Fireworks marking the start & end of CNY 2006

Yet another backdated post on fireworks which went off on the 29th Day prior to our Lunar Chinese New Year and also the fireworks for the Chap Goh Meh(15th - last day of Chinese New Year) celebration, arranged by the residential committee where we stay.

First up - this year's Chinese New Year reunion dinner arrangement was a bit special as normally we will have our reunion dinner at our own home with all 5 of us - Grandma, Mom & Dad, my brother and myself only; whereas this year, we had to go over to my 3rd Uncle's holiday condo right across the road as all of my 2nd uncle and 3rd uncle's family members are all there, so they've all decided that it's more 'lau juak' to have the whole pack of family members over there for the reunion dinner.

Well, in the end, it was more like a reunion-help-yourself-buffet-style dinner with a widespread varieties of goodies like the ever famous Jiu Hoo Char (a Hokkien delicacy which has vegies, meat and cuttlefish strips in it) - with the recipe and execution being passed down from my grandma to my mom now; Pao Hoo Tu Tor Th'ng (Abalon and Pig's stomach soup); Sio Bak (Roasted pork); curry chicken; and many more....

So after enjoying a damn good and filling dinner we get to enjoy some fireworks that a close-by apartment community have put up - but I just managed to get 2 shots coz my cousins were all busy cam-cording away..

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As for Chap Goh Meh, our community arranges fireworks display every year and residences can contribute financially to the fireworks session which lasts for about 5-10 minutes. Names of the residants who contribute are all posted on the glass panel for all to view the total being accumulated.

While I was chatting away with a friend who called for some mental consultation on his relationship problem, suddenly the fireworks came up! It was so damn loud and cracked right in front of the window of my room! I quickly asked my friend to pause and used my phone to capture all the fireworks clearly displayed right in front of my room.. they're beautiful; although they're nothing compared to the ones I've seen in Brisbane which is much more massive and grand in both in scale and in complexity; but this will do it, coz it's very rare to see fireworks in SUCH CLOSE UP! ANd the feeling is overwhelming.. it's just like lots of rainbow appearing continuously in different shades of colour right in front of you....

Enjoy!

Aww.. You're so sweet yoshi!

Received a very warm snail mail from a my dear Japanese pal - Yoshi in January and it was very heart-warming indeed. The feeling of still being remembered, being missed and just simply to hear what a friend has to tell you - no matter what it is - the feeling is really heart-warming... just indescribable.

The envelope and stamps are really nice.. Australian Post has come up with artistic envelope covers, stamps and this is yet another great combination of vibrant colours and wordings telling about Australian Christmas.

You know, actually I really like snail mails, coz it really shows the effort and heart that one puts in, and also I just like the feeling of holding something physical in my hand, one that I can keep and look back maybe few years later and still have the warm feeling..

Unfortunately, people no longer write snail mail nowadays, even personally written 'Hi How are you' e-mails are getting rarer and rarer. I know I'm one of them, but I'm really beginning to feel that there's too many things to do with too little time. Yoshi has left Australia in the beginning of March though, and she deliberately IM-ed me just to ask have I received her letter, for fear that it might already lost-in-transit
due to my inability to reply her in any way at all. My bad really. I've really wanted to write her a long and nice one but... somehow... one way or another it didn't seem to come along.

As Yoshi is returning to Japan (after many years in Australia) I've asked her to give me her mailing address in Japan so I could still write her the snail mail I promised her. Just really hope I could send her my reply before this month end :)

NOT a Walk In The Park

My new job really isn't a walk in the park, more like a pressure pot. I guess I'm not too sure if I've made the right choice afterall. But one thing I'm sure of is, I WILL live up and stand by to my decision and play it the way the environment wants me to. Of course, I'm still the same 'ol me, grabbing hard to my principles in life such as being ethical, professional as well as not being one of those people who will step on others to go on top; stroking manager or upper level's ego just so they look good in front of them, the list goes on.

I've had my fair share of downs especially in the early days in my job. The training and strong feeling of being out of place and unwelcomed into the team made me sad. Hurtful comments being thrown at me point blank made me depressed until I cried my heart out the minute I reached home and locked my room door. It was intense. I seeked my God Sis' comfort; as well as my best pal who's currently working in an even more stressed environment just upstairs from where I sit; and even an old friend from my previous temporary job tried to pull me together. My ex-lecturer, also a 9-year long employee in my company helped me to shed off the unnecessary worries, depression and advised me to ignore those who try their best to bring me down, to de-motivate me in any way. These are the people who sincerely hope for my success; and wish for a positive outlook in my career. Many heartful gratitude for them, as it was not for them, I have even thought of giving up, and felt I didn't belong in this company, in this job.

