2009...already?


I think the year sped by a little too fast.

Too fast for my liking.

But then again it cant all be for my liking right?

I've done a couple of new things this year.


1) Like getting a job.

2) Switching into my preferred profession.

3) Ushered in 2008 by pulling an all-nighter at Tampines West CC.

-i guess that explains why im at home this year. and no i have NO desire to repeat it again this year-

4) i learned how to scuba! DEFINITELY one of the highlights of 2008.

5) i learned to appreciate my friendships even more! Thank you my AI girlies, my Chantiques and the group of Seniors. I love u and heart you so much.

6) i learnt to love and let go.

And last of all, i learnt that i didnt really achieve all my resolutions for 2008.

So come 2009 (in abt 2hrs) i will NOT set any resolutions for myself.

I'll just take it as it comes or make it up as i go along.

Whatever i feel like doing.

No pressure.


2009 is going to mark a major milestone for me i think.

I'll be a quarter of a century come APRIL...APRIL ok! *sweats anxiously*

Im NOT ready.

Im just NOT ready.

And Zak is going to tie the knot next December!

Alhamdullillah.


I'm not ready to handle 2009.

At all.

Not like how i embraced 2008.

With so much zest and optimism.

Cos somewhere in my heart of hearts...

I feel hopelessness just settling in.

And making herself comfortable.


Oh well.

Lets see how things shape up.


Fin.

Because it has been bugging me for the past few days!


Twilight the movie was utter crap!

Yes and i will say it again.

It was RUBBISH!


I think the critics have gone blind, deaf and retarded.

They're lucky the screenplay is good (though the storyline was SHITE)

Yes.

I honestly cannot believe i subjected myself to 2.5hours of sheer crap.

In the freezing cold mind u.

Im SO glad on one hand that i didnt spend any money on the tix.


HOWEVER!


I just wasted a perfectly good free movie pass.


So i decided to reserve my scathing comments of the movie cos probably the story got lost in the screenplay.

But no!

The book was pretty much crap too.

And i wasted $50 bucks on the rest of the books.

*Yeah, stupid me got "conned" into buying the book thanks to the sister* So annoyingggg!

I thought it was just the first book.

The 2nd book started to look up though, then the ending was a bit nonsensical.

And the 3rd book was just RUBBISH.

I was howling more with laughter at the ABSURDITY of the plot.

The complete insanity at her consistent RAMBLING.

Why!?

And this part i REAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLY don't get...


HOW CAN SHE EVEN GET GOOD REVIEWS FOR ALL HER BOOKS!!!


I havent read a book this bad in such a LOOOONNNG time so u can imagine the outburst.

Can you really blame me?

I have been exposed to better books my entire existence.

Emma by Jane Austen is freakin awesome next to the whole Twilight series.

The DaVinci Code movie was so much better than that movie.

And i didnt even LIKE the movie!

Dan Brown, J.K. Rowling, Jhumpa Lahiri...you all rock my socks.

S*tephenie M*eyer...really...wat creative writing class did u take?

I'm amazed ANY publishing house wanted to publish u at all.

Much less make a movie out of it.

Okay...enough of the scathing review.

*58&^%$(*&(&%%#347678*(&^(&*&()*&_)(&_)*%$#*


Fin.

Bali - Day 2

I just wanted to upload some photos of day two but i forgot that i didnt take that many in the first place.

So here goes...

We woke up for subuh then went back to bed cos subuh in Bali is at 4.45am!!!

Not to mention we had a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyy loong day previously.

We were up playing Pictionary till abt 1.30am.

Seri and myself went back to our room at the end of the hall.

Yes, it was very CRUEL.

They separated the four of us! Not even an adjoining room was available.

The moment we reached our room, Seri crashed out mere minutes of her head touching the pillow.

I had been having problems sleeping a few days before the trip which still carried on when i was there.

So while Seri was sleeping peacefully, i still took about 15-30mins before settling in which was close to 2am.

After the short respite we had, we woke for breakfast *in all our kopet glory*

We got to the breakfast table ard 8am and had a hearty meal for our upcoming journey for the rest of the day.

It was a good thing that we packed in a big breakfast cos we didn't have lunch till about 3-4pm later that afternoon.

After the heavy meal, the four of us took a walk along the sidewalk towards the nearest supermarket to get some essentials.

It took a good 10-15mins to and from the shop, back to the hotel to shower and get dressed for our fun filled water activity day.

We had agreed to meet Rudy our guide at ard 9.45am at the hotel lobby to head over to Tanjong Benoa with another family flying in from S*ingapore (however they were I*ndian Nationals).

