A Letter Home

Ok. So, my brother sent a letter to my parents, because it’s Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day is in June. It's like a thank you letter, which is really sweet, and cute, I mean those handwritings, boy, it looked like someone just graduated from kindergarten or something. Nevertheless, the effort was, highly applaud-able. Now, I can't just sit back and not do, or you know outdo my brother, right? It's in our bro-nature to strive for everything in this world and be better at it so we can look at whoever the losing one is and say, "HA! Take that! :P" So, I’m gonna blog mine.

This year, 2013, was probably the worst Mothers’ Day ever, and I pray that it will be the one and only worst one, it wasn’t a celebration because I’m in Johor, studying, and my brother is in National Service, and with my Dad’s frequent travelling, I’m pretty sure my mom is really lonely. She must have missed shouting and nagging us. But what made it really bad, was that my grandma suffered an accident and is still unconscious till now. Now, I never really knew death. I read about it in stories and watched about how terrifying it is in movies, but to really be close to death must be just, bad. My mom had to fly to Sarawak to be there for my grandma as her conditions were critical at that time. She cried, and prayed in probably a weird, musty smelling hospital for days. And that was Mothers’ Day for her. No cards, no dinners, no gifts. Just her dearest mother, lying on a foreign bed. And all she could do was wait. I felt really bad for you mommy. But then, at least my grandma got all her children back by her side once more. She could not see or talk to them, but I pray, she knows that they are there for her.

And so mommy, despite all that, I wanna just say, thank you. Thanks for being courageous and being my mom. I may break your heart in the past, and maybe in the future, but know that I will always love you. You know me, my favourite food and my old habits, you know what makes me agitated and mad and also what makes me happy and laugh. This Mothers’ Day is definitely not the nicest one, but I never take you for granted. God knows what you’ve been through and I can only promise to stay by your side when you need me, for you to nag on the phone when you want to, and to love you when you need love. Sometimes I get angry at you, so please forgive me. If I have not loved you as much as a son should, forgive me. I’m proud to say you are my mom. The fiercest, the funkiest and the greatest thing that made me who I am today. Thank you.

To my daddy, you are my inspiration. Your stories and tales of your wild younger days, the example of how you act and work with many, many different people, the guidance and discipline and the positivity that radiates from you, they are so great I can never be grateful enough. I may never tell you this, but you have influenced me greatly, more than anything or anyone. The way talking and being around people was a breeze, making decisions was an ease, to be able to love and care and help without wanting returns, I thank you for moulding me that way. You probably worked your ass off for the family and love us more than anything, so I wanna take this chance to let you know, I know, I care and understand, I feel your sacrifices and love. You once told me that you love me because your father loved you a lot, and you want to love me more than your father loved you, so that one day, I can love more than you do, to be better. I promise you, I will do just that. I love you daddy. Thank you.

Yes, this year, Mothers’ Day was a bummer. It was horribly sucky. But there’s something there, out of this adversity, there’s one thing to learn from. I learn to appreciate my family more. To love you guys more. I was kind of depressed and got emotionally shaken because of what happened, and I’m sorry if anyone around me got a taste of that, I just pray that we get to get through all this together, in prayer and in hope.

Wishing all is well. With love, your son. (The elder and much more awesome one. :P)

FOOOOOOD! :D

Now, food plays a major part in our life, there's no denying it (maybe those who are anorexic might disagree... :/ ). You can be thin or skinny, rich or poor, tall or short, crazy or not, you will definitely feel hunger. And the basic meals a normal person should consume consist of the main 3 meals, often known as breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each meal plays an important role, skip any of this, well, its just not encouraged, especially for a foodie like me. I love eating, though I may be skinny now... I used to be quite on the thicker side (chubby face and etc...). But that did not diminish the fact that I LOVE FOOD! I am no professional chef or food journalist and photographer, but I know what tasty food tastes like, alright. Hence, here comes some of the food, that I was blessed enough to consume during my one week semester break in KK. A bit overdue since that happened long time ago, but better late than nothing right? There are some more which I was not able to eat while I was in the sunny and beautiful city of KK, but hey, that means there would be a PART 2! Hopefully soon, and should I remember. Hehe. Since I am unable to taste the awesomeness of these food whenever I want right now, I might as well reminisce on them through pictures... :')

So, shall we begin... out with the Entrée!