Now my second hurdle is my manager's negative feedback towards my progress - whether or not it is intentionally political for him as a manager to push me forward or not, now I found that I have gained strength to pull my act together and deliver to his expectations, and I know I Will, eventually surpass his expectations. Of course I'm playing to his cards but it's something that is mutually beneficial - I get what I want - a well lit career path; and he gets what he wants, i.e. a teamplayer who will reflect well on HIS OWN performance.

I do admit that I was really un-organised - too many e-mail communications, too many notifications, too many roles to play, too many procedures, too many politics, too many things to absorb - and unfortunately, with too little time.

Finally today, I've mapped out what I'm going to do about all of the above and my company laptop just hanged while I was in the middle of doing something at point where I should have stopped to take a break - and it was most welcomed as I just forced the system to shut down and here I am, updating my blog - doing something that I enjoy; that will at least give my mind a rest.

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I really hope I can make it. I really do. Please give me strength for me to help myself.

Chingay Festival at night man!

I remembered long long time ago when I was still a virgin girl * blush * ahem! actually way younger than that, back when I was only 10 years old my dad used to bring us for the annual Chingay procession at Penang Road.

Background of Chingay : Chingay is an art of carrying large poles of flag usually on the chin or forehead and processing it on a fixed route consisting of the main streets. These pole carriers range from Chinese to Malay and Indians, with Chinese dominating the "sport" in the early times when the art just started. The flags bear names of sponsors or simply the names of associations as well as the municipal councils'. The procession will usually start with people's representatives; then a school band from an esteemed high school; municipal council's pole and its carrier teams; and then followed by a mixture of sponsored poles; lion & dragon dance troupes; clowns and so on. The highlight of the procession is usually the performance of skilled pole carriers showing off how they are able to hurl up the massive pole by one foot to the other person's head or chin or chest or whatever body part they could land it on. The procession is very long and can go on and on for hours.

Last time the procession was held in the mornings say like 10am but I've lost track of since when that they have changed the procession time to night time :S

Ok so I don't sound like I really know my facts but what the heck, I've got many photos which I've taken by standing up on a high location for more than one freaking hour, wearing a slightly heeled sandal alright! So whoever you are reading this, better appreciate it you noob!

Don't ever underestimate the scale of crowd it gathers coz it's massive!!! I can tell you when we first 'jom-ed' our place around 7:30pm the street was only 'lined' by people from both sides of the street. But the minute we saw the lights coming from the head of the procession, out of nowhere, people start pouring onto the streets as if flood striked! Scary!

This is the dragon dance. I like the length of the dragon and the wave it makes, so elegant..














Ain't that POLE huge? ;)














Now I caught this on film! The guy on the right just hurled the pole whereby the guy on the left managed to catch it with his chin! Way to go!














This is the clown from Pesta Pulau Pinang. (translation : Penang Fun Fair - held annually during year end long school holidays)














Notice how high up my position was compared to everybody else's? I'm not bluffing you y'know... I really stood there (alongside my sweet bf cum security guard) for over an hour, drenched in sweat just to watch the procession!

This was supposed to be the (much awaited) lion dance but my bf was telling me that by the time the procession reached our location, they're very much worn out by 60% already and hence the lacking of Energy! Spirit! and Oooommpphh! anymore....















Here's a shot of yet another sponsored BIG pole :) I LIKE POLES.... mmmm....

Housewarming & Welcoming Baby!

Any similarities between the both? Can't think of one? They're both auspiscious occassions la! C'mon use your bLain, use your bLain..[quote: Phua Chu Kang]

Before my God-Sis invited me to her housewarming party on 7th Jan, I've already bought her a gift to congratulate her in moving into her very own house since it's really good news for her! She really deserved it coz the discipline and hardwork she put in to realise her dream was really something commendable and should be looked up to. I still remember how she told me to put off at least 40% of your pay every month so that I can have a comfortable amount of money by end of the day. I really salute her for being able to follow this rule faithfully and now she can even afford nearly RM 40k worth of renovation, imagine that....

So I got her something warm, literally - a table lamp which is very unique coz it's made of natural pieces like sea shells, wood, thick recycled paper etc. I thought it could artify and add some element to the living room or her bedroom or something :)

And that the place where I bought her gift, the wrapping is given free! Initially I was a bit upset due to the amount of time I had to wait for the person to wrap my gift for me, but the wait was quite worth it coz the result was nice! I chose the light purple wrapper, btw














The bowtie was nicely done, the top and bottom folds were 100% symmetrical! I'm going crazy coz all my life (so far) I can say I'm not bad of a gift wrapper myself but the symmetrical triangle folds at the ends were just too damn good!














Check it out! It's... THAT symmetrical alrite!














