Be strong..

Be strong
Never give up
You failed once
But that's not the end of the road
There's still light at the every end of a tunnel

It's never your fault
Don't put the blame on yourself
You have tried your best
so have no regrets
Wipe those tears away
Look forward to another new day

Life is like drawing without an eraser
You can't erase the past
there's no use holding on
so just move on
let the past be history
tomorrow is another beautiful day
there's so much potential
so many things to discover
so many to draw
on your white piece of paper

Life is a journey full of lessons
so don't give up
be strong
Yesterday is history
tomorrow is mystery
today is 'present'
that's why it's called a gift

A small family issue

Tonight the whole family went out for dinner at a seafood restaurant. It was a request from my sister, who had want to savour her favourite seafood dish- crabs. But things didn't go quite smoothly tonight.

It was our first experience dining there. The place was crowded and we were lucky to find a spot. Upon surveying the menu, there's only 2 choices for the crab dishes:
1) Salted fried crabs
2) "Niu you" or buttered crabs
I translated the menu from Chinese so excuse me if they sound weird.

Speculating that the buttered crab might be too oily with the excessive sauce, we decided to order the the salted fried crab. While waiting, we also ordered several side dishes: fried noodles and mixed vegetables with yam. Finally, when the main course arrived, everyone tucked into the meal.

I found the crabs delightfully tasty. It tasted like salted egg but goes well with the crab meat that is soft and tender. My parents also gave their "thumbs up" and agreed with me too.

But surprisingly, my sister hates it!
She explained that she dislike that kind of "saltiness" and she had this personal distaste towards salted egg and anything that taste like it. So after only eating only a small portion, she stopped eating and just sat there sulking (even though she pretended not to, but her expreession says it all).

I was shocked and somewhat irritated by my sister's behaviour as well.

What's with that attitude? Here we are, everyone sitting together enjoying a good meal but you have to spoil it by sitting there sulking along. The least you can do is try to eat. It's not your favourite dish but it's not poison either! So please show some gratitude to our mom and dad who are willing to spent the time out with us.

Of course I kept that all in mind. It's no use quarreling at the middle of a meal and further worsen the situation.

In the end, my parents and I finished everything up. It was a lot, considering that we ordered a large size dish as we thought my sister would be eating the lion's share.

On the way home, there was an ominious silence in the car. Despite my sister previous show of disrespect, she is not totally an insensitive person. She did realised that she was in the wrong.

She explained once again that the dinner was not her cup of tea and she still prefer the good old "Fatty Crab House" which we frequently patronised and had been our family's favourite dining outlet. Finally, she did apologised, not directly like saying "sorry mom and dad" (generations nowadays don't do that) but using a rather long-winded approach which at the end we still get the message.

And that's how things end and luckily all is forgiven and forgotten. Of course my mom did reprimanded her (with mostly what I mentally said just now) and dad (cool, calm, and collected as usual) brushed it aside by saying that it's good to "experiment" and "survey" at new places occasionally so we'll gain the experience and know which outlets is the best. In a sense my dad is right. Nothing ventured nothing gained!

Looking back, I found these kind of scenarios familiar in the family.

One of my siblings will be the "trouble-maker" or causing the problem. Usually this only involves my youngest sister and my younger brother. My sister and I rarely argued. Heck, we both live in our own world and mind our own business.

Then my mom will be the "problem-solver" who solve the conflicts. Those who are at faults who get a good scolding and need to bear with the 'music'.

Finally, my dad would be the "savior" who always stands on neutral ground and embraces those who need some comfort. Daddy is always the "good guy" who panders to their whims and demands.

To sum it up, both my parents play important roles. You can't have someone lashing out at you for every fault at all times, yet you can't have someone spoiling you to a point where you never get scolded even when you're wrong. In other words, my parents complement each other. Harmony. I'm proud to be a part of this family. :)

What is my role? Perhaps when both mom and dad are mad, there's always Big Brother who can help and lend you a shoulder to cry on. ;)

Kapit Trip 18-23 Dec

Hi! It's good to be back again.. I hope everyone have a great Christmas. May God bless you all.

