposed to be imaginary and everything being possible in a fantastic way! I just do not understand why people as such – people who think that they are so freaking logical would even have intention to watch such a movie!

I am a person who loves fantasy and imagination simply because it’s limitless. Do you know that Stephenie Meyer created all these characters because she dreamt of Bella? Just based on a dream. So I love movies, I love fantasies. And I couldn’t imagine anyone who doesn’t love movies at all!

Then again it’s freaking free world. 6 billion in population and one can never expect a 2nd person to be thinking the same like you do!

 

Take a look at yourself in the mirror, who do you see looking back?

Is it the person you want to be?

Or is there someone else you were meant to be?

The person you should have been but felt short of.

Is someone telling you that you can’t or you won’t? Because you CAN

Believe that love is in here and out there

Sometimes happiness doesn’t come from money or fame or power

Sometimes happiness comes from good friends and family

And from the quiet nobility of leading a good life

So take a look in that mirror and remind yourself to be happy

Because you deserve to be

Believe that

And believe that dreams come true every day, because they do.

So apparently it’s the school holidays now.

The traffic is supposedly to be clear and smooth and not like any normal working-schooling days.

But fuck no! Freaking fuck no! The traffic is equally jam! or even worse!

Why? Why? Why?

Are all the parents sending their kids for extra classes and tuitions?

If they are, then why are the parents doing this?

Kids .. kids .. you are a just kid … stay at home and be a kid …

You probably have another 60-70 years of life to freaking live!

Why rush through life?!

Why are you so bloody eager to learn so much thing at a young tender age?

And resulting in your parents having to drive you to these classes and hogging the damn traffic!!

Just stay at home and be a kid …

Stop going for extra classes ..

And if you do have extra classes, why not take those that starts in the afternoon, like during off-peak hours?

Ok. That’s all I needed to say to vent off my morning frustration of stupid traffic jam for no fucking good reasons.

Saturday I got up at 6.15 am. I forced by myself to sleep at 11 pm. Adi was sort-of transiting in Kuala Lumpur and flying back to India that afternoon. His bus from Singapore reached KL freaking early, at bloody 5.30 am. Thank God I remembered there was this SOL Melia Hotel nearby and I asked him to wait for me there. At least he could chill and have his breakfast. And I met up with him before 8 am.

Poor guy, looked freaking doped. Well I supposed I would look the same without sleep.

I know Adi when I was in KPMG. We were assigned to the same project in one of those occasions. Although I was a senior at that job back then, I was equally blur.  Well that’s not the point here. It’s easy to be Adi’s friend. He is like one of those souls you meet whom everyone loves. Easy going, simple and comfortable. Well I don’t even remember when I got comfortable with him where we just talked about anything.

So I picked him up from the Hotel at 8 am and we drove (well I drove) to the LCC Terminal where he was catching his flight. See I am not local. I didn’t actually grow up in Kuala Lumpur. Well truth be told, the longest time I have stayed in one same house was 6 years max. So there was not really a place I am truly familiar with.

Same goes with this City. I was supposed to drive to LCC Terminal from Kuala Lumpur. I saw signs of KLIA everywhere in Kuala Lumpur but I dared not try it. So instead I drove 45 minutes to get out of the city and reached the end of another town area – USJ. And from USJ I drove another 1 hour or so before we reached the airport terminal. By this time Adi was already fast asleep.

Once we reached the terminal, searching for parking was truly a hassle. It was so freaking crowded (note to self: To try to use less of the “fuck” word; but instead replaced by the “freaking” word) as early as 9 am plus! Then again, that Saturday was actually the start of the year end school holiday. On that note, it means that I don’t need to wake up that early to bit the morning traffic to work. And that would also mean that I might end up later at work (the taking for granted mentality).

Then we decided to hang out at Starbucks – well probably the more decent and quiet place to chill in an airport like LCCT. In case you have no idea, LCCT is actually the low-cost carrier terminal mainly servicing Air Asia flights.

So Adi and I chatted and talked and all that; catching up 8 months of lost time. The last time I saw him was in March, just before I left Singapore. It was also a day where he gave me a farewell instead of joining the crowd that sent me off. And Saturday, was again another farewell. But it was less unbearable this time. I guess time does help you become stronger in saying goodbyes.

