Moments Of Endearment

Kung Hei Fatt Choy!

2012-01-23T13:36:00.002+08:00

Wishing everyone a great and prosperous year of dragon!
Happy Chinese New Year!
Gong xi! Gong xi!
HUAT AH!!!!

hello from Starbucks!

2012-01-10T16:32:00.005+08:00

Live blogging!

This is the first time I brought a netbook out to public and online! hahaha

Me and my company, Miss KarenC.

This is our drink. Java Chip & Chocolate Cream Chip, and the two little cups are complimentary from Starbucks!

Gonna continue to chill here for a while. :)

Wen's wedding - walking down the aisle

2012-01-02T14:37:00.019+08:00

So after getting ready, everyone arrived at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, where the wedding will be held.

As it is a garden wedding, it will be held in the grounds of Kirstenbosch.

2 in 1 program + fan

seats

left: flower decos on the chairs
right: scatterlings in a cone hung on every chair for later use

left: umbrellas to keep cool and carry on
right: different love quote on each umbrella

love decos hanging in the gazebo
and a love board

Guests arrived at about 2.30-3.00pm.

By 3.25pm, good friend and the MC for the day (Nataan) got the guests seated and ready for the ceremony.

At 3.30pm, Richard Clayderman's Ballade Pour Adeline plays in the background. Flowergirl Zoe and Bridesmaid *ahem* me, walked in....

Zoe was abit too young (3 years old) and got shy when everyone was looking at her, so I gotta hold her and guide her halfway.

And then another good friend Adrian plays the piano. A beautiful version of Wedding March.

Look at the groom's face! The anxiety to look at his beautiful bride! :D

Daddy walked together with Wen, to give her away. She look absolutely stunning! The make-up, the hairdo, the dress, everything fits perfectly!

The minister then asked Ian to turn and look at his bride. Happiness written all over his face! :D

The sun was shining a little bit too bright that day, thus everyone was hiding under the umbrella and sunglasses! We were still glad for the sunny weather and it's not a windy day.

Daddy gave away the bride to Ian.

And together they walked the rest of the aisle.

And the ceremony begins. The minister spoke of love.

They spoke their vows and 'I Do-s'

Ian's parents

Daddy & Mummy

Guests

The the exchange of rings.

'I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.'

Pieter (Ian's dad) dedicated a solo to the newlyweds! He sang beautifully!

Then the bride and groom enters the gazebo to officially sign the paper documents.

And also their witnesses, Bestman Rodger and Bridesmaid me.

Then the newlyweds marched down the aisle for the first time as Mr and Mrs Abels. Everyone took their scatterlings to throw at them!

The ceremony ends.

Everyone took a chance to hug and personally congratulate the newlyweds.

The whole ceremony took about 45 minutes.

Then the bride and groom went for their wedding shoot.

While the guests hung out at the lawn area outside the restaurant, where cocktails and snacks were served.

There were also a few games such as chess, tic-tac-toe, etc prepared for the guests.

Some guests took a rest at the restaurant and chill.

When the bride and groom returned about an hour later, we took family photos.

Abels & Tans

Abels.

Tans

Extended-Tans

three sisters

Guests

Guests again

Peter entertaining Shern

Shern with the newlyweds

with Zoe, the flowergirl

Bestman . Groom . Bride . Bridesmaid

Rodger . Ian . Wen . Min

LUCKY MAN!

Wen and me

That's the end of the garden wedding. Dinner reception coming soon! :)

twenty-two

2012-01-01T20:05:00.003+08:00

I turned another year older on 30 December 2011!

Went to Redbox at noon. Had a crazy singing/shouting session with girlfriends.

loves

Had lunch in my new favourite restaurant in Gurney Plaza - Ice Ice Baby. Ranjini joined us. Forget to take picture! :(

Dinner at Sushi Zento in Precinct 10 with family w/o Mum & Dad as they have dinner appointment.

11.30pm. Cut cake session!

Shern stole one of the M&Ms

Whole family w/o Ian & Wen

Shern is the happiest! LOL

Thank you to those who send me Birthday wishes through sms, facebook, whatsapp, plurk, call, in person! And thank you for the birthday presents! I feel so loved!

Happy Birthday to me! :)

Skydiving @ Cape Town

2011-12-28T16:23:00.021+08:00

This is a post about me skydiving. My first skydiving ever! I've already made a decision to do skydiving since I know that I'm coming over to Cape Town a year ago. So on 12 December 2011, my family and I drove towards the skydiving site of Skydive Cape Town.

My appointment was booked for 12.30pm, but we reached there quite early.. about 11.30am. I preferred that as I get to look around at the place, and have enough time for me to freak out and then calm myself down before my turn. LOL

We went to benches allocated outside to chill.

Ate some snacks and saw a few skydivers landing on the landing site. The landing site was smooth and sandy, making it a softer landing.

Not to forget, the sun shining so brightly that day. It has a complete ring around it!

Yes, it was supposed to be a hot day, but i was feeling chilled to the bones. Yes, the anxiety!

After sitting around for quite some time, my anxiety reduces. I'm still scared, but my hands are not freezing cold anymore. Just cold! :P

Oh, I forget to mention that I took the Tandem-Skydiving. Which means that I will be doing the skydiving together with the tandem master. I will be hooked to him, and he does all the technical stuff like releasing my parachute, navigate us to the landing spot, and most importantly, landing us both safely!

I refused to do the jump alone as I was worried I wouldnt know how to land and crash myself and be paralyzed for the rest of my life! And what if my parachute doesnt open and I panic? *kiasi mode* Hahaha

And also if I choose to do it solo, my parachute will open once I'm out of the plane. Which means I would not be able to experience the free fall, which is one of the things that I like the most from bungee jumping! The adrenaline rush that you cant get it anywhere else! ;)

Back to my skydiving experience. Later on, my tandem master, Paul calls me and suit me up.

He's wearing a T-shirt with shorts, while I'm wearing a purple turtle-neck over my top, with a jeans! Hahaha

These are all my supporters (missing Yin, Shern, AhYee and Ian in the photo)... who supported me mentally and being physically there! :D

This is my freak-out face! I'm scared also okay?!

This is me after I got suited up.

Me and Wen.

And this is me wearing the goggles when I'm gonna have my freefall. The shape is so weird! LOL

After awhile, Paul came back and gave me a briefing on what I should do before the jump and during landing. He also said that I would going up to 9000 feet today. My brain straight away jump to calculation mode. (That's like more than 10 times higher than the highest jump I did in Macau Tower!!). You can totally read my facial expression in the picture below. 'You are not joking right? :S

And then off we walked towards the plane.

Paul recall the same thing to me all over again...in case I freak out I guess.

And checked my suit again for safety.

And then, it's time!

Up into the plane.

As you can see, the plane is quite small. It fits exactly 7 of us (two jumpers, two tandem masters, two photographers/videographers and one pilot). We were seated on the floor as the roof of the plane was low. Nope, no chairs like a normal aeroplane.

Bevan, my photographer/videographer was the land to enter and closed the door. Not exactly a door. It's just a transparent plastic thing he slides from the top to cover the exit.

And off we go........

My heart was pumping superbly fast at that time. And then suddenly I remembered Ian told me to enjoy the plane ride as I get to see beautiful sights.

I looked around and it was breathtaking! It was indeed a view that not everyone can experience it. I keep looking turning my head left and right to look at the beautiful scenery.

I was enjoying the view for about 20-30 minutes. My heart even stopped panicking as I was really enjoying myself up there.

And then suddenly Bevan pulls the transparent plastic door up. OMG! This is it... My heart started to pump very fast again. I'm the 2nd jumper from the plane. Another guy will be jumping first.

At first his cameraman crawls himself out from the plane, but still clinging on it like spiderman! I remember thinking 'so yeng' at that time! Hahaha

I see the guy sits at the edge of the plane, and then falls off!

I swear I thought my heart stopped beating. I was really scared at that time! I was turning cold again. And then I heard Paul asking me to sit at the edge of the plane.

OMG!! I dont know how did I managed to drag myself to sit at the edge!