Beef Noodle a.k.a Ngiu Chap

Beef! Ohhh beeeffff! Nothing beats a good old piece of beefy meat... Grrrrrr... Apparently in KK, there are several versions of Beef Noodles, the difference is mainly in the ingredients used to cook the soup, if I am not mistaken, for example, sugar cane or salted vegetables and so on. I personally like the salted vege ones, I like it salty. :D The one in the picture above is an example of the salted vege one, the shop is located behind Giant, Kolombong and is often crowded during lunch hour, I mean who could resist this anyway? The tender meat and the bouncy meatballs are enough to make me go hyper. And it has to come with a delicious chili sauce, the spicier, the better! Chili and Meat, HEAVEN~

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Alright, next up, is a new western food outlet in KK, known at Bomber's Burger. Located just next to Party Play in Gaya Street, it serves humongous and generous portion of food to its customers.  

Meat Loaf and Mashed Potatoes

It's more of an American sized serving for me, cause I'm telling you the truth when I say my stomach almost burst when I finished my meat loaf.

Bomber's Burger...

Can you feel the cheeeeeseeee???

Big, big burgers and bombastic cafe design with a hearty ambiance, it is a good place to stuff yourself like a Thanksgiving turkey and have fun while doing it (not much fun in the end though). Bomber's is definitely on my LIKE list now.

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Korean. Korean. Korean. I love their K-Pop, I love their dramas and also their food, of course! Hi Seoul Korean Fushion Restaurant is located in Likas Square. One of the many Korean restaurants in KK, Hi Seoul caters mostly to Korean tourist who are touring the city and also locals who crave for Kim Chi and the many Korean delicacies available.

Bibimbap! (Rice dish served with meat and veges in a warm bowl)

Ttobukki! (Rice Cakes in Spicy Sauce)

I'm a very big fan of Dwenjang Tang (Soybean Paste Soup)

I love it when I eat Korean meals like this, Korean BBQ maybe a whole different experience, but eating dishes (homemade dishes in Korea) like this, makes me feel all warm and content inside. The metal bowls and chopsticks, the smell of chili paste everywhere, is just nice. SARANGHAE!

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Fishyyy...

Next up! Enough of Korean and Western, let's head back to KK's local favourites. Fish noodles!!! Now, fish noodles are kinda common in everywhere around Malaysia, I've tasted the ones in KL, Selangor, Johor and etc, but KK's Fishy Nooddles... are still the best to me. :P

Usually, the noodles is cooked by adding milk in it. or just clear ones with no milk. But I prefer and love the ones with milk in them, and my taste buds agrees so that's that. KK has some of the freshest seafood in the country, so fish noodles like these with fresh fish slices are just, perfect. With the salty-ish and sour-ish taste of the soup, it is really appetizing and also filling to the tummy. I got my hands on a few bowls during the break.

A typical Fish Slice Noodles with milk in the soup :D

The Clear Soup Version

Tom Yam Fish Slice Noodles

And if you are up to something much spicier and excite your taste buds, go for the Tom Yam soup version. Another dish that represents heaven on earth, in my book. :')

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Last but not least, one of the most, arguably, iconic food KK has to offer, the Sang Nyuk Mian.

A bowl of soup with kon lau kuew tiow

No words to describe the awesomeness in this bowl...

Sang Nyuk Mian is actually a dish which utilizes the meat and innards of pork (this is non-halal to my dear Muslim friends). The soup has an amazing flavour and is kinda cloudy-ish with the essence of the meat and its bones cooked to perfection to flavour the soup. Customers can choose to eat it with the noodle in the soup, or aside as kon lau. There are many restaurants selling just this, namely Melanian, Sinsuran and so on. But some do not offer meatballs though. And I love meatballs! >.<

It is a bad idea after all to do this post. Cause I am really hungry now. Oh well, may you enjoy the food placed before you, cause you never know when you might lose them, and you'll miss them. T.T

LOVE YOURSELF!