So about Starbucks …

I never understood why places like Starbucks charges so high a price. RM26 for just two cups of coffee and tea?

Then while Adi went to the wash room, I took some pictures and this was my favourite. The father was taking pictures of his girls. I just could not help but to notice how cute that curly hair girl was. I am not sure what’s wrong with the picture, somehow something’s missing. I have to ask my Guru. 

Later that evening, I brought ma again to Kanna Curry House!

Yum!

For the past couple of years, I have developed an interest for reading. I did not grow up in an environment which encouraged reading. We have TVs, we had bicycles, parks, and dogs as pets. That’s how we spent our free time when we were not in school. We lived near school and mom drove us to and fro from home.

So for the past few years, when I had almost all the time to myself, no TV and when I was so bored with the Internet, I started reading. The following are books which I have read since 2007 and these are my take on the books.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

Randy died of cancer. In his final days, he gave a lecture to an audience. Instead of giving the lecture as a so-called last lecture, he gave lectures on how to move forward in life, how to keep on going.

He also mentioned how difficult it was for him, his wife and family to deal with his cancer. Everyday could be a last day.

He also taught us how to search for your passion like how a kid loves his toys. Remember those days as kids where you did some things simply because you love it and no other reasons.

And now as adults, you always do things because of a reason behind it, a reason of logic and not so much of “just for the fun of it”.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth was struggling in her marriage and finally she decided to divorce her husband because it was not what she truly wanted. She was lost.

In all her lost and search, she decided to embark on a 12 month tour to see things from a different perspective. She went to each these three places for 4 months each: Italy, India and Indonesia.

In Italy, that’s where she learns to indulge and enjoy simply the goodness of food, life, and wine. In India, she learnt meditation and Hinduism; a totally different lifestyle from Italy. Letting go and serenity were core of her life there. In Indonesia, it’s both a balance between serenity, spirituality and human love and desires. There, she found her new love.

From her, I learnt a woman should love herself more than anything before she decides to love another person. And a woman should be free to choose her own life and love.

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

An book introduced by Oprah Winfrey. It’s a story by an ex-drug addict.

James got into drugs and alcohol way too young – since 11 or 12. Whatever drug name you heard of, he had tried it. So he had been an addict for more than half his life. But his parents never gave him up. They sent him to rehab. In the rehab, James gave a very graphical (in words) and detailed description of the way an addict would react if they were deprived of the only one thing that they were depending their lives on – drugs.

There were a few times where he would give up rehab and had a relapse. There were times where it was so difficult to confront or face his parents of his addictions. And his parents were guilty of not taking care of him properly when he was younger. He was admitted to the rehab at the age of 23.

It’s truly touching, emotional and gave me a new perspective to these people.

Yoga by Richard L. Hittleman

I found this book in dad’s book collection. Yeah that’s another book man. We have tonnes of books at home.

This book is good I am telling ya! I am still referring to it as often as possible. And this book is mainly designed for the sedentary workers like myself.

There are a few Yoga moves which are really good in helping you feeling energized, relaxed, and most importantly sleeping like a log, that I could not even hear the phone ring even if it was just beside my ear.

It’s a good reference book. It’s small, and it’s light. And it saved me $$$ from going for Yoga classes.

It was first published in the 70’s.

Fatherhood by Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby is by far one of the funniest guy I have known on earth. If you’ve watched “The Cosby Show” or Bill’s own stand up comedies (Youtube it), then he wrote this book exactly as the way he talks.

Super hilarious, super funny. This book is so suitable for new fathers.

He started the book talking about why men and women decided to have kids – I remembered he said maybe because the man and woman never knew how demonic kids could be. Then the book goes by chapter, he talks about his views on kids as they grew.

I think even if you are not a parent, you should read this book. I read this book in the airport and on the plane. And I literally laughed out loud in the public!

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Another of dad’s collection.

I have only picked up this book recently when I am facing with a difficult person at work. It’s more like lessons on human psychology and teaching you why certain human behave a certain way.

And if you knew why they behave a certain way, the book teaches you how to deal with them in a positive. But of course, a genuine, honest way and not fake politeness.