The wind was really strong! I was so scared I was going to be blown away. Then I wouldnt know how to open the parachute as I was so prepared that Paul is gonna do it! I mean, I PAY him to do that for me right? And then suddenly I remembered that I'm hooked to Paul. I felt glad that at least now I wouldnt be so light and not gonna be easily blown away by the wind! Hahaha

Paul then asked me to looked up and smile for the camera. This is the best smile I can give. (more to like opening my mouth and show my teeth only).

He rocked me to the front.. and I was thinking 'OH SHIT OH SHIT', then he rocked me to the back... *fiuf*

Then he rocked me to the front again, and I was thinking 'this is two, next rock is gonna be THREE!!'

But I was wrong!! We fall at that 2nd rock!!!!

I cant remember if I did shout or not! Hahaha

Mind my facial expression. The wind was very strong and my hair are blown all the way to the back. And Paul keep asking me to smile to the cameraman. LOL I guess after a while, my facial expression was stuck! LOL

I had 30 seconds of free fall and then Paul opens the parachute.

Oops! My shirt went up due to the wind. Funny because I dont know anything about it until I see the pictures later on. I didnt even feel cold or wind blowing into my tummy. Maybe because my whole body was already feeling so cold! Hahaha

Below are pictures taken from my supporters. Can you spot me?

The plane is at the middle of the picture. We must have jumped off from the plane already but you cant spot us.

I'm the upper parachute. The one with red tips.

I'm at bottom left.

The one below

Middle of the picture

me doing my turns!

When the parachute is open, Paul handed me the parachute handles and gave me to be in control! Whoooo! He gives the command of course. I wouldnt want to risk flying away from my landing spot and having to land on top of a tree!

The white patch on top right corner is my landing spot. This is the view from above.

As we get nearer, Paul asked me to return him the controls. I was more than glad to do so! Hehe

He does it all! All I have to do was bend my knees, and.....

Touchdown!

I've done it! I've skydived 9000 feet and survived!

Thank you Paul!

And that's my plane coming back, after I've landed. Hehe

And my name being ticked off.

Below is the video of my jump. Have fun watching it!

Overall, I'm glad I did it. It was a lovely experience!

However, after that, I was having abit of motion sickness. I believe it's due to the many turns I did after the parachute opened. Had to rest for a few hours before everything was okay! :(
*note to self - eat motion sickness pill beforehand*

*******************************************************************************************************************************
http://skydivecapetown.za.net
Tandem Jump - R 1,500.00
Photo + Video - R 750.00

Wen's wedding - getting ready

2011-12-27T19:49:00.018+08:00

All the ladies at the house woke up as early as 7am on 3 December 2012. We all then drove to The Cottage in Constantia Mist, the place where the ladies in my family will get their make-up and get dressed. We reached there about 9am as we thought the make-up artist will arrive at 10am. Turns out they are only arriving at 11am. *smack head! should have woke up one hour later instead.

We were wow-ed at the beauty of The Cottage (might blog about the cottage in later post). We took photos, drank hot chocolate and coffee and also decorated the place with a few chinese wedding decorations.

double happiness

traditional bride and groom, with angpows

And also hung up the wedding dresses.

mum and 3 daughters

At 11am, the make-up artists arrived. We took turns and of course, the bride was the last one to get her make-up and hair done. Videographer and photographer arrived when we were halfway through.

braid and then curl by the side

hairpiece

wearing the dress

accessories

And me *ahem* the bridesmaid's hairdo was this.

braids at right and left, joined in the middle. and uses bracelets as hairpiece.

After everyone is done with the make-up, of course many photos were taken.. hehe

this picture to show how the wedding dress with the can-can looks like

Halfway taking photos, we received a call from dad. We were supposed to meet Dad, Peter and Shern in Kirstenbosch (wedding venue) at 2pm. They were there and they couldnt find us! Oh now, we are late!! Rush rush rush..... So we took a few more pictures and all the girls left to Kirstenbosch, except for Wen, Drikus (photographer) and Lee (Wen's friend who acts as the chauffeur for the day) to continue to take more pictures.

lady of the day

Wen . Mum

ladies

3 sisters

pretty bride

Wen joined us in Kirstenbosch at around 3pm, where it all begins....

***to be continued.....

I'm back from my one month trip to South Africa!

2011-12-26T23:08:00.004+08:00

Stay tuned for....

1) Shu-Wen's wedding

2) Lots of beautiful scenery and landmarks of South Africa

3) My first skydiving experience

4) Pre-Christmas celebration

5) Camping in Bergrivier

6) Summer concert in Kirstenbosch - Carols by Candlelight

7) and most importantly....Family reunited.

சந்தோஷமாக தீபாவளி '11.

2011-10-26T23:44:00.001+08:00

Happy Deepavalli @ Ranjini's Place

Cambodia '07-'08

2011-10-22T00:09:00.002+08:00

Found these pictures of my trip to Cambodia on 28 Dec '07 - 4 Jan '08. (and since I dont have anything to blog about, let me just post some pictures :P)

Below photo is taken at the roundabout in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. The thing in the middle of the roundabout is the independence monument of Cambodia.

We visited the Mekong River too. Cambodia is really a poor country. The people living at the Mekong River live in a small hut with no electricity and water supply. Some kids dont even have clothes to wear. They bathe, drink, wash their clothes using the water from the Mekong River. A lot of children are malnutrition (by looking at the lack/faded colour of hair at a very young age). Feel so sad to be there. :( According to the tour guide, the degree of corruption is very high in Cambodia. For example, to work as a tour guide in Angkor Wat, they need to forked out a few thousand USD$, just to earn USD$1/day!!! :(

The one-room huts. And I swear these are the better + cleaner looking ones already. :(

We also went to the famous Central Market for souvenirs shopping. It's true that we can get Polo Tees for the price of USD$5. Most of them have brands and it even goes to the details like the brand name printed on the buttons! o.O some says they are originally from the factory but being sneaked out by the workers. Hmmm.. They have alot of things too like handbags, watches, shoes, etc.

We bought mostly from this lady as gave us one of the lowest price we can get. :)

I remember going to a few more places like the Esplanade, we had steamboat, local food, western food in a high class restaurant. All the while using the local Tuk Tuk.

And yes, we managed to squeezed in 11 people in a Tuk Tuk excluding the driver. :P

Besides that, we also travelled via bus to Siem Riep for the most famous thing in Cambodia; the Angkor Wat.

I reached there and only to realised Angkor Wat is only one of the many ancient architecture. There are actually hundreds of monuments/buildings in that area.
There is a choice to visit for one/three/five days. We paid for 3 days pass.

All of carvings on the stones actually represents different era & meaning. Usually it follows the religion of the King who built the monument. One building might be Buddhist themed, the next might be Hindu themed. Some are mixtures of both. Each building serves a different purpose too. Eg worship, studying the religion, healing purpose, etc.

The weather was super hot on our first day visiting the monuments. Look at the picture above. We were baked under the sun! We looked for shade whenever we could. However the weather changed the next day and thereafter. It became cooling and in fact quite nice to walk around. Luckily!

Alot of trees there has been there for a long loooooooong time. They are huge! Look at the tree roots!

And I absolutely love the next photo. The tree grew on top of the building. Aint it lovely?

In fact, when they found the buidings, a lot of them were about to collapse. These tree roots are the one supporting them. Thus they could not cut the trees down without damaging the building or risked them collapsing. Aint it cool?

A tree on top of a building actually supports the building below? I FIND IT SUPER COOL! Look closely at the roof of the building.

HAHAHAHAHA below is a superly random photo which I like. Girl Power! ;)

Next is THE Angkor Wat.

Beautiful huh? :)

Angkor Wat is actually the largest temple among the rest, with the ruins encompass an area of approximately 104 square kilometers and took more than thirty years to build. It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

They have many beautiful carvings of the Hindu religion in nearly every inch of the building.

I remembered the tour guide mentioned that Angkor Wat is divided into a few levels. I think something to do with thehighest level representing nirvana. My bad if any of my facts are wrong. I have super bad memory. :S

Anyway this is the highest level of the Angkor Wat. It was closed for restoration work as the stone steps were too narrow to walk on and to make it worse, many stones have chipped off. It would be quite dangerous.

Random fact: People have died falling down while walking up/down the stairs *gasp*

Now they build steps over the original stone steps with bigger feet space and railings to hold on to reduce the accident rates.

