Drawing the curtain on 2009

Why do we feel the days passing by faster and faster each year?

Can’t believe it’s already December 29, 2009!
Well, Christmas didn’t feel so merry this year… perhaps it’s all the things that’s been happening or the lack of time to really savour the holiday season…or simply coz there’s no one to share it with…
Anyhow, what did I accomplish in 2009?
Well, career advancement is definitely out the window…can’t believe they deferred my increment, deducted my salary and cut my annual leave! I’m turning the big 3-0 in a little over 2 months and I’m earning less than a fresh graduate, what a shame! If it's not for all the freelance projects, I won't be able to survive =~(

I’m also not getting hitched any time soon… meeting a decent chap is harder than striking the lottery!
At least I managed to travel this year… yup, visited Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam in April… went back to Kota Kinabalu and visited Sandakan during the Raya break…seems so long ago…
On a more superb note, i finished reading the whole Bible ;)
Praying that 2010 will bring some long anticipated (exciting) changes…
God bless you, you and you…. XOXO

The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown... mention this name and words like bible-sceptic, conspiracy and symbols come to mind. I have to admit the Da Vincci Code was a good read... the movie isn’t as good as the book. Then sometime this year i watched Angels and Demons without reading the book. So, my expectation on the movie is lower, thus, i could say the movie is ok.
Now, the focus is on The Lost Symbol, Brown’s latest novel. The novel started off in a slow pace and after a few chapters, the plot gets more interesting. Then I started turning pages, or rather scrolling pages as i was reading the pdf version ;) After watching two movies on Robert Langdon, it’s kinda hard not to associate the Langdon character with Tom Hanks! I gotta say Brown is a good story-teller. But after the ‘mystery’ is solved, there are still 50 over pages left... so I read on to see what’s in store. Those pages are boring... I just skimmed through those pages. He should’ve ended the book after the truth has been revealed to Langdon... that’s what I think...
Well, what do you think?

Jesus Flavoured, or Jesus Filled?

Read this:
http://kyria.com/topics/spiritualformation/biblestudyanddevotions/jesusflavored.html

Why potential doesn't equal success

Hmm... it's been awhile since i've last updated this blog... been bz lately & inspiration came & went out the window... here's a link to an article i read today...

http://www.crosswalk.com/careers/11577216/

Click tracts

My friends used to show me gospel tracts when i was young... recently i stumbled upon the website of these tracts and now we could actually read it online!

Here's one for u...

Stressed @ Work?

I know God won't give me anything I can't handle.I just wish he didn't trust me so much.
~Mother Teresa

We pretend to work because they pretend to pay us.
~Author Unknown

Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because they're looking for ideas.
~Paula Poundstone

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.
~Richard Carlson

Sometimes it seems your ever-increasing list of things to do can leave you feeling totally undone.

~Susan Mitchell and Catherine Christie, I'd Kill for a Cookie

Stress is poison.
~Agavé Powers

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
~J. Lubbock

Argh

You know, sometimes being too 'efficient' isn't a good thing... especially in the workplace when the actions and decisions of others might affect your work progress... yesterday was really a day when i felt like yelling MYOB to that particular person... tension is in the air...

You know what i really need?

Holiday

Spa & massage

Sweet stuff & great food

A dose of romance won't hurt ;)

HCM 14th & 15th Apr 09

During yesterday’s cab ride back from Diamond Plaza (Le Loi Ave), I saw a few shops that we’ve not visited. So today we walked in that direction.

The Thong Xa Tax Market was supposed to be a place of great bargain but all the things there are of fixed price. Hence, we made a fast browse through the centre. We did see the City Opera House. After taking a few pictures, we went looking for Saigon Square. This is similar to the Ben Thanh Market but with less pestering from the vendors.

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We managed to get an hour’s massage after lunch =D

The taxi ride to the airport was slow as the traffic was really bad. During this we saw that we’ve missed a mall called the Zen Plaza! Next time around lah… we breezed through the immigration checking and went around the duty free shops in the airport… the plane was slightly late but we managed to get back to Msia in one piece.

HCM 13th Apr 09

April is a good time to visit HCM as it is not the rainy season. So I was surprised to wake up to a thunderstorm on the very day that I’ve arranged for a tour! With much prayer, the rain stopped after breakfast. So the tour guide walked around nearby hotels to gather tourists who had booked the tour through their respective hotels. The cheapest tour rate found online is 45 usd, but the tour we booked through the hotel costs 6 usd only!!

Around 9 a.m. we started off towards Chu Chi tunnel. The bumpy journey took about 2 hours. An hour into the bus ride, we stopped by the factory where the handicapped produces handicrafts. These workers are those who were handicapped by the war or children of soldiers who fought in the war. The stuff sold here is quoted in usd and are very expensive.

The entrance fee to the Chu Chi tunnel is 80,000 vietnamese dong. We were shown the bomb craters, booby traps, and the tunnel. Tourists get the chance to try out the various guns at the shooting range but we must buy at least 10 bullets. After much walking, we reached the tunnel entrance and we get to ‘crawl’ through the tunnel. It was really narrow and dark. Imagine how hard it was for the ang mo to go through the tunnel, when I, being so petite had such difficulty getting through. After sweating through the tunnel ‘adventure’, we were led to the multimedia shed to watch a 15 minutes clip to learn more about the history of the tunnel.

On the way back, the bus driver dropped us near the War Remnants Museum. Here, there are a lot of exhibits about the wars, photos by war reporters, children’s paintings on war and peace, weapons, planes and tanks used during the wars, and a souvenir shop.