LOVE FOOD!

Peace out and God bless ya'll.

And so, I thought of...

Well, it has been exactly 4 months now... and finally... I am actually updating this blog. @.@ 

Time flies. It feels like, just yesterday, I was still serving customers who were looking for the right underwear, right size, colour and material... And now, fast forward 4 months later, I'm sitting in my hostel room all alone, just me and my laptop and Lee Hom playing on the speakers, with my room mate out visiting his site for the final project. And so, I thought of my long abandoned blog after browsing through my own Facebook profile and eventually decided to update it.

The last post in my blog reminded me of how my life has been this year. It has been quite a year and now even 2012 is ending. I've been on the airplane more than ever, frequently travelling from one place to another. All domestic though. Hmmm... Looking forward to when my travels would be from one continent to another, maybe in the near future? So basically, from January to end of July, I have had the opportunity to dwell in probably the most urbanized state of Malaysia known as Selangor in Bandar Sunway.

Sunway Pyramid and Lagoon's Night View from my condo.

After the knowledge of my oh-so-wonderful result for STPM, I was offered a place in UTM (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia), Johor, I took the offer and then left Sunway (seems like ACCA and me, was just not meant to be). I flew back to KK, Sabah, where I spent the whole month of August, and managed to also fly back to my hometown, Sibu, Sarawak to visit my lovely grandma. Met with classmates of old from Form 5 and Form 6. MISS YOU GUYS!

How could I not miss these noobies? :P

Another set of the awesome and weird humans.

Then as September approached, it was time to meet a whole new environment. I touched down at Senai Airport with my mommy and got a chance to tour around JB by ourselves.

Johor Bahru

After my mom flew back to KK, it was orientation week in UTM, damn, a whole lot of unknown human and such a humongous campus.I was late by one day and so I had no idea of what to do or knew anyone there. But I got a hold of things quickly and settled in. Then it was learning about embarking on a whole new journey to fulfill the requirements to be a professional and qualified landscape architect and to survive my university life. Projects after projects, assignments after assignments, presentations after presentations, after 3 months now, I kind of adjusted to the way things are. No more school uniform, disciplinary teachers eye-ing every step you take, people are nice, some are not so okay, and Food, well, still prefer KK's, but as a whole Johor itself is awesome as well (nearest to Singapore, Otak-Otak and big malls). And I've managed to travel across half of the Peninsular Malaysia, thanks to my course, haha. Seen a lot, and much wiser than before I hope.

Kampongscape Camp @ Umang-Umang Resort (Melacca)

The Crystal Mosque in Terengganu

Now, I'm in the midst of completing my final project for this semester. Not complaining, although it is tiring at times. And I guess you couldn't help it when you miss the things that were once so much of a part of your life, like the Sunway Pyramid, the roomate, housemates and condomates who were the best ever, my home and family, the members of my home church and SSMC, my PLKN mates who spent their time and petrol on me while I was in Selangor... But life moves on. It will never ever rewind itself back so you can have a restart or a second try at things. No matter how lonely you are, how much pain you are in, how depressed you are and how unworthy you feel you are, life, moves on.

So...
Learn something new each day and look forward to the next.
Learn to leave the unnecessary things behind and only take what you need.
Learn to be grateful for what was once yours and may never be again.
Learn to keep the precious little things, in memories, in pictures and within your heart.
Learn to smile, when everything else forces you to not do so.
Learn to be different from the crowd and do what you believe in, your own principles in life, which is right.
And learn to be brave in loving, for having love and not sharing it with the people you care for and needs it, is even worse than not having love in the first place.

Oh and Rise of The Guardians is an awesome movie! :D WATCH IT! Haha!

Till the next post,
God bless you and the ones you love.
Peace out.
:P

P.S.: There's still a lot pics and people to share, but this is it for now. Hehe!

Fly!

So... Here I am... In the airport... Waiting for my flight...

Will be leaving n boarding the plane in about half an hour.