The back of the Angkor Wat.

Finished the Angkor Wat building. Back to other stone buildings. :)

This is random, but I just like this pic. Seldom have picture of 3 sisters nowadays. :)

Oh, and I like the following picture. Like promoting some Indiana Jones/National Treasure movie. LOL

Tree and building again. But this time, the branches of the tree are poking out at all sides of the building. Make it look as though the building is the tree trunk.

Look closely at the next building. See the roof of the entrance are all crooked and about the collapse? Look at how the tree roots helped to support and prevent them from collapsing! Ah, the beauty of mother nature helping us! :)

The next building is very cute. Grass grow out from all over the building. Makes the building look hairy. lol

Next building is different again. Something about different stones used to build the building. Can see by its colour. Cannot remember the facts d.

We watched 3 sunsets from three different buildings during the three days. And it is usually packed with tourists like us taking photos of the moment.

Squint your eyes and see the number of people climbing up the stairs to watch the sunset.

The end of stone tour! :)

On one of the day, our tour guide also ta pau-ed some local food and took us to a waterfall place for picnic lunch. The place was quite ulu as I remember passing a very bumpy steep road to reach.

We had a pondok to ourselves. There's even a hammock in the pondok.

And I celebrated my 18th birthday in Cambodia too. The tour guide was supposed to just bring out the cake to my table for the surprise during dinner, but it turned out that he made the big buffet dinner restaurant played a birthday song over the speaker when the cake parades out from the kitchen, and the guests in the restaurant sang along. WOAH~~~~

Super embarrassed at that moment! LOL but well, at least it is memorable! <3

the numb story

2011-10-08T12:12:00.003+08:00

Two days after I'm back from my Singapore Trip, I began to fall sick. As usual it starts with fever. And most of the time, when I have a fever, I will have nausea too. Which means I eat minimal food and vomit all of them out half an hour later. I'm pretty much attached to my bed 24/7. The fever+vomit lasted for two days.

Saturday morning, I woke up feeling much better. No longer feel nauseating, no more fever. Body still feel a little heaty though. But I even got the 'mood' to go out in the morning to purchase a new phone. I begin eating normally. The whole day was good. Until saturday night when my fever comes back. So I stuck 'cool fever' on my forehead, eat the two panadols and go straight to bed.

The whole day of Sunday, my fever was on and off. But at least no more nauseating! At least I can eat, which makes the whole day 10000x better! No need to lay down on my bed the whole day. Hehe

Monday arrived and I still have fever. I went to the clinic, as it seems like panadol is not working effectively. Maybe I need some antibiotic. Then the drama begins.

While waiting for my turn in the air-condition waiting room, I started to feel slightly numb. The type where we remained too long in the same position then the numbness comes. So the numbness was from my elbow to my fingertips, and also from my chest all the way up to my nose. When I mentioned it to the doctor, she says it might be due to coldness to bones. She gave me some medicine for my fever, antibiotic and vitamins.

Then on my way home, my fingers begin to feel 'more' numb. Slowly my fingers begin to 'freeze' and it was unable to move by their own. First it was only the fingers on the right hand. Half an hour later, fingers on both hands sorta 'freeze' and start having spasm (thiu kin in hokkien). As I'm still experiencing mild numbness from my chest to nose, I begin to ask my mum, 'what if it's stroke'. LOL

fingers curled up in a weird angle and i'm unable to move them without help!

So we decided to go to the hospital. We headed straight to emergency. The nurses begin to put a plastic on my face and asked me to breathe in it. The said slowly it will ease the numbness. They measure my fever too.

After a while, my spasm did ease slightly, and the numbness begin to go away. The doctor came and checked. Then she explains that this happens when our body is in anxiety, then we will breathe in more oxygen and releases more carbon dioxide. Thus she putting the plastic on and breathing in back our own carbon dioxide will slowly ease the numbness in our body.

But weird... my body is in anxiety. Up until today, I still cant think what makes it happen? LOL

The doctor recommends me to stay one night in the hospital to check my blood for dengue as I have been having fever for a number of days.

So, I go for my first hospitalization.

Not to forget, the first time my blood was withdrawn from my body for blood test.

The numbness only fully went away late at night.

What do I have to say for my first hospitalized experience? Well, it was super bored in the hospital. Time passes so s...l...o...w in there. Luckily I have my phone with me so I can go online and play some games with it. It's nice when people come and visit because at least time can pass at that time. I was also looking forward when the nurses come and give me medicines, measure my temperature, inject antibiotics for me. LOL

When the test results for my blood is out at night, the doctor says it's not dengue (*fiuf*), and not H1N1 (*double fiuf*). If my fever goes down tomorrow morning, then I can be discharged with medications.

I think my body listens intensely and since then, my temperature dropped and the next morning, I'm fever-free, numb-free and spasm-free! :D That's when flu and cough comes in.

So happy to be discharged and so happy to be at home!

Until 1 week later, the bill came.

RM1,261.96!! WHAT?!?!?!

ACCA Graduation

2011-10-04T16:59:00.002+08:00

Graduation....again!

A lot of people has been asking, "havent you just came back from a graduation and now you're going for another graduation?"

Yes. The one I attended in August was for my Oxford Brookes Degree of BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting graduation, and this time is for my ACCA. I get to wear the graduation robes and mortarboard twice! How cool is that? :P

The ACCA Graduation took place in One World Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. My parents and my Ah-Yee are down to KL with me. We left our hotel in Bukit Bintang area as early as 6.30am, which means we woke up as early as 5.30am to get prepared.

We reached One World Hotel at 7am. However, to our horror, the registration counter was not even properly set up yet (despite the schedule that they send us earlier says we can start collecting our graduation robes at 7am). The lady at the registration counter said, "please come back in half an hour's time to let us set up our counter". SWT! I just continue standing in front of counter (indirectly giving pressure for them to faster set up the counter lol). After about 10 minutes or so, I registered myself and took my graduation robes and mortarboard.

Then the next ques, how do I wear them? LOL the robes were different from the previous graduation I attended (furthermore, they actually helped each of the graduates to wear the graduation robes and mortarboard in my previous OBU graduation). So I stood in front of a mirror and tried to my best to visualize how my robes should look like (feeling slightly frustrated with their disorganized event which I've paid RM305!). I looked around trying to steal a glance on other graduates but none of them has worn their robes too. So I went back to the robes counter and asked for their help.

After all the hoo hah, finally i'm in my robes, ready for... photos! :)

yours truly

mummy and daddy

with liphoo, sookchen and kangleng

with liphoo, chekhwa, kangleng and melissa

group picture - Disted College

Group picture - EY

The graduates were being ushered to the ballroom for group pictures. Parents and guests would have to wait outside, thus I dont have the group picture.

After that parents and guests were invited into the ballroom when the ceremony begins. As the graduates are not seated according to alphabetical order, me and my friends managed to get the whole stretch to ourselves. Erm, actually 9 of us were seating on 7 chairs. Haha

Oh, and guests would have to pay RM150 per pax. My parents decided not to enter as it was quite pricey. So they hung out at the hotel lobby during the ceremony.

After the ceremony, I quickly went to the studio photo taking area to get my passport photo taken, as my photo will be out in The Star Newspaper on 27 October 2011. So please stay tuned! :)

After that we went for the refreshments. More to lunch as there were many food. After food, my family and I went back to the ballroom to take photos at the stage.

the stage

with Ah Yee

Then I returned my robes and got back my deposit and certificate of attendance. The end of my ACCA graduation! :)

*********************************************************************************

The Graduation Ceremony costs RM265, including :-
- Snack/Refreshment
- Certificate of attendance
- Rental of 1 set of Graduation Set (black robe, colourhood, mortarboard)

Optional package which I took :-
- Photo package A - RM40
* 1 set of 4R, 5R and 11R size photos receiving certificate in full with VIPs (1 pose only)

Singapore 8 - 13 September 2011

2011-09-28T14:35:00.000+08:00

To summarize it all...

1) Universal Studio Singapore

Full blog post click here.

2) Orchard Road

3) The Esplanade

4) Merlion

5) The Fullerton Hotel

6) Marina Bay Sands

7) Lion King Show

8) Helix Bridge

9) Singapore Flyer

10) Science Centre

11) Shopping in Bugis

12) Guan Yin Temple, Bugis.

