Round red eye

What is the feeling of having a red round eye?? Bee sting?? Or chilli powder sprinkled upon the eye?? The pain and rashes around it actually makes me feel so uncomfortable and unsure about what is going on to my eye. There is no redness in the eyeball but the skin or muscle around the eye is definitely hurting me for days. Once I sense the pain, tears are rushing out deep from the glands. At night, I could barely open my eye because the tears become sticky. What I certainly believe is that maybe there are some sort of filthy bacterias infecting my eye muscle. Fortunately, my mom brought back some medications to ease the swelling of eye. Now, it is recovering and thank god it doesn't spread thru the other eye. Experience it and u will know what it is all about...

CNY week

It started with a pre-departure briefing and ended with a dinner in a restaurant. I could truly taste the difference as compared to previous years. I felt like lifting up from ground, floating in air and blown away. The feelings came eventually when I received plenty of angpaw from relatives. How unusual to have that in mind!

Pre-departure briefing was a compulsory for those JPA bound scholars who will embark the journey to Aus and NZ. It was amazingly hassle to everyone who came for the briefing. Travelling cheques, blazor with slacks, documents and important notes from various presenters on that day have definitely sparkling the intense fire among us who are waiting anxiously to sit on a plane and arrive at a place which is beyond our imagination; a place where most of us dream to be. After having a fulfilling breakfast at McD, it was time to head back to my alma mater down the city. Black and white theme had no longer differentiated one and another. Once the hall opened, smart-looking guys girls entered and proceeded to the back of the hall to collect our blazors, badges and vital doc. Subsequently, presentations from JPA officers followed by lunch were prepared for everyone of us. Then, money-giving session began and sometimes, it was terrifying to keep the cash and cheques, especially for those who travelled back home at long distances. We could not afford to lose any of the loaded money as it was meant for our education purposes soon. To end this, even though this event was a mini reunion for us, deep inside our hearts, we truthfully understand that we were half-way through the education bursary assigned for us and we need to complete it with unforgettable memories and acknowledgement.

Gong Xi Fa Cai and a Happy Prosperous CNY. It was the moment where all chinese gather together and celebrate the festival once a year. This year CNY, to me, it was a totally different feeling and indeed signifies that I'm about to leave my beloved country very soon. It went on with small gathering with my ex-schoolmates at gurney plaza where we had a wonderful lunch. To my surprise, they presented me a unexpected gift with a card on it. That gift was the only precious gift I have gotten before. Maybe a chic wallet did not mean much to others but to me, it was the best of all. The festive mood did not end here. A reunion dinner with close relatives came along the way during CNY eve. The dinner concept was mainly about the steamboat and firecrackers. Although there was not much to comment about, it went on well and I even learned how to play poker. A small gambling was on as well and it was worthwhile to learn some but not get addicted to it.

During the first day of CNY, I could hardly move myself out from my house because of the sunny weather and tiring night the day before. Nevertheless, I was persuaded to visit Kek Lok Si temple and Goddess of Mercy statue located next to Penang hill. These two tourist attractions were truly a sight to behold but jam-packed with vehicles and crowds. By holding a S95 camera, stunning shots of the statue and temples' decorations have been taken 'professionally'. Among all, the place where the statue situated was a mesmerizing site for newcomers to gather around. With superb lighting system and decorative lanterns, it indeed captured the attention of all visitors.

After having fun yesterday night, I was unexpectedly invited to attend a CNY gathering with my close friends. To me, it was not a usual one because it was happening during new year time and in one of my friends house. He told us there would be a surprise and at last, we understood the word surprise as a CNY angpow and a dinner with his family. This was the first time and I was absolutely grateful and appreciated their generosity. In the bottom of my heart, I kept saying a million thank you and happy CNY to them too. Another highlight of the event was the gambling time. This gambling was in fact not the real one but just playing for fun. No coins were taken in. What I can comment based on the poker game is awesome and it's worth for learning. The strategies must be rolled in and even emotions of players should be taken into considerations while playing the cards. It lasted till midnight and yet, I was truly satisfied.