After the museum, we walked to the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Central Post Office. Next, we went to the Diamond Plaza. However, the things here are more suitable for the rich. We didn’t get to buy anything and took a cab back to the hotel. At night we simply walked back to the night market for more bargains.

HCM 12th Apr 09

My sister and I are hard-core shopaholics so we woke up early on our first morning in HCM. Breakfast was provided by the hotel – fried egg with veg, bread, fresh pineapple juice, coffee / tea and bananas.

Right after breakfast we walked to the Ben Thanh Market. This market is where shoppers get to bargain and find everything under one roof. It is crammed with mini stalls that are really closed to each other. There are stalls selling clothes, fabrics, bags, shoes, beddings, souvenirs, food, vegetables, fruits, spices, beauty accessories, antiques, watches, lingerie, coffee / tea, stall for pedicure and manicure, et cetera. One thing that is a total turn-off in this market is the vendors that pull and ‘pester’ each visitor trying to get them to stop by their stalls and hopefully buy their stuff. Prices could be bargained and slashed up to 70% off the price they requested. Walk away and they’ll call you back to close the deal.

This market closes in the evening. In the evening there’s a night market outside Ben Thanh Market. The night market sells similar stuff as the morning market with some dissimilarity.

So we managed to find our way to the Ben Thanh market and walked around the nearby shops before checking the map and find our way back to the hotel on foot. The exhaustion of walking was made worse by the hot and humid weather. Within minutes of stepping out of the hotel, I was drenched in sweat and could literally feel my body being covered with a layer of dust.

Well, the first day was shopping day… of course we tried more phó and the infamous drip coffee.

testing

happy easter everyone!
What a tiring day...been walking around ho chi minh's district 1 for hours..finally located my location on the map and managed to get back to the hotel...am now in the lobby typing this on my mobile...ahh...yes,i've changed to a smartphone..what joy!
Sadly didn't find much bargain today...hoping for better deals later n the days to come...
Over and out...

Saigon

I’ve been itching to travel for months and the long awaited trip to HCM was finally here! Our excitement was trampled when upon arrival at LCCT we found out that the flight was retimed to an hour later. Since we’ve arranged for airport pick-up we tried calling our hotel to inform them of the delay but received an invalid number answer! Thank god there’s free wifi in the airport. So I emailed the hotel with my phone and quite instantly got a response from the hotel. Boarding time came but the plane was no where in sight! As if sensing our exasperation, they announced that the plane was late in arrival, hence, another delay! Yet they proudly declare they’re 92% on-time…

The flight took 1 hour 50 minutes and HCM is an hour behind Malaysia. We got onto the cab, and were instantly appalled by the mad traffic web! There were vehicles everywhere, mostly motorcycles, and it seems they can drive about wherever and whichever way they like… some made u-turns in the middle of the road, some reversed to get back onto the main road, and some just stopped wherever is convenient to them. Amid all these chaos, every vehicle just kept honking, honking and honking… there’s only one word to depict the road condition here… mad!!!

When the cab stopped, our hotel’s manager came to greet and carry our luggage. Then we followed him closely to cross the road! Yup, it takes much courage, tact and ‘ignorance’ to cross the roads here… We were stunned to find we were given the room on the fourth floor! Gosh, we had to climb the steep stairs everyday… there were 84 steps and with each passing day it seems harder to get up or down… The room was spacious, one double bed and one single bed, bathroom with water heater, air-con and fan, fridge, cable tv with lots of channels, towels, wardrobe, free wifi… nice…

Our first meal was of course phó (pronounced pher)… beef noodle and fresh fruit juice for me… a little walking after dinner and it was time to hit the sack…

Teachers going mad teaching subjects in English?!

Couldn’t believe I’m seeing this on national newspaper:

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/26/nation/3352480&sec=nation

The question posed by the assemblyman, Dr Khalil Idham Lim Abdullah, is…
“The teachers themselves have a poor command of English. How do we expect them to teach their students?”

Indeed… the question is, how on earth do these ‘teachers’ qualify as educators if they have poor command of English?

An average Malaysian kid goes through at least 11 years of schooling with English as a compulsory subject. Even if this kid grew up to attend a local institution of higher learning, he’ll be exposed to lectures conducted in English, though in some classes students are given the option to answer the examination questions in Malay or English. Nevertheless, lectures are conducted in English (yes, I have the ‘right’ to comment on this as I attended a local university).

Okay, so they have very basic command of English. That’s good enough. Why are they so stressed out? The language or terms involved in the Science and Mathematics subjects aren’t rocket science level ya know (again I’m in a position to comment on this as I’m in the education publishing sector)…

And one wonders why parents send their children abroad to further their studies…
Buck up teachers! How can we let you educate our children when you’re facing such ‘phenomenal’ problem? Also, the teachers’ training and selection should be stricter to improve the education quality.

Now, I better get back to my 2-methylbuta-1,3-diene…

Chap Goh Meh

February 9th, 2009 marked the end of the Chinese New Year celebration. It is known as Chap Goh Meh, and to some it's the Chinese Valentine's Day. Tradition has it that single ladies will write their contact information on a mandarin orange and throw it into the lake / river / sea, in hope that an eligible bachelor will 'find' it and contact her.
If you think it's absurd, be at Taman Jaya, PJ on 2010's Chap Goh Meh and you'll be suprised to see guys who prepared long poles with nets to scoop those oranges!
I wonder why no one had taken my advice to use coconuts instead of mandarin oranges... think about it... coconut's skin is waterproof, it is light hence it floats, and not to mention it is huge so you can write more than just your name and phone number =p
Well, ladies, happy 'throwing' and guys, happy 'scooping'...