13) Ice-cream w wafers for S$1.

14) Picture with Jamie + Dylan.

The end

Universal Studio Singapore

2011-09-26T11:22:00.003+08:00

A lazy 'mostly photos' post regarding my trip to Universal Studio Singapore.

Must take photo of Universal Studio Globe

Ticketing booths

'Back to the future' theme restaurant

Monster Rock,
live musical show featuring classic monsters such as Mummy, Frankenstein, Phantom etc...

Lights, Camera, Action!
Hosted by Steven Spielberg, it gives the lesson and feeling on how they create a major hurricane in New York City.

random settings in Hollywood.

(reminds me of the last scene in the movie Pretty Woman where the Richard Gere rides on the roof of his white Limousine)

Empire Hotel
(in random, it reminds me of Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl)

a girl at a bar

NYC subway

the yellow cab

the public library

Sci-Fi City

Accelerator,
the rides that goes round and round and round to make you dizzy

Random characters from Sci-Fi City

Battlestar Galactica

Blue track : Cyclon
Red track : Human
I tried Cyclon first. It's the fastest roller coaster I've ever ride. With my feet hanging in the air, it throws me left, right, up, down and even turn upside down for 5 times. I felt a little dizzy when I'm walking away after the ride.
The Human is not as scary as Cyclon. No turning upside down. I remember sitting down on the roller coaster and looking for something to hold on to when it is about to start and I cant find any! Zooming at a very high speed left, right, up and down, with nothing much to cling on to is definitely scary!
But I enjoyed myself though Hehehe

Characters from Ancient Egypt

Entrance of Revenge of the Mummy
One of my favourite roller coaster! We plunge into total darkness in this ride. Not to forget the roller coaster suddenly move unexpectedly BACKWARD! Oh, and it's sudden drop after it stopped at a road block.

Treasure Hunters
Just a simple jeep ride ala Indiana Jones style

Entrance of Jurassic Park

Inside Discovery Food Court

Look at the walls!

Chicken Rice + Singapore Laksa

random pic in Jurassic Park

Canopy Flyer in The Lost World
This is a ride where we can have a bird's-eye view over Jurassic Park.

Dino-Soarin
A ride of kids maneuvering their own Pteranodon.

Random pic with the dinosaur head

Entrance to WaterWorld

Awesome show ala Wild Wild West style.
The show is full of stunts and explosions. Make sure you sit at the correct zone if you do not want to get wet. There's Soak Zone, Splash Zone and Dry Zone.
And I like how they keep the guests entertained before the show. A great job!

Entrance to Far Far Away

Shrek's Castle

Shrek 4D Adventure,

A 4D fairytale adventure with Shrek and Princess Fiona in Far Far Away.

Magic Potion Spin
I find this mini indoor ferris wheel super cute!

Donkey Live
Interact and sing-along with Donkey. ♫ I Smell Good ♪

Shrek merchandise

super duper cute fridge magnets

Enchanted Airways
A more simple roller coaster ride.

Spotted character Shrek and Princess Fiona but we didnt queue for photo-taking.

with Marty, Alex, Gloria and Melman

Madagascar caps

Madagascar pillows

Madagascar Boogie!
Managed to catch the madagascar street performance.

I like to move it move it!

King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round

In another words, merry-go-round with the Madagascar theme.

Madagascar: A Crate Adventure
This is a boat ride into the land of Madagascar together with Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria. It was disappointing as compared to 'It's A Small World' in Disneyland!

Met Frankenstein.

Marilyn Monroe

Hollywood Street

Souvenir shop

who says you cant buy your own Oscar?

Ready? Action!

I like the Marilyn Monroe merchandises!

chocolates

candies

random hollywood stall

Managed to catch The Rockafellas performing street dances.

King . Egyptian . Policeman . Firefighter

erm.. ghost? lol

Universal Studio Fountain.
This is where we sat to watch the fireworks later in the evening.

Candylicious
(outside Universal Studio)

Garrett Popcorn!
Most yummy popcorn I've ever tasted. Each one of it is caramel flavoured and crispy!
Managed to sneaked in Garrett's popcorn during fireworks. Hehehe

Woody Woodpecker

Po from Kungfu Panda

We dont know who's she!
No one was queuing to take a picture with her, so we took a picture with her. LOL

Waited for the fireworks at 9pm.
I was quite disappointed with the fireworks.
Too near thus too bright. I wore my sunglass to watch comfortably. Hahaha
Not very beautiful also, or maybe it was too bright.

my mickey sleeveless top

2011-08-27T11:19:00.007+08:00

The other day I was cleaning my wardrobe at home.

I have this bunch of clothes that I only wear them at home because they are so comfortable to wear. No need to iron them as they are best when they are not ironed.

Btw, this post is about one of my favourite home clothes - The Mickey Mouse Sleeveless top. I have this since I was in Primary 4 or 5. WOW! Nearly 10 years already~ (Prove that I dont grow much sideways :P)

It's made of cotton thus it's super comfortable and nice to wear at home especially the humid weather in Penang. But then the clothes is now way beyond repair to wear anymore.

Let the picture below do the illustration!

Sighhhh! I remember few months back, there was only a tiny hole at the back, and now it's gone from tiny to MEGA HUGE! So sad that I need to throw it away! T_T

Plus, Shern likes me wearing this top because he can point at the pictures and say "Mickey Mouse", "fish fish" and "bubbles"!

OBU Degree Graduation @ Renaissance Hotel Kuala Lumpur

2011-08-23T10:49:00.003+08:00

I just came back from my trip to KL. Nope this time it's not for shopping (although I still do a little of shopping while I was there). The main reason for this trip is for my Degree Graduation!

The graduation was held in Renaissance Hotel located at the corner of Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Ampang on 21 August 2011.

We are allowed to pick our graduation robes as early as 11am. But my parents and I decided not to reach too early as it would be a long day.

We went over to Times Square to collect the bouquet of pink roses we ordered a day earlier from Pretty Petals Florist. Why no delivery on Sunday? :(

A dozen of pink roses costs RM80. I reminded myself that I need to take at least 80 photos with the flower so that it would be worth it! Hehe

After collecting the flower, we went back to the hotel and changed into formal attire. Couldnt resist the beauty of the flower and we took some pictures with it even before the ceremony! Haha

Then we took a taxi from Bukit Bintang to Renaissance Hotel for RM6. We reached there at approximately 12.30pm and there were already a big crowd of graduates and guests.

We quickly went straight to the 1st floor to register. There was a queue of about 10 people in front. During the registration, we were given the official booklet, the map for the robing and photography, and the program for the day.

We went straight to Function Room 3&4 for robing and to our horror, there was about 100 graduates queuing. OMG! But no choice, still have to queue patiently.....

Halfway through the queue, the staff in-charge came by and looked at my receipt. He then asked me to pass the one particular receipt to the robing staff. I asked if I must continue queuing or I can skip the queue, and he replied that I can skip the queue. So I walked pass around 50 graduates in front of me and went straight into the Function Room 3&4 for my robes! :D

After getting my robes, I went over to join Mum & Dad who were already queuing for the photography session. Another about 70 graduates in front of me. So while waiting, my mom took pictures of me! :P

It was nearly 1.45pm when it's my turn for the photography session. Cant wait for the photos to arrive! Hopefully I look okay! :P

Then of course we walked around the hotel taking pictures here and there.

@ the concourse area - stairs

proud parents ;)

registration area @ Ballroom Foyer

@ West Wing, 1st Floor

@ hotel lobby

Daddy & me

@ another random stairs

Then finally my one and only friend who also attended the ceremony is done with her photography. We meet up and took a photo together.

with lee ai

About 2.30pm, the Grand Ballroom is open for graduates and guests.

stage

Grand Ballroom

At 2.50pm, Mr John Playle of Oxford Brookes University Business School introduced the Graduation Ceremony and explained how the ceremony will proceed.

At 3pm, the Graduation Ceremony begins.

Music began to play and everyone stands up. Members of the Platform Party walked from the back of the Grand Ballroom to take their place on stage.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Janet Beer gave a short welcome speech and the presentation of graduates took place.