I had not been updating my blog for a while. As anyone can guess, I'm updating my family trip in Kapit. We has stayed for almost one week, and it is no doubt an enjoyable get-away from city life for a while.

It's a long journey to Kapit. First, we had to take a flight from KL to Sibu. When we arrived in Sibu, it's raining heavily. We reached the dock and boarded the ferry to Kapit.



For those who had not been to Kapit, there's 2 words that can be used to describe Kapit:
Rural, Peaceful.

Don't get the wrong thought. I'm not saying we are living in the midst of a jungle with no electricity and have to bath in the river. Kapit is a countryside, there ARE some areas like those I mentioned just now, but most of the area in Kapit is much developed with roads, shops, and concrete buidings and houses. There's even a huge sport complex with a proper running track for everyone.

Nevertheless, Kapit is still able to retain much of its countryside scenery. The town is quiet and peaceful and surrounded by Mother Nature. There's no such thing as "traffic jam" in Kapit, and the place bustling with most activties is the market. Kapit is a small town. An hour drive is enough to explore the whole town and driving from one place to another usually only takes a few minutes.

Most importantly is the friendliness and hospitality of the people here. People know one another greet each other whenever they meet. Kapit is trusting enough that you can leave your door house wide open during the day without fear of crimes. This is so much different from KL where every house is tightly guaded with tall walls and fences and neighbours don't even know each other exist.

Alrite, enough with the introduction..Get back to the topic:

We finally reached Kapit by afternoon. It's great to be reunited with everyone. There's a lot greetings made: my uncles, my aunts, my relatives and cousins, and the neighbours who are close to us. I didn't do much that afternoon. Exhausted from the trip, (plus not sleeping the previous night), I took a long nap and woke up almost at 7pm.

That night, a good friend in Kapit invited me to attend a Christmas Gift Exchange event. It was my first time attending this kind of event so it was quite an unforgettable experience. Plus, I had never been to a church in Kapit. It is different in a sense that the medium of communication is in Chinese and Hokkien. I had a lot of fun and met lots of new friends. It was an enjoyable night. Must thank my friend again. Sorry no pictures....

Other than that, I must say Kapit had the greatest food. There's an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables from my grandparents' orchard. The fish and meat is also fresh. Plus, my aunts know how to make the best delicacies.

My favourite for instance is the Wantan soup. The Wantan is home-made so it has a bigger proportion of meat inside compared to those conventional ones served at food outlets. Undeniably, food outlets are more profit-oriented and they only serve a few meagre clump of wantan with the soup highly loaded with MSG. But here my bowl is brimming with mouth-watering wantan that you can hardly see the soup! Thumbs up!



Besides that, also had to chance the savour the dumplings, also known as "ba-chang"(in Hokkien) here. My aunt's friends made them so again the meat or the "fillings" has a bigger proportion.

During the Winter Solstice, I also had the chance to make some glutinious rice balls, also known as "tang yuan" in chinese. My young cousins all participate and as the saying goes, "the more the merrier!"

If I'm not mistaken, the tradition is that we are to suppose to have one "tang yuan" per year of age in our soup, so I'm only suppose to have 18 tang yuan this year. But I exceed the limit and lost count taking as much as I want until I'm satisfied. Never mind gua...There's still enough left for everyone. After all, I' not going to have 50 tang yuan when I'm 50 years old. That's an insane amount! So better make up for it by eating more this year. XD

Apart from all that, I spent the rest of my time strolling and enjoying the countryside view. I'm an avid animal lover and there's plenty of furry friends here in Kapit, be it cats or dogs. I also spent most of my evening time at the sport complex if it's not raining. Time flew very back. The night before we left, we went to eat at a restaurant. The seafood there is simply delicious!

It had also been raining when we went back to KL. In fact, it had been raining for the past few days in Kapit too. It's typical for Sarawak to get hit by the rainy season at the end of the year.
That's all for now. Below are some random pictures so enjoy :)

Behold-The Giant Mushroom!