Lastly, a dinner with my relatives for the next day completed my CNY this year. The atmosphere was so lively and tasty meals were served in conjunction with the CNY celebrations. If anyone asks me whether this will be my last CNY before heading overseas, my answer will never be yes because everyday to me is CNY day

One of the best songs to indulge ur ears

Though it's a forgiving love song, for those who long for songs that can soothen ur senses and be more harmonious but not too soft...a bit pop and country, you can try check out taylor swift latest video music, Back to December. It has been released for a few months but still, to me, this song is one of the best selections among all. Enjoy!!

Brand New Americal Idol Season

American Idol fever is on to hunt for the best singing talent all over America. With thousands of entries, only one will make it to the top and claim to be the idol in the heart of all viewers. This reality show is just another dream come true platform where contestants show what they really got with their voices and melodies. I will never miss the fun of watching them.

10 years of idol history have proudly present to everyone with outstanding and superb singers of all time. Among the successful idols, kelly stands out the most followed by carrie. This year, the idol hunt is going to be different than previous seasons. Without simon appearance on the tv, there will be less drama and stinging critics towards the contestants. Even though simon might be harsh sometimes, he is always right with his choices and critics. No one can change his words and take away his gestures. I'm truly impressed and everyone will sure miss him. While simon is leaving the idol judges, I remembered he told the audiences and viewers that they are the ones who determine the idol and wise choices have been made. American Idol will always be the same without him. Now, steven tyler and J Lo are going to fill the vacant seats of judges. Well, it would be a totally different way to comment on the singing. Will they lift up the idol spirit and heat that we have seen from past few seasons? We shall see.


After watching the first Idol audition in New Jersey, honestly, the judges table was no longer that exciting like before as both new judges are struggling to get used to the singing competition. The critics given were normal and mostly yeses or nos were heard. The creativity was not there anymore. As for the contestants, some of them were really good while some were just ok but still offered the golden ticket by the judges. Since more contestants made it thru to Hollywood, more will be kicked out later when finalists are listed out. More tears and joys would be noticed. One more thing that amazed me was more young teenagers in America have definitely owned wonderful voices. They aren't afraid of showing what they have and finally, most them make it thru the next round.

American Idol is not just looking merely at the contestants on how they sing, but the comments from the judges, the anxious moments of the results and personality that each contestant has, have made this show becoming more popular and worth watching... ...

Long rest

No interesting agenda these few days. Stay at home alone and take a long rest. At the same time, time spent to online is getting longer and longer. From internet, i get to know a lot of things that have caught everyone's attention, especially the Australian flood.

Deluge occurred in Australia has caused vast damage to the properties and public amenities around Queensland area. The loss suffered due to this natural disaster was among the worst in Australian history. No one would expect that this flood actually continued to hit other states. To me, I truly sympathised to the victims and prayed hard for swift recovery and rebuild. Some of my friends are the prospective and upcoming students in several Australian universities. Uni of Queensland is one of them. However, flood around the university has left devastated properties and broken houses. This subsequently created a dilemma for my friends either they want to stay at the uni or change to other unis. As a nz-bound scholar, I couldn't do anything but to support whatever decisions made by my friends. I do hope their accommodation impasse can be solved as soon as possible.
Recently, Kapersky Anti-Virus company is organising a competition where buyers can submit competition forms with slogans written on to win various prizes. To my shock, my family has become the second weekly prize winner for that competition and won some cash. This happened end of last year where my family and I bought the original software in pc expo. Besides having the software, the sales girl gave us a form to fill in, which includes a slogan part. I remembered my brother and I cracked our head so much just to search for suitable words to complete the slogan. At the end, the hard effort was paid off. The cash would be the rewards for my family.


Chinese New Year is fast approaching. To usher in the new year, chinese usually spare their time and money to purchase the CNY goods and decorations. When I arrived at nearest hypermarkets, the CNY atmosphere has no longer that exciting and glittering. People have become more health and money-conscious. Making wise purchase is what people looking for. After all, I still believe CNY this year would not be a dull one for me. With a long flight to NZ, I will sure cherish CNY. May prosperity and luck come upon everyone I met now and after.