Since the graduates are arranged by alphabetical order, it was quite a while before it's my turn.

peace sign to differentiate myself from the rest of the graduates lol

Then the guest speaker, Mr Devanesan Evanson from ACCA gave a speech. Then another member of the Platform Party gave a Vote of Thanks before ending the Graduation Ceremony.

After the Platform Party left the Grand Ballroom, the ushers instruct us to leave the Grand Ballroom row by row. We rejoined our guests outside the Grand Ballroom.

Then, it was FOOD TIME! OMG! I bet all of us were so hungry at that moment. Since most of us did not have a proper lunch earlier, the refreshments finished very fast! We were served with chocolate cake, two types of cinnamon roll, fried wanton with coffee or tea.

Then the ushers informed the graduates to return to the Grand Ballroom for a group photo. After arranging and arranging and arranging... TADAAAAAAA!

Can you spot me? LOL if you can, I shall salute you!

I'm seated 4th from the right at the second row from the bottom. Can you see me now? LOL

Thank you for trying. This is a zoom-ed picture of me.

Can you see me now? :)

After that, I went to return my robes and then we took a taxi back to our hotel at Bukit Bintang. Took some pictures at the hotel lobby and hotel room. Hehe

In the end, I took over 200 photos. And most of them includes the pink roses. Worth the money? Hehehe

The end of my Degree of BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting Graduation!

*********************************************************************************
The Graduation Ceremony costs RM290, including :-
- Rental of Full Academic Attire (Robe, Hood, Mortarboard)
- Photography

Stage Receiving Award - 8R (1 copy)
Oxford Brookes University Group Photo - 8R (1 copy)
Individual Portrait - 10R (1 copy), 8R (1 copy), 4R (2 copies)

- Two Guest tickets for the ceremony
- Light Refreshments for Graduate and Two Guests

a chapter in life

2011-08-15T18:25:00.006+08:00

a picture says a thousand words.

@ Welcome to EY, KL

@ the reception

@ common pool

colleagues

:)

@ Daorae, Bayan Point

the end.

peek-a-boo

2011-05-17T09:06:00.004+08:00

OMG! Already didnt blog for more than a month! *guilty*

I have nothing to update la. The only thing happening in my life right now is work, and I cant say much due to confidentiality issue (scared kena sue! lol). Erm, maybe just a little update?

1) Now I eat breakfast everyday!
I used to skip breakfast because either I wake up late, or I'm just too lazy to get myself breakfast. But now if I skip breakfast to work, I will have a bad morning because my stomach would be complaining the whole morning. I usually eat bread+cheese though, cause I'm still lazy to wake up early to have a proper breakfast. Hehehe

2) Morning person
One month and I'm already a morning person! No more onlining or watching movies in the middle of the night, even during weekends. 12 midnight and I'm already feeling so tired and sleepy. 12.30am is my limit. And I still wake up quite early, around 8 something during the weekends. In another words, I'm turning into a Lau Ee. But good for myself I guess. Healthy lifestyle~

3) Meeting up with my friends less
I MISS THEM! I miss going to the cinema and then lepak around the mall. I miss Redbox sessions. I miss Taboo sessions. I miss random outings! Now I can only hang out in the late evening or weekends, which makes things expensive! No more RM6 in the cinemas. No more RM10+ in Redbox. No more student price for anything! T_______T

4) Less time at home.
I miss being at home too. There's so many things waiting for me at home. My movies, my blog, playing with Shern, my storybook.. not enough time for everything!

5) I know, theoretically..
Everything at work seems so familiar to the things I've studied before, but yet everything is so foreign when it comes to hands on. New things to learn everyday in my pea-sized brain. Hopefully my brain is working at full capacity now.

6) Getting to know new people
I've been in my comfort zone with similar friends for quite some time. Now I gotta meet new people at work. I've always had a hard time remembering people's name! I feel bad if I forget someone's name. I wish for a super memory!

That's all for now.. hopefully the next time I blog, it wont be June.

chocolate muffin

2011-03-31T13:04:00.004+08:00

The first time I did these Chocolate Muffins was way back in 2009, together with Yin.

This time, I decided to go solo! *wears the chef hat*

.......and TA DAAAAAAA!

And the 20 muffins turned out the be delicious, just the way I want them to be! The bittersweet taste of rich chocolate melts in my mouth when I consume them. Definitely a good and simple recipe for Chocolate lovers like me and my family!

And it's currently Shern's favourite food. We must hide the box of muffin or he will make a fuss for it whenever he sees them! *evil grin*

updates!

2011-03-29T23:50:00.001+08:00

1. I'm employed!

I've just signed and handed in my offer letter, so I'm now officially an employee of an audit firm located in Penang. Gonna start working soon! I've also bought a few working clothes and got a few still-new-hand-me-downs from my sisters/relatives. I only need to shop for a new shoe/heels and I'm ready (at least on the appearance side). Hello corporate world! :)

2. Braces-be-gone

For those who have good observation skills, you might have realised that I've been wearing braces on my lower teeth. I just took them out today! And from today onwards, I have a new reminder - 'Wear the retainer before going to sleep!'

The end. HAHAHA stay tuned. :)

'lou sang'

2011-03-13T20:10:00.002+08:00

I just finished eating Yee Sang with my family.
My first Yee Sang in 2011.
Better late than never right?

HUAT AH~!~!~!

one big happy family ♥

2011-03-13T01:36:00.002+08:00

Pictures taken by Win Win.

my Big happy family

three sisters - Yin, Wen, Min

Myself

with Daddy and Mummy

Nuclear family

ala Natural

Squeezeeeee!

Love this shot of mummy and daughters

flower mission

2011-03-08T12:00:00.001+08:00

My friends and I decided to visit the cherry blossoms blooming in Penang on Monday. But when we were there, there weren't many cherry blossoms left. Guess we've missed it again. :(

Then we dropped by Lean's house after the great disappointment. We tried to create the ala Australia garden using her mum's bougainvillea instead. hehe

We look like we are enjoyng the sun and breeze.. but actually the weather was very hot and the grass poked us! LOL

Although we didnt managed to catch the cherry blossoms, we still managed to find fun in the disappointment. Three great geniuses. :P

cny reunion dinner

2011-02-26T16:10:00.000+08:00

**delayed post**

This year is the first year that I'm not having my CNY reunion dinner at my dad's side.

My family and I had our reunion dinner at home. 3rd Uncle and family from my mum's side joined us. So it was still a merry reunion steamboat dinner with all the laughters....and lots of FOOD!

All of us werebloated by the end of the dinner....or supper?

mani pedi

2011-02-23T00:48:00.003+08:00

As a reward to myself for completing my studies, I brought myself to manicure and pedicure session.

Are you surprised if I tell you that this is my FIRST mani and pedi in my life? IT IS!! (not including colouring my nails at home la)

I love it when the scrub/massage/clean my feet and hands. It makes me feel like all the dead cells are finally scrubbed off my feet. I'd like to tell myself that my feet and hands are at least a shade fairer after the session! Haha

I just love the feeling of sitting there, not a thought in my head, just reading gossip magazines and being pampered! I'm loving it alot!!

results

2011-02-21T15:59:00.005+08:00

P6 - Advanced Taxation (MYS) - 56% PASS

I'm now officially an ACCA holder!
\o/ \o/\o/ \o/ \o/

The end of my studying chapter in life.
Hello work chapter!

10 things from Phuket

2011-02-20T20:20:00.002+08:00

1. Wat Chalong

As all of us werent really religious, so we decided to just visit the recommended Wat Chalong from the tourist map.

2. Island Hopping

Yin, Peter, Wen, Ian and me took the Phi Phi Island tour package for 1300Baht/person from one of the tour agency shop when we walked around Phuket Town.

The Phi Phi Island tour would bring us to three little islands - Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Ley and Khai Nok Island. There were 7 stops including Maya Bay, Viking Cave, Monkey Bay, Pileh Lagoon, etc.

3. Snorkeling

From the island hopping experience, we get to go snorkelling to swim with the fishes and look at beautiful corals. Too bad none of us own an underwater camera. We can only capture photos of fishes from above!