I am still trying to understand this difficult person at work. And I am wondering what is it about me that this person dislike so much. Is there anything I could be doing better?

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

If you do not understand the meaning of “Letting go of attachments” or “reaching in to reach out”, then I will recommend this book to you.

The concepts taught in this book is not religious. But I believe Eckhart has learnt the concepts of Buddhism and put them in (if not everything) this book and using terms that EVERYONE could understand.

He is very good in using non Buddhism jargons. Just a reminder to all – Buddhism, as I learnt and know, is not a religion. That’s why I practice the doctrine of Buddhism.

A good book if you wish to understand the inner you better.

Remember me by Sophie Kinsella

We all know who Sophie Kinsella is; just in case you don’t for some weird reasons, she’s the author of the Shopaholic series. Ironically, I have not read her Shopaholic series, but I read her “Can you keep a secret?” back in college and this.

The reason I got this book because I read it halfway at Susi’s place in Melbourne. and I just had to finish the story. The main character Lexi woke up one day and realised that she has lost her memory of the past 3 years. Totally forgotten as a result of a car accident that she had her head knocked hard.

Her new life is totally different from what she used to know. In her new life, she’s married, rich, and a bitch-ass boss. Now, she has to relearn her new life and find out her past 3 years, only to learn that she has a secret lover and her old friends all hated her.

Now, given a 2nd chance, can she do better?

The Twilight Saga by Stepenie Meyer

By far the most exciting, most awesome book collection ever!

It’s those kind of stories where once you started you couldn’t put it down.

I have spent like a lot of weekends, doing nothing but to have these books in my hand. Finishing chapters by chapters, and book by book.

The movie is exciting as well but we all know that movies can never be as good as the details in the books.

Nonetheless, this 21st century vampire love story is really breath taking.

I am still looking forward to the New Moon movie, premiering 26th November.

* * * * * *

So now I am sort of not having any books in hand to read, but I do have some which I have yet to read.

I am contemplating between the following two:

Left: Teaches you the deeper ways of mindfulness meditation.

Right: Something I should be looking into to fully utilise my Nicholas.

I was a constant meditator a few years back. Though I have not been practicing it for a long time, I have to say that, the period which I had practiced it, it has built a foundation for me to deal with challenging times. I think it has helped me a lot. I hardly get really angry or should I say these days I hardly give any damn. I think I should get back to it.

And that’s my book reading story … what about you? Have you read anything interesting lately?

Finally I get to learn to use Adobe Photoshop. This is my very first try. I have yet to look into any guide books or “Photoshop for Dummies”.

This is the original picture.

 

Then I took the paper bag out from the background.

 

Lastly, I took Piggy head out. Tilted it straight. And added some text.

Done! Fun! My very first Photoshop art work!

When I firstly arrived in Singapore in 2007, I was using a mobile which has no camera function at all, not even mp3 music. I didn’t have a camera either. So I was in a foreign land, a country which I never been to and I had no gadgets to snap memories of that place. I told myself I needed to get one. And that started my interests for photography …

Initially I got myself a compact digital camera – a Fuji FinePix – exactly like the one shown here.

It was of course fun initially, taking pictures and all. But even before that, I was already amazed with amazing pictures, especially pictures with people in it.

I always look at pictures from National Geographic and how amazing these photographers have taken these breath taking pictures.

Grand dad was a photojournalist and my whole life, I have been looking at those wall pictures hanging at mom’s old home. Looking back, the Fuji FinePix was just okay.

My demand for better pictures is obviously “worse” now then before. But I knew I was always not satisfied with the quality of the pictures I took with that Fuji FinePix. However, that was what I could afford back then or rather, I didn’t know my requirements were getting higher as time passes.

A while later, I had enough with quality of pictures which I could not be pleased with, no matter which ever I angle I took. I upgraded to the Canon Powershot S5 IS. And now, Fuji is with my little sis.

My Charlie (I named it to “Charlie” – like I named my iPod as Poddy) has been to many places and events. At that I point I gotten it, I was truly amazed with its results. Charlie is considered a hybrid – better than a compact digital camera but not as great as a DSLR.