My uncle's truck. I'd like to try sitting behind there when the truck is moving but my dad said it's too dangerous =.=

Fishermen's boats. They usually unload their goods at the market.

Kapit's sport complex

It's gonna rain..

That's my new sandals!!!

The Gang of Four Dogs!

To Kapit......with a new hairstyle!

OK, it's not a new hairstyle to begin with. I just had my hair cut short. I felt like living as a caveman for the past few days with my hair so thick and unkempt. After the haircut, the effect is dramatic. I look like a new man! But still the same old me..

Anyway, I don't fancy any new hairstyle. I prefer my neat and short crewcut hairstyle that needs almost no maintenance. Ya, when it comes to my hairstyle , I admit I'm a lazy fellow.

The main point is..... My family and I are going to Kapit tommorow (actually it's today since now it's morning). I had been anticipating this journey for a long while. It's a breath of fresh air for me after spending most of my time at home. I just need to get out and travel for a while. Plus, the destination is Sarawak, my beloved homeland so I'm looking forward to this trip.

Nothing much I think. Just finish packing my stuff. It's a light luggage considering we'll not be gone for long. Need to be ready early 6 am!! Don't feel like sleeping tonight. Maybe I'll catch on with my sleep on the plane later. :p

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate my junior friends from SMK Kidurong who just went through their Educamp in Kuching. All the best and I wish you all good luck in your future studies. As long as you did your best, you'll have no regrets and leave the rest to God. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you in UTP the starting of the new semester.

Last but not least, I had also finished the arduous task of adding everyone into my blog list after the disastrous mistake I made a few days ago. However, now I'm absolutely sure my list is somewhat shorter than before, which mean I had unintentionally left out someone, and the problem is I forgot who they are!

Am I a bad friend or what? Haiz..Now I'm feeling guiltier by the minute.... Perhaps I need my sleep after all....

Whole lot of fun with my relatives from Kapit

Last week my relatives from Kapit came to visit us in KL.

Of course, tidying the room and moving my stuff to my brother's room temporarily cause me some trouble because I'm typically the messy type of guy who leave stuff lying around and never bother to tidy the place up! :p

Nevertheless, I'm really happy to see them again especially after such a long time. Their visit really lightens up the usual quiet atmosphere in the house. Believe me, 3 additional kids is enough to bring the house down (with all the bickering, fighting, shouting, running...) XD

We went to many places and have lots of fun. As usual, every outing must have some pictures:


Bowling at the Bukit Jalil Resort. Two lanes booked by us as all the kids wanna play too.

Intense battle! The adults vs the kids. Just kidding.. Haiz..picture a bit shoddy, excuse my shaky hands.

A colourful assortment of bowling balls

My sister, not interested in bowling, seem to content herself by doing some colouring :)

Last but not least, take notice that there are coloured barriers on both of the lanes hence the balls are 'immune' to the gutter. So the success rate of hitting at least one of the pins is 100%! (unless the ball stop midway on the track..) O_O

A cute Christmas tree near the entrance

After that, went to eat at the clubhouse's restaurant. The following days, we also went to Tien Hou Gong, a beautiful temple, and Mid Valley to do some shopping.

We drove quite a distance to reach Tien Hou Gong. These are pictures near the entrance:



We are requested to remove our footwear before entering the temple. The interior of the temple is huge and magnificent!

My uncle and little Willy

I love tortoise! More specifically, I love terrapins! Here's a real terrapin haven.

Feeding time. Apparently they love fish food too..


The real ones blending in with the fake. Too bad real terrapins can't sprout water from their mouth.


Guess how many are there? Winners get a prize..hehe

Found a weird scaly reptile that looks like a hybrid between a snake and a lizard. Imagine that slimy thing crawling on your skin....

After the Tortoise Pond (sounds weird?) we went to a small park with lots of animals, not real of course, but they do represent the Chinese Zodiac 12 sacred beasts.

Mouse, Ox, Rabbit

Tiger

Dragon

Snake

Horse/Stallion

Lamb, Monkey, Chicken, Dog, Pig

Here's what the sign say about me: Kind, friendly, smart, reliable, liberal, discipline, talented, versatile, self-centered, adventurous. Ok ok, I know I do not fulfil exactly every criteria. A bit self-deception. Ha ha

After that, went to Mid Valley to do some shopping (mostly window-shopping).