4. Rest and Relax

We sat at many beaches with food and drinks, just enjoying the moment! (most of the time in a shade, hiding away from the sun! *booooo*)

I love the crystal-clear water! Wish we had those in Penang.

5. Nom Nom Nom

Tried so many different Thai local food especially at the weekend night market. We went for the whole two days because it was impossible to finish trying all the food there! Haha

I love their coconut ice-cream!

The seafood at Par Lai Seafood Restaurant was great too. Especially the crab, that's what I heard. I didnt taste the crab and tomyam at all because yours truly was down with *drum rolling* FOOD POISONING at that moment. *booooooo*

6. Fried Insects

I ate the above two. Doesnt taste as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it's not ewwwy gooey ueeeeeky.....just crispy. If you think of it as deep fried potato chips, you wouldnt really know it was insects. Of course it's always easily said than done. Speaking to myself too! After eating the fried worm, I still had a hard time putting the fried grasshopper in my mouth!

7. Thai Massage

I had my first massage experience when I was in Patong for 250Baht/hour. Some parts were really ticklish! I couldnt resist myself from laughing no matter how hard I tried. HAHAHAHA

8. Facial Massage

We spotted a shop in Jungceylon Mall having a promotion Facial Cleaning and Massage for 359Baht/person. Four of us had our turn in it. It feels good to have our faces cleaned after sweating so much in Phuket! Daddy and Ah Yee also went the next day.

9. Sunset

I managed to catch two sunsets when I was in Phuket - at Patong Beach and Panwa Beach. Lovely!

10. Random

at Patong

Sawadeeka

Outside Phuket Aquarium

Dug by crabs

at Phuket Town

Our apartment @ Bel Air Resort

This summarizes my family trip to Phuket on 11th to 18th February 2011.

back from my one-week getaway

2011-02-19T20:24:00.004+08:00

Phuket, Thailand 2011.

happy thaipusam

2011-01-20T23:25:00.003+08:00

Pei Shing and I went to the Thaipusam Celebration in Jalan Utama, Penang just now. So here's what happened.

5.00pm - Fearing to be stuck in the jam, we parked our car in Gurney area. Turns out we are too 'kia su'. We were a looooong way from Thaipusam jam. lol

So we walked pass Phor Tay Primary School and Penang Chinese Girl High School. It was a long walk.. but luckily we have our best company, non-stop chit chat mouth with us.

5.15pm - Reached the beginning of Thaipusam Celebration at Jalan Gottlieb.

5.20pm - Reached the junction between Jalan Gottlieb and Jalan Utama. Witnessed a lot of kavadi as we walked along Jalan Utama. We were impressed by the decorations and worship area done to the booths too.

5.35pm - Saw a booth giving out free milk for consumption.

We thought that it was fresh milk and went for it. Both of us took a sip and our facial expression changed! It tasted sour. Turned out that it wasnt the normal fresh milk that we expected. It's some sort of a yogurt drink.. that is very sour!

5.40pm - Continue walking along Jalan Utama. More booths and kavadi. Also grabbed a glass of Orange Juice at one of the booth.

5.45pm - Ranjini called. So we walked back to the junction of Jalan Gottlieb and Jalan Utama to meet up with her.

5.55pm - Walked along Jalan Utama again. But this time together with Ranjini and family. Get to ask Ranjini about the celebration, and had a lot of 'what is this?' question to her.

6.30pm - Spotted my favourite cracker that I used to buy during recess in my high school. Spicy keropok? I called it Luak Luak.

Now regretting that I didnt buy the wholesale packet from the seller. LOL

6.45pm - Bid farewell to Ranjini and her family. Took a photo together before we leave.

6.50pm - Walked to Goodall hawker centre for dinner. Legs were about to break at that time. So glad to be sitting down! We had Tom Yam Noodles and Spaghetti Bolognese.

7.45pm - Walked to the bus stop near Adventist Hospital. Took Rapid Penang Bus using the free one-way voucher given by one of the Thaipusam booth at Jalan Utama.

8.00 pm - Grab our car and went to Crepe Cottage for desserts. Mango Cup! Yummy~!~!

8.45pm - Goodbye. Happy Thaipusam!

**didnt manage to witness the coconut throwing, and went up the temple to get the blessings from the god.

life is good!

2011-01-20T00:29:00.002+08:00

So far I've...

Completed a few TVB series such as Point of No Return, Golden Faith (again!), Beyond The Realm Of Conscience and Cant Buy Me Love. No Regrets coming up soon.

Watched some new movies and re-watched movies from my dvd stack like I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, 3 Idiots, Eat Pray Love, 17 Again and Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Finished My Sister's Keeper book.. and only managed to survive 1/3 of Eat Pray Love book before I give up and watch the dvd instead. Hehe

Hunted wedding favours/decos/gown/etc for Sis-Wen's wedding end of this year! Imma be bridesmaid again! :)

CNY clothes shopping! Bought quite a number during salessssssssss! No new shoes or bag though.

Random outing with friends to cinema, redbox, malls, birthday parties, etc.

Online online online!

I definitely enjoy this obese life! :)

four times the love

2011-01-03T23:00:00.011+08:00

Christmas turned Birthday (24th December 2010)
My Christmas Eve turned out to be my earliest birthday celebration. ♥

* turn back time *

HooiChin and Lean managed to convinced me not to stay at home for Christmas Eve. It would be really lonely.. and plus we should join the crowd while we are still young and free!

On the eve itself, we decided to have dinner in Dome, Straits Quay. The four of us (HooiChin's friend joined us) ordered at around 7.30pm. We were already very hungry at that time. But we understood that it would take some time before the food come as there were many customers. We just sat there and chatted.

One hour passed and we were really complaining how hungry we were. We asked the waiters to check on our orders and the only answer we got were "Hold on". Then suddenly HooiChin says she wants to go to the ladies. I gladly said I would go with her, but she insisted Lean to go with her. However, Lean and me were the one ended up going to the ladies. After both of us came back from the ladies, HooiChin insisted Lean to go with her again. Zzzz

After the whole ladies confusion, our food was STILL NOT HERE! We kept on asking the waiters but they were really busy. I doubt they went to check on our orders until we finally complained that we had our orders more than one hour ago and showed our angry faces. LOL

Then suddenly HooiChin and Lean took out some Secret Recipe boxes. Awwwwwww!

They explained that it was supposed to be after dinner but since all four of us were superly hungry, they decided that it was time to celebrate and eat the cake. HAHA!

And they bought 5 different slices of cakes. It was supposed to put in a round in a big box but somehow the girl from Secret Recipe separate them and let some slices to lay on the sides. So the five slices were separated! They were Marble Cheese, Blueberry Cheese, Chocolate Indulgence, Chocolate Banana and Tiramisu. Yummy~

We ate a few mouthful then the food came. So we packed the cakes back into their boxes and ate our dinner. It was already 9pm at that time!

After dinner, we stayed in Dome and played Chor Tai Di, while eating the cakes as desserts until near 11pm.

We wanted to walk around the Marina but it was drizzling so we gave up after a short walk. We went back to the Straits Court and took photos with the grand Christmas Tree.

No fireworks display so there's no reason for us to be in Straits Quay anymore, so we bid farewell.

It was a simple, unexpected surprise and I sincerely thank HooiChin and Lean for this surprise, and also Ken for celebrating with us! :)

The Birthday Eve (29th December 2010)
It started about a week ago when my Sis-Yin suddenly informed me that my cousins want to treat me dinner to celebrate my birthday.

She mentioned that it was supposed to be a surprise and she's supposed to asked me to follow her out suddenly that night. But she knows if she does that, I wouldnt dress up at all, and wore inappropriate clothes like my pyjamas out since I would convince her that I would only stay in the car while she gets her stuff done.

I was already a little suspicious as I dont usually celebrate birthdays with my cousins. Hmmm....

Then on that day itself, my sis informed me that I would be driving myself to Harvest In Restaurant since she's not sure if my cousins are treating her too. Weird right? Hahaha...

Anyway I left home to Harvest In Restaurant, and reached late at 7.15pm as instructed by my sister. My instincts came true when I'm greeted by friendsSsSsSs!

