Happy Birthday to my dearest friend

15th September – a very special day for me and my dearest friend. Though there will be no more celebrations on this day, it will always remind me of the good times we had together. A very big Happy Birthday to you still and may you be happy forever.

The wedding heat is ON!

The date is 16th until 18th September 2011, please visit the bridal fair at Straits Quay Penang! Show your support for Cool Life Studio, take advantage of their promotions!

In Search of Inner Peace

“Once we find inner peace, any small bit of it, baby step by baby step, we feel much better, even joyful and energized. Then whatever activist work we do to achieve outer peace in any situation comes from an effective place and does not create more turbulence and counter-reactions.” ~ Robert Thurman ~

Humans do not act base on rationality, but base on emotions. I am easily influenced by my own emotions, and may do stupid things.

All I want is to find peace.

Encounter with the little blue people

I took on a journey to the enchanted forest last night with 2 other avid explorer buddies (and many other strangers of course), luckily my curiosity did not managed to get the best out of me this round (curiosity kills the cat as people often say). It was more than a trip to an imaginary world, but time travelling back to my childhood.

The seat became more spacious, and the armrests become side tables. Everything around me seemed to have grown in size once the blue beings came alive on-screen. I shrunk – again the toddler who once waited oh so eagerly for Smurf cartoons to go on air.

The ending was not exciting, leaning more towards predictable I have to admit. Perhaps the magic wore off a little too early..

To complete the set of little blue Smurfs and their blue moon, a very blue Thursday for all who stayed up late for the movie!

Food for the soul (& tummy!)

I had been eating quite a bit lately, whether they were attempts to fill my hungry tummy or my empty soul, they were equally fattening. I am never patient enough to capture pictures before devouring them, thus I can only post what I have.

Penang is no doubt a food heaven, in terms of choices, tastes as well as prices. Local tourists simply love to visit the small island for yummy escapades during holidays. Thank you all for recognizing the culinary experience of my hometown, and do try to carpool on such trips.

With that, I bid everyone happy munching!

Days Gone By: Growing Up in Penang

My friend Alice Teh (http://www.aliceteh.com) presented me with a superb book  - Days Gone By: Growing Up in Penang by Christine Wu Ramsay as a belated birthday present. Both of us saw this book in Popular Bookstore in Komtar and agreed that it is not a book which should be left unread.

Pages within this hard-covered treasure trove is filled with memorable  photographs from older days, truly reminiscence of years before my time when accompanied by enchanting stories of the author’s childhood.

Christine Wu Ramsay grew up in the British Straits Settlement of Penang, part of present-day Malaysia. Her account begins with the arrival of her great-grandfather, Leong Fee – a poor Hakka migrant from China who rose to become the owner of the famous ‘Tambun Mines’ in Perak and a Vice-Consul of China in Penang. Brought up by her grandparents and cared for by black-and-white amahs, Christine enjoyed an idyllic childhood – affected but not marred by the Japanese Occupation and declining family fortunes – up till her departure for Australia in 1957.

Using over a hundred photographs from her family album, she portrays a way of life and philosophy where the practice of polygamy and the ownership of bondmaids were accepted facets of life.

Truly a page-turner! It has unknowingly sent me back to the time when my own grandparents first set foot in Malaya, and reconnected me to a part of my roots as a straits-born baby.

Enjoyed from cover to cover, undoubtedly a cherished journey back to the past.

A culinary rendezvous in Ipoh

A short stop-over in Ipoh on my trip back from Kuala Lumpur proved to be quite an interesting rendezvous. The sleepy little town (as known to me during my younger years) was jammed with vehicles from outstation and local alike. It was almost mid day, thus everyone was out hunting for food!

So what is the most anticipated food one can find in Ipoh? Me and my friends went to have a taste of Lou Wong chicken rice (my first ever!) for the fun of it. The dining crowd was overwhelming, cannot believe that people are actually willing to wait for tables to satisfy their hunger. They even had additional awnings setup to accommodate the stream of vacationers. Whew was it hot!


Lunch consisted of a huge serving of crunchy bean sprouts, 1/2 smooth steamed chicken, and 2 bowls of melt-in-your-mouth Hor Fun each. Due to my “size”, I stuck mostly to my portions of Hor Fun and bean sprouts. Ok, I did indulge myself in a few small pieces of chicken to be honest. We tried to enjoy ourselves despite of having people watched us like packs of wolves, ready to fight until the end for our table.

To sum up the hard work of pleasing our pellets, we quenched our thirst and washed all the food down with cold herbal tea. Nothing can be more satisfying than a glass of cold drink during a hot humid day!

The meal cost $38 which was still an acceptable amount for 3 person, taking popularity of the eatery into consideration. People are willing to pay exorbitant prices for food after all (not all the time for myself though, unless I consider them money well spent). City dwellers no longer eat to live but live to eat, don’t you agree?

Had to again endure the heavy traffic on our way out from Ipoh town, but this time a more pleasant experience with full tummies. Once is never enough, perhaps on a more lazy and easy day in future.

Au revoir Ipoh!

Crossroads

“You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.”  ~ Anthony Robbins ~

My emotions have been riding on waves lately.  Behold the forces of nature - the waves and me. Equally tranquil (at times), equally destructive.

I have been at the tip of the highest peak  and over the sharpest cliff. The journeys have been both mentally and physically exhausting. Being the sort that self-destruct when I feel helpless, the alarm is now deafening. Frustrations are slowly driving me towards the edge, and there are no promises as to how long I can cling onto sanity.

It is time. Time for decisions. Decisions to lift me out of the rat hole, decisions for me to regain control of my life. What should I do? Where should I go? I need only to discover my purpose here, my purpose in life. The answer shall dictate the correct path.

The struggle against emotional turmoil will no doubt be hard, all I can do is to try and stay afloat.

January 2011 – when all hell broke free in me.

A New Beginning: An attempt to revive my blog

It has been more than a year since I lost my best friend, my blog stopped dead in its tracks the time I received the devastating news. The date was 17-June-2010, it was a Thursday.

Today is 12-Aug-2011, and coincidentally a Friday. Let this particular Friday mark a new beginning in my attempt to keep a diary, or at least a virtual one.

Life has been a rollercoaster for the past 1 year, with a gloomy shroud being casted upon my daily life. There were moments of happiness, however I have also taken uncountable journeys to the deepest valley of sorrow. Talking the walk is always easier than walking the talk, telling oneself to move on is one thing but another to really do it. Being an extremely sentimental person, all the memories I had with you will forever linger, and I am determined to hang on to them dearly, just like everything else that you have left behind.

One important lesson (and most probably one with the most significance this life) I have learned is that life is extremely unpredictable and we have control over it only to a certain extend. Life is so fragile that it will fade away should we as much as whisper. Voices in my head and footsteps in the sand may be all that will remain as I walk down the path of time, but they are reminiscence of a good 10 years of friendship.

At times I talk to myself, just the way I used to talk to you. Though not physical, I hope that you can still hear me and know that a friend misses you.

Take care, my old friend. Lead me into the light when the time comes, and we shall be friends once more - for eternity.