We waited for quite a while cos they were stuck in traffic and then they also too a GREAT long while to check in.

Why is it that when THEY *see above* go ANYWHERE in the world, they are PAINFULLY slow.

To the point of leisurely-ness!

Even our tour guide commented so!

-Well that's another gripe for another day-

Ouh well.

Onward with the story.

We all piled into the van for another 45min journey to Tg Benoa and all the 4 of us managed to get 40 winks.

The moment i opened my eyes we were less than 5 mins frm our destination.

We were greeted by a very tanned Balinese man who gave us a menu of sea sport activities with a brief description.

*Side-note: We had initially just wanted to snorkel and look at the pretty fish from a glass bottom boat*

But LO & BEHOLD! the moment the words "SCUBA-DIVE" escaped his lips, we all looked at each other in silent agreement that this was OUR choice!

I could hardly believe it!

For 400,000 Rp we would be diving amongst the colourful sealife for half-an-hour with our diving instructor!

400,000Rp is roughly equivalent to SGD54!

Not only that!

We also took up the video and photo package for another 120,00Rp.

Though some may argue that it is a little pricey (or not), it was definitely $$$ well spent.

I could not have been happier and excited to dive.

I had only been snorkelling both in M*alaysia and once previously in B*ali and i looked forward to this amazing experience EXCITEDLY with my girlfriends from Uni!

It was DEFINITELY the 2nd highlight of the trip.

The 1st being suli's "not-so-secret-admirer" at Uluwatu, Mr Kumis with his hand around her shoulder and his head leaning on the other unoccupied shoulder

LMAO!

I still roll with laughter at the memory :))

Ok back to our diving experience.

We werent the only pple diving that day, the mother and father from the Indian family that joined us too.

So it was a cosy company of 6 plus the 2 very nice diving instructors, Arjun and Dicky and the guy steering his boat and his son *i think*

We took a less than 10min boat ride to the dive site.

We were told that it was abt 3-5m deep.

Before we began the actual diving, our main instructor Arjun gave us some simple instructions on how to use the mask and the regulator and how to breathe using the regulator.

You THINK its easy but its not.

I was lucky enough to have snorkelled which gave me a leg up on the use of the regulator

The 3 girls weren't so lucky.

We were also taught some basic hand signals and what to do in case water came into the regulator and mask.

After the short lesson, we were strapped with weight belts and one by one, we plunged into the slightly chilly waters.

First in was shasha.

Taking the cue from her, we all grabbed the side of the boat *clinging for dear life mind you! especially when there are weights strapped around your waist*

They then put on the tank on when we were in the water.

Suli and Seri were quite nervous, seeing that they had no swimming experience.

Both had trouble breathing from the regulator.

Shasha and Suli were then led to the dive site by the instructor.

Seri and I were next into the water.

I didnt want to leave Seri alone but Dicky had already pulled me to the dive site seeing that i had already gotten a hang of breathing on the regulator.

Before i could even allay Seri's fears he whisked me away to the dive site and let me equalise as we went deeper.

Then i met the other 2 girls on this piece of coral and i waved excitedly to shasha and suli!

There were PLENTY of fish swimming around us.

I saw some parrot fish, i think it was angel fish and then "Dory's" too

But i did feel slightly claustrophobic and worried that some of the fish would bite my fingers.

It was a spectacular show of God's creation.

Ok im tired now Part 2 of Day 2 later.

-4 tired and hungry girls after a dive-

Fin.

p/s: i want my OWN e*dward c*ullen; NOT R*obert P*attinson. movie disappointed me :(

and so i bought the book.

Bali - Day One

I think i put off writing about my trip with the girls long enough.
I think there are many who are anxiously awaiting.

And tonight i've finally decided to blog.

Breaking the silence finally.

*ok more of recovering from the exhaustion hehe*

We departed frm Singapore at 7.20am.

I had to wake up at 4.am.



That in itself was a miracle.


Seri's mom sent us off at the airport.



It was nice to have at least one parent around. It felt really good!



We checked in our bags and salam-ed Seri's mom and waved goodbye and started our adventure.



When we made our way into the transit area, Shasha kept asking:




"Eh korang, betul eh kiter nak gi Bali!?"








Yeah, we were excited.




Even myself!



When we stepped into the plane, we were like, "this is it! we're heading to Bali together!"



It was awesome.



Taking off in the singapore sunrise made it even MORE beautiful!






About 2.5hours later, we landed safely in Ngurah Rai welcomed by a slightly overcast sky and a little showering rain.