Charlie records very sharp videos and with its in built quite sensitive mic, you video’s sound is superb when replayed! One of the best thing about Charlie is that its view finder – I’m not sure if that’s the right term – can be flipped 360 degrees. It can be flipped to face yourself and very important if you love cam whoring yourself.

Charlie has taken quite a fair bit of pictures …

Company parties. This was quite a funny take and the pictures got circulated to the whole department; which became the talk of the month! If It didn’t show you the picture before the “kissing” one, I am pretty sure you might think they were really kissing!

The firm’s community day where we brought autistic children to a tiny farm.

Took pictures of the clouds when I was on one of the flights back home from Lion City.

Charlie followed me to Cambodia. And we came back with 1,000 + pictures.

I even brought Charlie out for clubbing. I think those were coke + Hennessy. On Valentine’s night.

Well not very good idea to bring Charlie out for clubbing and dancing; coz then you need to worry you don’t lose him.

Then Charlie was the “back up” camera on Bro’s most important day of his life.

I tried to search my blog archive for Bro’s wedding day but couldn’t find any! Oh my god!

I think I did not blog about it because immediately after bro’s wedding, I went to Cambodia.

And after that I fell sick with dengue.

* * * * *

A few months past. I was still taking pictures with Charlie. But at the same time, I was also looking more into professional photography.

Many times, Charlie couldn’t perform how I want it to perform; especially night shots. I couldn’t control the intensity of Charlie’s flash. There’s no function to it. It would always either be too bright or too dark.

Charlie’s pictures always have too much noise. As you can see from the pictures above, the dots on the pictures. Charlie’s not sharp enough to my liking.

And after some research, questioning, survey, I acquired Nicholas the Nikon D300 and my life is hiked up ever since! Charlie is now in Dad’s safe keeping. Dad uses it to record his guitar-playing videos. Watch this YouTube.

Nicholas is what I could afford within his range of DSLR’s. Of course if I could, I would be getting Nikon D700 or Nikon D3. But getting gadgets like these, it’s all about your budget. If you want to best DSLR, it could cost you a fortune, and that does not make sense right?

So there Nicholas is with me now. Nicholas has taught me many terms – aperture, shutter speed – the two most important factors in capturing the perfect lighting for the perfect picture. (Disclaimer: This is my understanding of photography as a total beginner of DSLR. If you are a pro, I welcome your critiques. Do correct me if I am wrong).

I have also interacted with a few very helpful professional photographers. Who often lectured me for not reading the manual. There’s an abbreviation called RTFM – Read the fucking manual! Well very often, after the lecturing, I would get the actual photography lecture.

It’s really fun with Nicholas. I have taken pictures of beautiful sceneries …

To baby photos ….

Taking baby pictures it’s really fun; especially with baby as cheerful as little Yuna.

Check out this folder in Flickr.

To family portraits …

Then just last week I had my very first experience for being a photographer at an International event.

Chasing and walking backwards whilst the Minister of Finance arrived …

Speech giving moment …

Gong ceremony officiating the event ….

People always say find your passion. I never knew what it meant until I started this photo taking. I am definitely still a beginning. The thing about “passion”, in my definition is that, when you are doing things you are passionate about, it gives you an orgasmic high! No matter how tired you were, there would always be this inner strength that drive you.

I felt that way for the last event I was involved with. When I was in my “zone”, my mind was all about focusing into the camera, and searching for the best angle that I could take. I was never self-conscious if the audience was looking at me. It’s like there was only me and my object of the photo and nothing else. Simply because I was in my “zone”.

So that’s my story … what’s next? A lot of things to learn – for a start, I really need to read the fucking manual to better understand my Nicholas and then I need to get a flash guard.

I almost typed “Fish” Village instead of “Fishing” village. If it was really a “fish” village, it would mean that the village’s residence would all be fishes. =_=” Ok, enough of all that bull crap.

Last Saturday, during lunch, dad suggested to bring us to Port Klang for a simple lunch. This fishing village is located at North Port and quite remote. I am not really sure how to give you the directions to this place though.