Time really flies I guess. It feels just like weeks ago when I arrived in KL. Bags loaded with supplies and documents. On my way to Sunway Uni. ACCA.

And now here I am. Going back to KK. The countdown over. Another phase completed. And a new beginning has unraveled itself. There's so many own old like to say in this post. To people I learned of, loved, cared for and be acquainted with. But that will have to wait. Maybe tomorrow. Or tonight.

Gonna get ready to board now. Farewell Selangor/KL. See you next time. Soon.

Can't wait for dinner in the plane. Boarding MH 2628 soon. Darn hungry. Grrrr....

Bye!

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Gosh. Waiting is excruciating.

That period where everything is in a tangled mess. You're able to see the different ends of each strands yet unable to differentiate which is which. A wrong pull may cause more tangling, or it may untangle the whole mess. So you wait. Considering, pondering, weighing each different possibilities. No matter how much you want it to end fast, without care and measured, precise steps, it will only make things even worse than it was. So you wait, and prepare. Until the time come. Until, just like how a light shines in a dark cavern, revealing so much, of all the thing that were there, but unseen before this, you see the right way to untangle that mess, grab the strand that's truly the one you're looking, and move on.

And so here I am. Waiting. For an end to come so a new beginning may begin. I pray for wisdom in my decisions and for anxiousness in waiting to subside. When the wait is over, hopefully I am ready.

Anyways, I can't believe I'm flying back to KK really, really soon now. Hopefully my last week in The Undershop goes well and smoothly. Hehe! Oh, and Selamat Berpuasa to all my Muslim friends! :D

Just being random in this post. Byeeee! :D

A To-Do-List Back Home

I have come to a firm realisation that there ain't no place better than home. And just 20 days from now, that's where I'll be heading back to. Home. Since I might be staying at home for no longer than a month probably because of universities or sudden changes of events, I have decided to spend it wisely. The best way to do so would be to plan it. Yup. Plan, plan and plan. So I came out with a to-do-list. Hopefully I'll have them all ticked by the time my holiday ends (should my plan for the gap year won't be successful). And here it is!

1. Food!!!
Seriously, I don't care what people say, but to me, KK has some of the best tasting food I have ever had. From the divine sang nyuk mien (a pork noodle, whoever created that dish, THANK YOU!) and lush ngiu chap (beef noodles) to pisang goreng (banana fritters, the one outside SM All Saints, my old school) and scrumptious wo tie (dumplings). Yummmm... And my mommy's cooking! I crave y'all!

2. Drive.
I miss driving. It's been ridiculously long since I place my hand on a steering wheel. So yeah. I don't care where to. Even if it's to drive my mom to bank, or to get grocery, to drive my bro to school or to his futsal, seriously, I don't mind. I wanna drive hahaha!

3. Work on something new.
Don't know for sure yet what it's gonna be. Perhaps photography or work on some new sketches. :D Finish unread books and learn something new I guess. Anything would be fine. Gain more muscle mass too maybe. Hmmmm...

4. FRIENDS!
Yup. Hangout! Especially since Jacqie is coming back, it's definitely a sign from God for a good hangout session, with Karaoke? Maybe? I miss all of them ppl. So excited right now. :D

5. Beaches...
Always loved them. The rolling waves. The sand stuck between my toes. Dead jellyfishes. Hermit crabs scurrying across the sands. The scenery. Breathtaking. Roasted peanuts and steamed corns. The heat and shades under big trees. A friendly reminder, Please keep our beaches clean!

6. Spending time with my family
Yup, important! No words could express how much I miss times spent with my family. I MISS THEM!!!

7. Sleep...
I miss my bed. Cause it creaks a lot. Like a lot. My blanket and the coolness of my room. Ahhh... Zzzzzzzz...

8. Stare at the tree outside my house while reflecting on my life and the future.
I used to do it all the time. Whenever I'm revisioning. Pretty calming I dare say. It's like so hot out there, yet the tree just continues growing. It's like... So... Deep...