But nevertheless, it was still perfect! :D



We were greeted by our guide Rudy and made our way to Grand Istana Rama, Kuta, Bali.





On the way there we did a little chatting and made plans for the afternoon to head over to Uluwatu for a little culture.

Upon reaching the hotel, the rooms weren't ready yet so we took off on foot to explore the area.



I thought we were extremely adventurous for 4 young ladies exploring new territory.



Haha, i felt so grown-up!



We happened to stumble upon this little alley with LOTS of goodies.






There were sunglasses, hats, shirts, dresses, maxi dresses, accessories, books...you name it!


I was EXHAUSTED just looking at all the gorgeous things on display!



I felt like buying them all but held back knowing it was ONLY the first day.



I only wanted to get a pair of shades, which i did eventually after a whole load of searching.



But i finally succumbed and bought a pair of leather sandals too hehe.



It was around 11-12pm and i think and we were there for a good 1.5hours.



In the SWELTERING heat and humidity (thanks to the showers earlier on)







We talked a bit to one of the shopkeepers, who happens to be muslim, md harris is his name, and directed us to the nearest McDonalds which was CERTIFIED halal.



After lunch we headed back to the hotel and checked in and rested a while before heading out again at 4pm to Uluwatu.


The fun began here.



Hehe...the kechak was beautiful!


*there were also CUTE guys around!*





I loved the way they used their voices throughout the WHOLE 1 hr show!



And how they used the chorus to re-create scenes from the Ramayana.

Quite like the Greek chorus *and so was the setting!*




It was beautiful.



The first time i was in Uluwatu, it was sooo breathtaking.




It still WAS for the 2nd time round!

I loved it so much!

After the show, we got to take pictures with the cast, and suffice to say, Suli had an admirer!

Hhhahahahahahahahah ROFL!

It was hilarious!

I wish i could put up pictures but i'll let the lady of the hour do the honours.



We then made our way for dinner at Rumah Makan Minang Sederhana.


The Kalamansi juice was POWEEERRRRRRful i tell u.

So refreshing.

And of course i had the Teh Botol as well.

No trip to indonesia is complete without Teh Botol!



We then made our way back to the hotel but requested to stop at Kuta Centre to shop at the Matahari departmental store.

Of course, we shopped AGAIN!

This time for souvenirs for friends and families.

Yes families.

Not just one family but MORE than one hehe.

We shopped right up till closing time and then left to window shop at B*illabong, R*OXY and many more shops.

I think we finally reached the hotel at 11pm.

By then we were TOO tired but still!

we managed to slot in PICTIONARY!

It was soooooooooo much fun!

And hilarious!

Trying to guess the words from the pictures was the BESTest part. We were rolling with laughter!

The player of the night definitely had to be Seri.

And the word of the night was: courgette *bleargh!* i had a hard time explaining that one.

She's really good at the game.

Next time we partner up again k Seri *winks*

Finally after an exhaustive day, we called it a night while MORE adventures awaited us the next day :))

Fin.

Goodnyte and Hullo Denpasar!


I will be in Denpasar in 10 hrs time!

My return trip in less than 6 mths!

With my gerlfrens no less!!!

I pray that we will have a safe journey there and back.

Adventures await us!

Oh Allah, pls keep me and my friends safe.

Ameen.


Pictures when i get back.

Meanwhile, all my Eidul Adha pics in Facebook

Enjoy!


Fin.

Uber Tired.


I arrived home around 9 last night.

It was a WONDERFUL journey home without the boys.

Just my sister and myself plus the parental units.

I really enjoyed my weekend at my kampung.

It was different and quite hectic.

Just looking at my grandparents pottering whizzing around doing their chores is enough to knock the wind right out of me.

Plus, it was a Raya weekend so things got busy the MOMENT i stepped into the compound.

I swept the dead and dried leaves frm the backyard.

Hung out the clothes to dry.

Learnt how to make LEMANG!

There were sooo many things to do.

Plus there was the cow to sacrifice on Eid'ulAdha itself.

3 dishes materialized after the sacrifice.

Daging masak lemak, sup daging AND daging masak kicap.

I think i overdosed on red meat that day itself.

Thankfully there was NO cooking involved the next day.

Lunch was sponsored by my Uncle George and my Maklong at Pizza Hut *thank you!*

And we also went to our tailor in Seremban to make our baju raya for NEXT raya.

I know its a little early but really, its the best way to beat the crowds and you wont get shoddy work.