My dad insist that I took this parking lot number lest we can't find our car later. Using my phone camera since my camera was totally out of charge.

Just took a few pictures. The stage and Christmas trees looks terrific!


A few days later it's time to bid them farewell. But this is a short-term goodbye because we'll be going to Kapit as well soon. Can't wait to set foot on Sarawak again.

P.S (Something I learnt the past few days) Keep your laptop or any other expensive yet fragile items away from children, if not the consequences will be dire.... :)

A silly typo, a whole lot of trouble!!

A friend told me long ago that there is a little typo in my blog's URL.

The word "dairy" should be "diary". I had planned to look into this matter but there's always something to put me off.

So feeling very free tonight and remembering that particular misspelt word , I went to fix it before I forgot again.

But WTH?! After the URL had been changed, I had lost my blog's list of friends!!!

Now my "friendship circle" column is stark empty. All the friends that I had known and gathered one by one for the past few months, (adding them to the "circumference" of friendship) is now gone in an instant!

Haiz.. It's gonna be a painstaking task locating and hunting their address all over again from scratch. Never mind la. Have to be patience. After all, it was me who started this mess. Plus, it might be a good time to look into everyone's blog.

For now, I'm on an official bloghopping mission to retrieve my allies' URLs!!

Just wondering, is my home safe?

I had been scrutinizing the news lately and the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide really sent the shivers down my spine.

Just imagine sitting in your house one fine day and suddenly everything around you, the walls, the ceiling, collapse without warning. Next thing you know (if you survived), you are buried and trapped in the dark until tons of debris.

Needless to say, the victims will be traumatized. Property losses can be replaced, but remember this: the loss of their loved ones can never be returned. Their lives will be haunted by the shadows of the past forever.

It is scarier to think that the landslide, ironically, may be caused by us humans. One wrong decision leading to dire consequences that we never imagine. Indeed, greed is an overwhelming venom that clouds mankind's morality and rational judgement, even to the extend that it compromises the safety of others.

After the tragedy had happened, everyone: the politicians, related authorities, writers, the public, (and perhaps bloggers like me), is quick to give their comments and next start pointing fingers at each other.

Nevertheless, I'm not here to join the blame game. I just want to voice my concern over the safety of the place where I had known as home and of course, my beloved family.

As we know, the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide is not the first landslide that had occured. Previous dark histories included the collapse of Highland Towers in 1993, Hulu Klang's landslide in 2002, and just recently as well, the Bukit Damansara landslide in which fortunately no one was injured. However, equally disturbing is the fact that Damansara is situated near to Puchong, which is currently the place I lived.

Yes, it is convincing to think that for now I'm safe and sound. Puchong has its own proper water drainage system, there's no development projects around the corner, and the area is nowhere short of lush green vegetations that covered the hillside.

But who knows? I can't be 100% sure. The weather is bad these few days with gloomy skies and thunderstorms. What if something unexpected happened? After all, the wrath of Mother Nature is unpredictable. On the other hand, perhaps I'm the one being paranoid. Why should I spoil my holiday mood by filling myself with these unfounded morbid thoughts? Yet, is it human nature to only start taking actions after "things" had really happened?

In short, at the end of the day, I just want to have a roof over my head, to be able to sleep soundly, to know that my family is safe, and to have a structurally stable place that I can without a doubt say "Home Sweet Home".

Holiday till now...

OK, I'm going to skip the part where I tell everyone that this holiday is boring, too long, and I had nothing to do etc....

In fact, although I admit there's indeed some mild degree of boredom, most of the time I do find myself very preoccupied with random stuff to do during this holiday. This post is just a short update of what I have been doing up till now..

Before this...

Get to spent a lot of time with my family. Until now we had been going out almost every night, especially to the Giant hypermarket near our area. I'm kinda tired of that place. Seriously, I think all the salespeople and security guards recognized our big family by now. (me being the rare species that only appeared once in a blue moon during mid sem and final sem break) :P

Just today my relatives from Kapit arrived, so it's one big happy family to a restaurant that I had never been to for dinner. The food there is superb!