I didnt realised it would be such a big crowd! 13 in total! PeiShing, Ranjini, LipHoo, JunLynn, YiWei, YiTing, Connie, Karen, KamSiew, YingYuan, Ivy, ShuYee and MaryAnne. *smile from the heart* ♥

So who's the girl behind the scene? It was none other with PeiShing!! No wonder she kept asking me if I'm doing anything for my birthday.. I never thought that she would be the one behind the plan as she was away in Singapore for a few days just before my birthday. Really speechless and touched!! THANK YOU PEISHING!!!! and of course thanks YiTing who helped PeiShing in making this a success!

Oh yes there's another part that I must mentioned! This event has made me realised that I have two blur friends. TsuYin and Lean. Both of them were convinced that the dinner would be on my real birthday, 30th itself instead of 29th! I was told that both of them were shocked when they received a call to ask them if they have arrived. LOL

And another part where Lean was supposed to bake a cake for the event. And since her blurness occured, she couldnt come to the party in the end. Not to forget she has bought all the ingredients to bake the cake. LOL! It was really funny... but of course, I sense the "heart" in this. So, thank you Lean although I could not taste the cake in the end. Hehe

After dinner, I had an embarrassing moment where 13 of them sang the birthday song loudly in the restaurant. Blushing and happy to have such great friends, I made a wish, blew the candles, cut the cake, and bit a candle off the cake! :)

Went to Boutique Bystroe after that for some board games. We played Partini. Quite a funny game when we have to hum a song/mime/use the clay/explaining in "what not" conditions to guess what is written on the cards.

Then after, only PeiShing and I went over to YiTing's house. We played Monopoly Deal together with YiTing's brother and then Bluff until midnight. Then I opened my presents! =) THANKS ALOT!!

Inside those presents, I received a special gift from YiTing... let me share them here!

My 21st bday present from YiTing

Damn!! There's actually music and got like cute effect wan k! As in a slidepage got certain stories to tell or picture after picture appears slowly...but it doesnt seem to work here and I dont know how to make it work in Blogger. This is the best I know. T_T

Maybe the details are best left for myself. After all, it's MY gift! THANK YOU YITING!! SUPER DUPAH LOVE IT!! ♥ :D and suddenly I love the song "count on me". Hehe

On The Real Day (30th December 2010)
Meet up with Karen, YiTing, Ivy, Chu Sien, MingYing, LiPeng, MaryAnne and TsuYin in Kim Gary, Gurney Plaza for lunch.

oops! tsuyin is missing in the pics.

ChuSien, MingYing and LiPeng turned up with a birthday cake for me. No surprises here as they accidentally asked YiTing about it when she was in my car, so I overheard the whole conversation. LOL!

They sang my birthday song quietly in public. Then I made a wish, blew my candles and cut the cake, again!

Feeling so happy that I have so many people celebrating my 21st for me. THANK YOU!! ♥

After lunch we walked around Gurney Plaza for a while then some of us stayed on while the others headed back to Ivy's house. In Ivy's house we played like mad ~~ladies~~ girl...still young! Caryn and MeiChi joined us halfway. We played Monopoly Deal, Taboo and Heart Attack!

By the time we bid farewell in the evening, our cheeks and tummy muscles were aching from too much of laughing!

Family Dinner (30th December 2010)
By the time I went home, I was a little tired already. But I knew my parents have prepared some simple celebration for me at home. It was supposed to start at 7pm, but turns out my oven is not working so my sister have to take the sausages wrapped in bacon back to her house (which is very nearby) to ting them in the oven. So by the time she's back it was nearly 7.15pm already. She brought a present from everyone in my family (including Wen and Ian all the way from South Africa) for me too. The bag kinda shocked me. Let me show you why.

Now do you see why? OE Fine Jewellery Paperbag. I peeped inside and there's a letter and a blue box in it. OKAY! It's really something from OE. Not just using the paperbag as the exterior.

I had my 4th birthday song, made my 4th wish, blew the candles and cut the cake for the 4th time. ♥

And for dinner, we had KFC plus a little homemade food like the sausages wrapped in bacon, potato salad and Ang Keh Nui (Red Eggs). And Chocolate Indulgence cake for dessert!

Cousin JiaMay and JiaLi was there to celebrate too as they've come over to stay for the holidays. Yin is missing from the picture below as she is the photographer!

After dinner, I went to open my Bday present. It was a gold key pendant! Psst: it looks nicer in real life

I'm really surprised lor.. I didnt expect such a 'heavy' gift for my 21st! And I jokingly said "you all wont so lou thou (old fashioned) and give me a key right?" during dinner when I'm guessing what is inside the blue box. LOL

THANK YOUUUUUUUU!! LOVE LOVE x♥x♥ MUAKS MUAKS

I turned 21 once.. but it was celebrated four times with love!! I couldnt have asked for more. I'm truly blessed and touched to have such wonderful family and friends.

Of course, thanks for those who send their wishes and loves through sms, facebook, call or mail. Each simple wish, each little thought and action made my day even brighter! ♥ =)

Ho! Ho! Ho!

2010-12-25T00:03:00.002+08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010!

Penang Turf Club Open Day

2010-12-19T13:16:00.015+08:00

Just came back from the Penang Turf Club Open Day. My first time going inside the turf club after staying in Penang for 21 years.

It's like a carnival with lots of activities like face painting, sand art, snake show, puppet show, horses and ponies. Clowns giving out balloons and making funny faces around the carnival.

Let the pictures do the talking.

Me and my cousins had our hands painted. RM3 each for the butterflies and RM4 for the flowers.

It wasnt very hot as there were lots of trees shading us from the hot sun.

Even Shern had fun running on the free grass and shook his bum bum to the beat of the carnival music.

This is the equestrian area. No horse racing today of course.

Many people gathered around the Flying Phoenix ride.

Peter went to play the Flying Phoenix ride when asked for participants from the crowd. My camera's memory full halfway taking this video of him on the ride.

He managed to stayed on for 32 seconds before being thrown out from the horse. However he's the longest among non-professional participants. Bravo!

We didnt managed to go to the Food Fair area as Shern was already tired and begin to whine. Overall I think the carnival was a success!

Let me end with a cute pic of shern in shades.

Hong Kong Day 8

2010-12-13T12:47:00.004+08:00

6 November 2010
Good morning! This was my last day in HK.

I woke up and switched on the tv and it was cartoon!

It reminded me of my childhood days where I'd wake up early in the morning just to watch cartoons. The only worry I have at that time is what if I missed my cartoon?

We bathed and had some 7-eleven breakfast tapao-ed by Peter last night from Tsing Yi MTR Station (instant noodle and buns).

Yin wasnt feeling very well maybe due to the rain last night and we were out there the whole day. So Yin and Peter both stayed at the hotel and I went off to Disneyland Park first.

I went straight to Tomorrowland and the first ride I had at the Disneyland Park was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.

Halfway thru the queue, there's a robotic Buzz Lightyear that moves and tells the mission of this ride, which is Help Buzz Lightyear to save the universe from the evil Emperor Zurg.

I was never a fan of Toy Story. But I did watch the latest Toy Story 3.

Anyway the ride is something like this. We will be seated in this little cabin which gives u total control. You can turn the cabin 180 degrees in whichever ways you like. And see the score board at the cabin?

It will be accumulated when you managed to shoot the lightning buzzer throughout the whole ride using Buzz Lightyear's gun located in the cabin.

Really super shiok! It's like I'm controlling a space ship to shoot the monsters 180 degrees! Some more can see how well I've achieved at the end of the ride by looking at the scores. Love this ride that immediately I went for a second round! Hahahaha

After two rounds, I headed off to the next ride, Autopia. It's an outdoor ride so I wrapped myself in my jacket from the heavy rain!

Autopia is a ride where one will drive into the future aboard electric cars that cruise along the highways of tomorrow.

the first thought is KAREN!! YOUR CAR!! :P

Hopefully in the future there will still be so many greens around! GO GREEN! :)

The ride is something like the F1 Grand Prix Fun Kart in Genting Highlands but can speed slightly faster than that.

After the ride, my jacket was quite wet. A little bit regret that I played as it was really cold!

I decided not to play with Orbitron (something like flying dumbo but instead it would be a flying saucer) to avoid the rain.