I just finished doing the laundry from our trip back to the kampung and NOW i have to pack again.

I feel like im living out of a suitcase these days.

I have a mental checklist right now.

But i havent gotten down to packing yet.

I havent even decided WHAT luggage i'm gg to bring.


Ooooh, i just checked the payslip and alhamdullillah a healthy bonus!

Will be able to set aside some xtra savings!

*Plus satisfy my shopping craving*


Fin.

Specially for the Bali Babes


Seeing that i have to 'balik kampung' for Eidul Adha here's a list of things that you MUST bring.


Needless to say: Passport (make sure ur passport has at least 6mths validity if not u can still get an extension for ur passport tomorow)

Your trolley bag should be locked with a belt that goes around the bag.
It prevents THEFT and ensures that you wont be embarassed if ur bag decides to vomit the contents out.

U shld keep all intimates and clothes in a BIG travel zip lock bag (available at HomeFix or any DIY store). This prevents any damage to your clothes due to spillage of any cosmetics/shower gels while travelling and saves u the embarrasment if airport security decides to check your luggage.

IF you have a bright ribbon, tie it at the handles so that u can spot it when it comes out of baggage clearance because 90% of the time, all luggage looks the same. This is especially true when u're back at the arrival hall in singapore.

Roll your clothes! It saves a LOT of space.

We'll need sandals and if necessary, bring a pair of flip flops. Avoid shoes!

Keep all your chargers in a zip lock bag too!

Ensure that you have enough space in your luggage for the return trip. Especially your souvenirs! Heheh. *Garuda has a baggage limit of 20kg*

Bring a collapsible/foldup bag that u can bring along when shopping so you go green at the same time! *This is VERY handy*


And before you start packing, come up with a checklist so it will save you a lot of time and trouble!

Happy packing and Eid Mubarak in advance!


Fin.

And YOUR plans for the weekend are?


Its been a really bz week.

I spent the whole day out with my parents, youngest brother and two male cousins yesterday at W*ild W*ild W*et.

Needless to say i'm knackered.

And NO i did not swim because the RED flag is up.

BUT i did catch some cute looking lifeguards!

Yummmm.

Hahaha...i am such a shameless hussy.

And no there are no photos.

Are u kidding me? Singapore is too small. haha.

Im NOT going to risk it.

After the wet afternoon, we headed over to my aunt's place (the 2 cousins house) so that rest of them could perform their prayers.

Later after maghrib, we went BOWLING!

Did i mention i went bowling last week and the week before that?

At least i can say now that i don't suck as much.

So what else will i be doing for the weekend?

I'm going to BALIK KAMPUNG!

This time with my whole family and my Maklong and her husband.

Hopefully my two youngest cousins will be joining us.

We are gg to slaughter a cow in the backyard.

Now THAT should be REAALLLY interesting.

I'll be leaving tomorrow night.

All the way till tuesday.

And then i will immediately start packing for Bali!

Yeayness!

Eight more days!

Can't wait to go with you girls!


Fin.

10 Things I Hate About You Moment.


You know the part where Julia Stiles starts screaming up and down when she got her acceptance to Sarah Lawrence?

And she screams:


I GOT IN! I GOT IN!


Well that's exactly how i'm feeling!

Yeahhooo!!! I'm in the January intake!

I just sent in some documents earlier today and i had this moment of clarity.

Like its all coming true!

My plans took a long detour

A 7 year detour to be exact.

But thats the way it has all unfolded.

And i'm really happy that im finally at this point in my life.

At one point i really thought i was going to become a doctor.

Really.

Like a real medical doctor specialising in Gynaecology

But then when i started getting crap maths results i knew it really wasnt a calling.

And then teaching came along.

It was an exciting prospect.

I guess the reason why i was such a big suck up to my teachers was because i really appreciated how much they did for me.


sans one teacher who i STILL despise & loathe until today.


I guess i realised this early on.

And i think it helped in my choice of profession.

To some, a job is just a job but i think there's much more to it.

Have you ever just sat down and pondered WHAT you were going to do with your life?

What YOUR contribution to society would be?


Okay maybe im a freak having thought about that at age 16


But really, it helped.

I know some people are going through a transition in their lives at the moment.

I think the ONLY thing you will be happy doing would be to do something you were so called, pre-programmed to do.

Sometimes the job you ARE doing MIGHT be the thing that you were meant to do.

Its not an easy path for anyone.

It comes as a realisation as some might say.

So take your time.

Think carefully about it.

Like what they say,


If you enjoy what you do, you'll never work a day in your life.


Fin.