Sarawak Trip

Finally, I successfully landed myself on the land of bumi kenyalang, Sarawak!! Since secondary school, I truly hoped for a chance to visit Borneo island which is full of surprises and adventure. Even though it is considered a budget vacation, the foods definitely satisfy my taste buds and the places are beyond my expectations.
7 days left 7 great memories>>>>>>>
(A) Kampua vs. Kolok Mee
Both these servings really confused me all the time whenever I had a opportunity to taste them. Only Sarawakians can clearly differentiate the noodles used to prepare them. That's a weird one. To anyone who lives in West Malaysia, what I would like to comment is that it looks like wantan mee and taste like wantan mee. It's just that no wantan are added into them. In Kuching, my friend first introduced me with kolok mee with separate sauces, red and white, at a coffee shop nearby town area. Later in Sibu, kampua played it's role. My friends explained for several times but I still didn't get it right. What I did realise is the thickness of the mees. After all, they are specialties available in Sarawak and let's enjoy them.

(B) SOTB aka Sex on the Beach
Don't get outraged and uneasy with the phrase. I don't mean it that way. It's just a name given for a cocktail drink listed on the menu. It happened to be embarrassing yet hilarious when all my Sarawakian friends ordered the drink in a night bistro around Kuching. I didn't feel unfamiliar with cocktails because I had it before once during a farewell celebration last year. I'm impressed with any cocktails, especially the way they are prepared and names given to them. When one of my pals first saw the name, he was keen to have the drink without knowing what the ingredients are but afraid of ordering it in front of the waitress. The curiousity went high and finally, one of the girls stood up and called for it. While the waitress served the drink, we couldn't cease from laughing and a catchy sentence suddenly popped out. It sounded like this: Yen Mei LIKES IT BEST =D; Wei Hung WANTS IT; Jien Lee THINKS IT IS GOOD FOR HIS SORE THROAT...

(C) Monopoly & Pictureka
Cards games have become our past time quencher anywhere in Sarawak. Although I didn't play that often, I could sense the intense feelings whilst indulging into the games. They are basically not played with normal, serious way. The games are consistently filled with screams, laughters, debates and funny gestures. Monopoly Deal is made up with instant strategies. Only then, you could win the game. No one will know who is going to monopolise the properties and get over it. As for pictureka, it is a simple yet amazing game I have ever experienced. With odd pictures and ordinary descriptions, players need to match them accurately to win the turn. But at the same time, you have to defend your own cards because other players did the same thing as well. Sometimes, my friends and I were quite harsh while playing the games but we still understood each other and nothing bad happened. Before I end this, I don't really like cards games that require a lot of thinking to be done, especially Monopoly...hehe

(D) Love phone call
It's not a prank call. It's a call where loser had to do it. The loser here is the one who lost at the pictureka game played late at night. Miss YM was the lucky one. Basically, she is currently unavailable. All we wanted her to do was to call her boyfriend and tell him "I love you!" For a typical asian, it takes a great courage to do that in front of all the crowd. We had reminded her for a few times to complete the task but she refused it. With various excuses, we in fact accepted them. To me, I would totally remember the unfinished call and one day in future, she might be forced to do that once again.

(E) Ice-cream Mess
The whole gang was in a Avanza vehicle and stuck in an unexpected heavy traffic congestion outside a shopping mall. The clock striked 10pm and it's time for everyone to head home. With limited parking areas and entrances, we had to wait for an hour to get out of the jam. The main reason why we were there was due to the korean ice-cream. No one could imagine the lovely ice-cream turned out to be a mess. The ice-cream was melting and dripping. All of us were horrified that the ice-cream had actually landed on the seat, which was quite difficult to get rid off when it dries. At that moment, the Avanza was still lining up the traffic. By demanding for more tissues and tissues, we finished the ice-cream with sticky hands and dirty seats. Emptying the tissue box was not the serious issue but cleaning up caught everybody's attention. We poured water, dried up with higher speed cool air and fortunately, the stain went away and relief engulfed us. Anyway, it was considered an unlucky day for all of us as we missed the orang utan close observation and famous koay chiap in Kuching.

(F) Pathlab
This was the significant one. Most of my friends, including me, are from West Malaysia, having a perspective where Sarawakians are layback and left behind for ages. But to my shock, this wonderful trip altered my perception entirely. Among all the shoplots we identified, Pathlab was the one who caught our attention to it. We saw it everywhere not only in Kuching, but Sibu as well. Everytime when the cars passed by the Pathlab, we sure mentioned it. Besides the usual fast food restaurants, some fashion boutique stores in Kuching have definitely proved us wrong and I believed one day, Kuching will become one of the busiest and most developed city in M'sia.