I decided to just walk around and take photos. The first person I met was Woody from Toy Story.

woody is so tall

I walked to Fantasyland and saw this really cute canvas-like eating place and was imagining how it would be like in the summer filled with lots of tourists and most importantly, NO RAIN!

Okay. This is the one ride that I would NEVER enjoy playing.

The teacup that spins round and round and round. It wasnt a scary ride which involves dropping from high heights or going through dark tunnels filled with ghosts. But through experience, this ride has gave me a super terrible nausea feeling that would spoil the rest of my day and sometimes the next day. So I havent played this for years.. and I doubt I would anymore in the future. LOL But I love the teacups. I think they're so cute and colourful!

Spotted an elephant-shaped bushes near the Flying Dumbo.

A young lady was kind and offered to take a picture for me. Thank you!

Random shop selling Disneyland souvenirs.

I decided to ride the Cinderella Carousel. Personally, I think carousels are boring...but at the same time I think carousels are filled with childhood memories. When we're young, carousels are one of the happiest thing isnt it? Carousel means theme park!

Plus this Cinderella Carousel is so beautiful. It has 60 graceful, prancing horses!

It was still so early so I've decided to go to the Mickey's Philhar Magic for the 3D adventure again because I simply love it and I wouldnt want to forget the best 3D adventure I've ever been on.

After that, I just stroll around the park. Spotted this stall selling ice creams.

Walked passed Fantasy Gardens.

I didnt spot any Disney characters inside. Wrong timing.

Spotted this Mickey Fountain with lots of feather dusters.

And this particular one beside the fountain reminds me of Babette the feather duster from Beauty and the Beast.

It was nearly 1pm so I walked passed the Sleeping Beauty Castle to meet Yin and Peter.

vintage clock spotted near the Sleeping Beauty Castle

The three of us went to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Yin and Peter loved the ride so went for another round! So in the end they played 2 times and I played 4 times!

We decided to head back to Main Street USA and look at the shops. Vintage vehicles can be spotted driving along the Main Street USA.

One of the shop that we entered.

look at the number of pens/pencils

and I love them!

i've been wanting this hairband but so expensive! T_T

Bakery...

Spotted three lovely people singing acappella songs of Disney in the bakery.

We went to Corner Cafe for lunch.

Then we continued looking at the shops in the Main Street USA.

I loved their Disney princesses collection. Look at how the story about each princess unfolds in their lovely dresses.

disney princesses + castle . Ariel from The Little Mermaid

Belle from Beauty and the Beast . Aurora from Sleeping Beauty

Snow White . Cinderella

Cinderella, Ariel and Snow White in a Carousel

disney princes and princesses

mickey and minnie

mickey

white castle . cystal frame

We have some extra time so we went to Art of Animation. It's a small little gallery that celebrates the Disney and Disney-Pixar animation.

You know how cartoons are made of? Nowadays we know they use the help of technologies and computers. But in the olden days every single movement has to be drawn out. Simple actions like eating or dancing will be drawn using hundreds of pages with each page the characters will be drew a few millimeters of difference. And when the pages are flipped quickly, the action drew will be revealed.

The spinning Toy Story Zoetrope helps to illustrate in 3D instead of in drawing. They build miniatures to show how statutory the miniatures are when it is individually shown, and how they reflect an action when is those string of individual miniatures of slight difference in millimeters are being spun together.

Watch till at least more than 12 seconds!

Outside the gallery, we spotted a photo session with Goofy and Pluto. We had our turn.

Then we went on to queue to take a photo with the legendary Mickey and Minnie!

Again, luckily it was raining so our queue was only about 15 minutes. I've heard from friends that they queued for more than an hour just to take a photo with Mickey during their trip!

We spotted Donald and Daisy Duck nearby so we went to queue to take photos with them too.

After that, it's time to bid farewell to Disneyland Park.

welcome because i took from another direction. Hehe

So this HK Disneyland, I missed the Disney on Parade due to the rainy weather and Space Mountain roller coaster ride due to their renovation. However, I'm still very happy to be in Disneyland. I cant believe that I've finally been to Disneyland. It has been a dream for me all these while. Dreams do come true? Hehe

So what do you do when your dream has come true? You make another dream!
So my next dream is to visit other Disneylands in the world.
1. Disneyland in Tokyo, Japan.
2. Disneyland in Paris, France.
3. Disneyland in Anaheim, California, USA.
4. Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Hopefully 2012 is not the end of the world yet! Hehe

We went back to Hollywood Hotel using the shuttle bus and took our luggage from luggage storage service. Yin and Peter has already check-ed out earlier before they meet up with me in Disneyland Park.

After changing into dry clothes, we took the shuttle bus to the MTR Station.

MTR Station at Disneyland

We took the Disneyland Resort Line back to Sunny Bay Station, change to Tung Chung Line and alight at Tsing Yi Station. Then we bought the Airport Express tickets back to the Airport.

HK International Airport is huge! Or maybe because I'm so used to the small airport in Penang. Hehe We checked in 2.5 hours before our boarding time in Terminal 2. Then we realised that our boarding gate is in Terminal 1. We walked for the nearly 2 hours before we reached our boarding gate. Only had about 30 minutes spare before the flight took off.

Had Nasi Lemak Combo from Air Asia on my way back home. This time, it was served with Old Town white coffee instead of plain water.

And I had that super craving feeling for chocolates! I bought m&ms too on the flight for RM4.

Touched down Penang safely at night. Dad, Mum and Shern greeted us at the airport!

That's the end of my one week HK getaway. Overall I think it was a nice trip with a lot of walking. Definitely a place that requires a good walking shoe. And I absolutely LOVE the desserts in HK. I think HKies are quite friendly too. And their toilets are clean. But it's difficult to find public toilets. Love their MTR transport system. So efficient that it makes driving in HK is useless. Shopping is great for ladies especially perfumes, beauty products and branded clothes/bags/shoes. Too bad I wasnt lucky enough to meet a celebrity there! :)

Hong Kong Day 7 (part 2)

2010-12-09T00:19:00.004+08:00

5 November 2010
The continuation from Day 7 (part 1).

We went back to our Hollywood Hotel and checked in. It felt like paradise after a long day, AND after a week staying in the small room in the guest house.

There's even a bellboy who would bring our luggage to our room for us!

two queen-sized bed

table&chair . tv

mini bar . inside the wardrobe (ironing board, fridge, safebox, bathrobe)

disney-themed deco

toilet

mickey-themed toiletries

room key . hollywood express newsletter

stuff at the minibar . slippers

We were really so glad of the space! And the TV has like HK version of Astro.. So many channels available.

After a good bath and rest in the room, we decided to explore around.

Hollywood Hotel . Mickey-themed bench

We took the free shuttle bus and went over to Disneyland Hotel. Disneyland Hotel is build in Victorian elegance.

the lobby

mickey and minnie

Me and Yin walked around the hotel while Peter decided to take the MTR to Tsing Yi Station to hunt for some food, and ta pau some food as breakfast tomorrow. Eating in Disneyland is more expensive since there's only disney-themed restaurants in the hotels.

random stairway

garden painting

entrance to one of the restaurant - Enchanted Garden

mini fountain

We spotted an exit door and we went outside.

garden maze

gazebo

tiles

toilet sign

fairytale bathroom

mirror mirror on the wall

the infamous disneyland coin machine.
the one where u insert money and it prints out disneyland coins.

random shop

After lingering in the Disneyland Resort for a while, we headed back to Hollywood Hotel.

Yin then decided to stay in the room, and I decided to walk around Hollywood Hotel for awhile.

this is me vaining in the lift trying to take my reflection

At the lobby, there's a tv area where kids (and adults) can watch Disney movies. Sometimes it plays the all-time classics like Tom and Jerry, sometimes it plays newer Disney shows like Hannah Montana.

I decided to go outdoors.

I like how the name their roads. Eg. Hollywood Rd, Sunset Rd...

Hollywood Records

poolside

There's actually no one outdoor because it was still drizzling. It's quite quiet and I dont dare to walk too far out alone so I headed back indoor.

Spotted Mickey Cafe!

Nothing much indoor. So I headed back to the hotel room and call it a day!

***to be continued...

time for war

2010-12-06T00:38:00.007+08:00

panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic . panic .

ALL THE BEST TO MY ACCA FRIENDS!