At night, the house was more lively and unusually hectic due to my young hyperactive cousins. They've really grown a lot since the last time I'd met them. They brought a stack of UNO cards but instead of playing UNO, they played "heart attack". Can't believe I join them (admit it, we are all children at heart!), but it's quite amusing too.

Other than that, I had been practising my driving. I still had a long way to go before taking on the highways in KL. My skills had become rusty, but glad to see that slowly I'm catching up from driving almost everyday during this holiday.

Besides that, I had also been reading most of the time. I have not finish my "Twilight" novel and its series. I had also bought a few interesting magazines. I found the "CHIP" magazines (all about computers and the latest gadgets) interesting and informative. This month issue revealed many useful tips on how to "spring clean" your PC after one year of accumulating all kind of data. Furthermore, I had also download some picture editing softwares and getting use to them. One of them, "Picassa3" in my opinion is most useful and user-friendly.

Last but not least, I spent most of my time online chatting, surfing the net and blogging! There's always someone to chat with on MSN. Just 2nite, me, Steward, and our long-missed friend, Chris had a very long chat untill the morning. We chat almost about everything, our holiday, his life, our lives, problems, and argue about petty stuff like whether the character of the emoticon is suppose to be a "bunny" or a "onion boy". XD

I think that's all I had done for now. While it's good to relax and idle some time away, there are some things I must accomplish during this holiday. Practising my Er Hu is the first. Then last but not least is flipping through my organic chemistry textbook and prepare myself my next sem's syllabus. But seriously, that's the last thing on my mind. I'll have all my sweet time playing DOTA, CS, watching movies and animes before I open an academic textbook :P

Dean List Award Ceremony July 2008

Just feel like blogging something about UTP since I never really updated any events during my life there.

Congratulations to all my fellow UTPians batchmatch who performed well during the last semester and qualified in the Dean's List. The Dean List Award Ceremony July 2008 has been a significant event that highlights and recognizes all our hardwork and determination as students who have been striving to succeed for the past few months.

I had initially been trying to update these photos on Friendster for the past few days but seems that Friendster is now facing some kind of technical difficulties. Haiz.. no choice la. It's just as good as to upload them on my blog and share with everyone. Enjoy :)

Half of the Chancellor's Hall stage...


Sze Mei and Laura


Us in one row... XD


The renowned "Gang Of Four"/"Four Kings"


Yi Herng (left) and me with the "act cool" pose :P

The ceremony proceed smoothly. Everyone went on stage one by one and receive their certs. These are some pictures taken after the ceremony..

From left: Sze Mei, Laura, and Jion Sean


Again... Sze Mei and Laura


The official couple: Jonathan and Sze Mei


The guys together..


From left: Lian Hung, Jion Sean, Laura, Jonathan, Sze Mei, Steward, Yi Herng, Me



A photo with the Rector (Sorry..shouldn't hav taken off my tie so soon..)

When almost everyone is gone and the Chancellor's Hall is empty, we did some candid cam whorring.. :)

Four of us..


Add another guy: Kanyu


Me and Jonathan...



Shying away from the paparazzi XD



Jion Sean, Stephanie and Laura



Introducing the ladies: (from left) Liang Yi, Laura, Shih Gin, Pei Ying, Xiao Ci, Stephanie, Fang Yi, Sze Mei, and Jia Lin



A "family" photo of us



Trying to be formal



Trying to be funny



Last but not least, a romantic touch to end the cam session :)

Last semester past like a breeze. This semester is totally different than the previous sem given that everything is more tough and difficult. Not to mention I slacked off too much from my studies this sem.

At the end the day, I just wish for nothing more than to graduate from Foundation smoothly and focused on my undergraduate studies ahead of me. No regrets bcoz I had given all the best I could (only in final exams I think XD).

For now, I'll enjoy my holiday, keep my fingers crossed, leave the rest to God, and pray for everyone's sake... :)