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OK, my dear honey's childhood pal and best fren have just been officially promoted to dad status and I've bought some little somethings for the new mama as well to congratulate them for having the first baby and it's a BOY (verryy envious) too! After my honey bought his share of the gift, I bought the wrapper and gave it a good touch up and here's the result!














The gifts themselves have no firm corners nor box so it's quite a challenge to actually pack up the thing in a nice manner so my handikraft is already as good as it gets. I particularly liked the cute baby tweety patterns with different expressions! See......

His & Her U2 Watches (or is it?)

Back last month (exact : December 2005) I won myself a nice U2 watch from the good people in Jun Lee Sdn. Bhd. It's actually a contest on their website http://www.u2-watch.com and the game works this way:-













Contestants are given random pieces of jigsaw puzzle consisting of 9 pieces each, and the goal of the game is to reshuffle them back in its place in the fastest time possible to qualify for the daily 10 prizes of U2 watch each.

They'll show you the complete picture first alongside with the 9 pieces; and then, as soon as you click "Play" the stopwatch on the side starts ticking and you hafta start dragging and dropping all the pieces in the
correct place as fast as you can. After finishing, the stopwatch halts and that's your time. You can choose whether or not to submit that particular time that you played or choose to play again without submitting, simply because each individual (with a valid IC no.) are only allowed to submit their entries ONLY ONCE.

Which means, you wanna be reaaaaly sure that your time is Freaking fast before you submit coz who knows, some Tom Dick & Harry might just beat your time by a second and you happen to be on the 10th fastest time spot and suddenly, your time becomes the 11th fastest time = no prize.

Actually the game isn't hard, PROVIDED that you study the damn picture very well and jot down each of the 9 pieces' location and the sequence from where and to where you should drag and drop the pieces. All done in a flawless flow with no mistakes so to save time. Every piece that is dropped in the wrong spot, the piece will be immediately plonked back to a different spot on the side as a penalty. So I played the game and got 7 seconds and submitted it. The next day, I looked up the results and my name was there! Yipee I got myself a U2 watch, piece of cake!

But then, I received an e-mail from Jun Lee Sdn. Bhd. confirming my win as well as instructions asking me to collect my prize from their office in KL (!) That was not a good news and so I'm began to worry how am I supposed to go and collect it, can I delegate someone else to collect it on my behalf, etc..etc.. Later on I actually called and enquired them on how will outstation people be able to go and collect it? They told me that discussions are underway to arrange for all the prizes to be mailed out to all winners residing outside KL & Selangor.

So one fine day one of them called me up and informed me that they have sent out my prize to my address! I was excited! Told my bf about it and we waited anxiously. It came in Pos Laju parcels and we both went and collected it at night (the collection centre opens til sometime around 8:30pm) and we got these!

This is my bf's (smaller)














And this is mine! (Look at the size!) *wide & excited eyes*














After opening it up, this is what my bf's look like inside:-






































































Check out mine which I think is equally creative in their packaging:-























































































In case you haven't notice yet... It turned out that both the watch prize that we got are of the same model! %*((&^%###!#$%*&@ ~excitement level immediately dropped~ Oh well, we didn't expect much from free prizes anyway and mind you, these prizes are worth RM 249 each (it came with a price tag and a warranty card, refer below) so DON'T underestiamte it.















Anyway, I think U2 is aggressively promoting its new Watch line and trying to grab hold of the slightly above average watch accessory market by giving away lower end watches from their line in an effort to promote their new model launches. So who gains from it end of the day? SMART people like me who knows when and where to look AND EARN prizes!

Heh... Heh...

Many Backdated Posts

Hi everyone! Let's cut the crap here.. I think many of my *very few* readers might have already lost interest in my blog as it's been n months ago since I've updated it!

Truth is, I've actually written up 4 posts with pics to upload but even that, I couldn't find time to do it. Go on, blame it on my current company who's stressing me out.

So now, I'll kick off the first one! (from oldest post to the most current ones)

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Oh alright, so I'm a li'l teeny weeny bit (read:VERY) late in putting up my X'mas tree pics but who cares? This is MY blog n I call the shots!

Lovely Indoor Tree @ Gurney Plaza















Outdoor Tree @ Island Plaza day time














Outdoor Tree @ Island Plaza night time














Gama X'mas tree & surrounding anonymous trees taken from a car at a rainy night














Christmas mood was especially strong for me this year (or should I say last year since it was in 2005), not sure why, my mood was exceptionally happy even a few weeks prior to X'mas day itself, has it got to do with the tress??

On the contrary, it's 17th Jan today(the day I've written this post), 12 days to Chinese New Year but I still don't really feel the Chinese New Year mood yet, especially when all the people mountain people sea people are already flocking ANY super or hyper markets they can land their feet on already!!!! Albeit the fact that I listen to CNY songs on MY FM everyday doesn't really help much either.. *sigh*