The first thing I saw was these two little girls who was sitting on a wooden walk way. The girls were very sweet but not the environment they were living in. Just below that wooden bridge were rubbish! Literally rubbish everywhere! Gross! But the place we had lunch were a distance from this bridge. Let’s take a look…

Walking into the village. These houses are built on top of stilts. And below it are muddy mud when low tide or just sea water when high tide.

This is what I meant – house built on stilts. Is “stilts” the right word? Well, you get the idea. It was a gloomy and drizzly day and hence the drop of water on my lens.

Another view. It was low tide when we got there and very windy. I was actually feeling rather chilly with the strong breeze by the “beach”. I am not sure if you could call it “beach” though.

You can see a lot of sea-snails. Again, I am not sure if that’s even correct to call them that. That’s how my brain works, thinking-out-loud. We call it “siput” over here. And just as you arrived this village, you can smell that fishy stench around the whole area.

The area was mostly populated by Chinese residence, hence you can see those red-hut prayers stands. Each houses is relatively small I think. And they are closely built together.

The coffee house is located almost the centre of the village but by the “coast”. It has a “sea view”. I would rather call it a muddy beach + sea view + together with berthed ships.

And now the food …

Fried noodles. They did not use the usual yellow noodles or those “big” noodles which we used for Hokkien Mee. Instead, they used this other type of transparent-squarish-tangy texture noodle. The noodle is chewy and the sauce was a little sweet and spicy.

Fried beehoon. Normal tasting but not bad.

Fried rice. It was smoking hot when I took the picture hence the misty image.

The lunch cost us (3 of us) RM12. Cheap huh? And the portion was HUGE! very suitable for big appetite guys!

Dad and ma and uncle on bike.

Overall, the food was normal and on the sweet side. But it’s the ambience that makes it homely and comfortable. I can totally live in a fish village of wooden planked houses as long as there’s Astro (paid satellite TV) and Internet.

After lunch I thought we were heading home and I planned to take nice long nap, especially when the weather was gloomy and chilly. Then dad said: “Follow us to this shopping complex and take a walk, you sleep too much.”

“But Dad, do you know that, most of my friends who are married with babies hardly had the time luxury of sleeping 6 hours for naps for the whole weekend like I do!”

And so I followed them to the shopping complex and when we reached home, I still had my nap. ^_^

“Hi everybody, my name is Isabelle. I am 6.5 weeks old. And I don’t live in Malaysia.

Ah Jo’s my cousin sister. I can’t wait to meet her during the next Chinese New Year!”

Isn’t she adorable? Just look at her chubby chubby cheeks.

Luckily she’s not here yet otherwise there would be a high possibility that I may chew her cheek!

Congrats to Uncle Jason and Aunt Helen!! and also to Marcus for your new sister!

I just made myself egg and toast with some cucumber slices to lighten it up.

Simply because I love a good breakfast. I need one. Otherwise I couldn’t even function.

Simply because it’s a Saturday and I have time to indulge in a good breakfast.

Simply because the combination of the moist egg yolk with tomato sauce it’s just so….Mmmmm ~

Remember my last entry on my Trip to Down Under? I stopped at the journey along the Great Ocean Road. So after travelling in the van with the Chinese for about 3 to 4 hours, including lunch time, we finally arrived at this place called the 12 Apostles located at the Port Campbell National Park.

You know I had no fucking idea that this was our destination! No clue at all; because I did not read the brochure or done any research on it. I just bought a ticket and got on the van. That’s it. I never like to find out too much about a place before I get there. You’d lose the surprise whether it’s good or bad.

So the 12 Apostles is a series of these waves-sea-swept-away-left-alone-cliffs after a gazillion years or so. You can actually google about it. Then the purpose of coming was supposedly to witness the remaining of such cliffs. OK. I did not actually listen to the Chinese tour guide because he was translating English names into Mandarin and that annoyed me to the core.

And those were the cliffs thingy which I mentioned just now. Supposed to have 12 but .. whatever wouldn’t make much difference if 1 or 2 were missing. Provided there were like 100 of them, then it would surely be quite a sight.

Another view.

A closer view. Um .. boring. Let’s do some cam whoring.

I know its hideous. Initially I wanted to delete this picture because it’s just so fucking ugly. But then if you look at it longer, it’s actually hilariously hideous, hence I am still keeping this picture.