(G) Kucing Landmarks
Cats symbolise Kuching city and in Malay, cats are kucing. When you arrive at kuching, you wont notice much cats hanging around but you would certainly spot on kucing landmarks. Well, there was no big deal for tourists to take a few shots with big still cats. My Sarawakian friends however felt uncomfortable and turned down to take photos with us and the big cats. One of them was willing to stay in the car rather than joining us. She told us that she used to tease the tourists while taking the photos. But still, all of us went to several landmarks and most of them are located right in the middle of the junctions or roundabouts. I could personally aware of motorists looking at us directly but to me, as a visitor, there was nothing wrong to do this at all. In fact, I was quite impressed with some decorations put on the cats, for example christmas costumes and chinese new year samfu. They look cute and sure lift up the festivals' atmosphere in Kuching.

Awesome trip I deeply remark. Wonderful experiences and amazing explorations. It broadens my mind and I would not hesitate to share the memories I had to everyone. It would be great if I had the chance to adventure the whole Sarawak with my close friends again soon.

Jerejak Getaway

A reunion vacation, to be exact, left various memories in me this year. Pains, embarassments, exhilaration and contentment enveloped me during the adventure of jerejak island. Even though I'm not an extreme and outgoing person, this retreat had all the extreme ones to be explored.

In Penang, there are not many places offering extreme activities, such as flying fox, wall climbing and abseiling. Only after 19 years of being part of Penang family, I realised the isolated island next to Penang had it all. Jerejak Island was once the rehab center for the sick and not being developed before 90's. When we stand beside the beach next to Queensbay mall, Jerejak is just a normal quiet island and nothing much to discover. However, things happened to be different where this isle actually has what a tourist desire for. Apart from having diverse flora and fauna, there is a resort that operates all the extreme activities and holiday packages. If anyone feeling inadequate after days of travelling around Penang, why don't we take a glimpse at this isle and explore.

Back to the reunion. Since I will be leaving M'sia couple of weeks from now, my best friends from the secondary school planned a reunion vacation to Jerejak island. Usually, we would prefer meeting up at shopping malls. But now, it was worth to be remembered and rejoiced. On that day, the weather seemed not to be pleasing at all. Drizzling of rain drops began filling up the blue sky and breezy wind blowing. After minutes of close discussions, we finally agreed to ignore the rain and go on with the plan. We have chosen the day-trip package which includes lunch, 2 way ferry fare and extreme activities. This package would be not valuable at all if it rained heavily on that day. Fortunately, all the activities were allowed to be carried out.Let me explained what the pains, embarassments, exhilaration and contentment were about.
Pains = There were bruises around my toes and lower leg. This was due to minor injuries while climbing the man-made wall. I have never done wall climbing before this. It was so hard for me to push my whole body up and reach the peak. My arms were tingling and I had to bear with muscle pain. At last, I gave up half-way and came down with the help of the trainer. Without my realisation, I found out that I suffered from minor injuries on my leg.

Embarassments = This happened whilst I was having my buffet lunch. After picking up some fruits and lasagna, I went back to my seat inside the air-conditioned restaurant. All of a sudden, I was knocked down by a transparent down and the 'bang' sound shocked everyone in the restaurant, including my friends. My foods were all over the floor and only several pieces of fruits were on the plate. I couldn't imagine that I didn't notice that half the door was tightly shut. What I could remarked after this incident is my greediness and recklessness have played their vital roles on this.

Exhilaration and contentment = This escapade was in fact full of joy and excitement. Besides having breathtaking beaches and hills, the extreme activites have made the trip even more interesting. I had a chance of playing all sorts of high scale activities and sports. Beach volleyball and netball were among the craziest ones. The feeling of being away from Penang island was indeed different and amazing.
All I can say about this trip is unforgettable. Although certain things, for example unplanned activities, unprofessional tour guide, satisfactory buffet lunch and inadequate facilities, didn't up to my expectation, jerejak island should be massively developed into an isle of dream for tourists because of the untouched native forests and stunning beaches. Overall, I still enjoyed the vacation and appreciated the time I had with my pals.