9. Visit the school!
I wonder how my school looks like. Ol All Saints. How thee fare? The look of young faces preparing to face their examinations, thinking its the worst, when life has much more prepared, a lot more challenging ones. How I used to be just like that. And the path to school every morning. The morning sky slowly drawing more light from the sun. It's beautiful.

10. Be totally random!
That would be fun. I wouldn't know what I might be doing. But I hope I can do something really random back home. :) Muahahaha!

Hopefully I won't just spend my whole time doing item No.7... Lol...

Dear readers, if somehow you are away from home and miss it badly, find a good friend and talk about it or just make yourself busy with stuff to get rid of the homesickness. And if you're right at home, treasure your family n keep every moment special.

So long, see you on my next post!

Decisions!

So... It's been really, really long since I last posted anything in a blog. And I think I'm gonna start once again. Felt the need to just pour out my hearts and type it all out, esp. since so much is going on right now.

Currently working in The Undershop. Selling underwear. Lucrative commissions would be one main thing as to why I love working here, apart from awesome colleagues, just plain weird and interesting occasional customers, not as tiring as when I was working for a clothing shop (namely, Body Glove...), and great experiences. This job of mine is coming to an end on the 31st of July and I'll be heading back to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah after almost 5 months I think since the last CNY holiday when I actually slept on my own creaking bed. I miss home a lot. My dad, mom, bro and so much more. Just the sight of the big, blue sky of KK is enough to keep me going happy all day (granted it's not too hot, lol) and my fishes in the aquarium, my pet terrapins, and the smell of freedom and of my Mommy's Curry/Rendang.

But heading home means I'll be making a huge decision in my life. A turning point I'd say. You see dear readers, I was given the "privilege" to enter one of the top 5 local universities in Malaysia. Not UM, not USM, not UPM either... it's.... UTM!!! And it's located in the southern end of Peninsula Malaysia! On the state known as Johor. But I have decided to turn down the offer. Kinda crazy? Yes? No? I don't know... I'm still thinking about it. I have till 22 of July to make my decision. I got Landscape Architecture as the course I'm supposed to be pursuing there. It's not what I love really, but rather... something... I can do. But I don't know, it's just confusing, the only push that makes me wanna actually study there would be its less of a burden to my parents with its government funded fees and the fact it's near Singapore :D lol... But it just too much for me with a bunch of decisions such as having to move from Sunway, to whether or not I'll be taking this course or wait for the scholarship offer from Taylor's which are just overwhelming. I mean, I'm working at a 12 hour shift most of the days lately, I'm going into gila stress mode. @.@ (F.Y.I gila means crazy in Bahasa Malaysia)

Hence, after a deep reflection and serious thinking, I found out there's apparently another alternative. Yup. I am thinking of having me, myself and I a gap year. A gap year? According to Wikipedia, Gap Year, an expression associated with taking time out to travel between life stages. It is also known as a sabbatical, time off, time out and a year out, referring to a period of time (not necessarily 12 months) in which people disengage from curricular education and/or work and undertake activities such as travelling, volunteering or working abroad. So yeah, sounds good to me. Itsnot really popular in our Asian culture since everything revolves around doing things fast and finishing it ASAP, but it's good to slow down sometimes. I'll find something to do, perhaps helping my mom in setting up a new business or spend more church time or travel somewhere or start posting on YouTube once again haha... And hopefully, in that period, I'll be able to make up my mind. Hopefully. I pray.

So, I shall be turning down the offer I guess. And if God is willing, I will not regret it. And if by this week, somehow, with a turn of events, I might just accept the offer, and be on my way to Skudai, Johor Bahru. Ahhh... life, how playful and full of surprises you are.

Whatever is the outcome, I'll be sure to give it my best with God's grace. :)

So dear readers, if your life has been stomped with a big question as this in life, leaving you all dazed and unsure, worried and worn out at one point of life, once before this or in the future, keep your faith and strive hard, and you'll get through it just as I believe I will, someday. Alright?

Till the next post. Be strong and treasure each moment.



Quote of the day:

Do not plant your dreams in the field of indecision, where nothing ever grows but the weeds of "what-if."  ~Dodinsky