You see, I was traveling alone. I didn’t have a partner but I wanted to be inside the picture as well. At the same time, it was fucking cold. Yes, it’s not winter, but it sure felt damn freezing to me, so I wrapped myself with whatever I had with me and I didn’t have a mirror and no one told me that I looked like that.

OK I think that’s enough to justify myself for how I looked. I got a shocked myself after I saw my picture but I was a little too shy to ask the person to take another shot.

Later on, I tried again by asking the same person.

It was quite crowded.

Lily: Mike I think it’s over between us. I don’t think it’s ever going to work out. You will never be who I want you to be.

Mike: If you say so Lily, if you say so. (Thinking: Man .. it’s so windy here)

Mike: I wonder if Lily is still standing behind me.

Haha. Ok that was a little fun.

Now the driver us to another spot to see another shape of cliff. =_=”

That looked like that. It’s actually very huge. See, I am not very good in describing National Geographic type of sights.

It’s called The Razorback. Luckily I snapped this sign board otherwise I wouldn’t even remember the name.

After that it’s camwhoring time again.

That old lady beside me and me.

I actually waited and hinted for her to go away. But she looked very depress. I didn’t want her to do anything stupid.

Next, the last spot for another type of cliffs-rock-thingy.

It’s apparently called London Bridge has fallen down.

It’s known as such because the missing part of that “bridge” actually dropped into the ocean due to erosion.

Lastly …

Took a picture of the group of Chinese I traveled with.

The man in hat was actually the tour guide.

The guy on your right actually spoke to me first. He was traveling alone too. Then he realised that I mixed mandarin with English, he decided to ignore me half way through. He didn’t understand almost any English.

How did he manage to travel to Aussie anyway?

Ok. I spent AUD69 + AUD4 (forced tips) on a trip to see rocks.

Thank god I got to see some lambs and cows and grass.

Before I continue my journal of the Trip to Down Under (I think I still have at least 2 more stories to share), let me just tell you what happened last week – which resulted in me having no time at all to update my blog.

Our country was elected as the host for an international event.

So the last week prior to the event, everyone was really really busy preparing for it.

I was really really busy snapping pictures of them being really really busy.

The bosses were very involved in the preparation work as well.

We held a lot of internal brain storming sessions. Well I had to distract myself, my brain to be exact, to be really stormed.

So came the day before the event.

Boss arranged for us to check into one of the 5-star hotel in town. I think it costs RM500 per night. We stayed 3 nights.

Then Oleen couldn’t wait to hop onto the bed and I couldn’t resist to snap a picture of her.

Apparently, our real venue rehearsal could only be carried out at night.

That I accepted because the ball room was occupied during the whole day.

But I was really pissed off when I was asked to fold name cards late at night when I could be doing that in the afternoon when I was really really free in the beautiful hotel room!!

Then we had a dry run of the ceremony where one of us would be presenting a token of appreciation to the Minister of Finance, No. 2.

That’s Lynna with that extremely happy smile while acting as the VIP.

Then came the day of the actual event.

We actually woke up at 5 am with only fucking 3 hours of sleep the night before,

thanks to someone’s extremely “good” organising skills which resulted in late finishing the previous night!

At least JM and I still got to have our complimentary breakie at the tea house,

while Iz needed a total of 2 hours to do her hair and her make up.

She skipped the breakie which was valued at RM60 per pax.

The ladies were setting up the registration counter.

When Iz first saw the tables, she asked Kelvin (the hotel sales manager)

whether they are going to put some cloth over the table.

Then Kelvin said: Do you know that these are marble tables?

So that’s Iz after 2 hours of preparation.

Let’s take a look how she looked like before sacrificing her sleep and breakie.

Like that. Not bad huh. For the make over.

And that’s the grand ballroom. We had 100 guests from 23 countries.

Then we also had Interpreter’s booth set up for the Japanese and Chinese delegates.

After long anticipation, here comes the Minister of Finance II. I was like a paparazzi.

It was pretty excited for that moment. And I really didn’t like that lady smiling into the lens.

Thereafter, we had our signing ceremony where all countries agreed to be part of this inaugural group.

Next it was group photo sessions.

The whole picture would be a combination of what I showed you here.

I was not the official photographer but I had no idea why they were looking at my camera.

Then the actual programme of the event started – the discussion of very interesting technical subjects.

Iz was the first to go up the stage …. to upload the slides for the delegates. =p

Half way through the day I was really really exhausted and I missed the Internet.

So I took Iz’s mobile and tweet. I must at least tweet once or twice in a day to feel better.

The first day ended with the conclusion of the technical topic.

I bet you won’t be interested to learn. And I am not interested to blog about it either.

Second day was more relaxing for us.

So we decided to dress up pretty – in traditional Baju Kebaya, except for Ah Lai.

Second day was just more and more discussion on technical projects =_=”

Thank God I was allowed to walk around being the photographer.

Even my team mates couldn’t help but to gossip except for our manager,

who was probably the only one listening and writing the whole time.

Lastly, what’s an event without some cam whoring right?

Firstly, I took a picture of our official photographer after he took an ugly picture of me. Revenge!

Then this. A picture with a cute guy is inevitable.

So that’s basically it. Our first ever international event.

OK. Let’s take a break from the “Trip to Downunder” journal. I will continue it once I have more time at hand. I still have a couple of stories to share.

A lot has been going on. Hmm … after I typed this sentence, it didn’t sound right some how. Like a sense of negativity was naturally contained in it. Nonetheless, everything that has been going on is ALL good.

I have been quite busy with work, home, family, photos, friends, events, going places, story books, food, working out. Lots! I haven’t even got time to do some of those more important tasks like professional development. As boring as it may SOMETIMES be for my career, I still think it’s important that I buckle up a notch and really start to pay attention (to my job). Well, truth be told. I never really know what I really LOVE to do only until the last couple of years. So I hope now that I know, I can better balance out my life.

Work wise – A lot of international events been going on. I have been appointed to be the “back-up” photographer. Quite daunting though because it’s not as easy as it sounds. And I am NOT a professional in that field.

Home – it’s been all good. Now my weekends dates are mostly my parents. We are always looking forward to somewhere interesting to eat. And to shop for certain things. Like last week, all of us (my parents and I) bought this titanium necklace thingy. It has an immediate effect to your system, well at least I had the immediate effect but paps couldn’t feel it that instantly. I spent RM225 on a set of necklace and bracelet. Sigh, there goes 25% of the amount of a flash unit I am eyeing for, I think it’s called a SB600? Forgive me if I named it wrongly.

Technology – Like I said I am eyeing for a flash unit for my Nicholas (as in my Nikon – his name is Nicholas). The mid-range one will cost around RM800, I heard. I haven’t done any research on it yet. Then at the same time, my materialistic nature is persuading me to get a Black Berry! I so want a Black Berry! But my sensible self tells me that it’s just a purely waste of money. Then also, I finally got a new Lappie, his name is Deller. (A Dell inspiron 13.3” inch). I just Love tech stuff.

Talking about techie stuff, the internet service provider “sLowMyx” is currently doing such a fuckingly fantastic job that I would declare proudly that it should be given the “Non-service-provider” Award 2009! I can’t believe where I once had the luxury of using internet service of 10GB and now had to compromise or rather “endure” life with occasional no internet at all.

Story books – Oh yeah, this is mainly what has been occupying my time for the past couple weeks. I bought the “Twilight Saga”. Four books – no sorry – four fuckingly awesome story book! I couldn’t stop reading it! Except for Book 3 though, it was a bit dry when they were talking about history of how all these characters begun. Now I am into book 4 with only 100+ pages before I complete the whole vampire-wolve-human-love story saga.

After this, I think I should really spend some time in digesting the manual that came with my Nicholas. It’s time that I should really take this thing which I really enjoy doing seriously. Thanks to those who is guiding me along the way.

Um what else .. blogging .. See, I signed up for this NuffnanG website. The website will analyse the traffic flow of your site and also record the searches where people do that will end up at your site. Hmm… some of the searches were pretty disturbing though, check this out:

 Ugh! Gross!

I guess that’s all for now. I better get back to work. I will most likely be out of touch from this virtual world for the next few days or week. Till then .. adios lovely people.